PNewL PNewS
Volume 27 Issue 1 "All the pnews that phits.” April…er…May 2019
More than You Need to Know
My favorite yarn store went out of business about a year ago, which broke my heart and saved me a lot of money. This past week the owner had a pop up shop to sell off everything, including fixtures. Prior to the sale, I inventoried my yarn stash, which was humbling—I have accumulated a lot of yarn. The number of times I picked up or rather fondled a skein and said out loud, wow, this is pretty, would have been embarrassing had anyone other than Roger been a witness.
Let me say again, I have a lot of yarn. It will turn out to not always be the right yarn...for instance, I just saw a pattern I really want to make which requires a sweater quantity of fingering weight yarn—also known as sock yarn—which I don’t have. A shame really—there will have to be more yarn purchases in my future. Meanwhile, I can go to my yarn room, also known as the guest room (which reminds me, I need to straighten it for guests) to be inspired to make something out of already bought stuff. (I should mention in my defense that I have not purchased all this yarn—I have been given a fair amount as people have moved on from knitting.)
In the course of this inventorying project, I have been adding the yarn to my Stash list on Ravelry. For those of you don’t know and more likely don’t care, Ravelry is a remarkable website where yarn people go to waste/blow through a lot of time: inventorying yarn, listing projects complete with photographs, and looking at patterns, endlessly looking at patterns and pictures of other people’s completed versions and comments on those patterns. We can buy patterns—there are almost 400,000 available now, communicate with others who share this relatively healthy obsession, and participate in KAL (knit-a-longs). I just finished my first MKAL (mystery knit-a-long), in which the designer releases patterns in little bits. This pattern was for a stuffed gnome. There were close to 800 people from all over the world participating. Who knew?
In the course of this inventorying project, I have been adding the yarn to my Stash list on Ravelry. For those of you don’t know and more likely don’t care, Ravelry is a remarkable website where yarn people go to waste/blow through a lot of time: inventorying yarn, listing projects complete with photographs, and looking at patterns, endlessly looking at patterns and pictures of other people’s completed versions and comments on those patterns. We can buy patterns—there are almost 400,000 available now, communicate with others who share this relatively healthy obsession, and participate in KAL (knit-a-longs). I just finished my first MKAL (mystery knit-a-long), in which the designer releases patterns in little bits. This pattern was for a stuffed gnome. There were close to 800 people from all over the world participating. Who knew?
Some interesting (to me) statistics from my Ravelry account: I have over 700 patterns in my “queue” and another bunch in my “Library.” By my figuring, I have to live another 37 years to finish all of the projects I want to make at this moment. [Ed.’s note: Since I started writing this I think I may be up to 38 years worth of patterns.] By the way, I do not have 700+ projects worth of yarn—in case you were wondering.
Meanwhile, back at the pop up shop event, the owner of the closed knitting shop did a good job of advertising so the crowds were thick on the morning of the first day and the lines were long. I went with ideas and lists…but it became immediately apparent that the inventory was going to dictate the purchases—that and being able to get anywhere close to the goods. Lively conversation was everywhere—this was, after all, a room full of mostly women who share a passion. It was oddly fun…even for an introvert.
Meanwhile, back at the pop up shop event, the owner of the closed knitting shop did a good job of advertising so the crowds were thick on the morning of the first day and the lines were long. I went with ideas and lists…but it became immediately apparent that the inventory was going to dictate the purchases—that and being able to get anywhere close to the goods. Lively conversation was everywhere—this was, after all, a room full of mostly women who share a passion. It was oddly fun…even for an introvert.
Things I am Learning
& Miscellaneous Observations
• All the clocks in my life seem to be on a different time. The one in the bathroom is pretty good but it’s battery-powered and I use rechargeables, which are sadly unreliable. The one in the bedroom and kitchen are electric and my power goes out a lot so they are sadly different. In the car, the clock picks up a minute every 4 or 5 weeks. It was okay when it was ten minutes fast but now it’s 12 and that’s kinda bugging me and is also just sad. It also makes me question which clock is right and wrong and oh the one on the thermometer is okay half the year and off an hour when the time is changed. In other words, I have no idea what time it is.
• Spring has finally committed itself. The weather is volatile, the greens are fresh and vibrant, and there are flowers everywhere. And stuff is growing like gangbusters. I love Spring for all of those reasons and also hate it for some of those reasons plus a few others. Grass is growing so fast it’s hard to keep up. The vines have grown into the blueberries and the bushes want to be free. The vines mat the ground around the bushes. Pathetic I am in being able to combat this. They took over the back fence as well. When I finally pulled them off most of the fence, I realized that the split rails are starting to rot. Okay, they started to rot last year, but I don’t think I can avoid dealing with them much longer. The other day we had the rainiest day in 101 years. It was epic—my road, which is gravel and dirt, was badly damaged. My gutters were gushing and I was out there plunging them until the thunder and lightning started. I find the sound of water gurgling into the downspout very satisfying. Couple days later I had my first outdoor shower of the season. It was not perfect. Afterwards, I pulled off the showerhead and found there was some gunk in the pipes. It is always something. The upside to the lousy grey winter is I am inside and not looking at all the work there is to do outside…
• I was driving down Reems Creek Road the other day and thought, everything is popping up this season… including new houses. I know that 14 or so years ago, my house was the new house on the block and some people didn’t like that very much, but it is startling to see where they can tuck a house now. I remember when I moved here Gini said the problem with empty land is you never know what someone’s going to do with it. I am learning about that here in the ‘hood.
