Fiber In Paradise

Color In Our Jungle

2011-04-19T09:00:00.002-10:00

We live in a world of green. Lots and lots of green in all shades and all textures. But there is also color in our jungle. Here are some pictures that I took this morning from the lanai.

Spring is a time on the mainland for Rhododendron's to bloom. So too is it in Hawaii. These are Vireya Rhododendrons and they have one very distinct advantage over the temperate varieties: They bloom off and on all year round, but many varieties are especially nice in spring.

This Vireya, which is also in the picture above, is an un-named variety that was hybridized very early in the horticultural history of the plants in Hawaii.

This lovely double red hibiscus came to us as a cutting many years ago.

The Vireya in this picture and the one below is Kamrau Bay which is a prolific bloomer and, as you can see, can become a very large plant.

Universe Makes a Promise

2011-04-01T09:30:00.002-10:00

Have you ever thought about the fact that spring is very much a promise from the Universe that life continues. It is a time for us to celebrate new beginnings. It is a rainy Friday morning, but I took advantage of a small break in the rain to gather some pictures to share with you.

Notice the buds in the center of the older growth on this vireya rhododendron and all the new growth. The buds are a promise of blooms to come sometime this year. They can take a long time to mature, and the new growth is a promise that my plant wants to keep growing for me.

There were a few blossoms on this lovely lady, but the buds promise of many more to come. This was just one spray on the tree which has probably three additional sprays also ready to burst into bloom over the next week or so.

And this tiny little blossom is the promise of cardamom to come. This is the flower of the cardamom ginger. If we are very lucky, we will have seeds this fall. I say lucky because we have to rely on our friends the bees and humming bird moths to pollinate them and sometimes they don't visit as regularly as we would like. You can read more on cardamom ginger here.

The tree ferns are one of the plants that make our property feel like Hawai`i. Beautiful and graceful, they provide lovely dappled shade for other plants to grow beneath them. And these two promise that they will remain with their new fronds starting.

It will be late August or September before this white pineapple is ready for harvest, but they are worth the wait.

Palm trees are very much bent on continuing their place in our land. Look at the number of flowers on this plant. Because of its location and the rain, I doubt that very many of them will mature to seeds; but this is a young tree and I'm sure the opportunity for more will come again.

And a promise of bananas. Until you have eaten a banana ripe from the tree, you really haven't eaten a banana.

And sometimes spring is a time of harvest. These are mountain apples (syzygium malaccense) which were a canoe plant that came with the native Hawaiians when they landed in the islands. The fruit is pear shaped and bright red with a crisp texture and a slightly sweet flavor. Some people use them in baking just as you would regular apples.

So I say thank you to Universe for your spring time promise and for the beauty with which you bless this land.

And Then There's Love

2011-03-27T15:11:00.002-10:00

Love comes in all forms and types. This blog entry talks of the love of legends and the love one can have for a an area and a beautiful plant that graces it.

Of all the beautiful places on this island, my favorite is The Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. I walk into this land of Tutu Pele with a feeling of love, awe and thankfulness that I am able to be there. It is beautiful no matter what the weather or her moods.

Recently we were able to spend time in the park on two different occasions and it just underscored for me how much I love to be there.

Pele has been very active of late and I'm sure many of you have seen footage of the recent flows. This picture was taken in September of 2009 at an early stage in the recent activity in the Halema`uma`u crater. The day was rather dark and stormy and I was walking along the edge of the crater rim during a break at a retreat. There is no more spiritual place for me than this location.

There is a tree of legend that adds so much beauty to this island, to Pele's park, and to my life. The legend goes something like this:

There was a young Hawai`ian man, some say a chief, whose name was Ohia. This young man was very much in love with a beautiful girl named Lehua. But as happens in many legends, their love was not to be. The Goddess Pele found the young man Ohia to be very handsome and desired him for herself. But Ohia was true to his love for Lehua. In her anger, Pele, turned Ohia into a twisted tree with gray bark and gray green leaves. When Lehua discovered what had been done to her love, she begged the other gods to please change him back. But Pele's magic was powerful and they were unable to do so and it looked like Lehua was to be forever parted from her beloved. But the gods had a solution: They turned Lehua into a beautiful red flower and placed her among Ohia's leaves. And to this day the two lovers are together in the form of the beautiful Ohia Lehua tree.

