Tuesday, December 31, 2002
I'm so tired of moving... I'm so tired of the rain... I'm REALLY tired of moving IN the rain! It is STILL raining! If it were colder, we'd have four feet of snow by now! I'm glad we aren't trying to move in four feet of snow, but I'm so tired of the rain! I feel soaked to the bone. I think I've been out in the rain today more than I've actually been inside. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but it's been a long day already and it's only 3:00, so I think I can make a couple exaggerations :-) I'm thinking of giving up for the day and just going grocery shopping and then relaxing, but we'll see. I'd like to at least clean out the living room so that we can vacuum and clean up the stain where Mark's brother spilled an ENTIRE cup of coffee. That's right folks, a full cup of coffee on our beige carpet on the first day we live there. When it rains, it pours. We were able to blot most of it up, but it is still a visible stain, so I'm going to use some oxygen cleanser to get the rest of it out. I guess I'll do that before we come back over to my parent's house for dinner so it can be drying while we're gone. There's always tomorrow for more moving fun! And the next day, and the next! It will all get done sometime. I'd prefer sooner over later, but we're working on it. In fiber news, I just won some silk from the silkworker off of ebay and I've only heard great things about her, so I'm looking forward to trying it. And now I'm off to do more moving. Wish me luck!
Monday, December 30, 2002
Boy, this is gonna be short because I'm zonked! It was a very, very long day. And the only fiber thing I got to do was organize all my stuff in the closet of my new craft/computer room. It was nice to pet some of my fiber, but I wouldn't say it satisfied any fibery longings. But, I'm just tooooooo tired to even think about starting the socks. For one thing, my arms hurt so bad from all the lifting that I was having trouble driving home! But, we really go a lot done. Our bedroom is almost completely set up (set up enough for us to sleep there tomorrow!) and we got a lot done in the kitchen. As you can see from yesterday, the bathroom was already done. There were many challenges today. First of all, it was raining. I realize we're lucky it wasn't ice or snow, but it was still raining. A lot. All day long. Second, Mark's dad decided to get up early and go fishing, and although he promised he'd be back way before he needed to be, he still didn't show up at my house until three hours after he was supposed to. And we REALLY needed him because he's the only one with a truck with a cab, which turned out to be very necessary in the torrential rain. We were able to fit all kinds of little stuff in the cars, but we needed him for the big furniture. He was supposed to be to my house by ten, so we got up early and moved everything to the door so that it would be easy to get it all to his truck. He was supposed to be there at ten so that I could be safely in the apartment by noon, because our mattress was being delivered between noon and three, and Mark could move his stuff with his dad's truck while I waited for the mattress and cleaned some. But did that nice little plan work out? Of course not. That is the way life goes, and in the end the dresser ended up in the apartment. There are still a few things to do to the bedroom, but I ought to be able to get them done tomorrow. We have to put the mirror on my dresser, I have to move all the clothes from my closet (and all the miscallaneous junk in my closet) and move all my shoes over. Those are already in an under the bed container, so those will be easy-peasy to move. After the mirror is back on the dresser, I have to put whatever I want back on top of it (jewelry box, candles, etc). And then the bedroom will be done! Then I'm on to other rooms! The couch doesn't come until Thursday, so I have until then to clear all the boxes etc. out of the living room. There's still so much to do. It really blows my mind! We spent the whole day, and we're still not done. Jeez! You never know how much stuff you have until you have to haul it all across town! But, it will all get done in the end (I hope). Anyway, I'm going to go wrap a heating pad around the small of my back and hope it feels better tomorrow. And just for something remotely fibery, I think I'll go see if I have any fibery books left here that I can read. *YAWN*
Sunday, December 29, 2002
*Commence Whining*
Ugh, I'm so tired! And now I have to do this again tomorrow??? Look at what I did in the past few hours:
 
It may not look like much, but it was a lot of work! First of all, the picture on the left was taken just after I finished cleaning it and the floor was drying. I know it doesn't look very clean, but it's better than it was before. That's the really frustrating thing about moving into an apartment - you can't fix things. There are some cracked tiles and there's caked in gunk and you can't get it perfectly *clean* looking. Plus, the landlord wasn't exactly perfectly neat when he painted. There are spots and splashes of paint on the tile, mirrors, toilet, sink and tub. I'll have to get a razor blade and scrape it off. One more little touch that will take FOREVER! ARG. It will all be worth it, though! (I hope) There is one neat thing about moving into an older apartment, though. The fixtures! Check out the awesome light fixture we have in our apartment!
