I’m not really into stranded knitting. I find that I’m only coordinated enough for one color at a time. However, this makes me want to be coordinated enough:
(I’d post a photo, but it screws up the formatting).
I want to knit this in incredible, screaming neon colors. Like puce and lime. Or perhaps lime and aqua. Can you imagine it? Or do it in black and then a crazy Noro variegated. I dunno. Something wild.
To the dreaded house-moving.
Firstly, Plurk – WTF? You keep saying “just one more hour” and that’s what you told me at 10 am this morning. This is not the way to foster loyalty in a new member. I’m just sayin’.
Anyway. I probably should be spending every free moment packing and cleaning in anticipation of The Dreaded Move of 2008, but I have been procrastinating, as usual. Last night I went over to the Chickengoddess‘s house with Jennie, and we knit. We also ate jumbalaya and watched YouTube videos, but we mostly knit. I am not such a great knitting teacher, as it turns out, and Jennie’s had to go up another needle size on her socks, because they are still too tight. I take full responsibility for this.
I have finished turning the heel on the pink socks, and they fit wonderfully so far (even better with a toe, I’d imagine). I’m on the home stretch! I can’t wait to wear them…
And then, since I had a whole weekend free to do the packing thing, of course I planned to hang out with a good friend all weekend, thereby cleverly avoiding putting anything into boxes. She helped us move in the Dreaded Move of 2006, and offered to help with this one, but that’s no vacation for anyone to have. So we’re going to do other things and I will silently panic. We’re going to tackle the studio this evening, and hopefully make some headway there. Next weekend I will be doing nothing but packing, and perhaps going to Knitch for a few hours on Sunday (but nothing more). I am not going to do this last minute. (If I repeat this like a mantra, perhaps it will be true eventually).
For your Friday glee, Martha Stewart blogs about going to the DMV. I’m inclined to believe that the blog is written by her, which makes me kinda happy (I like it when celebrities do real people things, though none compare to Wil Wheaton).
And that’s all for now. If all goes as it should, I hope to have FO photos next week! Yay! Then I can start another project (or finish another one).
Because I needed another medium.
I’m not talking about the ooey-gooey, earthy-crunchy fortune-telling type. I’m talking about things like paint and clay and pencil and paper and everything else that lets people be artistically expressive, in a visual sort of way. I don’t do vocal performances well, and I’m not interested in interpretive dance (though I do like to dance from time to time). I’m really more of a visual artist.
Every once in a while, I stagnate on a particular medium. This happened very quickly with sculpture, as I am not oriented toward three-dimensional objects. I majored in painting (of a sort) in college, and I’m a graphic designer by trade, and while graphic design is varied enough to keep me interested, I’ve kind of put the painting on hold for a while. Instead, I’ve taken up knitting, which I find satisfies my need to work with color and texture and process in a really wonderful way. Even when I’m knitting a sock, which is technically a dimensional project, it’s still just a plane wrapped around an object, and therefore sneakily two-dimensional.
When I’m completely comfortable with the process, I’ll get around to designing my own objects, which will be pretty cool. For now, I’m satisfied to learn the craft and combine the medium of someone’s pattern with the medium of awesome yarn and do something excellent with it.
And if you’ll give me a free tarot/palm reading, I probably wouldn’t turn it down.
Well, to live in, at least, but we hope to buy it soonish.
Yay!
And it has an extra bedroom, so there’s a place for my yarn to live. I’m so happy.
Or, conversely, I Am Not Doing Enough Interesting Knitting.
Sara Hillenberger knits organs! How cool is that? I feel inadequate.
Anyone? A coworker is trying to find it a home, and we’ve got a two cat limit. Also, it is white, so not an option for us. She’s white, looks to be about 8 months old, and appears to have some Oriental in her. She is purported to be litterbox trained, people-friendly, and “fun”.
Anyone? Bueller?
Half the room could probably see up my skirt.
Well, crap.
She continues.
Husband and I have been living in a relatively nice neighborhood, on the fringes of the nice part, for a couple of years now. And we have the worst real estate luck ever, so far. The first place we lived was student housing at Georgia Tech, and I think my living room currently is larger than that entire apartment. The fire alarms went off incessantly. Part of the building flooded (but not our part, thank goodness!). We could have no pets aside from the fish, and one of those nibbled the others to death and lived for a full two years off the life essences of the fish he consumed.
