Yarn Art

I was teaching at my LYS yesterday, and not surprisingly, during the course of the day, I picked up a few things here and there for some projects I have in mind, plus a skein of yarn for a prize drawing on the Yahoo group where I’ve been hosting the Concerto KAL. I had to laugh when I went to pay for my treasures. Totally by accident, the goodies I’d gathered for four different projects were perfectly coordinated!

It made me wonder if there was a good, creative way to use them all together in a project, then I remembered I’m giving the skein of alpaca away (It’s heading to Germany to an alpaca newbie!). I decided in the end that maybe the best way to use it all together was with to make some yarn art. Isn’t it pretty? And this way, Claudia gets her prize, my doll gets her outfit, my shawl still gets its special touch, and I’m still totally baffled as to what I’m ever going to do with those fantastic buttons.

Why is this Legal?

I just got off the phone with my credit card company, and I’m spitting nails! Barclay customers have been notified of a 5% interest increase, effective in November, and this isn’t just on new purchases, but also on existing balances. The way I see things is that I borrowed that money with the agreement that I was paying a certain percentage of interest on it. How they can change the terms of that transaction after the fact is beyond me. I suddenly feel like I’m dealing with a loan shark instead of a company that I’d previously respected. The notice added that if we don’t agree with the new terms, we can simply pay off our balance and close our accounts. If I could pay off that balance, believe me, I wouldn’t have it on my card! No one in their right mind carries a balance at the rates I’m paying on that card if they have the cash to pay it off, you know?

So, I called them this afternoon to ask what I’ve done to deserve such a usurious rate hike. Was it that I’ve paid my bill on time every month since I took out the card? That I’ve recommended the company to friends? That I’ve been a (sadly) regular customer? No, I was told that it was “across the boards.” When I asked why, the representative told me that because of the economic situation, the company “needs” money. And I don’t??? I’m still trying to get a grip on the fact that it’s perfectly legal for them to say, “We need money, so we are taking yours, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You borrowed money from us, so we can do absolutely anything we want to you until you pay it off.” Who do they think they are? The government?  This is legalized robbery, and I’m furious!

In addition, with a great amount of fanfare, it was also announced that there was a new due date for my bill. For the entire time I’ve had that account, the payment has been due on the 4th of the month, with occasional changes to the 5th when there was a holiday involved. The new date I was given was the 11th. The next month the bill was due on the 10th. This coming month is due on the 9th. This sort of messing around on the part of a credit card company easily results in people missing their payment date, meaning that the company then can levy more late fees. I asked the representative today to tell me what the earliest date will be that my bill will be due. He said he couldn’t give me a day, because there are a different number of days in each month, and that I’d just have to check each month. When for years, the due date had been a specific date, why the change to a constantly shifting date? And why when fees and  interest rates are being hiked dramatically? I think the answer is very obvious.

So, my measly savings account is now earning about 1% interest, and my credit card company is taking over 20% interest. If you’d have told me this would happen when I was 20, I’d have laughed until my sides ached. Now I just wonder how to cope – and how to get that blasted bill paid off before they decide to hike it to 30% interest.

Okay… I think I need to go knit and cool off a bit…

Call the Doctor or the Circus?

I’d really like to see what just happened on a video replay – I think…

I’d done some cleaning and moved the fan, which moved the cord. Apparently I didn’t get the cord back in the correct location. This is not a good thing. I’ve been stepping over the cord in the same spot for several years. With it in a different spot… well, I didn’t step over it, but instead, I caught the toe of my sandal with it. At the time, I just happened to be carrying a half full gallon of paint in one hand and a somewhat green, just used paintbrush in the other. I was not wearing my normal painting clothes. And I was walking across an unfinished hardwood floor.

I must have taken my guardian angel by surprise, as I didn’t get off Scot free, but what did happen was nothing short of a miracle. In an effort to not crash to the floor or create the worst mess I’d ever needed to clean up, I tried to stop myself with several pieces of furniture and a couple of plastic tubs in the area. (This is one time it was actually good to have too much stuff around!) I made contact with various surfaces at least six times. I abraded my right forearm twice – in two different directions and hit it hard enough to create a big lump. My right wrist hurts, my shoulder will have a substantial bruise in another hour or two,  I scraped the back side of that elbow, and there will be another deep bruise on my knee. On my left side, I came down hard enough on my foot that my ankle is hurting and a little bit stiff, and I ripped my thumbnail, which I thankfully had just cut short a few hours earlier. I also wrenched my lower back a bit.

