Knitting and Procrastination

I went to bed around 4am. The combination of Flexeril, melatonin, and the cold virus that I have acquired made it impossible to get up when my alarm went off at 1:30pm. I did manage to become cognizant to my reality somewhere around 2:15 thanks to dogs wanting to go outside and the repeating of the snooze alarm every 9 minutes.

Feeling miserable due to the cold, I phoned my boss and told him I didn't think he wanted me to come over and share this krud with him. I reset the alarm clock for 4:30 and went back to bed. The dogs, still outside mucking about and a knock at my door shortly after 3:00 had me back out of bed. My daughter had rescued my shipment of yarn from the UPS driver who was being barked at by stupid K9s.

UPS, FedEx, and the USPS are all familiar with our dogs. So are the people who train the Pilot Dogs. It is really embarrassing that they bring the assistive animals by here in order to train them to ignore idiotic quadrupeds. But hey, I suppose our dumb-assed dogs are providing a valuable public service by behaving like morons. It is so irritating to me because my dogs know better. I can call to the German Shepherd and she will immediately come away from the fence. Mocha, my inherited from my daughter Welsh Springer, is too stupid to care about knowing better.

The knitted wrap that my sister bought me for Christmas was the inspiration for the most recent yarn delivery. It is a beautiful rayon chenille knit from fingering weight yarn. I ordered similar weights of blue rayon and tan cotton chenille and am going to knit up a couple of wraps to give as gifts this year. I also bought a beautiful boucle navy/moss ombre wool yarn with the thought that I may just knit that guy a sweater.

Last week, I received the shipment of yarns from which I plan to knit my sweater wardrobe for this next year. Before I dove into them, I decided to go ahead and break out the yarn from the sweater that I had wanted to make for myself last year but never got around to doing. I started knitting on it in the wee hours of this morning.

Concurrent projects also include a crocheted throw for my son-in-law in bulky black chenille. He has been wanting one for a couple of years now, and I decided I would go ahead and make him one since my daughter has decided to keep him after all. And, I'm working on a decor throw in bulky novelty yarns for the boyfriend for the apartment - charcoal and cream horizontal stripes. It is a mindless piece done it garter stitch. The yarn tells the story in that piece, not the stitch.

I have also decided to venture into lace knitting at last. I purchased three volumes of Christine Duchrow's collected patterns a few years ago. Recent posts on the knitting forum inspired me to take the plunge. I ordered 3 types of lace weight yarn and a pattern for three scarfs. I bought a plain white merino yarn, the same merino yarn dyed in shades of denim blues and white, and two hanks of an absolutely stunning iris ombre baby alpaca. Being me, I had to search out some Miyuki Delica beads to knit into the patterns. Hopefully, those will arrive tomorrow. The latest batch of spinning fibers should be delivered tomorrow as well. I am awaiting a sampling of soy yarn and bamboo yarn to arrive from Canada. I have been searching for an outlet for reasonably priced, good quality soy and bamboo yarns for some time. I hope I have found it.

My project for next weekend is to add another industrial shelving unit to my studio and get back to work as a "maker." With Bob going out of the yarn business and my acquisition of 60+ pounds of wool, it has been virtually impossible to get around in my studio due to lack of appropriate storage. That amount of yarn (over 80 pounds including the weight of the cones) requires quite a bit of storage room. At around $300 for that much yarn, I could not pass it up. My yarn closet is over-flowing at this point. We will not speak of my fabric closet, either.

Knitting is an avocation well-suited to procrastination. It results in a harvest from those otherwise idle hours. To see something grow and come to fruition from your pointy sticks and string is a marvelous thing.

~sigh~

I spent my day off doing pretty much nothing. I wanted to get into work at some point and review and fax some labs. I left Brian a voice mail around 3pm that I'd just come in early tomorrow and do it as I was pretty much depressed today.

The day started off pretty well. Had coffee with the daughter and drama with the grands. I'm knitting on the teal chenille sweater and sipping coffee while the five of them fuss over Nintendo DS games, who gets to drink the last of the apple juice, who should be sitting where at the table to eat their cereal... the usual stuff that goes on from wake up until lights out (and sometimes beyond lights out) at my daughter's house.

I came home and began to wind the skeins of vintage cotton/viscose yarn into hanks in order to wash it. It's beautiful yarn. White with a multicolored wrap of blues and pinks and purples and oranges and just a bit of a slub. It's somewhere between a fingering weight and a DK weight. I have 18 skeins of it and can't wait to use it. I'm not sure what to make with it yet, but it will surely be beautiful.

I was in the middle of bribing the cat with a piece of cotton yarn and some cat nip and trying to wind the first hank when a friend IM'd. We hadn't talked in a very long time. He's a great guy. I need to get back to Seattle just so I have an excuse to pop up to BC and visit him. lol

I was telling him that I'm only working part time now and am concentrating on my art. He replied that it was about time because I do beautiful stuff. (blushing) Finally, things are falling into place. I've found a great media outlet. I'm working on the web site. I have space available to me for the Gallery Hop... for free!! Space is so coveted there, and I land an "in" for free! How awesome is that?! Yesterday, after seeing one of the summer sweaters I had done, our Program Director at work asked me to please consider putting some consignment work in the new art studio that we're opening. Again, space for free. And, I don't have a problem with the consignment because the money that the gallery takes goes to the residents for Christmas and birthday presents and day trips and clothing and medical supplies and equipment that insurance doesn't pay for.

I told my friend that I was a little behind right now in getting things done because my dad just died recently. I had just got my web domain the day before my dad went into the hospital.

I told him that it really sucked because I was finally going to be able to do what I have been wanting to do for so long with my art and my dad isn't here to see it happen. That's when the reality of the fact that my dad is dead hit me.

So, I've been crying off and on today, in between winding and washing hanks of yarn, crocheting a button for and attaching the strap on Carol's tote. It's finished, now. Joni's poncho still needs trimmed and sewn together. I won some yarn auctions on eBay. I found a light pink bamboo yarn that will be perfect for Yama's sweater. I'm still looking for the yarn I want to make Martha's sweater with.

Brian wants me to do fabric panels for his kitchen, in addition to the cornice board and the pillows for the living room. I also came up with a really neat idea for his sliding glass doors in order to get rid of those horrendous vertical blinds. I ran the idea by him yesterday and he loved it.

My fellow nurses also were made privy to my plastic bag obsession. Jane thought my ideas were very cool but asked what would even make me think of doing some of the things that I'm thinking of doing with the plastic grocery bags. I shrugged and told her that's just the way my mind seems to work. The strapping tapes from the boxes had her a bit lost though. lol However, they all thought that the use of the natural fiber and renewable source yarns and recycled yarns was a very cool thing. They have always sort of teased me about being the walking medical dictionary, but I am pretty sure that they had no idea that this "other" side of me existed. Sure, I wear my Docs and my Pendletons to work. My hair was down to my butt before I got it cut off and donated it two years ago. So, they sort of had an idea of who I really am away from work, but I don't think they had any clue that it was as dominant a part of my being as it really is. I guess they didn't realize that my Halloween costume was stuff from my closet and my makeup bag! lol

I didn't tell them about the "Linus blankets" for the orphanages in China or about the fact that a lot of the wool yarns that I buy on eBay aren't for my work but are for charity projects. Or that I'm getting ready to sit down and do a bunch of sweaters for the red sweater anti-war art project. Or that I've ruined many a crochet hook crocheting with wire. lol I guess I'll just send them to my website when it's up the first part of next month.

For now, I'm off to wind some more yarn into hanks and think about new uses for tyvek and corks from wine bottles.