Yesterday we went to Nancy T’s birthday party. We celebrated with lots of sweets. Instead of just Nancy making a wish blowing out candles on a cake, everyone got a candle which she lit one by one. Then we made a wish silently and blew out the candles. Something different.
A cute card we got for Nancy.
I was going to make a long post about Nancy. But, you can find info about her on the Internet. So I am just going to leave it up to you to click on the links if you are so inclined. Plus, I reconsidered and decided not to get into personal stuff. Too bad though. She’s an amazing human being and can be a good example to so many people.
Nancy, an old friend of CB’s, has a two-month teaching engagement at Otis. She also has a show up at Ben Maltz Gallery on the campus until January 18, 2008. The title is “Media Madness”. (See details on the current exhibition page.) One opening night, she gave a talk on her current and on-going work “Chicken Little and the Culture of Fear”. She was engaging, and very very funny.
Anyway, it’s a great show. Go see it if you are in the neighborhood.
Oh, do you know what an autistic savant is? Do you know what synesthesia is? We also met Nancy’s brother who is a psychiatrist. He introduced us to this book, “Born On A Blue Day” by Daniel Tammet. Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant, and he experiences synesthesia. He sees numbers and letters as colors and shapes. He can recite the number pi to the 22,514th digit. He also learned Icelandic in one week! I am really looking forward to reading this book.
I am working through work projects and I think I am finally at a point that I can relax a bit. Maybe I am kidding myself. I still have a shopping cart to finish for one company, and CRM and CMS for the other. Eeek! Not going to think much about work this weekend. Oh, how I want more time to knit and spin!
I did take time off to go to the temple this week. It was the 100th day since my Mom’s passing. A few of us went and made offerings to the monks in memory of her. We actually went the morning of the 101st day thanks to my niece’s miscalculation. But it was very good. It was the day of monthly recitation of Patimokkha (the basic code of monastic discipline). An auspicious day. And technically it was still the 100th day if you count by hours. 
My sister Angela said that Mom had the days all figured out. She passed on the eve of a Chinese holiday Duanwu Festival. Duanwu is a day of dragon boat racing and eating sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. Angela also said that people with serious illness sometimes didn’t get to live past this day. I remember wearing charms on this day to ward off illness/evil. Some kind of grass was also hung at the door for the same purpose.
The 100th day of Mom’s passing happened to be the Moon Festival, a day for the family to gather together and celebrate the year’s good fortune. I know. We didn’t actually go to the temple that day. But the next day turned out to be auspicious too.
A few shoutouts:
Thank you Aija, Julie, Eikon and Jane. The colors are interesting. I will have about 8 oz. of this yarn. Whatever will I do with it?
Eikon, there’s nothing like making a yarn that’s exactly what you wanted.
Chris, I guess your comment is comforting to me. Or are you still waiting with your fingers crossed. I did wonder about the quality and safety issues. Hopefully Mercure is keeping an eye on the construction since their name is involved.
Oh Jane, I have to turn Bad Behavior on again. Some spammer decided to sell meds on my blog by leaving a comment or two every hour. I had to set anti-spam to maximum for a while. Email me midpath [at] jasonknits [dot] com if you have trouble leaving comment. Thanks!
Thank you Chris, Mike, Micah, Matt, Julie, Marianne, Kyle and Jane for your kind words. I’ll be wearing this hat this winter.
@Chris, the next Fabulous Fiber Fest is already scheduled. Put it down on the calendar. Did you find the instructions on weaving in the floats while your knit fair isle?
@Monkey Gurrl, thank you. It was good to see you at the show too. The way to control you spending is stay in the classes, or play with other people’s equipments. Hehehe. Oh, bulky singles does sound like a good idea for some kind of club.
@Matty, so many things that I want to do. Another fair isle project (can’t talk about it). Maybe a fair isle scarf, which should be less stressful without having to do decreasing. I wound up the yarn for Spider Queen. I definitely want to do another lace project soon. Thanks to Jane and missalicefaye. Finally, there’s that sparkly blue fiber. I want to spin them and make a 3-ply yarn, and knit a cable hat with it. So many projects. OH! And I want to try to design a tablet-woven bracelet that can serve as a reminder for people to be mindful. I’d like to make enough to offer them to my teacher to give to his students. I need to buy a couple of cones of cotton yarn or threads.
@Sachi, I don’t know what to say. What does go on in your house? You have hand cards, right? 
@Jane, thank you for encouraging me to get a drum carder. 
to CB.
@Aija, mini drum carder is only half the size. You have to get one. It’s GREAT!!! I think it’s about time to get one for me. hehehe
@Marianne & Julie, I think Kiva’s idea is great. You loan the money to people. They pay it back and you can choose to lend the money to the next person. I was prepared to just go and donate the money without expecting repayment. I was surprised to find that they had repayment terms. How wonderful to have that money continue to work to benefit more people.
@Micah, do you have the book “Hats On!“?