However, with all that, I not only never actually hit the floor, but I didn’t spill a drop of paint, nor did the brush leave anything behind anywhere, including on my clothes! How I bounced around like a pinball and did that much damage to myself, yet didn’t get even a trace of paint where it didn’t belong is beyond me, and I’d sure like to see how I managed it! Next week, once I’m not so stiff I can’t move (which is a feeling that is coming on very quickly now), perhaps I’ll look into learning to juggle. I seem to have an untapped talent here!

And by the way, I had just moments earlier completed painting the first of the big drawers for the drawered cabinet that goes under the TV in the nook – the one I posted a few days ago with the cats using it as a hideout. One down, five to go… )

Three Bags Full

If there were such a thing as scratch and sniff blog posts, I can assure you, you would only scratch today’s once!

For some reason, the photo just doesn’t do this justice – in fragrance OR in appearance. When I opened the bag this fleece was packed in, I was overwhelmed – and not in the best sense of the word – and it took less than 60 seconds for all six cats and the dog to find me and my new treasure, too! I’ve bought several fleeces over the past year, but so far, I’d had terribly cold feet in regard to actually washing them – in large part, I think, because not only had I never even seen the project done, but also because the fleeces I’d picked out were all really neat fleeces, and I was terrified I’d mess them up in some manner. In June, I cured that problem by purchasing a nice enough, but plain white, fleece. Opening the box sealed my fate; I HAD to wash it. There would be no living with my pets otherwise!

So, I made an emergency run to Walmart, where I purchased three mesh laundry bags, some Dawn dishwashing liquid, and a pleasant smelling bottle of hair conditioner. Once home, I started the washing machine filling with hot water, and holding my breath as long as I could, I started stuffing fleece into the mesh bags, determined not to wonder what I was actually touching. Being a fleece washing virgin, I chose to minimize my possible losses by not putting too much wool in the washer at one time.

Coming back 15 short minutes later, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It looked like the Mississippi River had detoured through my washer, and I started wondering if I would ever really want to put my clothes in there again. I emptied the water and briefly spun the bags, and while the machine refilled, I examined my fleece. Amazingly enough, I really hadn’t damaged it, and in fact, I had to admit it already looked (and smelled) better. Now I was feeling braver!

Three soaks and spins, followed by a last balmy float in a hot lavender scented bath left me with wool I was no longer afraid to touch – and I have to confess, I was feeling pretty proud of myself as I hung the bags out on the clothesline, too! Of course, once it was dry, reality set in as I realized that it was still very full of VM (vegetable matter). At least it was clean VM, I reminded myself, as I started picking through a small bit of my now soft and pleasantly scented wool…

It took me 4 different days to complete, but I now have the entire fleece washed. I’ve not picked nearly as much as I’ve cleaned, due in large part to time being a rather finite commodity.  There is an entire pillow protector stuffed full of wool (and VM) teasing me into teasing it clean, a job which I’m oddly enough enjoying. What IS picked is such fun to squish on my way past it, though. As much as I’m looking forward to spinning this stuff, it really feels like a project unto itself just to have made something so pretty and lovable from something that smelled so hopeless not too long before. What a lovely adventure – and pleasure to think that it’s only the first chapter of the story!

And I don’t often do this, but… I chose the title for this posting with more than my fleece in mind. I just finished reading Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann, and I have to say that it was such a delight! The premise of the book is that a shepherd is found murdered, and his sheep take it upon themselves to solve the murder. Though this might sound somewhat far fetched, the sheep really don’t act out of character for being sheep – assuming you can, for the time being, accept that sheep converse on a much more logical plane than you have believed in the past. What makes this book such a fun read is the author’s incredible sense of humor as she leads us through the thought patterns of the various members of the flock. Sheep without a shepherd can truly develop some interesting theological viewpoints! I frequently found myself laughing aloud at the conclusions they drew from the evidence at hand. Subtle comments about such things as the human flock that visited the meadow or the human mothers bleating at their children are sprinkled delicately through the story and keep the reader thinking from the sheep’s point of view. It’s been a good while since I had such outright fun with a read, and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves sheep, wool, yarn, or just a good and entertaining book.