I know I'm really whining, but boy, it was a long day. You should see the huge PILE we have in the dining room. We ended up taking over the coffee tables, most of the kitchen stuff, and some lamps. So, there's still A LOT to take over, but we put a dent in it! It will also take forever to take everything out of the boxes, take off the labels, tags, etc, then wash it all. My mantra this week will be "It will all be worth it, it will all be worth it." And when that doesn't work, I'll do something fibery. Speaking of which, I finished the swatch on the size one needles. I like it a lot better, so that's what I'll be doing my socks on. I'm going to wash the swatches, measure them and hopefully start the socks (finally) tomorrow. I need something to keep me sane. Of course, I've never done socks before and I've heard they're tough, so maybe I shouldn't have chosen them for my "stress-relief" project. Oh well. I guess I'll see how it goes. For now, I'm going to go get some sleep. I'm whipped!
Boy, was I naive about moving! I really, honestly thought that this would be a breeze. We've been buying things for "our place" for years, and it's all still in boxes down in my basement, so I thought "well, we'll just throw all these in the car and away we go." Like I said, naive! First of all, we're having trouble with the landlord. It's nothing huge, just annoying stuff. At first he was SO very helpful, and now as we're trying to actually get in, he's being... well, let's just say not as helpful. Some of it is understandable. His wife's aunt died before the holidays and they've been trying to empty her apartment and wrap up the odds and ends left by her sudden passing. I understand this and I'm very sympathetic, but they've been making me promises during all of this, and my feeling is, if you're so busy, you shouldn't be making all these promises, but if you make the promises, keep them! I guess that may be harsh of me, but where I live and when is depending on what this guy tells me. One of my major issues is that we don't have keys. I was supposed to pick them up last week, but apparently the last tenant didn't give him the right keys. So, first of all, there is someone else out there that can get into my apartment, which worries me. But if someone breaks in with no forced entry, we'll know exactly who it is. Besides, she's an older woman who works in a church. That doesn't mean she's not capable of stealing, but I think it cuts down the risk! But the other thing is, he keeps telling us to go ahead and start moving our stuff in, but there is no way on this earth that I would leave all my wordly possessions in an unlocked apartment when I'm not there. That's crazy! He keeps reassuring us of what a nice, safe building it is, but there's not a building safe enough in the whole world for me to leave all of my things in unattended!
This morning, Mom and I decided to throw caution to the wind and move some stuff over just to get a start and to get it out of the way. We took over all the bathroom stuff (figuring it'd be safe from thieves. who'd steal a floating fishie garbage can?) and all (except for about eight ounces for stress relief) of my wool. *gasp* That's right, except for some of the black llama blend and the quinilla in blue jeans, this is a wool free house! I'm really having separation anxiety. I get really mad at myself for caring so much about possessions, but my wool is more than a possession, it's part of my passion, creativity, it's my fiber palette. Even though I realize that it is probably safe from thieves (they wouldn't even know what it was!) I was still upset at the thought of leaving it so vulnerable even for a short time. Not having keys has really been a problem! But as of this afternoon, that problem is finally fixed. After Mom and I dropped off our load, I picked up Mark and brought him over to the house for lunch. We made a war plan for hitting the grocery for cleaning supplies while we ate, then went shopping. Besides a 12 pack of diet pepsi, we only bought cleaning supplies and spent over $100. Do you know what fiber fun I could have had with that money? Wah! So, after the shopping we went over to the apartment to clean out the frig so that we could bring over groceries, and while we were there, he finally brought us the keys! Hallelujah! My second gripe with him at the moment is that his sister was supposed to come over yesterday to clean the apartment and either she's the world's laziest apartment cleaner, or she wasn't there! The floors were gritty, there was still toothpaste in the bathroom sink, and there was rotting food in the frig. That made cleaning out the frig really pleasant! It was so filthy inside of that refrigerator that after being there for an hour it still isn't clean! We would have stayed, but Mark had to get to work. So, the outside of the frig is clean (even that was filthy, can you believe it?) the freezer is totally clean and there's now water in the ice trays (which I bleached to sanitize them) turning into ice for our moving helpers tomorrow, and we cleaned off the shelves on the door of the frig so we could put in the pop to chill. There is so much to do still! I can't believe I was so naive! So now Mom and I are heading over to do some more cleaning. My goal is to get the bathroom clean and ready. We bought an over the toilet shelf thing to hold our towels, so we have to put that together, and I'm going to clean the entire bathroom top to bottom with a tooth brush and a spray bottle of diluted bleach. I love taking baths, but I don't want to feel like I'm stewing in a tub of someone else's germs. So, the bathroom is going to be CLEAN and I'm going to try to fill it with all our stuff. We have a really cute shower curtain and all our cute bathroom stuff, so that is one room that I feel we can totally finish. Plus, people might want to use it tomorrow, so it'd be nice if it looked half decent for them! I'll try to post a picture of the finished bathroom later tonight, but for now here's a picture of all of our cute bathroom stuff!
