waving, not drowning

I’m not dead. I’m still here. Things have been rather overwhelming these last few months, but I’m still alive and kicking. As per my usual modus operandi, what follows is a list of what I’ve been up to, and what I have planned:

1. Roller Derby – Keeping me relatively sane since 2008! I’m on the Old Money Honeys again this season (hurrah!) and we’ve started off rather well, having recently beaten our old nemesis, The Mob Squad, at the Providence Roller Derby home season opener. The final score was 98 – 75. Go TEAM!

   I also play for the Killah Bees, and we’ll be heading off to Canada again in July to play in Montreal. We’re playing a 30 minute exhibition mini-scrimmage and the Riveters get to play a regular 1-hour bout. Alas, we’re just the opening entertainment, but oh well. We got to play a full bout in Ottowa in May, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain. It’s going to be a great time anyway.

   I’m a bit behind in the behind-the-scenes derby business for which I am responsible: archives and rookie wranglin’. The rest of my life has been dragging me down, and I’m finding it difficult to force myself to do the things I need to do in my spare time. But things are coming together, slowly but surely.We’ve got a recruiting event coming up on the 18th. It’s an informal meet-and-greet type thing at an open skate, where we get to chat with potential recruits in a low-key, hopefully non-intimidating setting. It’s our first one of these, so we want to make a good impression.

2. Jobs, etc. – This part of my life is saturated with uncertainty at the moment, and I’m doing my best to not be overwhelmed. I’m losing one job at the end of June, and I’m losing the other job at the end of August. Meanwhile, my hours at the latter job have been cut from three days to two. I’m still applying for jobs, though. Nose to the grindstone, chin up and all that. I’ve expanded my job search to include the Washington, DC area. If we have to move to find work, it might as well be where I have friends and family, right? On the bright side, JeT just got word this week that he’ll definitely have a job in his restructured company. Depending on where I find work, we may have to live apart for a while. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.The impending unemployment has actually gotten me to think more creatively about how I spend my time, which leads me to:
3. Ahts and Crayafts – I’ve been looking into setting up a home screen printing studio and finding outlets in which to sell some home made things. I have had an Etsy account for several years and have never gotten around to listing and selling anything in it. Which is a shame, because I’ve got some pretty good ideas. Potential items to sell firstly would include upcycled t-shirt dresses, calico-print summer wrap dresses, note cards, stationery kits, homespun yarn, etc. Oh, and I’ve also been thinking about resurrecting “J-Star Skateboards,” which was a little business I had way back in the day doing custom painted and screen printed skate decks. So, the creative juices are flowing, indeed.
4. Books – I’ve barely read anything this year. Seriously. It seems that reading functions as a happiness barometer. The more I read, you know I’m functioning fairly well. (The same can be said about knitting, really.) I used to read on the train all the time, now I just sleep or zone out to music. An easy way to break out of this rut (which I feel like I’ve been in FOREVER, even though I know it hasn’t really been that long…) is to start reading again. I’m too lazy to go look up things to read, so I’ll just take recommendations here. Tell me what I should read, and I’ll get right on it. I’m participating in the “Infinite Summer” read-along, so that should be fun, but I’ll be wanting to read other stuff as well. Hook me up!
5. PURGE! – Not to sound all emo or whatever, but I’m feeling rather existentially claustrophobic. I’m absolutely smothered by my stuff. I have so much crap, I can’t get to the stuff that I’d actually use. I think getting rid of a bunch of things, and seriously organizing the house would do me a world of good. A happy me is an organized and productive me. Right now, I’m neither happy nor productive, but I’m really looking to change that. I think some selective purging is definitely in order. It’ll give me a bit more breathing room.

That’s it, I suppose. Life moves along at its ridiculously fast pace as I struggle to keep up. Been treading mud for a while, but doing my best to break out of bad patterns, which do not serve anyone’s best interest, and find a niche in which to thrive. Really, things could be a whole lot worse, and most days I can function as a proper adult. Though I’d rather just eat popsicles and go play outside. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to be an adult and still find a way to have fun. I’m still determined, however, to find a way to combine it all.