Next, we moved into a loft at Studioplex, which was great, and full of artists (the complex, not the loft), and affordable, and in a great location, etc. We didn’t do so hot with the open floor plan, but it was great! We didn’t need to move! Except that the building went condo and we had to go, anyway. We did get our deposit back, plus some money to move with, but still. It sucked.
And then we moved to the house we’re in now. We looked around, and this one was three blocks from the loft, and it was cute and old and relatively spacious and had the tiniest kitchen known to man. Since then, we’ve had half-working outlets, fleas, and so many squirrels. Oh, the squirrels. It has gone into foreclosure because the owner stopped paying the rent (Salim Dabdoub, wherever you are, I wish to punch you in the nose), and so yesterday we got the official eviction notice from the new realty company.
And here’s where the luck appears to change, somewhat. The realtor also sent along an agreement for us to sign that if we are out by the second week in August, he’s going to pay us to leave! Like, a decent amount of cash, even! And since we’re planning to be out when he wants us to be out, it’s like we get paid for doing nothing extra. Which is cool. He was unaware of the squirrels, though. I called him to ask about the form we were signing, and then casually inquired as to how much the house would be going for (since the husband and I know each and every thing that is wrong with it currently.
New landlord jokingly wonders if we’d like to buy it ourselves.
“No,” I reply, “not a chance.”
He laughs, wonders why we don’t want it. He doesn’t know about the squirrels yet.
“Well, to be honest, we aren’t in a place right now where we can deal with everything that needs to be fixed,” I explain, hoping that he pushes further and asks, so I can tell him about the squirrels.
“Like what?” Innocent question. I am secretly jubilant.
“Well, for one, the house is full of squirrels.”
“Squirrels? Like in the attic?” Still, he doesn’t understand.
“No, everywhere. In the attic, in the walls. I think I heard one in the dining room ceiling the other day. Or at least I think it was a squirrel.” And I really did. It was scratching and making the cats crazy.
“Oh.”
And that was pretty much it. There are many more things that are wrong with it, but I didn’t have time to go into them at that point. We’re going to get the check-in list from the previous property manager and send it to the new realtor, so he knows what we found when we moved in.
And to illustrate just how teeny the kitchen is, Jennie came over last night and we had Welsh rarebit, cooked at the kitchen table, IN A FONDUE POT. Not in the kitchen (though I did use the toaster in there).
I cannot wait to be out of there.
(In more positive news, I have finished turning the heel on the pink sock, and am now doing my gusset decreases! Jennie knit her Jaywalker sock too tight, and then bound the top bit off to make a lovely wristlet, and then started again, at a much better gauge.)
There never is. Once again, I find myself thinking just how awesome it would be if I didn’t have to sleep, but the rest of the world still did, so that I could get everything done and still have free time left over. I’m not talking insomnia here; I’m thinking that I would only need a couple of hours to be completely rested, and then the rest is time to get stuff done.
This past weekend was the blur that prompted the above thought. On Saturday we cruised around Atlanta looking at potential rental properties. We’ve put in some applications and are waiting for confirmation. I’m not going to say any more, lest I jinx myself. One of the houses was crazy and enormous, and reminded me of a funeral home. It fell into the category of “Husband Loves It But It Scares Me”. Then, after a couple of hours of exhausted napping, we went to see Hellboy II, which is awesome.
Yesterday the Chickengoddess and I went to the lovely Bavgirl‘s house for a late birthday celebration with ALL THE KNITTERS IN THE WORLD. Or maybe it just seemed like that. Actually, it was just the regular Knitch crowd. I’m halfway done with the heel turning! It was fruitful! I ate fruit! And I came home with a jigsaw puzzle, only one of the multitude stashed in the basement. I knew Bavgirl’s husband collected puzzles, but this was truly an amazing collection. I feel honored to have taken one home with me.
Today I am exhausted and the work day is in full crazy mode already. Hopefully I can be more cheerful tomorrow..
