Activities for a Retired Priest

Yesterday I did a funeral for four well-loved critters belonging to a family of four good friends. What a privilege. I had known three of them, and had heard the story of the earliest--the couple's first dog. They had ashes for each of the dogs (the cat had just disappeared to die, as cats are wont to do), and members of the family scattered the ashes in the doggies' favorite spots in the backyard. Several friends joined them, and many wonderful memories were shed. We all cried several times, and the 15-year-old son did a beautiful job of reading "The Rainbow Bridge Poem," which I can never get through without weeping. I have no doubt that the Holy One redeems all who suffer, the Creator calls back to Her/Himself all who are sentient, and it is such an incredible honor to be allowed to give thanks for these, our fellow creatures who are so dear to our hearts, and to commit their spirits to God, Chi, Allah, or whatever name we attach to our experience of the Divine.

Saturday was the monthly meeting of Area 2050, NwRSA, held in the Auburn Library, about 30-40 minutes from Tacoma. Georgean Curran was there again, to my delight. Georgean is la grande dame of fiber arts in western Washington. She brought a terrific and large rug she had woven in a divine eight-harness point twill variation with a mixed warp of leftover yarns and a beautiful white slub yarn for weft. It was striking and I think everyone there wanted to steal it on the spot. Another member whose name I can't recall (her daughter Heather, 13, is also a fiber person and comes to our meetings) showed several pieces of gorgeous lace knitting that would take me at least a year to knit. She had done them both since our meeting in December. Wow! People were spinning everything from clean fleece combed and spun from the combs to wild-colored combed top. I struggled with Loosey (my Majacraft Little Gem) for a couple of hours before thinking to reverse the accelerator drive band, which completely fixed the problem. I spun almost all of the dark teal/charcoal wool and mohair sliver from Dawn Lantz's dyepot, and then changed to this wonderful Halloween-y looking superwash merino. In nearly eighteen years of spinning, I have never spun superwash anything, and it's really kind of neat. It needs a little pre-drafting but is much slicker than regular merino which has become compacted in the bottom of my roving basket. I like it.

There is a meteorological miracle happening in western Washington. It is January 21st and there is not a cloud in the sky. Bright sunshine. It's 40 degrees out. I'm going out--'bye for now! Happy spinning/weaving/knitting/whatever!