lixolux

i have no patience for livejournal - what is up with these ads that are here?

im moving....join me here

updated 11 weeks ago? what on earth have i been up to??







among other things.

also an update about rocky / muffin / # 49:



(he is the little goat that acts like a pup that lives at wellington fibres where alisa works - see pictures of the mill and farm from my last trip to toronto here)

he got neutered!
he is now living at the farm as the solo castrato ram.
and had his first kid shearing!
and some of his coat is on its way to califonia.........!!!

"One of the primary results — and one of the primary needs — of industrialism is the separation of people and places and products from their histories. To the extent that we participate in the industrial economy, we do not know the histories of our families or of our habitats or of our meals. This is an economy, and in fact a culture, of the one-night stand. “I had a good time,” says the industrial lover, “but don’t ask me my last name.” Just so, the industrial eater says to the svelte industrial hog, “We’ll be together at breakfast. I don’t want to see you before then, and I won’t care to remember you afterwards.”

In this condition, we have many commodities, but little satisfaction, little sense of the sufficiency of anything. The scarcity of satisfaction makes of our many commodities, in fact, an infinite series of commodities, the newer ones invariably promising greater satisfaction then the older ones. And so we can say that the industrial economy’s most marketed commodity is satisfaction, which is repeatedly promised, bought, and paid for, but never delivered. On the other hand, people who have much satisfaction do not need many commodities.

The persistent want of satisfaction is directly and complexly related to the dissociation of ourselves and all our goods from, our and their, histories. If things do not last, are not made to last, they can have no histories, and we who use these things can have no memories. We buy new stuff on the promise of satisfaction because we have forgot the promised satisfaction for which we bought our old stuff."

—Wendell Berry, “The Whole Horse” in The Fatal Harvest Reader, (Island Press)

we took our nephews to vacaville to meridian jacobs to thier meet the sheep day a couple weeks ago.

(i just wanted to post this picture. they really werent into it, except this moment when i asked them to act like sheep. the pigs at the back of the farm were way more interesting. "is that poo on thier butt?" no its mud. uncle aaron took them to the car to have lunch and aunt jenne got some valueable time looking at fiber and came home with 2 bumps of jacob wool. its what they call "hardwearing" - its soft in a scratchy but not really way. i think theyre going to be great socks.)

out of parenthesis. on the topic of wool from interesting kinds of sheep other than the usual merino, some wool that i just unearthed in my stash is about apound of navajo churro wool in various shades of grey and brown. i got this wool from elisa (with an e) who had sheep in north hollywood somewhere - theyre so soft and cotton candy like, im going to dye them pink this weekend.

and also tomorrow im going to the Color fiber fest in berkeley - and im taking the rare wools tasting class. im hoping we spin some really crimpy stuff - the most crimpy wool ive ever spun was bfl from deep color - barbie hair!

oh and by the way...do you smell what the barack is cookin'?"

or is it holy moly?

at anyrate, hello again. i stepped away from the blog (step a-w-a-y from the blog) because i thought i was going to take some time, get settled back at the parents homestead, use my nights out in suburbia to design a slammin' website and return with something totally new.

i forgot about the new commute to work. its been great for knitting, but sucktastic for anything else.

so we have been in benicia (california's first state capital) for almost 6 months now. many new and fun things have happened, and i also went to the madrona fiber arts retreat last month that totally was the most amazing fiber fun. allison was here for a stormy and inspiring visit. too many beautiful knits spied and succumbed to the witchery that is article pract and the best yarn selection in the bay area hands down.

but first. hello. are you on ravelry? please say hello to me, i am lixolux.

we are moving.

its been a blissful/stressful year of living-in-the-city. realizing this city was a good place in my party-all-the-time days but now, its self sufficiency.

we are moving to benicia.

sometimes you have to move back in with mom to move back out again.

hit play the same time on both of these.





its like theyre almost choreographed to the same thing, esp the end.

sigh.

last week i made crepes.

1. i need a crepe pan.

2. the recipe from pascal rigo's "american boulengerie" (which, despite what amazon says, is a book that is available for 19 dollars at any bay bread shop) is FANTASTIC - delicious savoriness! I dont understand these crepe places here in the city who do savory crepe fillings in sweet crepes. wheres the buckwheat flour? its essential. I do prefer cooking with a tiny dab of butter rather than oil, i like a drier crepe.

3. oops, fillings! we had in the fridge dubliner cheese, cooked beets and olives. delicious! (it was, not being sarcastic.)

4. and then i made monsieur le crepe!

coming out of hibernation for a moment.....im taking a class today at heath ceramics with diana fayt and am so excited.

im thinking alot right now about servitude and finished objects. when projects take a life of thier own and then put demands upon you that you cannot fufill. servitude when one is being paid to do a sevice to another, a power dynamic. "public servant."

I am starting to love spinning yarn more than doing anything further with it. thats the early part of the process that gets me excited. trying to plan anything with my yarn is so filled with anxiety that maybe i am pushing something that isnt there.

off to class.

(this is my version of lady eleanor, with 2 balls of Noro Silk Lite. to become a pillow for the living room, i am not buying any more yarn.)

im contemplating moving the blog. having a focus. really making lixolux a part of my life. what are the things in my life i could take an really run with? taking the time to write, write about what i love.

driving around on errands yesterday for work realizing that this half conciousness of work is just not me. i read recently barbara sher's " refuse to choose" about being someone who is into way too many things and how to make a living and she mentions having an affection for a job that allows you to do what you want to do. and i ran with that for a few weeks, trying to cultivate an affection for my day job. AN AFFECTION.

its not the job i dont love, its the time i miss. i dont miss the desperate need for money, but i miss the mind expansive days
but what would you do during the day?

research and write, research and make, research and write.

ill post once i set up my new home.

xj