karen's knit in contemplation

buddha with bela

jarngerd is completely knitted, and i am weaving in ends.  it has been misty and cool for the last few days here, not great blocking weather.  but in a few days, all the ends will be woven in, and the air will dry out, and i'll block the pieces and then sew the sweater together.

a friend has asked us to keep this beautiful wooden buddha for him while he travels.  this buddha has a truly sacred energy, and must have belonged in a temple somewhere in the past, and now has voyaged out into the world.  bela loves everything sacred, so of course, he has found his place near buddha.

rhodies and roses

Misty spring-time in Berkeley with pink and purple rhododendrons in bloom.  Great knitting weather.  Nevertheless the jarngerd sleeve crawls on.  I just want you all to know that the reason for this non-knitterliness is that I am working very intensively on my novel.  I want to be finished  'tweaking' it by August.  My novel has no redeeming social value, I might add.  It's just a whodunit with a very mild aesthetic edge.

rhodies in bloom

Our house has been inundated by rhododendrons! They're pressing up against the walls, and trying to come in through the windows - and it's glorious!  Every year we have these two weeks of pink light and green magic.

In the meantime, I'm plodding along on jarngerd, more than halfway through the last sleeve.  I looked forward to wearing it this Spring, but as sometimes happens here, we have jumped directly from Winter to Summer.  Well, that's a slight exaggeration, we did have a few days of Spring sprinkled here and there through a lingering winter, and now voila! it's summer-time!  Too hot to wear my new light-weight sweater, even if I could succeed in finishing it!

We've been heavy on the visiting with old friends this Spring, and that's been nice. Visited with the woman who introduced my husband and me recently, and I realized I had an unfinished feeling about that period of my life.  Seeing Marie more often since her daughter moved to Oakland has helped me to process all of that, and maybe find some closure, not that the place where I grew up has lost any of its charm for me.  Another friend, this one from the 'nineties, visited even more briefly, but it was nice to see her.  This week we'll be connecting with a friend from the 'seventies.  Whew, time-travel!