I never get over my love and fascination with the beautiful Ohia Lehua tree. When we walk in the park, I will say to myself that this time I won't take pictures of it. After all, I have hundreds. But with every walk, I add to my collection because it is so lovely in all its forms. Here are few recent pictures from my collection:

This lovely specimen was growing out of a crack in the lava on the trail to the Petroglyphs. The Ohia is usually the second plant to grow in the lava fields after an eruption. The first is the fern.

This close up shows the blossom in all its stages: the bud, the bloom, a recent seed pod, and an older seed pod. And in the background you can see the edge of the crater of Kilauea with the Halema`uma`u crater just inside it.

The trees are even beautiful in death.

And the lava from which all this beauty grows.

And so we have love: love of place, love of tree and the love of legends. Each one special and perfect for it's time and season.

Fiber People Are The Best

2009-06-13T11:44:00.009-10:00

What is there about a passion be it gardens, or fiber, or wood, or whatever that brings out the most generous side of people. I'm not sure. But I know that fiber people are high on the list when it comes to generosity.

Sometime back, I decided that I wanted a floor loom. Now my space in the studio house is somewhat limited so I figured a loom that I could fold up when not in use would be best. But I still wanted a loom that would allow me to do a variety of weavings. After some research and bending the ear of everyone I knew that did any weaving at all, I decided that I wanted a Schacht Mighty Wolf loom. It could weave cloth up to 36 inches wide and could be equipped with up to eight harnesses and its size was reasonable for my purposes.

Imagine my surprise when a good friend on the mainland emailed me and said that she had one and I could have it if we could find a way to get it shipped from the midwest to me. It took awhile, but on March 26th this loom arrived on my doorstep.

Loom Back

Loom Front

Because I had never worked with a loom of this size, most of my weaving has been on a rigid heddle loom, I decided to work my way through Debra Chandler's "Learning To Weave". The piece on the loom right now is the first of the projects in her book. It is a simple striped cotton piece to get the feel of using the beater and weaving plain weave or tabby and twill patterns.

Then a few weeks ago, a computer student of Glenn's mentioned that she had a table loom that she needed to find a home for. It had been her mother-in-law's. I said I'd take it and either use it or find it a good home. So on Wednesday, I stopped by her house and picked up this loom.

Table Loom

It is hand made out of plywood and has a simple four harness configuration with the harnesses being made of dowels with string heddles and using rubber bands to provide some tension. When it arrived, it had a fairly complex warp on it of a fine linen and an obvious practice piece of weaving where the person using it was learning to do a double layer construction. I saved the about three yards of warp still on the loom. It will make excellent thread for kumihimo. And I will keep the weaving sample as well. It think the loom will be great for doing small things like the bookmarks that I love to make.

In addition to the loom, Glenn's student gave me a small warping board that will be great for kumihimo class in the fall, a bag full of stick shuttles, and the greatest prize of all: A notebook with many samples of weaving and patterns that was put together by a weaving instructor many years ago. Do any of you weavers have any knowledge of Karin Melander who, at least at the time the notebook was put together, lived in Santa Barbara, CA? This notebook is her work. I googled her but found only a couple of small mentions in the old Robin and Russ newsletter.

The patterns in the book are way beyond my current skill level. But a couple caught my eye and I will want to try them when I have more projects under my belt.

As I said, fiber people are way at the top of the generous list. Now I just need to pay it forward for that is how it all works out in the long run.

The Miracle Vireya

2009-06-13T11:17:00.007-10:00

On June 15th 2003 a precious gift was given into my hands. On January 5, 2002, Ray Greuel took some seeds from Sherla ( www.PacificIslandNursery.com ) that had been sent to her by Chip Lima and placed them in a pot. They were from the hybridizing of two of Peter Sullivan's Vireya: V. Semper Fideles x V Paschal Witness. That's where the miracle begins. These seeds spouted in that first pot and on June 2, 2002, Ray moved the tiny seedlings to another pot. Here they grew for almost nine months. On February 20, 2003 they were moved to a four inch pot. And on June 15th, they were brought to the meeting at Sherla and Richard's.

I took one home. It had two branches and maybe four leaves on it. But it was a beginning. Now those of you who know me, know that I'm a very haphazard gardner and trusting any plants to me, let alone a seedling, is a great act of faith. The little plant lived in its pot in a garden outside my kitchen door and there it sat being watered mostly by the rain and fed by the sunshine. Nothing else.

Sometime, I would guess in late 2003 or early 2004, it was moved to a place beside the fence where it could be seen from the lanai of my studio house. It still was only about 8 inches high and had two branches and a few leaves. And there it stayed. I weeded around it when I thought about it. It was watered by the rain and lived in full hot sun with maybe a little fertilizer over the years when Glenn was generally fertilizing whatever was over there.

