THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE

They were odd. They were loners. Often, even in the old days, it wasn't always clear where they came from. Sometimes, they were someone's "attic uncle". But, sometimes they were drifters who came one day and stayed the rest of their lives. Often, they had conditions that would be considered, "mental" today, or maybe they weren't very bright. The never seemed to be married or have kids, or if they had families at one time, they didn't seem to any more. If they had parents, they often lived with their elderly mothers. But often they seemed to have no family at all.

In the small town where I grew up they were much more visible than they are in the urban scene I work in today. When everybody knows every one else it is not so hard to spot them. In those days they had homes of a sort, some time shacks or tiny apartment or a single room tacked on to another building. They usually had jobs of some sort.

Earlier in my life, in the small town environment, I knew them because they often did farm work and I lived on a farm. My dad was gregarious and usually knew them and hired them. It was in those days that I learned to look for them and to see them.

I see them still because I know to look for them and I know who they are. You tend to see them around the edges of l situations half hidden in day light, but they tend to come into full view only when the light is dim. They seem to cultivate invisibility. Only in the twilight hours do they ever become completely visible and even then you had to look to see them.

Today, we would describe them as marginal and they often become homeless. There is very little tolerance for them in regular society where they are misfits. I never understood them as a child. I'm not sure I understand them now.

But they are still there, I still see them. I call them the "twilight people".

ALIVE

I read the book Alive by Piers Paul Read about the crash of a Uruguayan plan in the high cordillera of the Andes back in the early '70's fairly soon after it happened. After 70 some days trapped in the high mountains, two of the survivors climbed a 3000' peak (starting at 12,000 feet) and walked a total of 10 days in all to find herders using the high pastures in Spring. Of 45 people on the plane 16 survived. It is reasonable to say that none would have survived it they hadn't been able to plan and execute the walk out. How they did that is among the most compelling survival stories I've read. A movie of the same name was released in 1993 starring Ethan Hawke.

30 years later Nando Parrado wrote Miracle in the Andes.

These 2 works of non-fiction have given me massive into insight into the strategy of survival in extreme situations. They have a profound impact on how I have survived my own difficulties and how I approach my work from day to day. A day will come when I will discuss this more. But for now, consider this background.

By the way, Alive and Miracle in the Andes are not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. They are both sturdy well written books that tell the important an important story. But the truth of this story is terrifying.

More information is available on the web at VIVEN! and you can follow the links from that site to individual survivors sites and some other very interesting links. Since the 30 th anniversary of story there has been an increasing interest in this story and there are a number of interviews and articles that tell what the survivors are doing now and how they dealt with the trauma and went on with there lives. By the way they have just started Foundacion Viven.

So, what is my interest? Well, this is a classic in survival literature and has many lessons for tactics for survival both physical and psychological. These young men were a team and because of that they had some survivors. This is a very good model for how a team forms and reforms to deal with the changing challenges they have faced.

It was a fascinating discovery to me to find that my internal model for how to do crisis work is based on reading Alive many years ago.

Traveler

Traveler is one of a kind.

I waited for a year to get him. I knew exactly what kind of dog I wanted.
He had a small umbilical hernia and every night when he was a puppy I'd roll him over and gently press any stuffings that pooched out back in. The vet said that this would keep it from getting bigger. When he had surgery to neuter him the vet fixed his hernia. That was before he was one year old. But for years after he would roll over every night to have his tummy rubbed. He would make a ritual out of any thing.

Soon after I got him, I learned that I was afraid to have a dog of my own. I don't know why I was so anxious, perhaps some of those childhood experiences left more of a mark than I had thought. So I was afraid to take him anywhere. We spent hours and days just roaming around. To meet and greet at grocery stores, to visit my friend that had had a stroke and was in rehab, for a look see at some new place to walk.

As I got over my anxiety, I began to find out that I had never learned to play. I really tried but I just couldn't get the hang of it. I could run and romp some and Traveler liked that. But beside that all I knew how to do was take him with me. For a time I felt like I was letting him down. Newf's are great water dogs and cart dogs and he had come from a line of dogs that had won many tracking titles. He could have done any of those things and entered competition. But I did not know how to do any of those things and I didn't know how to find out.

It took a while to find out that he really wasn't very choosy about what we did. Just as long as we did it together. Then I began to figure out he really liked to meet new people. His specialties were kids, old people, disabled people and drunks.

TRAVELER Tongue roll is perfect!

This dog is a legend in his time. Oh no, he is not some fancy show winner or some famous rescue dog. He is just my dog. He is aging and since dogs have relatively short lives, his will soon be over. But it is not his passing that I want to remember, it is the cheerful whole hearted sweetness of his whole life that is worth commenting on. There are many stories I could tell. But the best of them are long and fall short in telling you who he is.

So, I will just post this picture, taken on his twelfth birthday, which is some months ago now. When I looked at this picture later I could hardly believe it. Tongue rolling has always been one of his specialties and here he is still doing it yet again.

The Pirate and the Loot --new yarn part 2

Yellow Bear stole 3 skeins of my new yarn before I was able to set up and photograph it. He, then, very willingly posed with it for me. This yarn smelled good. Certainly, this is no excuse for piracy, but after all, he is a dog

The yarns are from Fearless Fibers. The colorways are spring breeze and antique rose. By this time the sun had gone and pictures of these exquisite colors will have to wait for another day.

