Oh dear, my dears, I am pooped. Permanently pooped, it feels like. Christmas is coming like a tinsel-covered nightmare train, but I am unfazed. My Christmas knitting is done and in the mail; Advent is humming along splendidly, and I am putting up my feet for the calm before the storm. I can’t show you … More An Attack of the Fuzzies
Sorry for the radio silence, friends. I’ve been beavering away on all the usual things – a sermon series on 2 Thessalonians, a series of meetings on translating the Alpha course, plowing into C. S. Lewis’s diary from his ’20s, reading the Hunger Games books twice, going for long drives in snowy landscapes, and turning … More Christmas Crazies and Beanies on Balloons
This is Rhinebeck weekend. I have never been to Rhinebeck. At this point, it’s looking pretty likely that I never will go Rhinebeck. My life just doesn’t involve going to major Sheep & Wool festivals anymore, and that’s OK. But for some reason, the fact that Rhinebeck is always the middle weekend in October is … More Relevant Information
There are two new markers of the equinox season. One is a biannual text from our cell phone company, informing us that because of the “sun transit,” the sun will be blasting directly at their satellite, and our service will be disrupted. The second is the placement of the afternoon sun such that, during our … More Two Mice In the Sun
I am a taker-on of big projects. You read this blog, you know that. If I’m going to take something on, I don’t want to just taste it; I want the complete experience. It’s an illness, really. Planning such projects is sometimes a stress outlet, which results in some embarrassingly large spreadsheets and some absolutely … More Spirits in Bondage: In Which I Blog About an Obscure Book of Poems
This is a story that begins with a book. N was given this book before she was born, by a knitterly friend of her mother’s. It’s a story about her mouse whose mother knits her a sweater while she waits for her baby sister mouse to be born. The prose is lilting and winsome, and… … More One Book, Two Sweaters
The last few inches of my handspun Lothlorien were completed while watching, for the third or fourth time, all the most obscure DVD extras on the LotR:FotR:EE. Not for the first time, I think to myself that the Lord of the Rings Films are, to a slice of my generation, our equivalent of Star Wars. … More Not Idly Do the Leaves of Lorien Fall
Fox fur is great for trim, and there’s the occasional use of rabbit, or even polar bear, if you are either a hardcore adventurer or made of money. However, the real meat (so to speak) of Inuit sewing-with-skins is done with seal skin. I’ve been longing to try sewing with sealskin for a while, so at … More Seal Skins, Staples, and Sartorial Oscillation: Inuit Arts and Me, Part 3
I didn’t make an amauti last year, but I bought two used ones. One is for spring or fall, and one is for winter. I got the winter one for a great deal at a yard sale; it’s traditional white, has two layers, and genuine oil stains from fixing a snowmobile. It’s kinda big on … More Never Say Never to Nylon: Inuit Arts and Me, Part 2
When we moved north north north a year ago, I was so excited to be moving somewhere that handcrafts were a big deal. To this day, I’m grateful that my knitterly preoccupations fit right into my otherwise very different environment. And I was willing – nay, eager – to adapt further to the landscape, and … More Fine Fox Fur Fuzz Feels Fabulous: Inuit Arts and Me, Part 1
Osborn Fiber Studio 