A Windy December Day

What is it about wind that pushes me to write? Perhaps I just need the distraction, something to draw my eyes from the window where delicate, interlacing tree branches and twigs sway hypnotically.

A windy day in Alaska.

When I was younger, I enjoyed a windy day – especially a windy summer day. I loved watching big, bellowing white clouds scudding across the sky, the view literally changing by the minute. The hay fields behind my house in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan would bend and ripple like water on a slow-moving river.

Or a stormy autumn evening, the sound of the wind moaning through the trees and rain rattling against the windows making the perfect backdrop for a bowl of soup and a good book by the fire.

Winter wind is a whole different animal.

Back in Michigan, it often brought with it blizzards and chest-deep, brilliantly white snow drifts. I occasionally had drifts so high and solidly packed, I could walk up them to the roof of my garage. I got a lot of use out of my big John Deere snowblower!

In the region of Alaska I now call home, winter winds thankfully seldom carry fresh snow in the form of blizzards, but will sometimes send yesterday’s snowfall scurrying across the landscape in near white-out inducing blasts of frigid air.

I’ll admit, though, to sometimes enjoying watching “snow snakes” slithering in undulating white flurries across the road as I drive to town.

Nope, I’m not fond of winter winds in Alaska. On a cold, sub-zero day, wind-chill can drop the already numbing cold another 20° lower and scour the frozen ground, leaving fragile crusts of ice atop every surface, and making even walking the dogs treacherous.

Roads and driveways, blasted temporarily free of snow, can become sheets of ice for the unwary driver or walker. Studded tires and ice-gripper boots are the norm.

Then comes spring, and the wind becomes my friend again, albeit a fickle one at best. A warm spring wind can herald in spring rains, softening and eventually breaking up the ice and melting the snow.

Of course, likely as not, being spring in Alaska – the temps will drop overnight and the wet, melting snow will all turn to ice underfoot again. Ack!

And still, on the -5F December day, I listen to the wind … and dream of spring.

Playing Dress Up

I pulled a pair of jeans on today … and they still fit. Score!

Our old gray tabby-cat, Princess Damascus Bug-Bane (“Dama” to her friends), had a vet appointment today. It took me ages to decide what to wear. So many clothing options and so few reasons to get out of my PJs these days.

Finally, I opted for black jeans and a red pullover sweater. Matching black and red “dachshund” print face mask. I was stylin’!

I put Dama in the cat carrier (black mesh with a red stripe – hey, why not?), called the dogs and we headed off to town.

Damascus yowled and grumbled the entire drive, which is her norm on the rare occasions when she needs to be transported.

Rhonda, who usually travels quiet as a mouse, jumped into the back seat (where the cat carrier sat), laid with her head against the mesh and serenaded her friend with a series of worried woo-woo-woos, moans and encouraging little yips. I’m sure Dama was soothed by the show of ‘sisterly’ support 😘. Not!

Baxter, who had also been happy for the chance of a car ride, had the passenger seat to himself. He glanced into the back seat a few times, wondering what the fuss was all about, then buried himself in the car blankie and took a nap.

Anyway, was I ever disappointed when the vet tech came out to my car, smiled, patted the dogs, and then whisked Damascus and her spiffy cat carrier off into the clinic for her treatment. I waited in the car. Sigh.

An hour later, we were all back home, the cat was curled up on Jerry’s lap, being consoled, the dachshunds were basking in front of the wood stove, and I was once again in flannel lounge-wear.

I find myself wondering when I might have the opportunity to “dress up” again. Maybe a trip to the UPS Store to mail Christmas packages?

Damascus 💗

The Colorful Life of Yarn

Working on only one project at a time leaves little room for spontaneity or creative inspiration. Being pretty much stuck at home these days, I need to find ways to add spice and variety to my life.

I’m currently knitting up a 3-ply art yarn I created and spun last year. I’m really pleased with how this yarn, meant to be an interpretation of an Alaskan sunset, turned out and I’m hoping the end result will delight the intended recipient. 💗

I’m only including a small sample here since I want the finished piece to be a surprise.

An Alaskan Sunset – “Blue Sky Pink Turning Yellow in the Moonlight”.

While enjoying the process of knitting this piece, my mind is already on my next project.

I actually hand-dyed this (see below) fine merino wool last summer, which was an interesting project in itself. I had about 16 Oz. of a natural light beige-shaded wool that was purchased with the intention of over-dyeing it.

What I mean by “over-dyeing” is taking a fiber other than white and adding another color on top of the natural shade. In this case, by using a beige wool, I hoped to obtain a deeper, more muted version of what would have been brighter, clearer colors if I’d used a white fiber as a base.

