An all new craft cave

So, the painting and sprucing took a while, but I am pretty happy with how it all came out. I still need to find a cover for the existing ceiling light, or get  new light if it's not a standard size. The identical one in our bedroom exploded a couple summers ago, raining broken glass all over the entire room. So we took this one down in case it was a flaw in the glass. And then we didn't use this room for anything but storage so we never got around to getting a new cover. So it's a bare bulb for now, which is not cute at all.

My sign was getting all creased by staying rolled up,
I figured might as well hang it up.

I have so much fabric! My personal stash is in the closet.
This is all AP stuff.

My yarns, let me show you them.
And my beading supplies.

Looking into the room.The floor came out so well, I
loooooove it. And I have one trash can for trash, and one for
fabric scraps to be used somehow. Eventually.

Because lights are fun.

I had a small math fail and the curtains aren't as full as they should be.
But I love them anyway. They are fully lined.
And now the neighbor's living room won't be on full view when I am working.

ZIPPERS. Most of them. And my dishtowels that need to be ironed.
Why the fuck did I buy dishtowels that need to be ironed? Seriously.
My ironing board cover is gross, I know.
It's just water, Mary Ellen's Best Press spray, and scorch marks.
Mostly scorching.

It's a giant button that's a tin.
How could I not have it?

It will never be this clean again. The curtains fabric was how I picked the pain colors and the blue table is on it's third or fourth coat of paint. it has been white, red, cream, and now dark turquoise. The shelves are all closet cubes from target and I move them around like big ass Tetris pieces to fit whatever space I use or when I get bored. The floor is chalk paint with two coats of satin polyurethane.

This is photoblog!

You have to read that title in your best County Fair Demolition Derby Announcer voice. You do have one, don't you? Doesn't everyone?

I am too lazy to do a real blog post, but need to exercise these writing muscles just a wee little bit. NaNoWriMo will be here again before I know it and I have no idea if I am going to go for it again this year or not, but I need to get into a much better writing practice.

So let's dive right in, shall we? With a photo.

Looks a piece of bread with jam on it, right? It is. But this is why it's a big deal for me tonight: I drove alone to the grocery store wearing no makeup at all on my face to buy that bread. While I was in the store shopping I went from one entire side of it to the other, stopping to go up one middle aisle for oatmeal. I stopped by the alcove for the bathroom to put my palm flat on the wall for one second and then checked out and came home and put my home canned jam on this bread and am now sitting here eating it with wall germs on my left hand. Because I can't wash my hand yet. And when I do finally wash my hands? I have to make a tally mark on in my notebook of banned behaviors to keep track of how often i wash my hands. Because on Thursday? It was 18 times that I remembered to mark it. And that didn't even seem like a lot to me at all.

Why do I have to do these random weird things? Because before July 2, 2013 my driver's license had been expired for 5 years. Because I didn't go anywhere by myself because I was too frightened. And then I stopped going anywhere at all pretty much for around 2 years. And I don't ever want to get back to being that sick again. So I touch walls. I make random small talk with strangers. I eat pretzels from a bag that my husband put there for me because he isn't a good hand washer and I don't like to eat food he has touched unless I have inflicted my OCD on him. I don't get to ask him to wash up before he touches the pretzels, and he can't do it right after he showers. I mentioned before that these are my troubles, and this is how I am tackling them. One weird task at a time.

Also? I'm not allowed to knit in public for the time being. Coping mechanism, ritual, barrier...blah blah blah words. I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. When I sit in a waiting room all I want to do is knit, the calming motion of the needles, yanking yarn up every row or so with my right hand. Instead I sit there and let the awkwardness just roll over me. I look at the magazines and mentally alphabetize them. I imagine them being in a tidy pile on the table. Or at least not left wide open on the table, Jesus Tapdancing Christ, people, REALLY? Close the magazine for fuck's sake!

If it's really bad, I can knit. But I am suppose to dole out the knitting in public like Klonopin: sparingly on an as needed basis. And I am tenacious and don't like to give in, so I just knuckle down and don't whip out the knitting. Sometimes I take it in with me in case I need it, sometimes I leave it in the car. Or even leave it at home.

But there has been knitting. I actually feel a renewed interest in knitting at home, possibly fueled by excellent shows on Netflix. I finished my Shalom. I love it. If I get my shit together tonight I may also finish my September Swing cardi and then can see how fast I can knit up Juliet.

Oh and while I am here, my liver seems to have passed muster as of earlier this month. I still have to be careful, but my numbers were within normal range for the first time this year. It's promising.

Explore Monogamy

Remember in the 80s when George Michael's video for I Want Your Sex had him write that on his beard girlfriend? Or, remember in the 80s when that song was still shockingly risque and was banned from the radio in a lot of places? That seems so quaint now.

