some reasons for my absence

I have been trying to get photos of my stuff together. They've got to be good enough for publication (can't talk about the whys and where's of that yet but it's good). So far that part has felt a little bit unsuccessful.

We are also in a major life move type of mode. Fran and I have decided to put our house on the market and move to Philadelphia. The last few weeks have been filled with the craziness of getting all of our stuff organized and getting the house to look good, all while driving around to the shops and keeping the inventory up. In other words, we have been very very busy, there hasn't been a lot of private time.

Some really great stuff has been going on though, people from my past have been getting in touch. hi Anne, hi Addison, hi Stephanie. All of the reconnecting has been fun and a little bit exhausting. (playing catch-up).

I've also decided that I'm going to the Reunion thing even though I am not in the alumni show. Yesterday in a phone conversation Addison reminded me that I was never a part of that group, or even understood by them. Her suggestion, keep doing what you do. "you're the Grandpa of graffiti knitting".

I like that title, the grandpa thing doesn't even bother me, even though I rather just be the inspiration or the father, but somehow Grandpa fits my current mood.

Ho ho ho and it reminds me of the fiber bombs and little events that I began staging in the 70's. So now I'm ready for the reunion and I'll be sure to have some of my materials with me. (the pink rubber knitting hasn't been in vain)

posting may be sparse and I owe tons of emails.... later....

'nuff said

johnk -- [noun]: A person of questionable sanity who starts their own cult 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I'm not sure where I got this.

I'm back and 50

Provincetown, what can I say about Provincetown. It's magic and always makes me feel better.

We got to town at about 3 pm on Tuesday afternoon. On the drive out we decided that we would grab a little to eat (at Clem and Ursie's) and then go right to Race Point Beach. The reason we wanted to get to Race Point was that we had heard that there were an amazing number (140) of right whales off of the point and we were hoping that maybe a one of them would be close enough to shore for us to see. Why is seeing the right whale so exciting? O.K. it's estimated that there are about 400 of the northern right whale. They are so rare The idea that about one third of the entire population was off of the Cape is mind boogling.

We get to the beach... we're looking and looking and hoping, fingers crossed, but we aren't seeing anything. Then we see a spout!!, and the whales back. There is one and we think it's probably a right whale, then we see more and MORE!!!! by the time we're done counting we guess that there were about 12-15 Right Whales just off shore. I can't tell you how excited I was, and how lucky and privileged I feel that I got to see that.

In the excitement I took no photos, To give you an idea of how close they were, look over my shoulder in this photo that Fran took about ten minutes before we started seeing the whales. Can you see the white wave looking thing very close to the horizon? Yep I do, I think that's the whale going under, we must have just missed seeing it. It's a 1/4 mile out, believe me, that is sooo close.

That was a great start to a great couple of days. More info on the Right Whales off of P'town at the Center for Coastal Studies site.

After all of that excitement we went back into town and checked into the hotel. It felt a little bit strange being in town and not seeing Thom and Mark. but, they're happy living in Mexico. We did miss them.

Any way, we check in and decide to take a walk on commercial street to go for coffee, and to see what's changed since January. So 1st to Joe's Coffee (I would link to the site, but they don't have one, [ahem ...hint to Scott]). From Joe's we walked to the length of Commercial St. and ended in the East End at PAAM. We wanted to go to the museum since we hadn't been in since the new renovations. Waa waa, it was closed and would also be closed on Wed. my birthday.

Now I'm going to have to jump ahead in the story. On Wednesday I really wanted to go to the museum in the evening so we walked up and I was planning on looking in the windows. But.... more magic was happening and there was an event at the museum and it was open. So we got to go in and see he show, and I guess I almost expected that would happen.

Ok. I'm sure you all are getting tired, and I'm feeling a little out of breathe, so I'll stop the tales here. It was all fun, I'm back and relaxed.

Not much knitting around here

We have been on the run. Flea markets, the shops, and just trying to maintain.

I've only knitting this pathetic little foam sample thing on the past 15 days, yikes.

Now I'm taking a few days off to go to Provincetown, it's the birthday celebration...... Next time you hear from me I'll be 50.

2 weeks later

We've been to Chicago and are back. The trip out there was long and the driving was difficult. We had snow to start out. It took 5 hours to drive what would normally be 2 1/2. That was it for the snow though, then the trip was rain. Fran drove and by the end he was wiped out.
Oddly, we got to Chicago earlier than we expected. That turned out to be a good thing and we unloaded the van the day before show set-up. Lucky for us, since the next day was chaotic , everyone trying to move in garden items and not much room to park. It was a mess....
The show was so so, it feels like it's been months, I've sort of forgotten about it......

The best thing about being in Chicago was getting to see my friend Lucy and visiting her studio (at midnight on a long show day but I'm not whining). Check out her work. I love it. Here is an example of another person who was overlooked for the Radical Lace... blah blah blah show.


Fast forward to us driving home... no problems and the weather was great. Remember that snow from the day we left?, well when we got home it was in the high 80's and everything was in bloomI've been back for a week, and we have been spending a lot of time running to the shops and getting the booths looking good. We really need to be making some money.

I've managed to work a little bit. I tried doing these woven things on a little frame loom. Good for the road trips. The idea is to add some growing plant material to this. I don't know, we'll see what happens. It's very in the percolating not articulated stage right now. So as a distraction I've been
Straightening up the studio. Chet's been there helping. (here he is pointing out a knitting machine and hinting that maybe 5 are just a little too many. I , of course, assure him that I need the extras for parts)
Chet is getting better. The thyroid supplements help with his appetite and attitude. He's still a Terrier - loves to growl.

And that concludes this little update..... I have a feeling that I've lost many readers and say thanks to everyone who has stuck around.