I can't wait until this whole move is finished! And to think, this is the main thing I've been longing for for the past five years! Now that it's here, I'm excited, but mostly exhausted. That's been my experience, though, that life is never quite what you expect it to be. But it's still good and I'm a lucky, lucky girl. If I'm not too exhausted, look for more tonight!
Saturday, December 28, 2002
Time for more posting! I got some stuff done for the new apartment, some stuff done to the blog, and some fiber stuff done. After I figured out how to add pictures, I finally changed out of my pj's and went out apartment shopping with Mark. We went to Down Lite and got a wonderful smushy down comforter and he got himself a new pillow. I need a new pillow too, but I'm saving that for another day when I can go out there with my mom, who also needs a new pillow! I LOVE the new comforter and I can't wait to sleep under it in three days. We're going to be staying in the new apartment New Year's Eve so that we can start the new year in the new apartment. It's so exciting! It's sad, too, because I've lived in the same house since I was five days old, I didn't even leave for college. My mom is my best friend and it's been so nice to be right there with each other. But I've been with Mark for almost six and a half years and I've wanted to live with him almost the entire time. So, I'm trading. I won't just get to hang out in the same house with my mom, but I will get to hang out in the house with Mark. I won't get to hug my mom goodnight every night, but now I'll get to hug my honey goodnight every night. It's a gain, but it's also a loss. So, while I'm excited, it's definitely a mixed bag of emotions. Anyway, enough of that.
So, now my bed will be nice and comfy in the new place. I also brought over Mark's sheets and washed them over here so they'll be fresh on our first night together. He lives with his parents, too, and his dad smokes, so everything of his STINKS! So, even though the sheets were already clean, I wanted them washed because I hate the smell of cigarettes. Ick. So, they're clean and ready. Now I just have to wash the mattress pad we bought and we'll officially have a spiffy, comfy, fluffy, smushy, clean bed to sleep in our first night there. We'll be having dinner at my parent's house, but then ringing in the new year in our pj's at our new place. We'll toast with sparkling apple cider, then tuck into bed so we're ready the next day for more moving! He has no idea how much craft stuff I have, poor boy. It will take forever! Heehee. I haven't really exposed him to the vast quantity of fiber stuff! We'll see if he still loves me after he's seen it all :-)
Okay, so now for the fiber stuff. I finally got around to some spinning and knitting. I'm still trying to decide what special project I want to start, but I started spinning some llama blend that I got for Christmas. It's black llama with colored wool and silk blended in. It's reallly beautiful, but I'm still not sure what I want to end up knitting with it. I really want to make something I'm actually going to wear pretty often, like a kimono or shrug. Here's a picture of the fiber:
It really is gorgeous, but I'm not sure what to make! A shawl would be beautiful, but it's not something I'd wear very often. Maybe I'll order the autumn kimono pattern so that I can study the shaping. Or maybe a poncho type shaping, a circular shawl with the center left out for my head. We'll see. Because I'm having so much trouble deciding, I'm thinking of spinning up the Quinilla in Blue Jeans crosspatch creations for a pair of socks while I think about it. I started a swatch for the pair of socks from the Regia that will match my new clogs. I'm using size two needles, but it seems like the knit is too loose. So, I made a quick run to the LYS to pick up some size ones, and while I was there, I found out that I've been purling wrong the entire time I've been knitting. I've been bringing my yarn around the bottom of the needle instead of from the top of the stitch. It doesn't really ruin the knitting (I did Mark's whole hat this way, and it's just fine) but I can see a difference now. Anyway, I started the swatch over and I still think it looks too loose, so I'm going to make a swatch with the size ones and see which I like better. I wish I knew this stuff instinctively, whether it was too loose or not. Well, I guess I have to learn sometime, and it's only going to happen by experience. I've never made socks before, so we'll see how this goes. A picture of the swatch is below. I love the color scheme. It will look SO great with my new clogs!