Other things on the perifery: tattoos! Yes, yes! Been planning them for years, and I’m finally going to get around to it. Though they’ll have to wait for when I actually have proper income, but still. There it is. I’ll post a picture of some sketches shortly. The first one will be a stylized version of my initials, and it’s rather small. (So, who knows, I might get that one sooner rather than later.)

I’ve also been meaning to update my Flickr account, and keep more up to date with that. It’s just one of the general organizational things that I’ve let slip. I’m still doing stuff and photos are still being taken, but it’s mostly been my friends taking the pictures instead of me. I’ve been around on Facebook and Twitter, though, so you can still keep track of what I’m up to, even if this blah blah blahg is woefully neglected.

Hearts and Stars, friends. Hopefully I’ll see you around.

Everything is miscellaneous

(No, I haven’t read that book, yet. It’s on my “to read” list, though.) Here’s a list of what’s up:

• Four weeks until the end of the semester. Word. Things are a bit crazy. By things, I mean, of course, yours truly. I’ve got myself set up to finish just fine, though. I’ve been having a bit of trouble with migraines of late, however. (I was forced to come home early on Tuesday, spent the whole day yesterday in a state of migraine hangover, and today I couldn’t do anything until about 1 pm, when I should have been at class.) They’re really throwing me off my pace. It’s maddening, really.
• Please help me with the following: I have created a few sample banner/header/graphic thingies for our class digital Library. The woman whose scrapbook we’re digitizing was Olive Ruby Henty, and the images used in the banners are from her scrapbook. If any of you have any helpful comments regarding its overall design or whatever, please feel free to comment here. I’d really appreciate any feedback from outside the class. (I have, of course, solicited comments from my classmates, but it’s good to have outside perspective, too.) Here’s the link to the sample page: Olive Ruby Henty digital library.
• The Revs take on the Huston Dynamo this weekend for the MLS Cup title. Woo! The game’s on Sunday, so I’ll be blah-blah-blahgging it, of course.
• The spinning wheel looks great in her new home. (I haven’t come up with a name for her yet, but she’s definitely a she.) I’ve been spinning some lovely green/yellow/blue yarn from roving I picked up at the Apple Peach Festival this September. I think I’m getting the hang of it, and my yarn is way more consistent than I would have expected for my first time at the wheel. Photos forthcoming. Eventually.
• Birthiversary party is coming up this Saturday. That should be wicked fun. Bookmark this link for more information and updates as they arise. I still don’t have a dress. I’ll pop over to the (shudder) mall on Friday night and Saturday morning to see what I can find. I’m not really stressed about it. I can always throw something together if I can’t find anything at the mall. “Fancy Schmancy” is a state of mind, yes? I’ll figure something out.

Rhinebeck

rainbow roving

(Or is that Yarnbeck? Eh, Abby?)

Well, I survived my first Rhinebeck (aka, the New York Sheep and Wool Festival). I caught the Yarn Safaris bus at Riverside T stop in Newton at 7:30 am (well, I got there around 7 because I was afraid of being late). The rest of the knitters (and spinners, and crocheters) piled on the bus and we were off – a bit late, but not too bad. Abby got there a few minutes after I did. I’d been looking forward to this day not just for the wool, but to catch up, too. We chatted the whole ride there, the whole day, and the whole ride back. (My cough came back with a vengeance, but it was so much fun.) The ride to New York was beautiful. The skies were blue, the trees were gold, red, and orange. We peeped our fair share of leaves all the way there. I also started a scarf on the trip out: grey wool (Patons Classic Merino), skinny-ish, with a single cable. On the way home, I think I may have decided that it would make an awesome sleeve for a floppy sweater.