The spring breeze is a very green more so than it looks on my monitor. It has fantastic and very subtle gradations of color.


The antique rose looks more pastel pink in this picture than it really is. It is a truly fine muted pink that tends to the orange but does not go so far as to make it a coral color. Both yarns are lace weight.

Needless to say, Yellow Bear graciously agreed to pose with the second 4 skeins of yarn even though, he had not had a chance to steal it. I think think he likes having his picture taken.

NEW YARN

1. 

I thought it was absolutely insane how the typical knitter/blogger would rush to post pictures of yarn that they just bought. I really did. Like it isn't the most exciting thing in my life. Well, it is exciting, but there could be other things.
That's what I thought.

Now, I think other wise. It may be insane but I can't help myself and I've never been one to complain about insanity.


Well, insane or not, when I got some yarn moments ago the first thing I did after the squeezing and smelling ritual, was get the camera. Now I've taken pictures before but this it the only the second time me I've done yarn pictures and so they didn't come out very well and then............Well it's a long story.

Before starting I must introduce Yellow Bear. He is sitting pretty for you bottom picture . He is 100% mutt and proud of it. Notice the little mustache hanging down there. It shows in this picture but only and one side and then you have to know where to look, but never mind.

In the top picture he has stolen my yarn. He likes little squishy toys about that size. The photo shoot for my yarn quickly degraded into something else.

CHILDREN OF LIR SHAWL

I am truly inspired by the Lir shawl that Freeform Katia made. I loved the way it looked in her photograph.

I have been looking for suitable yarn and not really finding much that I can afford. There are some insanely expensive yarns out there . Funny thing is that no one seems to carry much in sport weight. There is a lot of sock yarn and a lot of lace weight. I seem to be stuck on this one.

I really want to do it in merino so it will be soft and feel good next to the skin. I also want an interesting yarn because the feel and color of the yarn are part of the motivation for knitting. I find that color and texture are so important for me to be able truly be soothed by knitting after the harsh, hard and colorless nature of my day job. And now that I think about the search for the right yarn is part of the pleasure of knitting. The yarns that are being made today are works of art in them selves. The search is part of the pleasure. .

Sierra Madre scarf

I am working on a scarf using a wonderful bulky yarn in a colorway called Sierra Madre from Blackberry Ridge. This colorway is very evocative of that time of evening when the sun has just gone down leaving a golden glow in the quickly gathering deep blue and violet of the night sky and mountains.

This yarn is a wonderful dynamic balance of muted complementary colors. It conveys peaceful transition as you can almost feel the air dropping in temperature as night envelops the rugged mountains. I really like the desert.

I suppose the fact that there is a 1948 Bogart flick named TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE helps the illusion along.


The pattern that I am using come from this book. The pattern I chose is on the cover. I chose it partly for the short row shaping-something I've never done before. For more about this book go here.

JANE AUSTEN

Current reading: The Life of Jane Austen written by John Halperin.

Published in 1984, this is very much a literary biography and it helps to have read at least some of her books. Halperin uses the letters that still exist and the themes of Austen's books to paint an altogether different kind of portrait than I have seen before.

It is known that a large number of Austen's letters were destroyed by her sister after her death in a seeming attempt to edit information about her character. From other sources, I have read about the too good to be true persona that many sources project about this author. This book paints an altogether more human picture showing Austen in her melancholy moods as well as at her sparkling best.

Austen did not really like children, was intolerant of noise and bustle especially as she got older. She was moody, some times cranky as well as being very bright and witty. One thing that I had not been aware of was that any married women took social precedence over any unmarried woman in the social milieu of the day. That was especially true if the woman was someone of limited financial means. For women, rank could only be had by marriage or money and Jane Austen had neither.

Ironically, Jane Austen in her life was a spinster aunt in financially embarrassing circumstances. In history, she is one of the finest novelists in the English language.

Now, Lets talk knitting

I don't have pictures today. I use a time shared camera and someone else had a camera emergency to day.

It is a little hard to just tell you about what I'm knitting. It's easier to talk about if I show you in a photo and then talk about it

But...... the project I'm working on at the moment is a watch cap in hand painted merino sport weight from Morehouse Farm. It is in "beaujolais" colorway. I'm about half way up to the part where you start the decreases. This is my second hat.

My previous knitting experience consists of two scarves in knit and purl variations and a lace scarf. I also crochet but have switched to knitting because it stresses my right wrist less. I never had anyone to teach me to knit or crochet either one. I learned from books. I am truly a beginner.

Hand painted yarn is the best thing since they invented ice cream and I love lace in both crochet
and knitting. I don't know what kettle dye means but the yarns come out wonderful.

VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTINGS

I thought my first post would be about my current knitting project.

But, no, my first post is to extend my condolences to the Virginia Tech community. This is a very human tragedy. It is not about being from Asia, or South Korean or mentally ill, or about who decided what and when they decided it.

It is about horror and grief that happen when something goes horribly wrong inside the mind of an individual that leads to a killing rampage.

From my experiences in my day job I know that bad things happen despite the fact that everyone involved did their best to keep the world a safe place. The world is just not safe. And we know so little about the workings of the mind that those who, were in a position see the early indication's of that this young man's thinking was going badly awry , were in truth unable stop him.

It is a relief to hear that there were acts of heroism, that people are coming together to support one another and that the first steps are being taken to heal the terrible emotional wounds. To those who lost loved ones, I express my wholly inadequate, but heartfelt sympathy.