And for new additions to the blog, I now have a tag board (write me a note if you read this, so far I think it's just me and my boyfriend LOL!) and now I can track how many people visit. I'm going to try to add a gallery and a few links and maybe some other pages soon. We'll see how far I get on anything with the move. I'm going to take over some stuff tomorrow and I'm going to do some major cleaning and moving on Monday, too. The mattress arrives on Monday and the couch arrives on Thursday, so we'll be all furnished by Thursday. I'll also be without internet for a couple of days (kill me now!) so if anyone else actually reads this be patient and I'll update when I can! Have a great weekend and a great New Year if I don't get to say so before Tuesday!
Not bad! I like all these fun new toys. At first the picture was HUGE but now he's down to a more life-sized version of himself! And I'm quite proud of myself for figuring out how to fix it. Ok now off to moving stuff and more posting later!
Wow, has life been crazy around here! So crazy that it's taken me three days to find the time to sit down and figure out how to get pictures from my camera to my computer. Between the after Christmas clean-up, getting ready for the move next week, and ebay's free listing day (which I took liberal advantage of), I haven't had time to sit down and do anything for more than five minutes. Well, I think I now have this figured out, so I'm going to post one picture now to see how it works, and then try to get in some more posting later today after some more moving craziness. Hopefully you will see below a picture of my gorgeous boyfriend wearing his almost as gorgeous hat that I knit him for Christmas from my own homespun. xxxxx crossing fingers xxxxx
Isn't he a cutie?
Wednesday, December 25, 2002
Okay, as promised, here is my first "real" entry in my brand new blog (Christmas present to myself!). I wasn't starting my blog because I wanted a digital camera to use with it, and guess what I got for Christmas :-) I haven't figured out how to get the pictures from the little box to the big box yet (aka from camera to computer LOL) but tomorrow I'll spend a little more time attempting to show off all my lovely new toys. Not only was I the lucky recipient of a brand spanking new digital camera, it was a very fiber-licious day. My personal favorite present was my new Jensen Tina II from my mom, which she lovingly finished herself (five coats no less!). It makes it even more special to know that she put so much love and care into the gift that even if I never used it (which isn't going to happen... I love using it!!!!!!!!!!!) it would still be a piece of her that will always be with me. And a close second is my awesome new wool blending hackle that my wonderful boyfriend got me from Lanicombs (ala Deb Menz's book Color in Spinning) Following the Menz theme, I got a big ol' box o' dye! And all the assists, additives, etc. Even nice little jars to keep my "special blends" in and pipettes for measuring the dyes. And fifteen pounds of a lovely soft wool blend to dye! And because everyone who shops for me knows I can't get enough spinning stuff, I got seven different lovely blends from crosspatch creations and three bags full (from the bellwether), a lovely black llama blend with lots of bold colors swirled in, and some merino/mohair mix. On the knitting front, I got new books and patterns, including Barbara Walker's first two treasuries, the beautiful, drool-o-licious, Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller, and the very fun Twisted Sisters sock book, which is already giving me lots of ideas for the dyes and wool hackle! And if all that wasn't enough, an awesome box of yarns! Two different kinds of sock yarn, two balls of black doceur et soie, one ball of red doceur et soie (to pair with some grey I already had), three different mini-cones of Zephyr, four mini cones of gem silk from Halcyon, and some fun novelty yarns for funky scarves. Boy oh boy am I gonna have fun!
So, with my remaining time off (in between moving in with my boyfriend next week... how crazy was I to decide to move January 1st???) I want to start a new project with all Christmas goodies. I'm trying to decide what shape I want it to take. I'd love to make a beautiful shetland shawl using my new Tina II to spin the yarn and a pattern from Heirloom Knitting, but I didn't get any wool that I'd want to use for it, and I'd like it to be all Christmas stuff. I definitely have the supplies to make the world's most incredible pair of socks (wool, dye, hackle, new wheel, Twisted Sisters sock book) but I wanted to make something more dramatic and more for special occasions. I have two things I'd love to use for a shetland shawl. The first is some white shetland wool and the other is a lovely alpaca, merino, and silk blend. But I didn't get either for Christmas, so it wouldn't be an all Christmas shawl. I'm thinking the best solution will be to take some of the Christmas money I got and buy something suitable for a fancy shawl. Then I guess it would be technically "all Christmas." I'll have to definitely do some looking and thinking. In the meantime, I think I'll get started on a new pair of socks from the commercial yarn I received. I got some new clogs and I want some fun socks to wear with them. The clogs are black and one of my new sock yarns is red, white, grey and black, so they'll look great together. That will keep me busy until I decide. Tomorrow hopefully I'll be able to post pictures of my new goodies and set up a comment section so I can get some ideas for my all Christmas project. I hope you had a Merry Christmas and have lots of new goodies to play with. And to all a good night!
Merry Christmas to all! More later!
|
|
