Kids just wanna have fun…

The pups are keeping me on my toes.  I have to keep them from getting bored without wearing myself out.  That can be a hard balance to achieve.  Sometimes they keep each other busy.  Ike will be chewing on his kong and Tina will come up and grab the tip of his tail. Then she will pull him five feet across the yard, before he decides enough is enough.  Then he chases her around the trees and through the ivy.

The little things like learning to come when called by name, and potty training are happening.  They are not acquainted with the pet door yet, so the potty training depends on me.  When I can’t be paying close attention they are in a play yard in the family room.  They are going to be indoor/outdoor dogs but they are not quite ready to make it outdoors on their own.  I will be glad not to have to pick up wee pads though! ;^D

I’m back to the sleeves on my test knit for KnitQuest.  Other test knitters have had to tink quite a bit so  I hope to learn from their experiences.  This IS a fun knit, but it has taken much longer than anticipated, partly due to the xxl size I’m knitting.  I’m still in love with the yarn, but it is a lot of PURPLE !

My sewing/crafts room is coming along.  I can actually do things in there now.

My library is fairly extensive, but it is getting sorted and organized.  The books dedicated to just knitting are moving into the living room with a lot of the yarn.  That is where I usually knit so it seemed logical.  The Ikea shelves I received for my birthday help tremendously in there.

Destashing and simplifying

It is happening. It is slow, but it is happening.  The room that got flooded is being rehabbed. The carpet was pulled. New vinyl has been laid. Paint has been applied.

Here we have some before shots.

The furniture was hard to use in the room.  The carpet smelled bad.

The contents of the room were piled all over and filled the carport.

But things are getting sorted.New furniture was acquired for free.  It is being assembled.  Things are progressing quickly.

I did have help. My MS gets in the way sometimes. I get tired so fast, especially in the heat.  I hired a young lady to help empty the room.  My husband helped with flooring and paint.  Then the young lady came back and helped carry stuff back into the room.  My husband helped with the furniture.

But now I get to sort.  What do I value and know I will use?  What will I give away?  What should just be thrown away?  I know it should have been sorted before it got near the room, but my helpers have no clue what I want.  I didn’t have the stamina to sort it before it came back in.  But I am doing it now.  I am enjoying deciding the best places to put things.

There will be more pictures as the room gets done.

It won’t get completed this week.  On Thursday I am setting out for my 40 year high school reunion.  I attended high school in the same small town as my parents and many of my aunts and uncles.  There were only about 165 kids in my graduating class.  My sons went to schools four times that size.

I’m a little nervous about what I might find, but I am also excited.  I’ll be back when it’s over.  And then I get to continue sorting!

Supervision in knitting and life

We have a supervisor on site for most projects. Lucy makes sure no food gets left on the floor of the kitchen.  She makes sure all bones are thoroughly gummed (she has lost a lot of teeth) before they are disposed.  She inspects everyone who enters our domicile to be sure they are worthy.

Right now we are painting in my refurbished crafts/sewing room.  She made sure hub laid the floor correctly.  She knows he is using the right tools.

She made sure he masked properly and cut into the corners without making a mess.

She will surely be on hand this next week as the mountain is sorted and select things get returned to the room.

All in all, we couldn’t do it properly without her supervision.

Throughout life we are each usually our own supervisors.  We almost always know what needs to be done.  If we don’t know how to do it, we know where to find out how it should be done.  If we can’t for whatever reason do it ourselves, we know how to find someone who can and will.

The bigger problem I am finding is sorting what MUST be done from what I would LIKE to get done and what SHOULD NOT be done.  The criteria for making those decisions is usually very muddied, in my opinion.   Allowing someone else to do the sorting generally results in someone being very much less than happy.

Knitting can be the same way.  The designer/supervisor has a very definite idea of what the finished product should be when you do a test knit.  You are trying to help her relay her vision in the most clear, concise way to another crafter who may or may not have experience.  The best way to do this is to follow her pattern as exactly as possible to a point where either the instructions don’t make sense or a mathematical error has been made.  It is important to keep notes about what works verbally and what doesn’t.  It is also important for me as a pattern user that proper grammar is used as much as possible.  Spelling and punctuation are important to me as well.  While my usage might not always be correct, I find it most irritating to pay money for something that is not correct.  I feel that is part of the professional image a designer should be striving for.  I have been knitting a test for KnitQuest. I admire her design process.  When it comes time for an item to be test knitted, she enlists several people of differing backgrounds and really listens to their comments.  She handles it like a KAL where they are free to question each other and encourage each other.  I find her finished patterns strive for the best possible in all areas of publication.