There Wasn’t A Parade…

So, it rained where I was on Independence Day, but at least there wasn’t a parade scheduled. I guess it could have been worse, right? The traditional picnic moved indoors and bore a distinctly different flavor, but the silver lining was that there weren’t any flies or mosquitos to swat, and the food was as good as ever, if not better. However, one tradition that was upheld would make me just as  happy to not continue. Even though my order was taken for a hamburger on the grill, by the time I got through the foodline, there wasn’t a single burger left, and only two hotdogs. I seriously dislike hotdogs, and there were two people behind me of a different opinion, so after I made a few bitter complaints, I resignedly grabbed a burger bun (there were LOTS of those left…) and heaped it with sauteed onions and pickle relish. I’d never had an onion sandwich before, but it actually wasn’t half bad so long as I didn’t think a lot about the burger I’d been eagerly anticipating. Besides, not wanting to risk a further shut out, I went through the dessert line without waiting to politely eat first, so I was looking at a double helping of Aunt Joyce’s Black Raspberry Cobbler. That little delicacy made it tough to keep pouting.

My sister and I both have June birthdays, and we live far enough apart now that we’ve begun waiting to exchange gifts on the Fourth. I’ve been bothered in recent years by the fact that no matter what I get her, it seems as if I end up with the better present. This year I was sure I’d done well – until I saw what she’d found for me!

Is this special or what?! I was nearly speechless! I don’t know how she finds things like this – or lets me have them instead of keeping them for herself – but she’s good at it! I was so overwhelmed, though, that I was suddenly very much afraid that she wouldn’t like her own gift. All that assurance blew right out the door!

So what did I get for her?

I’ve gone from avid ebayer investing hours searching for special deals to checking in once a week or so for literally a couple of minutes. They’ve so managed to ruin everything that was good about that site… but that’s beside the point. A couple months ago, I DID check in for a minute, and someone had listed this little doll for sale on a BIN just minutes earlier. Now my sister collects Victorian and Edwardian wedding memorabilia and has a definite soft spot for dolls. This is the first time I’d ever seen one of the older German all-bisques dressed as a bride, and I didn’t even hesitate. That doll was bought and paid for in moments. Never mind the fact she came bald… or rather, never mind that fact until I was faced with the fact that she still needed hair the day before she was to go to her new home. I’d just not been sure how I was going to managed such a delicate operation. She’s only about 3.5″ tall (forgot to measure!), and her veil and crepe paper gown are most definitely fragile – not to mention her headpiece was still firmly glued in place. Finally, my spinning experience proved the solution. After I cleaned her (which was also not so easy to do without damaging her finery),  I took a tiny tuft of merino that  matched her eyebrows to perfection… and stopped dead. I couldn’t just glue a hunk of merino on her head. She needed some sort of a part or something to create a tiny bit of style, but I had no matching thread. Hmmm… go knit for a while… VOILA! Thread! It’s a spun substance! I fingerspun enough of the merino to tie around the tuft, and I was back in business! I found my sewing up needle to be far better than a toothpick for placing the hair, as it didn’t stick and pull, so all in all, it was my spinning and knitting that were the basis for restoring this little sweetie. I loved the irony of that!

And – if you are actually holding your breath in suspense, my sister absolutely loved her doll, and like me, despite the many hours she’s perused the antique wedding stuff, she’d also never seen a doll of her type, so as the saying goes, I done good! We were both very happy people. I’m trying hard not to worry about what I’m going to find for next year, though…

One other happening of note on the Fourth… My little niece had eyed my knitting on several occasions, but she also lives at a distance from me, so I’d not had the opportunity to sneak knitting needles into her hands yet. Having seen the weather forecast, though, I’d slyly slipped my beginner kits into my basket when I was packing Saturday morning. Sure enough, the weather cooperated with me, and shortly after supper, I had a six-year-old on my lap, intently wrangling knitting needles and lavender wool, cheerfully announcing and displaying every single completed stitch. Now THAT is what I call fun – and a super end to the evening!