We were all anxious to get inside and start our day at the festival. (Trying our best to avoid the woman who complained the whole ride there, and while we were waiting to get in.) They ran out of maps at the front gate, but we soon found an information booth (that was cleverly not anywhere near the entrance) where we picked up a couple of programs that had a map of the grounds. I was really overwhelmed at first. But we just jumped right in.

We spent a fairly long time in “Building A,” where I bought all of my goods in this order: glass buttons, wool covered soap, lace yarn, Shetland roving, and Socks that Rock yarn. You’ll notice that I didn’t actually buy all that much yarn. I didn’t want to buy too much that I didn’t have a plan for. And I was too overwhelmed to plan on the fly. If they’d had any kits that sprung out at me, I might have bought more yarn. (Click through above to see photos of my swag.)

We walked and walked, and everywhere we were surrounded by fiber. It was amazing. My camera crapped out on me after only a few pictures, and I didn’t have any rechargables. I’d brought some alkalines, but didn’t feel like using them, because I knew I’d only get a few more photos out of those. So I just depended on Abby‘s camera all day. (She’ll be guest blogging at Spinstah‘s blog soon; I’ll update when the post is up.) We were surrounded by gorgeous yarn, fluffy roving, and fun animals. We walked through several barns, pet some sheep, llamas, and alpacas. After a few hours we were so overstimulated, we could barely take any more in. The colors! The fluff! The sheepies! The wine tasting! (Yes, wine. I think Abby bought more in wine and food than yarn. Girl’s got her priorities, you know.) We just had so much fun. I should also mention that we chatted a little bit with a very nice Rockies fan, who noticed us by my Green Monstah shirt. That was wicked cool.

I was doing pretty good by this point. I hadn’t spent too much money, and was really quite satisfied with my first Rhinebeck. But something told me I should go back to the first building we were in and go play with the spinning wheels. I had taken a flier from The Merlin Tree earlier in the day so I’d be able to do more research when I got home. But I just had to try out a wheel before I left. When I got there, there was a woman spinning. Not one of the owners, mind you, but another fiber fan: Elisa (gosh, I hope that’s her name- I couldn’t find her online, but she was wearing a Ravelry button) was spinning away. I asked her a few questions about the wheel she was spinning on (The Hitchhiker): Was it a good first wheel, how do you like it, etc. She recommended that I try out the Ashford Kiwi that was sitting next to her. She set me up, and then one of the owners came over to give me a hand. Before long, I was spinning away. I’d never spun on a wheel before, and it was pure magic. Abby woke me from my reverie (goodness knows how long I’d been spinning), and could tell that I was totally smitten. I asked several questions about the wheel, but a short while later I’d placed a deposit on my very own Ashford Kiwi spinning wheel.

I was giddy for the rest of the day. We’d be walking through some other barn, looking at the cute sheepies, and I’d be like, “Hey Abby. I bought a spinning wheel.” I did not, however, spend the most money that day, even though I’d bought a wheel. (That honor would go to the abovementioned complaining lady. Oh, well.) There was even one person who bought only food that day, and wasn’t influenced by the wool fumes at all. That shows some pretty fierce resistance. I mean, if you’re a fiber fan, and you’re surrounded by thousands of enablers, it’s a complete miracle that you’d leave that place with no wool at all. The ride home was fun, too, though my cough was getting pretty bad (I hope I didn’t annoy everyone on the bus).

We couldn’t listen to the game on the bus (out of range of any good station) and so depended on text messages from friends to get us through. (This post was written during game 7 – Go SOX!!! See you Wednesday, Rockies!) JeT and I stayed up to watch the game, and then I promptly passed right out. In my wool-drunk haze, I only vaguely realized that my Knit Picks order had come in.

It was a wild and wooly day, indeed.

ARRRR!

Here be pirates!