Then last year, it decided to grow and it began to put on height and more leaves. And imagine my surprise when this spring, I noticed two buds on the plant. About two weeks ago the first bud bloomed. And what a lovely bloom it was. It is large, white with just a bit of yellow in the center, and fragrant.

It is obviously a very hardy little plant. It is still living in less than optimum conditions, but it seems to be doing just fine thank you. Because I am not to be trusted with a lovely and rare plant, I took the first truss to Sherla so that she can grow it out. At some point, it will be available for everyone to enjoy.

Thank you Ray for your faith that something you started would continue long after you had passed.

Garden Surprises

2009-03-18T13:59:00.010-10:00

I looked to my right up a path as I walked to feed the chickens today

and this is what I saw.

I looked down at me feet on the path and saw this lovely stuff.

Then I followed a path through the woods of the garden

and I turned a corner to find this

Then I fought my way through some overgrown grass that had

strangled the path and this came into view

On the last part of the path to the house I found this lovely sight

in a spot where I didn't even know we had this variety planted.

I hope you'll walk with me in my garden on another day.

You never know what surprises might be in store for you.

It's Raining

2009-03-07T09:20:00.007-10:00

Well, maybe not as much as it did in February of last year, but enough that I feared I wouldn't be able to get out and back in if I did what I had planned today. So instead, I'm here at home looking at a day of unplanned leisure. Kind of nice.

This is what I was supposed to do today. Hoku and I had an agility seminar scheduled. They are still doing it; we just aren't joining. At least not today. We may still go tomorrow. Good thing the teacher, Andrea Dexter, is from the Seattle area. A little or a lot of rain isn't going to stop a good north-westerner. Hoku really does enjoy the agility. She'd be even better at it if her mom found more time to practice with her. At least my teacher is there so hopefully she will be able to transfer any tricks that Andrea gives us today to me over the course of the next few weeks.

And in case some of the rest of you are also in the doldrums of rainy, snowy, or whatever winter, here is a bright spot to warm your day.

I don't remember which vireya this is, but it is a sunny spot in the garden when it is in bloom.

Just One More Thing

2009-03-03T12:48:00.006-10:00

As Rachel Maddow would say, "Just one more thing"..... I learned another lesson from this quilt. Do not, I emphasize, do not use a deep blue color in a quilt unless you first wash it with Retayne or some other fixative and then probably wash it a couple more times.

I should have known better. I did know better; I just didn't pay attention.

Anyway, this blue bleeds. It really bleeds. I knew it would. I tested it on scrapes and extra material. I tested it with dye catchers and I still had bleed. The dye catchers did their job valiantly, there was just too much color flowing plus where the blue was up against some other color in the washing process, it bled onto the other color.

So I had a choice. I could send it unwashed and tell my nephew and his wife that they would have to dry clean it. Or I could wash it and suffer the first consequences for them. I debated. But the main reason I made this quilt for them was to have them use it. I visualized them all curled up under it on the couch. They have one two year old child and another on the way. They weren't going to use the quilt and dry clean it. Wasn't going to happen. It wouldn't have happened in my house when I was young and it still wouldn't. A quilt that had to be dry cleaned would go into the cedar chest never to see the light of day again.

So I washed it. And it bled. It will probably still continue to bleed so I'm sending a box of dye catchers with the quilt. But now they have no excuse not to use it.

From a distance, the quilt doesn't look that much different. At least not to the camera. But when you do a close up of one of the stars, you can see the blue bleed.

One can always have would of's, should of's, and I obviously have one on this quilt. But I still, given that it was going to bleed, think I made the best choice. Wash it, take the hit, and send it off to them to be used. However next time, I'll remember the lesson learned here.

Starry Skies

2009-02-28T19:26:00.008-10:00

My nephew, Brian, married Paulene in April of 2006. Some months before the wedding, I started a quilt that would become "Starry Skies". It was to be their wedding present. Well, time has passed and they have received a throw pillow with one of the squares, but the quilt has continued to be my main project at sewing each Monday morning. I can now say that it is done!!

This quilt had a number of firsts for me. First it was the largest quilt that I have made - coming close to filling the top of my queen size bed.

Then it was my first venture into paper piecing. All of the stars are paper pieced. I tried every trick I know and I was unable to get a really good picture of the star. The center does not show that it was made from eight individual pieces.