• Mail recently received:
>From the Republican National Committee confirming that I am a registered Republican (I’m not.)
>An ad for a luxury Volvo SUV (not from the local dealer but from Illinois.) I can lease one for $549/month. Such a deal!
>Chewy.com pet food ad addressed to my sister Evie who has never lived here and does not have a pet, that I know of.
>Letter from Mike Pence. nuff said
>Dartmouth professors asking me to respond to a survey on politics.
>And the usual old people mailings about audiologists, long term care insurance and other cheery I’m-not-that-old stuff.
• In March, Gini and I had our annual retreat, this time in Lakeland FL which is somewhere Gini is considering as a place to land some time in the future. It is conveniently located between Orlando and Tampa (two good airport towns which is important to me). It is small but not too small and there are breweries, a farmer’s market, and some good coffee shops. There’s also Florida Southern College, which is home to a large collection of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. Surprise! Seems one can find treasures everywhere. Oh yeah, and there are a lot of lakes in Lakeland. It’s lovely and a good time was had by all.
En route, Roger and I made several stops in the van. Our first night was in a campground not far from I-95 in Georgia. When I pulled in, the nice man said they were full but when he looked at my itty-bitty van and the honking big RVs surrounding us, he figured he could find a patch of grass where I would fit. He said he didn’t want to send me back out on the road at this hour. You gotta love the South. The next day we drove down to the Hanna Campground, which is in a city park in Jacksonville. It was FAB! The park is on the ocean and the St. Johns River. Both the park and the campground are huge, and lush and ever so pleasant. I got to spend some time with cousins Lucy Lee, Jack, Shannon and Kelsey and their gangs. It was great to catch up.
From there, we headed a bit south to Port Canaveral. It’s past the space part to the cruise part. There were huge areas for cruise ships to arrive and depart…and it was pretty much deserted. There was a HUGE ship in port but no people around. Eerie. The campground is just past all that and near the water but it was surprisingly soulless. I had a reservation and had even made it over the phone with the woman I talked to at the front desk whose voice was memorable as it was similar to nails on a chalkboard. I was told on the phone that I could park in the tent area and sleep in my van but to do so, I had to put up a tent. Mm-hmm. Instead I booked a more expensive space where I could park my van and presumably sleep in it. Au contraire! When I went to check in, I was asked if I had an RV sticker on my van. I am assuming this is something RV makers put on RVs so people will know they are RVs—she could not give me any better description other than everyone else had one. I am not saying I understand any of this nor that it makes any sense whatsoever, I am just trying to tell this incredibly frustrating story. She said it wasn’t me—they were just trying to prevent the sort of people who wanted to sleep in their cars from staying there. (This is a $50 a night campground—it is not the sort of place people who want to save money by camping in their cars would choose.) I said this was not a car—it was a van, with a bed, a pop-up, a sink, stove, refrigerator--it just wasn’t 30 feet long and burning 4 miles a gallon. Finally she got permission to let me stay—ONE NIGHT ONLY. Then, she said—you don’t have a dog or anything right? Why, yes I do. Do you have its rabies certificate? No I don’t. She literally threw up her hands and said, Well, that’s it. You can’t stay here. I was relieved…after the frustration wore off.
I pulled out, parked near the huge empty cruise ship parking lot and wondered about Plan B. I texted Carla, who was heading north to meet me, that I was heading south. A1A was hectic. We finally united in a Walgreen’s parking lot and then found a recently robbed Chinese restaurant (they were trying to put together their clipped wires so they could take orders) to get some to-go food and sat in that parking lot and ate it. You can’t make this stuff up—it was an oddly awkward day—and did I mention it was St. Patrick’s Day? But Carla and Allen and Roger and I wound up having a good visit and some good meals and a nice beach walk and alls-well-that-ended-well sleep in the parking lot of Carla and Allen’s condo (don’t tell the neighbors!).
• Yesterday, I was at a local event celebrating 25 years of work to dismantle racism here in Asheville (still working...obviously). The keynote speaker was Dr. Jacqueline Battalora—her book is Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today. Did you know there was no such thing as White prior to the mid-1600s and it was in 1681 that the first law in the world that differentiated between “whites” and everyone else was put on the books, sending us on this 330 plus year history of White Supremacy? Dr Battalora reminded us that from the moment we are born (on our birth certificates), race, something that didn’t exist but was created to form this divide, is part of our lives....!!! I am clueless.
• Oh yeah, and the PNewS is in its 27thseason. Ta-dum.
“Cranky old rich people: now there’s a demographic that’s a menace to society.”Barbara Ehrenreich, This Land is Their Land
(A quote I love though it is taken out of context and there is sarcasm there…)