I nearly missed it last year, and if Flickr hadn’t reminded me, I’d have missed it this year, too. I think I may have also missed the celebration day of the patron saint of librarians and archivists, but having googled it, I think there are a few saints to choose from. I’ll have to actually do some research on that, just out of curiosity. My vote goes to St. Catherine of Alexandria (beheaded in BCE 305 in Alexandria, Egypt). I love celebration days, even if I’m not Catholic. (There’s a book, Making Saints, that I’ve been wanting to read for ages, but have never gotten around to. Eventually.)

ETA: jolly roger flag restoration (link via BitchPhD)

Welcome Autumn! (or apples and quilts)

apples

A little bit early, perhaps, but I couldn’t wait. Last weekend was super fun. Kristen celebrated her last year as a twenty-something in the usual manner: with apples, beer, and friends. I had a blast. I love apple picking, and look forward to it every year. Tasty! This year was a bit soggier than years past, due to the rain that morning, but we didn’t see much of it while out picking apples because most of us were quite late to the gathering. See, it pays to be tardy!

I’ve never been apple picking at any other place, but I can’t ever see us wanting to go anywhere other than Russel Orchard in Ipswich, MA. It’s perfect. You’ve got your hay ride up to the orchards, farm animals roaming around, pumpkins gathered for sale, a big barn store filled with produce, honey, (and here’s the best bit) several varieties of fruit wine. After sampling nearly every variety of wine, we settled on their black currant. It’s a sweet dessert wine, but still has a bit of a tart/dryness that keeps it from being overly sweet, in my opinion.

After apples and fun at the orchard, the caravan traveled to Salem for dinner at the Beer Works. Food and beer were excellent as usual. Salem businesses close down quite early, so we didn’t get the opportunity to check out the apothecary, unfortunately. After that, we headed to Kristen’s and watched the Rev’s game (woo!), played Scene It, and had some more food and drink. We ended up leaving rather early since we had to be somewhere the next morning. I wish we could have stayed over and chatted some more, though.

Sunday morning was Patti’s quilt show. Her guild (the Silver City Quilt Guild) has only been around for a year or so, and this was their first show. I don’t even know how many quilts were entered into the show, but by the looks of it, it was a complete success. I hope the vendors fared well, too. Each program had a ballot included so you could vote for your favorite quilt. JeT picked one of Patti’s and I picked one of the three hand quilted ones. Which brings me to the following conclusion: I’m a craft snob, I think. Some of these quilts were quite beautiful, and as I’m marveling at the skill with which they are put together, I notice a comment in the accompanying description indicating that such and such a quilt has been machine quilted by so and so (often a different person than the quilter at hand).

I found it jarring that so many quilts in this guild’s show were quilted by machine. Yes, it does take skill to execute complicated stitchery using a machine, but still, what I find most impressive about quilting is the time devoted to the creation of one object. My mother hand quilts everything she makes. It takes her months to finish one quilt. We’re talking hundreds of hours. A machine takes, what, a couple of hours at most? And the fact that they’re being sent out to be quilted. I don’t know, I guess it seems a bit like cheating. And to top it all off, the ones that were hand quilted were done with very little skill. Again, I’m comparing them with my mother’s work, where the stitches are minuscule and perfect. The emphasis was certainly on the piecing of the quilt top, and the quilting was a sort of after thought. In having so many machine quilted items, it’s like they were missing out on half of the craft. See? Quilt snob. And I’m not even a quilter.

That being said, most of them were stunningly beautiful, and it was difficult choosing which one I liked the best. There were some really lovely color combinations. I walked up to one, and went “ooh, I love the color in this one.” Of course, it was one of Patti’s, and she creates her quilts using fabric that she dyes and paints herself. It’s breathtaking. I also learned a couple of new techniques, which are making me want to take up quilting again. Alas, that’s one craft that’s going to have to wait. The crafty back log is already staggering.

