The Year Long Scat

"So what do you call that," I asked Kendal Calquhoun. "A hat-scarf, a harf, a scaharfat, what?"

Kendal shrugged. "A scat I guess."

"Why aren't you wearing it right now?" I asked him.

From behind the counter at Mud Bay Coffee, between drink orders, Kendal patiently answered, "It's ultra warm, it's really heavy and just bulky. It's hard to be doing things while you're wearing it. It's more of a sitting in the cold type of hat."

Kendal knitting his hat at Moon Base about a few
days before completing the project.
photo by: Kaylani, Oct 26, 2011

In October last year, under the instruction of our community's knitting guru Claire, Kendal learned how to knit. His first effort, a small gray test-swatch, is still attached to his key chain as a token of remembrance. After that, he began his hat. One year and nine skeins of yarn later, it is finished. "I wanted a wizard's hat. I wanted it to be a little over the top," says Kendal. "I knew it was done when it was dragging on the ground. It had taken so long I was ready to be finished. I just wanted to wear it."

The red and grey portions of Kendal's hat are knit with an alpaca and wool blend. The green at the end was knit with extremely soft baby alpaca. His yarns were purchased at Canvas Works downtown. "If you're gonna start knitting one, you'd better know your a patient person," Kendal recommends. "I knew I'd be able to finish it... I had an idea how long it would take, I didn't think it would be an entire year."

As a friend of Kendal's, I can confirm the patience he speaks of. I can't say I've encountered more patience in my life. But the man is not a machine. There were times during the project where boredom set in. "I got to the point where I had to take a break. There was a couple of times where I just didn't knit it for like a month." Learning new techniques helped keep the project interesting, though. "There was a lot of experimenting with knit patterns and ways of knitting where I took my rights as the person making it to go ahead and try."

Kendal learned from his experiments, though they didn't always go as planned. "In one of my experiments doing different knit patterns I ended up adding 40-plus stitches," He says. "After I screwed that part up I probably spent a good four hours fixing it."

Kendal also kept busy while he knit, exercising his multitasking muscles. "I listened to music, watched movies, rode in cars, came to Bible Study, sat by the fireplace [at Mud Bay]." When the hat was long enough to wear while knitting, he took full licence to knit wherever he wanted. "I walked around downtown, went to the Co-op, antique shopping."

During his walks downtown, he encountered a couple very curious folks. "I'd have the tail end and yarn in my bag and the part I was working on out in front of me," he explains. "People who didn't necessarily look like they understood I was knitting, but saw I had seven sticks in front of me, would come up like 'Whoa! What are you doing?'"

Next on Kendal's knitting agenda? Mittens. With a twist, of course. "I want the sleeves to be long, long," he says. With one hand outstretched as though a mitten coveres it, he draws his other hand up his arm and out past his head to demonstrate. "I'll have to fold them over my arm in order to wear them."

Communion Unconfined

Handpicked blueberries and Nectarines
given to Miah and Kaylani for their
wedding top a tostada made by
Claire for Sunday dessert.
(9/4/11)

I've been pondering thoughts inspired by a post Kendal wrote a while back called "sunday times." The post described a dinner he prepared for our family at The Keep. "I find this act of us eating together a core thing that has brought us all together," Kendal writes. "I understand what communion is and that it is something Jesus told us to do often, but in all honesty the act of communally eating a meal with others is so much more spiritually filling than eating a piece of pre-cut bread dipped in some nasty grape juice..."

Communion is a fellowship experience; a celebration of Jesus' life, and the restoration of Humanity's relationship with God that his death accomplished. 


Communion is not a ceremony.


The following images depict communion experiences I've had with my family.