And last it was the first time that I had done any machine quilting on a piece this large. The "rays of starlight" and the outline of the stars that are the quilting were all done with my standard sewing machine. It did not become my favorite form of quilting. I've learned to never say never, but it will be quite sometime before I venture into machine quilting for a piece this large again.

I learned a lot making the quilt, and I think Brian and Paulene will enjoy it. My favorite part of the whole quilt is the color of the fabrics. They are stunning together and they are what make the quilt stand out. All in all, I'm happy with it. But most of all, I'm happy it is finished.

Orange Blossom Time

2008-03-25T20:40:00.005-10:00

There is nothing sweeter than the smell of orange blossoms. It wasn't until I moved here and was lucky enough to have an orange tree in my own front yard that I realized that it takes one full year from the time the blossom provides its sweet scent until the orange is ripe and ready to eat. However, our tree is now covered with both blossoms and oranges.

A branch loaded with oranges ready to pick

Oranges and blossoms on the same branch.

Lovely orange blossoms. They are pure white and waxy in appearance but the important thing is the fragrance which permeates the whole yard.

The Sun Is Shining

2008-02-18T21:05:00.000-10:00

After all the rain lately, it was wonderful to get out in the sunshine this morning and take pictures of the Vireya (tropical rhododendrons). The one above is Sonny's Brother and the one below is an unnamed seedling.

Bored Puppy

2008-02-12T10:00:00.001-10:00

This is what happens when one's puppy gets bored. The towel is one of the dog towels and was rescued before too much damage was done. The crazy hair cut is because Mom took after her with the scissors when the clippers decided not to work. We still need to get that hair shorter. In case you didn't know, it rains a lot here.

Masquerade

2008-02-12T09:04:00.002-10:00

Sometimes we collaborate. Glenn and I work in very different styles and seldom work on tasks together. It is what has helped keep us married for almost forty four years. But once in awhile, we get a wild hair to do something together. And that is what happened this year.

He belongs to The Big Island Woodturners and they have a major wood show each spring. This year it is starting in February. We decided to enter a piece that used his wood turning and my fiber arts.

He turned and painted four masks and finished off a willow branch.

In the meantime, I was busy on the loom. The shawl that was to be the background for the masks had a warp of silk yarn that I had purchased when I was in Tokyo four years ago. It came as a light beige and I wanted purple so I first had to dye it. This was the first time that I had dyed commercial yarn. I was pleased with the result. The weft was a very fine silk yarn that Glenn purchased for me when he was in Okinawa. This picture is of the shawl when it was on the loom. The fine gold threads that you can see scattered in the cloth were also silk that Glenn brought back from Okinawa.

It took me a little over a month to weave the shawl. I had some slight problems with keeping the tension even and tight, but nothing compared to an earlier project that I did. To see that project you can go to the Hawaii Handweavers Hui gallery page. It is near the bottom of the page.

Here is a picture of the finished shawl and another of a close up of the shawl. I was pleased with the final result which was a gauzy fabric of purple and blue with just a hint of gold.

Finally it all came together this past week. Here is a picture of our finished entry for the wood show. We are calling it Masquerade.

And The Rains Came Down

2008-02-03T10:20:00.000-10:00

Now I live on the rainy side of Hawaii Island outside of Hilo. We get rain. But there is rain and there is rain. Tuesday night, we got over five inches. Our rain gauge only goes to five inches. And a section of the road that leads to our house washed out. Our road is gravel on top of lava and it comes down a rather steep hill. If the rain is heavy enough, the water rushing down the hill takes out the surface gravel leaving gullies a foot deep and a foot wide. But that was Tuesday night.

Friday night it started to rain again, and it rained, and it rained, and it rained. This is Sunday morning and it is still raining. I'm not talking nice soft Pacific Northwest rain. I'm talking tropical downpours at about an inch an hour.

Our buildings sit pretty high and Glenn has done a good job of making a path for the water, but yesterday most of the area other than where the house sits was under water at some level or another. The section between us and the street was a small river. As you can see from the picture above and this one, that river was flowing at a rate that it was creating water falls. It was about 18 inches deep and varied from six feet wide to a space that was probably twenty to thirty feet wide.

We have two lots and buildings on both lots. The area between them is grassy with banana plants on palm trees on it. This is what it looked like yesterday. We not only had river front property, we also had lake front property.

Well, it's a rainy Sunday and looks like it will stay that way. I can't get my car out on the road and the Mayor is asking everyone to stay home. I think it is a good day to pull out the spinning wheel or some other fiber tool and find a nice glass of wine.

Want to join me?

