Back to Babies

My recent lack of motivation to blog stems primarily from the fact that I no longer have the fantastic camera that I borrowed from my friend because she needed it back. I'm finally coming to terms with it, and broke out my point/shoot camera.

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I haven't had much more motivation to knit than to take pictures. But, my chiropractor is awaiting the arrival of her baby girl, and after she gushed over the color of my hat that I knit in Manos del Uraguay's wool, I thought it was a great opportunity to use up some of my "matchy-matchy" (thanks, Wendy) yarn.
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I loved the color so much when I first started to knit that I bought several skeins of it in wool, and when the same colorway was available in silk, I bought more. Alas, as Wendy knew before I did, the color got old quickly..

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No one knows the power of a baby like a knitter. Just the mention of one of those tiny little boogers makes our fingers itch. After several attempts to find a bootie or slipper pattern that I could properly gauge with the silk, I arrived at Susan B. Anderson's Cozy Slippers from her book Itty Bitty Nusery.

The baby slippers and hat are in the silk yarn, and the gift bag is wool.

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Spring has sprung here in Hoboken, but the street that I've been using for my Seasons of Hoboken photography is going to be the last street to bloom. I'll take down the cold winter picture soon, I hope.

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Where You Can Stand on the Ground and See for 50 Miles

Last night, my husband and I went into the city to watch Robert Earl Keen and Cross Canadian Ragweed play in concert for Texas Independence Day.

You may need to download this to see these videos.

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Cross Canadian Ragweed

(If you can bear the first minute of ads, this video is pretty great.)

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It was a fantastic concert, and in the final encore, Robert Earl Keen brought out Cross Canadian Ragweed for one of his best-known songs followed by 20-minutes of finger-flying guitar solos from every guitar picker in each band. It was definitely one of the best I've seen, from the steel to the two leads, and then the two bass guitar pickers. While the former were outstanding, it's just amazing to watch and hear blurring bass guitar solos. That devil in Georgia didn't even bother to show.

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At one point, Robert Earl Keen asked the audience whether any of them had ever been to Lubbock, which isn't far from where I grew up in Booker, Texas. He said it's a place where you can stand squarely on the ground with your own two feet, look in any direction, and see for 50 miles. If you stand on a tuna fish can, you can see for 100 miles. Funny, but true. I remember a story about a man who lived in NYC and moved 15 miles from Booker. The vastly empty horizon literally drove him crazy, and he moved back to NYC two months later.

Puppy Love at Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day, Puppet Heap is selling adorable hand-made dog puppets like the one featured in their Old Mother Hubbard show. The puppets are for sale at Etsy. They also put together this cute little show to advertise how adorable the doggy is.

Another Puppet Show

When Work & Play Collide

If your work and play collide, you likely work for a company like Puppet Heap. For those of you who don't know, I'm working again. While, my job as a Controller isn't exactly creative, everyone else I work with at Puppet Heap is gifted beyond belief. Frankly, my knitting is a bit of an embarrassment to me, compared to the things they design, build, and produce.

Here is a peak at their talent.

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We have some exciting things coming up for Valentine's Day, so stay tuned! We'll be making a little puppet show for YouTube and selling some of our items on Etsy! I'll let you know when we post our items for sale.

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An Empty Plane Floated by Hoboken Today

All of the US Airways passengers were safely on land as their emergency-landed plane floated past Hoboken this afternoon. This was the view from the pier at 4:30p this afternoon, and the pictures show how the next hour progressed.

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Oh Christmas Tree, Farewell.

The tree made its final decent today,

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As I took it to the curb.

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Now, I can see it from our window, and it makes me sad.

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No more real Christmas trees! I can't take it!

Christmas - Take 2

We had our Christmas gift exchange with my family over Thanksgiving in Houston, and we'll celebrate with my husband's family over New Year's in Louisville. The big news is the arrival of our niece, who greeted us on December 16.

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Here's a little bunny that I made for her from 100% bamboo yarn. It was my first opportunity to knit with bamboo, and I found it incredibly soft and silky, but splitty also. If tangled, it became so splitty that I had to cut it before I could work with it again. Nevertheless, this was a great project to test bamboo. I have one skein of angora and one of mohair that I'm going to find small projects for as well.

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And this special sock is for my father-in-law who facetiously asked for socks and underwear for Christmas.

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With this sock, I have confirmed for myself that I am a one-sock-knitter. There are those whom I admire who have the patience to make two identical socks perfect-to-pattern. Whereas, I'm happy (not really, actually) to make one sock, and then if forced to make another sock, it would probably look more like this.

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Let me introduce you to Investment Banker Sock Monkey. Here you see him in his natural surroundings.
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Triggered by The Christmas Tree

I had to laugh when my husband entered a Google search to learn Hoboken's schedule for Christmas tree trash pick up, and my blog was one of the first links to come up. I wonder whether Google has a profiling program, knowing that I would be one of the first to put in its final resting place the hacked down and lifeless tree that has been wilting in front of me for the past few weeks. For you Hobokenites, I promise to post a blog note as soon as I find out the schedule, or if you know, please leave a comment.

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As far as my perspective on the tree goes, my cynicism that I previously expressed has only intensified. Honestly, the dying tree in my house has depressed me. My mind is taken down a backward pathway, and in terms of the tree, after seeing its sawed off trunk, I saw its completely withered state, and could never really see or celebrate its life.

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This perspective of a reverse chronology, or a backward pathway, is something I stumbled upon around my 30th birthday. Silly though it seems, one of the primary triggers that has recently arisen is remembering the "disappearance" of my childhood dog when I was 20. I can't even type about it without pausing until I can once again see through my tears. The intensely painful memory of his death seems to negate the beauty and joy in his life. Like this incidence, there are a few others that have begun to play in my mind like a skipping record, reminding me of the fragility of our lives and the fragility of the life of everything around us. I appreciate life more, as a result. I treasure life more. But, in reverse, I mourn death more, and my grief is physical.

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So, I think the Christmas tree triggered a different perspective for me this Christmas. The Christmas Tree is a symbol of the season, and the season is a time for us to remember and celebrate a Birth. However, it's really the reverse chronology, or backward pathway, of This Baby's life and the purpose of His life that makes the Story so poignant and so painful..

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The Seasons of Hoboken

I recently shared with you some photos of the beautiful fall foliage we witnessed here in Hoboken a few months ago.

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But, gone are the days of light jackets and lingering outside.

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We are now struggling to stay above freezing, and what might be beautiful if we all had garages and drove to work, is less than desirable for our walking city. All of the white will be gone before tomorrow, so we're in store for something more like a brown Christmas.

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Happy Holidays!

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