Oh… and she dropped some very  strong hints that perhaps someday I might make her something… GRIN!

The Thanks That Made Me Cry

Whew! The week before this past week was wild and wooly – SO much happening that I could have posted a good entry twice a day if I’d had time to breathe… and this week has been all about trying to do some catching up. Woke up Monday in an odd sort of mood, and the entire week has been very productive for me. Actually, I’ve invented a new game for myself, and since it’s still working, I’m hanging onto it. I pulled out my slightly dusty chore box and one die.

Rules are roll the die, count back the number of cards matching the roll, and do the job without grumbling. Extra large jobs (like finishing the sewing room) require 15 minutes of concerted effort. I also have cards for reading, knitting, spinning, etc., which means every so often I get a very nice surprise. ) Among other things, this week has seen me writing my last Christmas thank you note and sending two goody packages to friends – stuff that was meant to go out last year sometime! Feels really great to have the weight of so many old tasks off my shoulders and to see so many other things progressing after languishing for such a long time, and the approach is great for an ADD brain. But this wasn’t what I set off to post today, so I guess I better get back to the topic intended…

My wild and wooly week was actually 8-9 days long, and most of what happened was good stuff – enough to last me for months instead of days! I’m just going to share the first thing tonight so this doesn’t take me two hours to write. Besides, it was so special to me that it deserves its own post.

Remember the Cyber Fiber Retreat I mentioned a while back? Well, unbeknownst to me, the fun wasn’t entirely over. I received a mysterious package in the mail two Saturdays ago, return address being that of one of the participants. What was inside absolutely knocked my socks off! The retreaters got together off group and gathered up the most incredible bundle of fiber for me as a thank you surprise… I was doing the guppy thing – totally speechless! I’ve done a lot of stuff like this retreat – organized activities online and off, taught classes gratis for years, given away patterns and designs, and in all that time I’ve learned that a few people will remember to say thanks, and once in a great while, someone goes so far as to drop a handwritten note in the mail. This fantastic bunch of gals, none of whom I’ve ever met in person or even spoken with on the phone, went all out go put together a gift that reduced me to tears! My most “intangible” friends gave me the most tangible thank you I’ve ever received.  It looked like someone had secretly followed me around at a fiberfest and bought everything I fondled! Even more incredible to me is that I now own the world’s coolest knitting bag. ) What’s so fantastic about it? Well, it was custom made just for me! It has the names of all the women at the retreat embroidered on the back of it, and when I sit with it beside me while knitting, I feel like they are all close by. I love it!

And check out Granny on the front; is she something or what?

Besides my wonderful bag, the contents of my box included:

• a big ball of targhee/mohair roving from one of the retreaters’ flock
• a ball of Tofutsies sock yarn in a lively green print – too fun!
• a skein of Heritage HandPaint Oxford 2 Sock Yarn in the Wood Violets colorway – and wild violets are one of my very favorite flowers
• a generously fat skein of hand painted sock yarn in wonderfully earthy shades from Wendy, the Yarn Fairy
• a ball of sock yarn suspected to be from Interlacements in delicious peacock shades
• a cone of Colourmart’s always marvelous cashmere laceweight yarn in caramel
• a skein of DyeForMe baby alpaca lace yarn so the next time I’m dying to dye, I won’t have to sacrifice Kidsilk Haze
• 2 ounces of tussah silk roving, handpainted in luscious shades of pink, purple, and blue
• a sweet little nosegay which will be wonderful adorning a shelf in my new sewing room
• and all sorts of sweet cards and notes of appreciation

Now, do I have a great bunch of friends, or what? All I can say is that if you ever have the opportunity to bless someone the way I was blessed by these incredible ladies, please do so! And if someone has done something nice for you recently, please take a moment to say thank you in a meaningful way. It’s too easy to take people for granted and realize too late that we have. ‘Nuff said…

Thanks again, my dear friends!

Looking Forward; Looking Back

I think I’m officially the last person in the entire blogging world to do this, but it’s been percolating so long that I can’t quite bring myself to not do it. Besides, I feel like I need to, if only for myself, so here goes – my New Year’s Day post!