I partially succeeded; the colors I used for my three shades were “Tropical Punch” (blue), Pineapple (yellow-beige), and “Pink Lemonade” (pink/coral).

The colors didn’t come out exactly as I’d envisioned them, especially the Pineapple, which I’d hoped would be a bit more yellow, but over-dyeing is not an exact science and you get what you get.

In the case of my “Pineapple”, I think the dye was actually lighter than the natural shade of the wool, so all it did was add a slightly yellow cast to the light beige wool. 🤷‍♀️

By the way; if the names sound familiar, there is good reason. I dyed this wool with Kool-Aid! Yes, the kids drink. The powdered version makes perfectly legitimate dyes with no nasty chemicals to deal with – and by using plain white vinegar in the rinse water after dyeing, it sets the colors nicely.

I dyed, spun and knit a wool hat for my blacksmith hubby, Jerry, about eight years ago with Kool-Aid, dyed flame-inspired colors; red (Cherry), bright orange (Orange), Lemonade (Yellow), Strawberry/Mango (reddish-orange) and a combo blend of Black Cherry and Lemonade for yet another deep shade of orange. If I remember right, I also added a little commercially-dyed bright yellow as well, since the “lemonade” wasn’t quite as fire-bright as I’d wanted. The colors are still holding up just fine, although the hat itself is getting a bit – all right, a LOT ragged. At least it’s been well-loved. 🧡

Anyway … I’m almost done spinning the blue wool and am looking forward to starting the pink. Once all three are spun onto individual bobbins, the plan is/was to ply them together into a 3-ply spiral yarn. There should be enough for 2-3 full skeins. We’ll see. The nice thing about creating your own yarn is that you can always change up the plan part way through.

Right now, I’m sort of thinking I might save the blue for another project, spin up a bobbin of dark brown and maybe end up with a 3-ply, brown, pineapple and coral-pink yarn. Or brown, blue and pineapple. Again … we’ll see.

With that project on my spinning wheel, and my knitting progressing on schedule, I’m now debating whether to hand-dye more wool (maybe a multiple-color roving destined to be socks?) or pick some already dyed fibers from my stash, pull my manual carding machine down from its shelf and blend a brand new color-way based on one of last summer’s travel photos?

Hmm … then again, I really do need to fit in some time to work on my monster jig-saw puzzle. Do you think a 1,000-piece puzzle might have been overly ambitious?

I also promised Miss Rhonda we would work on her Expert Trick Dog title this winter. Hey, could YOU say no to this face?

One Year Ago Today

I published my first blog post on November 10th, 2019. Exactly one year ago today. Wow. Is there such a thing as a blog-birthday? 😄

I remember the euphoric feeling of having so many stories, memories, and ideas suddenly bouncing around in my head, battling for attention, each wanting to be first to escape after my 10 year hiatus from writing. They must’ve gotten good and bored, sitting around my brain stem.

It was almost scary the way the desire to write came back though. It was SO suddenly – I just sat down at my laptop one day and started to write whatever came to mind. I had a driving desire to put not only my stories, but my thoughts onto a savable format. I had so very much to say! I still do.

I can only hope my blog posts this past year have given readers some joy (sometimes), food for thought (occasionally), travel and dog-related entertainment, spinnings of yarns galore, giggles (Ronni says giggles are healthy) and generally a lot of little sneak peeks into my world.

I have to admit tho … I’m doing this blog for myself. Like spinning, it’s a creative process. I seem to need it, and putting the good, bad, beautiful and sad in carefully chosen words on paper somehow keeps me grounded.

Yes … sometimes it’s a strange world I live in, but it’s the only one I’ve got right now.

I know my RV rambles this past year wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun “by myself”. Knowing I’d be sharing my adventures with you through my blogs made it almost seem like a group venture. With accountability. 😉

And now I find I am blindly blogging my way through this covid world. For me, it’s a lonely world and a little scary, but mostly self imposed, so I try not to dwell on it much. Still, it’s part of my life, so can’t be entirely ignored.

I hope to find enough interesting thoughts and topics to share over the winter to keep my growing group of followers happy. Between the Dachshunds, my spinning & knitting, my current jig-saw puzzle, the cats whose goal is to eat puzzle pieces … and LIFE, I seem to have more than enough material.

So, on with the show, so to speak. I’ve renewed my lease with my brain, which says “there’s plenty more where that came from.”

Here’s to another year with “De and the Dachsies” – may we find [virtual] places to go and games to play! 🥂🍻🍦I hope you will all join me often in my virtual play world this winter.

Come spring, I fully intend to boot-scoot-boogie with Roada and the dogs – just as soon as the roads are clear! Lots of planning to do between now and then … 💗🚎🚎🚎

Hugs, De (and Baxter & Rhonda)