Anyway, this post is about monogamy. Sort of. But not that kind. I mean knitting monogamy. Picking just one project and plowing through until it's done. I go in starts and fits with this practice. On the one hand, I can see that when I am faithful to one project then I actually end up with finished knits instead of 85 in progress. And since it's going to stay winter here all damn year this year, I might well be wearing these handknits in July. On the other hand, I get enticed by new yarns or patterns and cannot help myself before I am casting on just one more cowl. Or sock. Or cardi. Or...you get the picture.

Last weekend I looked at my Color Affection and decided it was Time To Finish that bastard. I was sick of the sight of it, so I knuckled down and knit hours and hours on it while watching tv or listening to an audio book. And to my great surprise, I got it done.

Madtosh sock in Kelp, Twig, and Mansfiel'd Garden Party

And now that it's done I went to rummage in my other UFO's and started to think maybe I should really give knitting monogamy a serious try. Maybe I should try and stick to one project and one sock for riding in the the car and sitting in waiting rooms. Which I realize isn't totally monogamous but it's not always practical to haul my my main project around with me.

So today is a rainy, cold and generally crappy day and I am on my last dose of antibiotics that seem to give me heartburn. I decided there is really no better day to grab one of those UFO's and see how much I can churn out while snuggled up with some hot tea and a good book on my ipod. So today I will be forging ahead on my Helleborus Scarf and seeing how far I can go before getting bored with it and picking up a cardi. I have around 8 inches of it worked up so far using these yarns. I'm really looking forward to having it done and being able to inject some color into my life while Milwaukee is muddy and grey.

I've been getting more fiber these days....

Mostly wool. I was infected with the Color Affection virus going around the knitting world and I am really making progress. Probably because I do a lot of sitting around on my ass.
But I have finished the first two sections and though i don't have a pic yet, I have begun the short row section. I screwed up and forgot to do a row of main color in the stripes, so my count is going to be off. But I am going to roll with it. It will look fine, right?

My Color Affliction

And I decide that spinning should count as exercise so I did an hour on the spinning wheel working on some leftovers from Tour de Fleece 2012. I have a whole stash of GORGEOUS new fiber to spin from the fall, but I want to finish up some leftovers from TdF before I begin working on anything new. Hopefully I can finish the spinning of this tomorrow, so I can get around to the plying which will go crazy fast.

I also finished the entire season 3 of Downton Abbey and am just about fit to burst because I want to talk about it but it's not done on PBS yet. Le sigh.

random stuff

The bullet point post!

• How the fuck did I get mashed potatoes splattered all over my left shoulder while making dinner? Gross, man, gross.
• If you want to see a handyman's eyes light up, mention in passing that the house he just installed a new faucet in is nearly 90 years old. I got a fancy welcome packet from the van. He ran to get it.
• Oh yeah, I have a new kitchen faucet. Woooooooot. The reno continues. There has been some tiling action, too. And countertoppery.
  
• I have finished the scarf of epic nerdery, finished it today. I knit for over 8 hours in the past 2 days to get the bugger done.
  
• I don't think there is any dinner that is quite as satisfying to the soul as a simple herb roasted chicken. With the epicly messy taters. And some salad. Ultimate comfort food for dinner.
  
• I have a new email address, if you think you are someone that should have it, make your case to me.
• And thus concludes the half assed blogging for August 17, 2011
  

I should feel wittier

or something. But I don't. I just feel this empty blog yawning before me, mocking me.
So I scrounged up a cute template. I wanted to add one of those kick-ass project-o-meters I see on all the cool knitting blogs. Oh yes, there are knitting blogs by the bajillion. But I had permanent fatal errors with my shitty code abilities. By which I mean my copy and paste in the right hole abilities. I don't write code. Oh, no. I leave that crap to the hubs. But thanks to computer genius knitters, I triumphed! And now it's cute, it has meters and all that's missing is some navel gazing. My speciality.

So here I am, world: a new blog, a new outlet for my bitchery, and my knittery. I might bust out into song, or tears, I never quite know what the hell is going to happen. If you're here, you probably know me. Or you think you know, but you have no idea...ahhh, remember when The Real World was something other than a drunken, spray-tanned herpes nest?

Here is a crazypants moment that is pretty funny:
At knitting group a while back my knitties Beth and Erin were discussing crockpots. Midwesterners love the shit out of some crockpots in case you never knew this. I think it's genetic. I use mine a lot and many of my friends do as well. I go through them a lot, too, sadly. They drown, they get smashed all to hell by the husband, I threw a dirty one away at 3 am during a basement flood just because, well, it seemed like a good idea at the moment (I miss that thing!) So knitting group, yeah...
My friends both have new traveling crockies. With locking lids. So no more spilling hot chili in the car as Beth explained enthusiastically (she makes some awesome chili, but it's probably less awesome to drive the chili mobile around for a few weeks)
I exclaimed how much I wanted one. And then added "Wait, why does the agoraphobic girl need a TRAVELING crockpot?" Because , yeah...not so much, really.
I got one, though. After The Man smashed my old one to hell by dropping a full third of my glassware into it I figured why not shoot for the moon? Big crockpot, big dreams and all that.