I never was real keen on making New Year’s resolutions, as it just seems like the perfect way to start off the year with a resounding dose of failure. Sometime around the end of January you eat that piece of turtle cheesecake, miss 3 consecutive days of exercising, or realize you are already a week behind in your read the Bible in a year program, and you promptly brand yourself a loser, throw hopeless hands up into the air, and say, “Maybe next year…” I just don’t need that sort of thing in my life. I’ve fought hard to get where I am emotionally, so I have no intent to shoot myself in the foot by setting myself up to 334 days of each year thinking uncharitably about myself. However, like most of the people I know, I do feel that fresh start excitement that comes with the scent of a January calendar page, and a couple years back, I came up with an idea that is working much better for me – New Year’s Goals.

New Year’s Goals have very few rules, though last year they did need a few more than they had. They have to actually be possible. I’m not allowed to beat myself up if I don’t accomplish them. They have to be well defined. Two of those three rules were added this year. Having goals instead of resolutions gives me an entire year to succeed, and they help focus my ecclectic brain on a little bit narrower range of possibilities. Another benefit is that it sets some things before me that I have heard myself say, “I always wanted to” so many times I’m sick of hearing it, but without a steady reminder, I find drifting out of my mind when I have the time.

Last year’s goals were not too many:

• Knit a Pair of Socks – This one was accomplished with my Coriolis Socks, which I absolutely adore!
• Master Lace Knitting – This goal would show you just how little I knew about lace knitting December a year ago. It’s also totally undefinable in reality. Just how does one know they’ve “mastered” lace knitting? Should have been “Become Very Comfortable Knitting Lace.” That I definitely accomplished.
• Go Somewhere New – I didn’t think I was going to get this, but when I ended up with a nearly last minute trip to Honduras, which included a side trip through Guatemala into Belize, I found I’d accomplished it well beyond my original dream.
• Read 100 Books – Somewhere around June, I added this, which has now been classed as an illegal move on New Year’s Goals. I didn’t succeed, but I might well have made it had I not read th e entire Outlander series. Books with 48 CD’s take a good bit longer to read than your run of the mill 6-10 CD offering.
• Make a Gail Wilson Kit – Considering the collection I have of the kits, I thought it was time to put my money where my mouth is – or my hands where my money is, or some such thing. Thinking is as far as I got with this one. Oops!
• Finish the Laundry Room Remodeling – Well… Perhaps this would have happened if my dear daughter hadn’t offered to help get the sewing room started, then hubby hadn’t suddenly revived his nook project and added allowing me a studio door. I was spread too thin with those four projects to complete even one of them, though I don’t regret the progress that was made on all.
• Be out of Debt by the End of the Year – Total flop. ‘Nough said?

My list for 2009 is much longer and definitely more ambitious, but I’m doing some things differently, and I’m feeling quite positive about a lot of them. The biggest change is that this year, I’m not settling back in January and thinking that I have a whole year to do this stuff after all, so why rush? There have been a fair number of serendipitous occurrences to help me move in the right direction, too, so I’m off to a great start! I don’t really think I’ll be able to get them all done, but I’d sure like to surprise myself, and I’m not going to aim low!