I'm A Big Girl Now

2007-07-19T17:07:00.000-10:00

Keanani wants you to know that she's a Canine Good Citizen and she has the paper to prove it. She passed her test on Saturday. We had a little problem with the walk on a leash because she wanted to pull me to get to the good smells from all the other dogs, however she managed to behave herself enough to pass by the skin of her teeth. It also took multiple commands on the down before she got there. The rest was a piece of cake. She is so mellow that all the stuff about letting people touch her, or walking through a crowd, or having a loud noise go off were simple stuff. We obviously have work to do. The training never really stops, but she is doing well.

However just so I continue to know that she is a livestock guardian dog, we are also getting to the I'm deaf stage and the if I don't want to, you can't make me stage. She has also learned that she can bully Kip. Yesterday, Kip had her beloved squeaky toy and Nani took it away from her. I'm not too worried about this because she will then turn around and give Kip a toy to make up to her. They will work it out. In the long run, Nani will be top of the heap even though Hoku currently still holds that spot. We have made great progress since I posted last when it comes to inter-dog relations. The exercise pens are a thing of the past. All dogs are in the house together when people are there. We do not let the three of them be together without us because Hoku and Nani gang up on Kip. Just like kids – three's a crowd. Nani and Hoku spend their days together in the dog yard and they enjoy each others company.

As you can tell from the pictures, she is growing by leaps and bounds and she has become a beautiful young lady. She turned eight months on Friday, July 13^th. I had her weighed at the vet's the next day and she came in at 78.5 pounds. To the best that I can measure her without help and/or a wicket, she is 24.5 inches high at the shoulders.

I still can't believe how lucky I am to have this wonderful dog sharing my life and my space. I had given up hope of having an LGD again and then here she came. Thanks you again, Clarence, for this wonderful addition to my life.

What A Hat!

2007-04-16T12:16:00.000-10:00

Some time back, I posted a picture of some dyed fiber. It took a long time but that fiber finally turned into a hat for my friend, Judy. If you would like to see what it takes to go from hunk of fiber to a finished hat, please take a gander at the on line magazine Fiber Femmes. You will find it at www.fiberfemmes.com My hat was a featured article in the March/April issue.

And Here's Keanani!

2007-04-16T11:56:00.000-10:00

How Does Your Puppy Grow?

2007-04-16T11:43:00.000-10:00

It's been three months since Keanani came to live with us, and what a three months. She has grown. She is now about 46 pounds and 21 inches high at the shoulders. That means she has caught up with Kip and will soon weigh as much as Hoku. She has about three more inches to gain Hoku's height. She was spayed on the 4^th and promptly pulled out all of her surface stitches the night of the 5^th. So she lived the next five days when I couldn't see her and nights in an Elizabethan collar. Like all dogs, she figured out how to eat and drink with it and how to make it as obnoxious as possible for her human family. Nothing makes more noise than an E collar banging a crate side at two in the morning. Her adult guard hair is coming in. I've been fascinated watching it arrive. It started at her tail and has now covered most of the middle of her back. I didn't notice a pattern of guard hair development on the Pyrs but that was probably because I was too busy to take the time to notice.

We have made it through much of the teething without any horrible damage. Some dowels on my card weaving loom now have teeth designs on them, but knock wood all spinning wheels have been ignored. My books have taken the most damage; because I was too slow moving them out of the way, the spines of a number of books have been crunched. So there have been times for hitting myself with the rolled up newspaper and saying “I should watch the puppy; I should watch the puppy.”

At the moment one of the favorite “toys” is the fountain on the lanai. I can hear her now making a wet, watery mess as she plays in it with both front feet. She could be into worse things; and if she is like the Pyrs, this delight in water will go away with some maturity. As a matter of fact, having the experience with the Pyrs is a great sanity producer. I keep saying, “She will be an adult LGD; she will be an adult LGD.”

We haven't completely integrated her and the other two dogs, but we are making progress. For the most part, she and Hoku can be together with supervision. The supervision is just because Hoku can still play too rough for a puppy. Kip is a different issue. She is like the mother of a two year old who screams “no” but never carries through. Nani knows Kip won't carry through so she harasses her unmercifully. We have to move in to spare Kip. We do have time with all dogs or Nani and one dog together but we still have days where she is in her exercise pen to keep her separate from the other two.

