the three-legged clown

for decades, keith's father, don, has been a fixture in the corner brook santa claus parade. he is known as the 3 legged clown. he is now 81. this is one of the highlights of his year. and he spends weeks ahead of time tweaking his costume.

for the past few years keith has tagged his father. just to make sure everything is going ok. don puts out a tremendous amount of energy.

zig-zagging back and forth on the main street. talking with the adults. high 5's and candy to the children. moving at such an alarming rate that keith has a hard time following him through the crowds.

yesterday afternoon i decorated the mantel and keith's parents came over for supper. don, with his feet up, in front of the fire, had a well-deserved nap. it felt like the beginning of christmas.

the greys

commissions are often tricky. it's very difficult giving the customer what they see in their mind. mostly these days i steer clear.
but this commission is going to be easy. a needle felter in st. john's wants grey batts. since grey is all i see when i look out the window these days, i won't have to go far for inspiration...

a wall of colour

these days. floating around in my mind. i'm planning my booth display for the acre trade show in orlando this coming january. most of what i need i'll be renting once i'm there. but what i envision is a wall of colourful skeins of yarn arranged chromatically. my big seller at the trade shows is my knitting kits and this will give the retailers a chance to see and feel the range and quality of my yarn. so, over the next few weeks i'll be dyeing and spinning a rainbow...

christmas is coming

it's december 1st. and for the first time in years i'm not sitting in my booth at the toronto one of a kind christmas show at the beginning of december. because i'm not knitting commercially anymore, my hands are free in the evening and i've been making christmas gifts for family and friends. this is the first time in years that i've been enjoying the lead up to christmas. and not just approaching it with panic.

spinning but not spinning

the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of paperwork. sometimes the business of running a business takes over. lately all my time seems to be taken up with applications and reports and travel arrangements. everything eventually will fall into place. and i'll get back to my wheel...

zen and now

our little book club met last night at catherine's. i had chosen our latest read - robert pirsig's "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". i had never read it "in the day" and had always wondered what it was that made it such a classic of my youth. it was a hard read for a number of reasons. we all found pirsig's personality to be overbearing and egotistical and his treatment of his son appaling. my mind bent trying to follow his philosophical convolusions. but again it was worthwhile. pulling me back to the 60's and early 70's and how so many of us saw the world. and how it compares and contrasts with the recent "occupy" movement.

this was our last gathering of the year. some of us will be away for christmas. so catherine made the evening festive and charming.
she overlooked the diner cuisine in the book and went for the zen - saffron rice and lentil dahl and roast chicken for the non-vegetarians. she also baked barb a cake - her birthday is tomorrow. and there were little gifts for everyone. (now you see why we keep our book club so small!).

good food. good company. and a good fire to keep out the chill of a rainy dark november evening.

frozen

yesterday morning we took a dog walk along the pipeline.

the world was cold. and hard. and frozen.