Me sporting a Yak/Merino scarf made by Marianne

OK, it’s actually Yak and Merino, and it is SOOOOO SOFT and light, so warm.

Some time ago (how long was it Marianne?) I volunteered to do the Pay It Forward with Marianne. I had the easy part, she was the payer, I was the payee. Ha! To be honest, I had completely forgotten about it. Plus, I thought I was one of the extra ones that volunteered to do Pay It Forward with Marianne. It was really a bit of surprise to actually receive a package from her. Not that I didn’t think she was serious, mind you. I really just didn’t remember.

It is a loooong scarf knitted with 50% Yak, 50% Merino yarn, Superyak, by Karabella, made in Italy. A simple pattern, but the result is a super luxurious scarf. Possibly the softest knitted fabric that I’ve ever felt. So light and warm. And as you can see in the picture, it drapes really, really well. Thank you so much Marianne! It’s wonderful!

We had a contest to see who picked the most winners, (someone made really nice ballots,) people brought food named after the Oscar nominees, (you must see the photos that I will post below,) the show and the personalities at the party. What an evening. Oh, CB made the ribs. You’ll see them and the name of the dish in the pics. Click to zoom in.

Yes, I am still here. But busy with work and school. Hopefully I will have more free time after the Winter session is over. That’s next week.

We’d never gone inside the park before. I know it’s a shame. It doesn’t look so big from the outside. But wow! It is huge. Lots of big, green areas filled with people doing yoga, tai chi, soccer, etc. There’s also a huge playground for kids. The church rented the small baseball field for kickball. Most of us arrived early enough to have a quick picnic before the game started. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

It was really, really fun. The park is so nice that we wished that we visited more often. I think there will be many nights that we just pick up a couple of beach chairs and walk down to the park for the evening. Doggies allowed on leash. And, I am thinking, what a nice place for knitting and spinning. You know what I mean?

More photos here.

Remembering Twisted Ruth just doesn’t seem the right thing to say. How can such vibrant person be no longer in this world? I am in shock. It’s hard to believe.

Our dear friend Ruth Schooley passed way Tuesday night. The person that led me physically into the spinning world by inviting me to the Greater Los Angeles Spinning Guild. The person that practically danced and pranced around at the guild meetings, bringing so much joy to all of us. The one that was so willing to share everything that she knew. Gone. She went into some kind of seizure on the way to dinner Tuesday night, went to the hospital and passed away. Ruth had a foot surgery recently. The doctor thought that blood clot traveling to the lungs could be the cause.

Recently Ruth and I had been in discussion on Flickr about cotton spinning. I’ve opened her last email to me so many times since I heard the news. In it she said:

… And I shall summon you to an audience with the Queen (that’s me) and I shall show you the Proper Way to card cotton punis.

Promise!

Ruth

Underneath the email message there’s this little button that says SEND A REPLY. It hit me really hard to realize that I would never get a reply from Ruth again. I want to demand that her promise be kept, so that I can see her and say that it was all just a bad dream. I can’t even imagine what her Roketman is going through.

Messages about Ruth are pouring in on Ravelry, Yahoo groups. Ruth was joyful, loving, generous, uplifting. Always smiling. So very adventurous. It amazes me how many hearts she had touched. She was like a Tim Russert in the fiber community. I had no idea the impact she had in so many people’s lives. This world lost a truly wonderful person, an amazing human being.

I am happy that she left behind a personal blog and an online photo album. Even though it pains me to look at them now. I am sure they will bring happier memories somewhere down the road.

Ruth’s Blog: twistedspinster.blogspot.com
Ruth’s Flickr Album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/originaltwistedspinster/
Ravelry Group in Memory of Ruth: Twisted Ruth

I grabbed some pictures of Ruth off her Flickr album. Please click on them to see some of her amazing adventures.

Note, July 19, 2008, I just found out that Ruth’s old blog is still up on the Internet. It is at www.twistedspinster.net

CB is really sick. It’s not a normal case of pneumonia, difficult to figure out the cause. (There are three possible causes.) The broncoscopic and biopsy will hopefully give a definite answer so right treatments can be given. Meanwhile they are giving him two kinds of antibiotic injections.

I was doing OK the last time I blogged. But he runs a fever every afternoon. Seeing him struggling with breathing really worries me, and hurts me. But he says that he feels better everyday. And he does have good moments. I am probably worrying too much.

I can’t wait to bring him home.

Remember that yarn that I named Forest Jewels?

I am going to start knitting something with it. I’ve always had Drifting Pleats from the book Knitting New Scarves in mind. A little scared of the pattern, but am going to give it a good try.

I joined Katherine’s Le Tour de Fleece 2008.

I had so much fun spinning and knitting for Fibre to Scarf Exchange, I thought I’d join up another spinning challenge. Maybe I’ll do well again doing a project with time restraint? We’ll see. Now I have to find something in the stash to get going.

Happy Fourth of July! I’ll be spending the afternoon with CB.

OH! Almost forgot. Chris, here’s the cotton I have to work with:

I am not an experienced cotton person. Maybe it is usual to get cotton in this condition. (It was given to me.) I have at least 30 times more of this cotton. What do you think? Keep or let go?

I think that I can blog about this. I am not giving anything away. The person that I spun and knitted a scarf for already knows that it’s on its way. So there’s no secret there. And anyway, I am only talking about MY, all mine, scarf. Bwah-ha-ha-ha! (Are you tired of that?)

Ted started this Fiber to Scarf Exchange 2008 in January. It was very hush hush. No one knew who else was participating. No one was suppose to blog about it online. Everyone sent in enough fiber for a scarf to Ted, he then randomly selected a participant to spin and knit the scarf. We got minimum info on whom we were making a scarf for. The identity of the recipient was revealed only after the scarf was done. (See his rules page for more rules if you are curious.)

I sent in 8 oz of Ashland Bay Mulit-colored Merino Top in Sandalwood and got back a beautiful scarf:

The pattern is Campus from the book Scarf Style. Very guy-friendly I think. It is soft, springy. Drapes really well. The color is a nice warm brown. Is it winter, yet? The yarn that he spun is so fine. I’ll post a picture to show a comparison of his yarn to the one I spun when I post about my work. For now you can read about MY scarf on his blog here and here. I was going to model the scarf myself. But the weather has been very very warm. So I used one of CB’s sculptures instead.

Needless to say, this scarf has instantly become one of my treasured possessions.

Jill brings the sound of flute and oboe to the band. The oboe was especially powerful to me. At times it harmonized with other instruments that resulted in very unique sounds that were very intriguing. I am really looking forward to hearing their performance again.

I need to feel better. I want to go to the temple tomorrow and see my teacher. We really didn’t get to chitchat so much last Sunday with all the activities.

I think Angela was afraid that I’d fear difficulties in China. I admit, I am nervous. It is not what I am familiar with. I don’t know anything about the hotel business. But I am not afraid, and I am eager to learn. Anyhoo. To help relax my attitude, Angela said, “you won’t have too much to do. You will have time for your spiritual practice. And what a place to do that!” True. It is amazingly beautiful in Zhangjiajie. Just look at this:

I wonder how often I will actually set foot in the parks though. Oh, did I mention that Zhang is the way they spell my last name in mainland China? Zhangjiajie consists of three Chinese characters. It translates to “Zhang family homeland”. Meant to be? Another tidbit of information. When I was there in 2002, I didn’t see birds flying around. I wondered where they went? Were they eaten? eeekk! Lots of moths though. Yikes! Moths!