• Be Debt Free by the End of the Year – I hate having to have this goal. This also includes non-financial IOU’s. I’m going to have to have a miracle to pull this one off. I need to sell an awful lot of books if this is going to happen – and my knitting pattern needs to be a smashing success! I also have several projects, including a quilt to finish for this.
• Get My Email Under Control – This is another one in the miracle category, but who knows?
• Make a Gail Wilson Kit – Sound familiar? Serendipity is that Gail is currently running a Hitty class, I have the kit, and the fee wasn’t very high. I’m far behind the front runners, but I HAVE actually started my girl.
• Finish Reba – The most attainable of the miracle class of goals. There is little to do for her to be complete, but it involves a kiln, learning to fire bisque, renewing my acquaintance with bisque painting, and getting up the nerve to put my beautiful, nearly done head in for a last firing.
• Complete Sewing Room – Mid-range in terms of difficulty. I’ve done an awful lot in there, but I still have oodles of sorting and organizing, along with quite a bit of trim painting to do – like the bookcase and two casement windows. This isn’t a gimme!
• Complete Laundry Room – Another mid-range sort of project. As much as is done in there, the floor tile is a bothersome, time consuming project, and I have some trim painting to do. Really challenging would be that I have to stop knitting long enough to crochet the curtains!
• Lose 25 Pounds – This is going to be easier than I thought. I’m already half the way there!
• Learn to Do Entrelac and Knit Backwards – I’m really looking forward to this one. I have the pattern and yarn to do Autumn, and a week or so back, I finally found a tutorial that made knitting backwards suddenly easy. I’m still slightly awkward at it, but a little bit of practice and it’s going to be second nature. Biggest challenge here is just to actually break away from the temptation of so many interesting KAL’s and do this piece.
• Go Somewhere New – Looking very challenging at this point in time. I had two cruises planned for this year, both to new places,  both depending on other people, and both fell through already. So much for this goal being a gimme. All the states within decent driving distance I already have, and I don’t currently have any good set up for a low cost visit in a new state or country – and there ’s that “out of debt” business… Stay tuned!
• Become Comfortable Spinning – Easy? Well… First I have to finish building my wheel. Then all that remains is finding time!
• Read 100 Books – I’m really cooking on this one already! I think I just listed book 15 – or was it 16?
• Knit Another Pair of Socks - This is more desperation than goal. I adore my socks and I hate it when I have to take them off to wash them! I need more hand knit socks!!! This is a “just do it!” sort of project, and I’m sort of hoping that the SHP KAL is enough to jumpstart the process.
• Stash All My Downstairs Yarn on Ravelry – This would be much easier if the stash would quit multiplying! That said, I’ve already been working hard on this. I’m currently at 244 in my regular stash, so ignoring minor fluctuations due to usage, it will be interesting to see where I am on Dec. 31.
• Do a “Difficult” Lace Pattern – Challenge here is just focusing on doing it – ignoring some of the other rabbits dashing across my path constantly. It’s tough to do that with something like 7 shawls on my  needles and two KAL’s imminent…
• Do Something/Anything with my CSM – I’m not even aiming so high as a pair of socks at this point. I just want to sit down with someone and find out for sure my machine actually works! Socks would be a nice side benefit to the process, though. ;o) A circular sock machine is too valuable to just hold down the floor, in my opinion, and that’s all my lazy contraption has done for about 3 years now.

Now that I type this all out, I’m thinking it’s a very good thing I have a solid start on so much of it. This is quite a list!!! I think I’m going to make a separate page listing the goals in the sidebar here on the blog, then update as things happen…

The Loot!

At last! As of midnight it was finally time to open the Stash Swap packages! (Click here if you didn’t see the original post a few days ago.) The boys had been guarding the pile all week, armed with pea shooters. They were just sure the girls wouldn’t be able to stay out of trouble – or so they said. I think they just wanted the opportunity to be obnoxious… Anyway, when the clock struck twelve, the party was on!

There were many excited exclamations, more than a few shouts of “MINE!” and lots of planning and page turning in the pattern books, to be sure. Our loot included:

• Fat quarter of plaid silk
• Fat quarter of crimped organdy type fabric in white
• Two pieces of lace – one antique netting and the other a narrow white cotton
• Vintage ecru rickrack
• Tiny gold and red buttons
• Faux rabbit trim and daisy chain trim with beaded centers
• Blue seedbead assortment, blue ombre ribbon bows, Eiffel Tower and letter “B” appliques
• Handspun wool yarn (What more could an avid knitter wish to get?!), which was wrapped in a piece of white on white cotton fabric
• Pattern for stuffed bunny
• Two special thank you gifts from participants – a completed stuffed bunny and a delicate embroidered hankie with crocheted trim

The next part of the Stash Swap is the BIG BONUS ROUND, in which participants receive a prize if they use three of their items to make something for Bleuette or her immediate family by the first day of spring. I don’t exactly end up with a prize, as I run the show, but I still like to try to get at least one thing made from my new treasures. Some years I’ve been able to use three items on one project, but this year looks like that won’t happen. Although we have some really lovely things here, none of it really seems to go together well – at least at first blush. I think we should sleep on it, though – or perhaps look at it somewhere that the girls aren’t. It’s tough to hear myself think with them all chattering away about what each of them thinks I should make for her.