MJ slippers again

I just noticed that my non-blah, blah, blahg pages are not linked on the main page. The template I installed aeons ago does not include those pages. Hmm. I’ll have to go into the files and put that in. But I’m lazy, and this is easier for the time being:

Here is a link to the page that has a link to the PDF of the pattern.

Woo! My first pattern actually written down!

remember that list?

rusty orange hat

I have only completed a couple of things off of that list from the other day. I wanted to make two skirts and an apron, but only got one skirt done. I did, however, finish M’s book. (And repaired it.) It is now wrapped and ready to hand over to her on Saturday, hooray! (Along with the last of the dish rags, which I’m sure she’s happy to see the end of.)

I’ve also finished the not-so-fun stuff that I was supposed to do (school stuff, mostly). I’ve gotten a couple more projects done that were not on that list (see previous post.)

Christmas knitting is now in full swing. For obvious reasons, I’m not going to post any details regarding presents for people who actually read this thing. Though, I might be surprised, I’m pretty sure my family doesn’t read it. (Hi Mom and Dad! Just in case.)

The hat above is going to be for one of my brothers. Here it is modeled by JeT. I tried it on, and it fits me just fine. I come from a large-headed family, so if it fits me, I’m sure it will fit my brother. For hat details, click through to Flickr.

I’ve got a chart with all the presents I need to make between now and Christmas. If I didn’t get the planning done before school started, I wouldn’t be able to stick to any sort of schedule. I’ve picked mostly really easy stuff to make, which is perfect for the trains. Anything a bit trickier (or larger) will be my at home knitting.

Interesting post, yes? I thought so.

A crafty weekend

Arrrrrrgh

This weekend was quite fun. And productive. I love it when a plan comes together.

Throughout the entire weekend, I finished M’s bridal shower keepsake book, pictured here. I think it came out quite well. I have to do one repair on it, and let that set, before I can pop it in the post to be sent to its proper owner. I think she will like it.

Click through for more photos of the book, and for photos of all the other stuff (crafty or otherwise) that we did this weekend. The photos have all the crafty details, etc.

Friday evening, MO came over to watch LOTR with JeT and I. During that time, I finished the yellow skirt that I had been planning for ages. (I never did get around to making the green one, nor the apron, that I had wanted to make this weekend, but oh well. Sewing always takes longer than I anticipate.) After I finished (and modeled) the skirt, I worked on the knitted bonnet. I finished the head portion that evening.

Saturday morning was absolutely perfect. I love waking up to crisp, clear, blue skies, and slightly chilly. A little taste of autumn to come. We packed leftovers and went to Massasoit State Park for a picnic and a lovely walk. It took us a while to actually find a trail, because the trails don’t really match what’s on the map. They sort of do, but it’s the difference between the trail going behind campsites, as they appear on the map, or going through campsites (with people camping in them), which was the reality. After several apologies, we found a trail whose relationship with the one depicted in the map was fairly consistent. It was a fun afternoon, though.

That evening, we had a couple of friends over (MO and Rrrrr) for brownie icecream sundaes and a fire. It was quite unplanned, hence only two friends were able to attend, but fun nonetheless. I love building fires. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Luckily for me (and everyone around me) I have a stable enough personality that my fire love doesn’t tend toward the criminal. Pyrophiliac? Is that a word?

On Sunday we had another not-so-secret-anymore meeting to finish the post-wedding gift for M and the Bohninator. We got off to a slow start, so I was able to finish the neck portion of the bonnet, as well as one of the I cords. We have our next meeting tonight, and hopefully that will go more smoothly, now that we kind of know what we want to do. Sunday night I finished the other I cord, and did all the finishing work for the bonnet. I didn’t bother washing and blocking it, though.

I’ve made a list of all the stuff I have to make for Christmas this year. It’s really long. And there are only 18 weeks until Christmas. (Don’t panic.) By my calculations I have to finish at least one or two items each week to make the deadline. And that’s not even calculating shipping times. EEK! Next year, I’m starting in May.

Ravelry!

