Month: May 2006

Rebel Against Crafts

Yesterday I started working on the Tapestry again. I’ve been stubbornly ignoring it because a few weeks ago I got a big tangle at the back and I knew I’d have to cut that mess out and start that spot over. After all that work in that area I was not looking forward to taking it out, so I refused to work on the thing at all. It’s all better now. It took about 20 minutes of careful cutting and untangling to get everything back to normal but it was well worth it. The whole snarl looked much worse than it actually was and I lost much less work than I thought I would.

For those of you that are asking why I couldn’t just leave the tangle there, since everything looked good from the front: needlework is a strange thing, your reputation depends on the back of your work looking as good as the front, so a knot or a tangle is a huge no-no. Sure, no one would know once the thing is finished and framed, but I would know and the framer would know and that would drive me nuts every time I looked at the thing.

Once I get some notable progress I’ll take pictures so you guys can see the pretties. Maybe I’ll take pictures of the back too. 😉

For now I’m going to go work on it some more. There’s lots of thunder outside making me happy. Storms rock!


I stashed, no more

Regia Spirit Vine SwatchI went to Cloth & Clay on Tuesday to get some cable needles and ended up buying more sock yarn. I bought some to make Dean a pair, it’s mostly shades of red and grey because his friends keep poking fun at his bright red socks.

The other is a cotton yarn in peach, red and burgundy that I’ve been staring at for months. It’s going to be a while before I get anything else. I tend to say that a lot and then randomly grab something, but this time I can’t afford any more than those. The rest of the money I have goes towards the new computer.Regia Cotton Surf Rosso Swatch

I’m glad that I could get this yarn, I really like it, and it’s a way to try out some of the cotton socks for the summer and see how they compare. Most people seem to prefer wool year-round, but some swear by their cotton socks, so we shall see. They have wool in them anyway, so it’s not like they are just cotton.

I resisted the urge today to buy some cotton/elastic blend yarn from Elann. It’s hard when I usually spend $15-$20 on the yarn for socks and this stuff is going for $6. But it will have to wait until later in the year, or next summer. I’m pretty sure they’ll still be selling it for roughly the same price then.

On a good note, I’m forcing myself to learn combination knitting. I find knitting and purling that way easier than knitting English style, but I got intimidated by the increases and decreases, and the specialty stitches that patterns sometimes call for. Really, the trick is just learning exactly how each stitch its formed because then you can do it any way. Once I get through this, my hands will thank me. It’s a faster and more even way of knitting, and since I’m using circular needles now it will save my hands as much stress as possible. Things are looking up.


Another Vacation….Sort of.

I learned something very important in the two weeks I was at home: It’s boring as hell there. You’d think after living there for 18 years I’d remember this fact and take it into consideration before planning a trip down there, but no, I didn’t. It’s nice to be able to see everyone, but it was to the point where all I was doing was seeing them. My mom and my sister were sleeping all the time or gone because they work midnights, and my brother was at school all the time or working. My dad was home for the first week and we were supposed to spend it fishing and camping on the boat – but it rained LOTS. There were three or four days without rain, but they were cold and so we just stayed in the house. My dad got depressed about the weather wrecking his vacation and slept during the day a couple times too. Basically, for pretty much the entire two weeks I was left to myself to sit on the couch, read my DE stuff, and watch daytime Detroit tv. When Dean got down there for the second week things improved somewhat, but he was mostly stuck watching crappy tv with me. At least we could keep each other company.

Overall the trip would be bad by normal standards, but really it felt like it did when I lived there, and that was a seemingly endless stretch of boredom. In a sense this was a bit worse though, because normally my mom goes a lot of places and you can get out of the house. This time she had no car and works all night so the only place she goes is Sobey’s in the wee hours of the morning. I feel bad complaining so much, but it’s hard to believe how useless this trip seemed. I don’t know, I guess I’m just frustrated because visiting them should be more fun than this was. The fact that it rained pretty much the entire two weeks doesn’t help any.

On a good note, I had a nice dinner with my grandma, and another with Dean. I got to spend a nice afternoon with my cousins, and I leaned to play Bocce ball.
My uncle Shawn came over once and I got to talk to him for a half hour or so which was nice since I hadn’t seen him since Christmas 2004. My friend Meggie saw me outside talking with him and stopped in. I couldn’t get ahold of her to do anything after that though, which kinda sucked. Some things were fun, just mostly the ones where I wasn’t at my house.

Evil Zombie BusterI got to spend a lot of time with Buster, and he was a lot more outgoing and affectionate than he usually is. He was looking evil when Dean tried to take pictures though.