And this is what we sent out in our packages:

I loved how it all went together and couldn’t resist taking a photo before I sent it umpteen different directions, from the east coast to the west. The fabrics are vintage, as is the pink-edged lace, along with most of the buttons. The mystery items are hat straw and very soft and supple leather, both items from my doll store. I can’t wait to see if the recipients like what I sent as much as I do – and to see if someone uses it in their challenge project. Digging around in my own stash made me want to drop everything and make some things for the girls from the items I settled on sharing, each of which still resides here in usable quantities. With everything going on over the next 6 weeks, though, I’m going to have to settle for vicarious pleasures. Oh for more hours in each day!

And on a totally different note, after fighting to get decent pix again tonight, I gave up and bought a new camera. I went with fewer bells and whistles than my old one, as I just don’t have the money to put into what I really want, but what I ordered has really good reviews, so hopefully it will do until I’m in a better financial situation. It would have to be a pretty lousy camera to not be better than my poor, hurt Canon A620. I’m still miserable to have had it wounded so soon. Sigh…

Of Fibers and Brushfires

Just a short post tonight, but an important one, I think. I’m guessing that most everyone who reads this is very aware of the terrible brushfires currently decimating sections of Australia, leaving scores of dead, injured, and homeless in their wake. Perhaps you, like I, feel the urge to do something helpful, but didn’t know what it might be. Perhaps you might consider the option I found last night.

In the tradition of raffles, telethons, bake sales, and such, a caring Melbourne woman is rallying the knitting community to support the Australian Red Cross with a fiber fundraiser. She’s been in contact with  numerous knitters and yarn stores around the world, lining up some wonderful and generous prize donations. Your ticket into the drawing is a donation of $10 or more to the Australian Red Cross. Make your donation directly to the Australian Red Cross online, then email your receipt to her in order to be added to the drawing. Details are HERE on her blog, along with more info about the fires and pix of some of the prizes. As I’m typing this post, there has already been over $1100 donated by the fiber community, and we can undoubtedly make it much more. Let Australia know we care!

It Doesn’t Seem Quite Fair

I’m still here, believe it or not. The irony of things is that the more I have to post, the less time I have to do so. If I’m quiet here, you can pretty much figure I’m up to my neck, and that’s definitely the case right now. Knitting has been busy, but the Mistake Fairy has been making life pretty miserable, allowing me far less progress than the hours knitting would lead one to expect. I have just received pattern and yarn for a test knit, so some projects will be going on hold, or at least moved down a rung, until I complete that project, which I have to say is very exciting to me. I’ve also been scheduled as the speaker for the Dayton Knitting Guild meetings in March – which both excites and terrifies me! Lots more knitting excitement, too, but I will leave that to another post.

Sewing room is progressing slowly, but steadily. I’m putting things in their homes or the sale pile, with a fairly comprehensive sorting as I go. It feels time consuming to me to be doing the slow part of the project mixed in with the faster things, but I think it’s smart for me and the way my brain works. They say that 80% of  a job takes 20% of the time and the other 20% takes 80% of the time on a project. I’m not good at getting back to an interrupted project, so what happens most often for me is that the 80% gets done, then something comes up to sidetrack me, and I never get back to that 20%. Of course, do that often enough and the balance tips – i.e. there is a house full of 20%ers. I’ve been very diligent since the first of the year to work in there at least 15 minutes per day, often more, and it is paying off nicely. There are places I just don’t have enough room to store all that I own, so I’ve gone through needlework books and patterns yet again, a second cull, and will be trying to decide where and how to list what I have available to sell – when I have time, that is. This has been tough for me, as I really think I have good taste. I didn’t plan on getting rid of what I sorted out the last time, let alone going through yet again. However, the book shelves are wood, not rubber, and there’s a limit as to what fits!

I’m looking forward to a visit from my daughter in Honduras and my own trip to visit a friend in Pennsylvania, both planned to happen in the next 6 weeks. With the continued clean up, an online class, an awful lot more email that normal, the Bleuette Stash Swap, which I host each year, and my knitting, it’s really been busy here!

Thought you might enjoy a few pix of our ice and snow storm from last week. I was surprised to get good photos. My camera is sick, and it only focuses when it’s in the mood. Happily enough, it apparently decided these were worthy of the effort.The one above is by far  my favorite, but I’m fairly pleased with all three shots.