Last Saturday, she graduated from Puppy Obedience. That means she can play with other puppies without being a problem and she has a small glimmer of what sit, down, come, and heel mean. Stay is still not really part of her vocabulary at all yet. We work on all of these daily as they fit into her normal activities. At the moment, sit is the most understood. By the same token, she is an LGD and she already can decide to blow me away if something is more interesting than my command. Also right now we are into the “terrible two's” where every command from “Mom” is met with a “NO”. With consistent training this shall pass just as it does with human children, but right now it is a pain in the neck.

At the moment, my biggest problem is our first walk in the morning and the last walk at night. We have Cane Toads, lots of them; and they are extremely toxic. They hide during the day in cool, damp holes, but at night, they come out to feed. They are often on the driveway and paths that we walk and they jump in such exciting ways. Every walk in the dark is a challenge as I try to spot them in the flashlight before Nani does. They taste terrible and usually a dog will spit them out immediately; but if they swallow one, it is lethal. My Pyrs ignored them. Maddie picked one up once and spit it out so fast that I hardly knew she had it in her mouth. She then gave me the dirtiest look because I hadn't warned her. I'm hoping that Nani will get to where she too ignores their existence. Hoku now at almost four has finally gotten so she doesn't go after them at every sighting. In the meantime, I have to be vigilant and Nani gets her neck yanked periodically.

She goes with me to Aikido every Tuesday and Thursday. She is a favorite of the children that train there, and the Bichon's are at least tolerating her. She also went to church with me on Holy Thursday. She was cabled during the potluck dinner and behaved extremely well. And when crated during the service, she went to sleep. As she gets more obedience training, she will go with me to other places. However, my ability to take a dog with me here is limited by the weather. If she can't be with me at all times and the outing is during the day, she can't go. Cars are too hot here for a dog to stay in them safely. But I hope to take her more than I have the other two. We shall see.

All in all, she is a delight. I am still feeling so lucky that Clarence found me with that email, and she entered our lives.

Keanani and Friend Kip

2007-02-01T14:47:00.000-10:00

What A Puppy!

2007-02-01T14:41:00.000-10:00

Keanani came to live with us two weeks ago. Her name means white beautiful flower among other things and the meanings for the parts of her name are white for Kea and beautiful, pretty, glorious, splendid, and beautiful flower for Nani. For me, she filled a large hole in my heart that was labeled “big white dog”.

I had lived with Great Pyrenees for twenty years, when I lost the last three within four months in 2003. Pele and Maddie succumbed to the ravages of old age at almost fourteen. Karlo left too early at eleven with bone cancer. I decided to be practical and not get another. There were none to be had in Hawaii. Importing them was at best time consuming and loaded with paper work and at worst a long drawn out process that wouldn't bring in a puppy. Also the heavy coat was not fun to deal with in our wet, wet East Hawaii climate. No I'd be practical and get a short haired dog.

So Hoku, Rotweiller – German Shepherd mix, and Kip, who knows what mix, entered my life. They came with some traits that I would rather not live with but that can happen with a mixed breed. In general they have been great dogs and they add to my life. But they are not big white dogs nor are they livestock guardian dogs. And when you've lived with a livestock guardian dog, nothing else quite fills the bill.

Then in mid November, I received an e-mail. There was a litter of Maremma puppies about an hour and a half north of me. Puppies! Here on the island! LGD puppies here on the island! I immediately e-mailed the breeder. Yes, I want one. Please. Then the waiting began, and I counted the days until two weeks ago when she arrived.

Now I remember why one should think before one takes on a puppy – sleepless nights, piddles on floors, holes in clothing. But I also know why one wants a puppy – puppy breath and puppy kisses. The grin when you walk into their sight. The total delight on finding some thing new in the yard to pounce on. The joy as a ball of fluff comes racing to you full tilt and skids into you as they try to stop but not soon enough.

Keanani requires all the work of a new puppy. But what a delight she is as she learns and loves and totally becomes part of our lives. Last week she went visiting at the Dojo where I train in Aikido. We walked in the door and she was at once surrounded with six children, six adults, and two Bichons who were telling her that it was their territory. She sat back next to my legs and surveyed the situation. I gave her a couple pets and she walked over to Sensei Tina who was sitting on the floor and sat next to her with her head on Tina's leg. After receiving some pets from Tina, she decided she was ready and she began to work the room. She went from child to child and adult to adult. She tried to convince the Bichons that she was OK, but they were having none of it. Everyone commented on how calm and mellow she was. She was totally curious about everything and everyone. She was confident and ready to face whatever came her way. She was everything that a Livestock Guardian puppy should be. Next week she starts puppy class in the local park. I am expecting her to do well. In the meantime, she keeps me on my toes and delights my days. And she is letting me sleep all night now.