How did they know I was going to try to organize my crafty projects this weekend? I got my invite to join the Ravelry community, and I’m a-rarin’ to go. I don’t have a large stash, nor many projects on needles, but I would like to keep track of them in some way other than scraps of paper tossed along with needles and yarn into the baskets.

They’re in the process of moving it from beta to the “grown up” servers and whatnot. I’m glad I wasn’t invited earlier, because I don’t think I would have had the time nor the focus to help beta test as all the others have. It’s a really neat idea, and I hope it keeps up its momentum and turns out to be super wonderful. It’s had a huge response so far and the waiting list has been months in the making. I put my name down sometime during the first week of June, I think, and I got my invite this morning. One of the many cool things about Ravelry is that it’s for crocheters and knitters alike. It’s for yarny people in general and is trying to bridge the rift between the two crafts.

I’ve got to take care of a few things that have been on my to do list for ages, and then it’s off to Ravelry land for me. I’m going to The Knitting Librarian‘s going away party this evening, and staying at the Spinstah‘s, and then there’s the Creative Sugar meeting tomorrow, but I’ll have to find some crafty time in the middle of all that. Should be a fun weekend!

Sugar, yarn, and cars

gnome and dishcloths

So, you know how I make awesome cupcakes, right? Well, I’m constantly outdone (and inspired by) the folks in the Vegan Cupcakes Flickr pool, but nothing there prepared me for this. It’s knitting and cupcakes combined, people! That’s crazy delicious!

Speaking of cupcakes, I never did take photos of my coconut lime cupcakes for M‘s shower, nor the brownie cupcakes (made with whiskey! Cupcakes of my people?) I made for the Spinstah‘s Memorial Day shindig. I didn’t even snag a photo of the pink and lime cupcakes I made for R‘s graduation party. She, however, takes many photos, and I’ll see if I can grab a copy of the evidence of their glory. I still have a couple of spoonfuls of lime frosting left. Mmm, delicious. Oh, and I made her a gnome, too. She named her Wendy. (That’s her in the photo above, pictured with dishcloths made for M’s bridal shower. Dishcloth pattern from Mason-Dixon Knitting.)

Speaking of gnomes, The Yarn Harlot put up the post about the Webstravaganza last Wednesday. Dude. That’s a lot of knitters. Seriously, there were 600 of us. And, yes, the knitting gnome made the blog! I’m glad it got on there with all the other weird things she’s encountered lately. That makes me smile, indeed! Also, if you scroll down to the picture of the hats, the one I donated is near the middle, all the way to the right hand side of the photo. It is black, grey, and yellow. I called it the “mellow bee” hat, but I forgot to photograph it before I left. I was in a hurry, and was busy trying to decide which yarn to bring with me. It was a big decision and took much of my concentration, apparently.

Hey, remember the giant glove? Well it was at Webs, too. I can’t believe I missed out on the chance to get a photo in the gloved chair. I also missed many opportunities to take photos of (or even exchange names with) the people I met there, especially while waiting in line. Aimie (who I chatted with in line) got some great photos from the front row at the Calvin. I (well, my shoulder and “Peanuts” bag) am inadvertently in one of her photos taken while standing in the long line in the warehouse. Oh, and Peta was there with a gaggle of knitters aboard the Yarn Safaris magic bus. It was great to chat with her for a bit, too.

The car’s back in its rightful place in the driveway, which is nice. It’s going to take me a little while to get used to how the new transmission feels. It’s as if the car has had a spine transplant. I’m happy to have it back. It was rather embarrassing to have it in the shop knowing that it was filthy inside. Trash and what not everywhere. You know how your mum always said to wear clean underpants because you never know what’s going to happen? Well, you should always have a clean car for the same reason. I’m sure they’re not giving it another thought (I’m sure they’re quite happy with our money), but I can’t help but feel weird that strangers out there know that we keep a filthy car. I think I’ll got tidy it up before dinner.