There may be simple typographical errors that can be just as annoying.  I wish more publications used better proofreaders.  But, I also know the human eye sees what it expects to see, so some typos and errors are easy to miss.

Lucy is a good supervisor in some areas, not so much in others.  Right now her focus seems to be on her dinner bowl and whether anything new is in it.  I love her anyway.

More birthdays

Thursday was H’s birthday.  As a new mother, her days have been absorbed by Tesla.  I was determined to make sure her birthday gift was something that was all for her.  From hub and me she received a gift certificate for a pedicure and new pair of hand knitted socks.  Of course, since we are in the middle of summer, she won’t get to use the socks right away.  The pedicure will be a wonderful treat for someone who is just recently able to reach her feet.  It is amazing what pregnancy interferes with. And I forgot to take pictures of the socks I made.

It is going to be fun having a cluster of summer birthdays.  My sons were born in November and it always seemed like we had a party from Halloween until New Year’s Day.  Then we got a break until Valentine’s and hub’s birthday a week later.   My birthday was all alone the last day of July.  Now I get to share with Tesla and H.

One of my gifts was this adorable photo of Tesla and her foot prints at 1 month.  She will probably want to shoot her parents when she’s older, but I love it.

On other news,  the new floor is in my crafts room and the furniture and fabric go in this week.

I’m looking forward to being able to find the zipper for Tesla’s sock monkey outfit.  It won’t fit for a while, but her mom wanted it for Halloween.It even has a tail!

Birthdays

We all get older.  There is only one other option and I’m not ready for that.  This year we went for a quiet family dinner at a local seafood restaurant.  The food there is always so good that we seldom have room for dessert, so no cake this year.

The newest member of the family, Tesla, garnered most of the attention.  That is fine by me.  Her mother, who celebrates her birthday August 5th didn’t seem to mind, either.

My gifts included a new floor for my crafts room, which got installed this evening, and a large bookcase from Ikea that will house a lot of my yarn stash as well as knitting books.  That will arrive later this week.

The best gift of course was the company of my family.  We don’t see them as often as I would like.

I’ve been sorting through the things that will go back in my crafts room, trying to cut the volume by at least 1/3 to 1/2.  It is hard to part with the polyester scraps from the 1970’s (NOT!)  I am putting together some things to donate and some things just get tossed.

I am also knitting, of course.  Some things I can’t show youuntil they have been given to their new owners.  But I have some swatches for a test knit I am working on for a talented Northwest designer, KnitQuest.  I was going to use a different yarn, but I quite literally tripped over this in my stash.  It was almost like the yarn was yelling “pick ME, pick ME!”

The eggplant color seems softer in the photo.  It really POPS PURPLE in life.

The knit is really fun, and I’m in love with the yarn.  It is a cashmere/merino blend that I am using double to get gauge.  The jewel tone of the yarn and its softness make me wish I had more in other bright colors.  I think maybe a teal and a peacock…   I bought it a year ago at knit and crochet show.

The sample Samantha had was in a beautiful neutral and maybe I’ll go that way next time, but for now …

twiddles

I twiddle threads.  I have been known to macrame, crochet doilies,  do needlepoint and x-stitch, and crewel work.  I sew and do machine embroidery.  I have not tried spinning or weaving.  While I am intrigued by spinning, my yarn stash is already quite large.  The equipment required for weaving would take up more space than I have available.

Weaving would use a lot of the various threads and yarns I already have on hand.  I have seen some beautiful woven pieces. I would love to have the skills to create similar things.

But, as with so many things, it boils down to money.  Money invested in sewing machines (yes I have more than 1).  Money invested in books, patterns, yarns, threads and fabric.  Money invested in knitting needles. crochet hooks, and various sewing tools.

I have the added problem that I have not been able to work for a couple of years.  When I got my nursing degree in 1992 we thought I would have 20-25 years of financial productivity.  That obviously is not going as planned.

There should be a way to use all my twiddling experience and skills to generate an income.  I don’t know what that is today, maybe I will know tomorrow.  Or the tomorrow after that.