What a puppy!

Serendipity

2007-02-01T11:22:00.000-10:00

Serendipity: the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely. This describes my latest dying adventure. I needed some silk for a weaving project. An initial search of my stash didn't produce anything that struck my fancy. I checked out out a couple of vendors online and again nothing jumped out at me. So I decided to dye my own fiber.
I weighed out four ounces from the pound of Tussah that was in my stash. I had in mind a red orange but with more red than yellow in it. But when I weighed out my dye powder, my scale decided that it wasn't going to weigh accurately for me. By the time I realized that I had more yellow than made sense for the color I had in mind, it was pretty well mixed in with the red powder. (Note to self: Weigh your powder out individually so you can put the extra back in the bottle.) I mixed the weighed powder with 12 ounces of hot water. It was a pretty color but not as red as I thought I wanted. So I added a little more red powder. I emptied my red bottle, and still it looked a little orange. Oh well, let's go for it.
I had soaked my silk roving in water in preparation for following my favorite method of dying small quantities of fiber. I learned this cold pour method from "The Twisted Sisters Sock Book" by Lynne Vogel. I divided the roving into four pieces and followed the same procedure for all four. I laid plastic wrap on my newspaper covered counter and placed the fiber on the plastic wrap. I then took the squeeze bottle that contained my dye mixture and poured the dye onto my silk. I wanted a pretty heavy saturation so I tried to not leave much in the way of white showing. I sprayed the fiber with full strength vinegar and turned it over. I applied more dye on the back side and then wrapped the fiber in the plastic wrap and placed it in a colander that was in my dye pot. The large dye pot had about an inch of water in it. It also had three rocks that I use to keep the colander above the water level. Once all four packets of fiber were in the colander, I turned on the heat. I brought the water up to where it was just barely simmering - letting off steam but no bubbles. I set the timer and let the fiber steam for twenty minutes. The heat was turned off and everything sat in the pan overnight. The next day, I rinsed the silk and lay it out to dry.
And the color. Here is where the serendipity comes in. I didn't get the color that I had in mind; but the color I got is beautiful. I call it Orange Sherbet. It will make some beautiful yarn for some project but not for the weaving project that started the whole thing.
Ironically as I was working with the dye and looking at the color that I obtained, I realized that I needed a much more neutral color for my weaving project than either the color I had in mind or the color I obtained. So back to the stash. I am now spinning some beautiful gray/silver colorways from Carol Weymar (www.thesilkworker.com). The yarn from it will work perfectly for my weaving project. More on that project later.

Orange Sherbet

2007-02-01T11:18:00.000-10:00

Weavers Of Worlds and Dreams

2006-06-25T16:22:00.000-10:00

I've spent the last four days with people who weave dreams and worlds with words. The Writer's Weekend near Seattle was a combination of work, excitement, and laughter. Attendees included the elite of the world of books, editors and agents, along with those wonderful inspirations, published authors, and those of us who hoped to find that magical moment that might push us across the great divide from unpublished to published writer.

You who are out there struggling to publish that first book, story, poem or play might be surprised to learn that agents and editors are really human. They laugh; they impart information; they become exhausted; but most of all, I found them to be incredibly patient with all of us as we asked question after question both in and out of the workshop sessions.

My conference experience went stratospheric when an agent said, “I want you to send me your book.” It took all I had not to scream right there in the room. Someone was willing to give my book a serious read. Those are words of gold to an aspiring writer. Another golden moment was when an editor spent her lunch hour helping me to understand the workings of her publishing company and assuring me that my manuscript wasn't lost in the piles and piles filling the acquiring editor's office.

Old friendships were renewed and new friendships were made. Long conversations were held over drinks, during meals or while standing in a hall holding up the walls. We laughed, some of us may have cried and all of us were inspired. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend.

Now the work begins. I'm winging my way back to Hawaii with words singing in my head. I have a manuscript to send off and a new one to start. Would I change things? Not for the world. Words are alive; life among them is magical, and my journey is just beginning.

2006-06-05T14:22:00.000-10:00

Color, Color, Color

2006-06-05T08:33:00.000-10:00

I am starting on a new fiber adventure. I have dyed my own roving before, but I've never blended multiple colors together to form a yarn that was totally unique and my own. I'm following the information in Deb Menz “Color In Spinning” and doing lots of playing. The colors above are my choices to make my yarn. The wool is Blue Faced Leicester from Ashland Bay. The white is dog hair. I'll keep you posted as to my progress.

