Saturday, July 27, 2013

Next month is going to suck.

So, I've finally done it. I've procrastinated on it for ages, found a million excuses not to do it, but finally, time has caught up to me.

Next month, I move house. To a space of my very own. No roomies, no family members, no one but me and my cat.

Yes, I'm freaking out. But I've consoled myself with the knowledge that I can have my very own craft room. I'm going to put it in what is supposed to be the dining room, but honestly -- who wants guests when you can have your very own craft room? So I'm going to have a table (a long folding table) where I will keep my sewing machine and bookbinding equipment, my stash is going to be apportioned around the entire condo (for a condo it is -- twice the size of the largest apartment I can afford, if I chose to live without eating or turning on the lights) so I'm never too far from my yarn. I may even get a cutting board for my sewing projects, leave that out on the table. I will have to be the Pin Police, though, because of my cat.

Of course, all the moving and setting up and painting and having heart attacks because I'm going to be responsible for all the living expenses I incur is going to seriously impact my crafting time, though. At least for a few weeks.

I'm not happy about that, but once I get moved in, settled and have my cable hooked up...oh, yeah. Then I'll be knitting with gas! (OK, not gas -- the heat is from a boiler system run on kerosene, but you know what I mean.)

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Slooooowly but surely...

life is returning to normal. Ish. For me. Which is to say, completely abnormal, but that's perfectly normal in this house. If you know what I mean.

Sigh.

At least I've been knitting lately.

Well, ok, so not on that one, per se. I finished that color off a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm on to oatmeal color, and when that skein is done (in two more rows), I knit up the last of the mini-skeins (a royal purple one I saved up just special for the purpose) and the knitting part of the project is done. Then I get the joy of turning the whole shebang into garland! Whee!

Tonight I had a really fabulous 50% off coupon from Favorite Big Box that I had to use before it went defunct. I need a new pattern holder, For Reasons, so I went and enjoyed the view of my new playground:

Yesssss. Miles and miles and miles of cotton prints, and that's not even the bits that are full of unnatural fibers. But I've never sewn anything with stretch, and I'm told stretch changes the game a bit, so perhaps I'll focus on my cotton apron first. Walk, jog, then run.

Anyway, I'm still crafting a bit, slowly recovering my fiber mojo, and I've discovered that this blog is invaluable for helping me keep track of what I knitted/cross stitched/whatevered when. And it's a great place to keep my pattern notes. Blogging has a purpose, other than weird, mildly pointless navel-gazing. Who knew?

Also, just in the interest of self-documentation, two weeks ago, my friend who bought the Yarnia brought in a bag of yarn to coven night. Her purpose was to rid herself of some leavings. Again, in a gang-like initiation ceremony, everyone had to take something from the bag. Even me.

So, despite the fact that I need more yarn like I need another hole in my head (although when the sinuses go up, it would be a relief), I left with four of these:


two of these (one in a dark brown, one in a rust color):





and one each of the following:






Some nice vintage stuff in there, as you can see. I admit I was originally tempted by the hot pink of the Versailles (a French yarn, the color is even listed as Flamant Rose) before, but I abstained. However, since it soon became for free...

Eh. It doesn't quite go with my skin color, but that's ok. I like it well enough to just look at it!

Oh, and before I forget:





Giraffe Hat! 

Friday, July 12, 2013

Ugh.

There's been a lot of nonsense going on, and not of any good kind. The last two months...let's just pretend they didn't happen for the most part, shall we? Hospitals, surgery and angst, oh, my. Everyone's still alive, the one in danger is mostly out of it and it's just about all done but the shouting, so it's all ok right now. But let's just say I'm drinking far more than the recommended 4 oz. daily serving of red wine right now, and it's barely making a dent in the tension in my neck.

It's been that sort of two months.

But I had to come and brag. I mean, I've hardly gotten any knitting done (hardly; I've been working on holiday twizles at work on occasion, and started knitting on a scarf while in a surgery waiting room at the hospital that I may never touch again), but I did do some research and decide to get THIS:

W00t! Now I can make my apron, and some other fun stuff, too. I mean, look at all the stitches that come with:

25 built in stitches! 59 stitch combinations, whatever the heck that means!

And and plus plus:

five extra smurfy feet, in addition to the regular one that comes with.

It was on sale. I moved on it. I feel good about that.

Or perhaps it's the wine. Hopefully, things will start returning to normal, so I can blog more. Hell, so I can knit more. I'm getting real tired of hospital waiting rooms, the regular sort of hospital rooms and just...hospitals in general.

Wish us luck.