Josiah helps prepare a soft taco
extravaganza for Sunday dinner
at The Keep. (8/21/11) 

Kendal prepares his hookah to share
as an after-dinner continuation of
 our communion gathering.
(8/21/11) 

The crew shares hookah and Star Trek together
at The Keep while digesting dinner. (8/21/11)

Claire concocts a tostada (see above
image) topped with figs and sweet
chevre cream to share with
 friends. (9/4/11)

Family, meet family. Communion gathering at Vic's Pizzeria
 following Kaylani and Miah's wedding rehearsal. (8/27/11)
photo by: Teresa McLain

After-wedding celebration/fellowship/grub at Mud Bay Coffee.
(8/21/11)
photo by: Teresa McLain 

sunday times

so most of the time we all get together and hav dinner sunday nites at The Keep and kinda just chill and hang out its more of a party most of the time.. well tday wus my day off and i took liberty of that buy playing pokemon for qwite a wile befor i gave Claire a call to let her know whut wus going down with dinner for the nite, i had maid dough the other day and figurd i could make some pizza. and i did just that.. after geting drest and the sorts i whent and got esspresso from Mudbay and heded to The Coop aka the Olympia Food Co-op a local groshry store wher i do my shoping. half the fun of going ther is the very crowded enviroment full of very interesting caricters meny (excuse me) and (im just guna sqweez by)s are exchanged along with a smyel and goofy little shufel, but after hangeing around ther for a good hour paking my bag with multipul nesesitys and filling jars with bulk foods i cheked out with my as usual qwite perky cashir i stuffed evrything into the sadel on my scooter holding the exses in my bag over my sholder as i vencherd home to get started on dinner .....

so a few hours hav past and tday ther is ownly the compony of Claire, Kaylani, Jossy, and me theres usuly around 8 people at The Keep sunday nites but some wher sick and others wer at work.. so three pizzas wer split between the 4 of us one of wich i wus qwite fond of containting whole weat dough, a herb oil saus, mozarella, amish gorganzola, parmisan, brind olivs, whole clove garlic, carmilzed red onyon, salamie from a local farm, and pine nuts.. oh my gosh freeking good stuf.. we'r all prity much foodys so good food and lots of it is one of our things ... i love eating with all thees folk i find this act of us eating together a core thing that has brot us all together, i understand whut comunian is and that it is somthing Jesus told us to do often, but in all onisty the act of comunaly eating a meal with others is so much more spirtchuly filling then eating a peas of pre cut bred diped in sum nasty grape juice.. we partake in comunion buy comunaly feeding eachother and eating together close to if not evry day. partaking in comunan i would say is a big part of whut we do together

umm so yea

this will now be my new venu of sharing things with others via the interweb..

to let you know i cant spell, i dont know how to use puktuashen ect.

so heer we go

iv bin in an odd mood the past week, dont rilly know how to explain it rilly, iv just bin overly tyerd and exsosted i cant seem to eat enuf food and my sleep seshens havnt bin all to grate.

so tday after a long day at the shop aka Mud Bay Coffee's westside Cafe i whent over to Moonbass Kaylani, Jerimia, Kaylin and Claire's home for our weekly Bible study, i wus exseptionitly tyerd and hadnt eaten all that graitly that day so i wus esenchly shutdown for the most part. the study if you could call it such a thing wus qwite lively we wher going thru Acts 5 of wich we ownly made it to vurs 17 or so becus of how much talk and discushen and qweshechens wher posed to the famly, im not the tipe to talk much at all, im more of the listioning tipe. and that is whut i did tnite i sat and observed the comglomeration of our get together. Jery would read 2, maybe 5 verses if we wher lucky and then a descushen would insoo wich would often bring about moltipul tangens and storys about from most evryone giving ther 2 sence about whut they thot about whutever wus just read ... alltogether it wus an extra lively nite.. when we wher finished we spent a good 45 min in prayr just talking aloud and voicing our conserns and soal desires to our Father (thats allways is my favret part of the nite).. afterword we kinda just hung out and chilled me and Jerry shared a pipe outside on the steps befor going back indoor for a little Startreck...

and now im not to sher whut im rily geting at .. whel im guna go t bed now .. goodnite