2006-06-04T09:55:00.000-10:00

Memorial Day 2006

2006-06-04T09:38:00.000-10:00

Kea`au, the town I live near, is a small plantation town. Although most of the old plantation buildings are gone, the plantation people are still here. This area was a Japanese camp. Most of the plantation workers in old Hawai`i were separated by race. One of the oldest churches in the area is the Buddhist temple. That temple has hosted an interdenominational, inter-cultural Memorial Day service since 1946. This year I attended.

I find that the two holidays set aside for our veterans are honored more here than in other place that I have lived. Maybe because so many of the people here are immigrants themselves or the children of immigrants. I was told by one of the Japanese Americans that on December 7, 1941, many citizens of Hawai`i but especially the Japanese had only minutes to decide where their loyalties lay. Think of it – your mother, your father, maybe your wife and children were in Japan and you must decide in an instant how you are going to live out this war. And most of them threw their future with their new land. The 100^th Battalion of the 442^nd Regimental Combat Team was made up of Japanese Americans from Hawai`i. Because they were not trusted, they were sent to the European war where they became the most decorated battalion who fought in WW II. And some of them did not come home. (Check out this web site for more history on these remarkable young men - http://www.katonk.com/442nd/442/page1.html )

These were the names first read in the roll call of honor at the service. The roll call progressed through the fallen from Puna, our district, for the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, and the current conflict in Iraq. With bagpipes playing Amazing Grace in the background, each name was read and a member of the family, or the community representing the family, took a bouquet of antheriums to the Veterans Memorial which was already decorated with large bouquets placed by many Veterans organizations. It was a stirring moment that for me was the center of the whole service.

Yes there were patriotic songs and speeches but having those names read and seeing the families come forth really spoke to me of what this and every Memorial Day is about – a time to remember our history and honor those who walked that lonesome road for all of us. My father was a veteran from WWII, the Korean conflict and Vietnam, but we were lucky. He died peacefully in his sleep at the ripe old age of 82. I pray that will be the fate of our men and women in uniform today.

2006-05-27T09:21:00.000-10:00

At Home In The Jungle

2006-05-26T14:45:00.000-10:00

It's almost noon and the trade winds have died to almost nothing. This Pacific Northwest gal is sitting here doing a minor grumble about the weather – sticky. But it's hard to do more than a minor grumble about the weather here in paradise. It really is never too hot nor too cold and our humidity, though more than I like, never reaches the levels of much of the South, Midwest or East Coast. Puffy white clouds are floating in and will back up against the mountains soon to cause rain in the higher elevations. We may not see any.

Last night we had a termite swarm. They are early this year. I hate them. Besides the damage they can potentially do to the house, it means lights out as soon as we see them. If they have no light to be attracted to, they are less apt to land and settle in. So I'm reading my book by flashlight under the covers after going to bed at eight o'clock. Talk about flashbacks to teenage years.

Today we put in a new water system. We live in an area with no public nor private, as in community, water supply. Our water is supplied by what lands on our roof with the rain. It is collected into a large tank and stored for future use. This means that my water is literally rain water soft but there are possible hazards from contamination. So today we added a new system that runs the water through two filters and then an ultraviolet sterilizing process. We drank the water before this system but I'll feel more comfortable doing it with this change over.

We live on six acres of barely controlled jungle outside of Kea`au, Hawai`i on the Big Island. We are about eighteen miles from the Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Our land is covered with ohia, palms, guava and a variety of other trees. We also have a large collection of orchids, anthiriums, tree ferns and vireyas growing on the property. Vireya are tropical and sub-tropical rhododendrons. The picture is of the vireya Veryl Ann and it was hybridized by Mitch Mitchell of Volcano Hawaii. And yes, it was named after me.

Our family consists of myself, my husband Glenn, two dogs Hoku and Kip, and a flock of eight chickens. Hoku and Kip are what we call poi dogs here in Hawai`i. Anywhere else they would be called mutts. Hoku has Rotweiller and German Shepherd in her but I think she also has terrier in her mix. I always swore I would never live with a terrier and I find that all the behaviors of Hoku's that drive me nuts are those that I can attribute to terrier in her background. Kip is a bigger mystery because she was found wandering in the forest near Volcano but we think she looks like she has a lot of Australian Cattle Dog in her. She is our self appointed watch dog and overall cuddle dog.

So now you know a little bit about us and where we live. Oh and the fiber part. My creative passions are worked out in two areas – fiber arts and writing. You will hear much about both as this blog continues.