Be*mused

Lots o' random

The weather is glorious this week, perhaps seeming even more so after that never-ending winter.  It felt good to get out and do some yardwork until the pollen starting raining down like snow, finally sending me off to the drugstore in search of some Claritin.  I was highly allergic as a child, taking weekly shots throughout the year, but now my discomfort is usually limited to what I call *lilac week*, though I don't think I've seen a decent lilac bush since my arrival in the heartland.  When we lived in Cleveland, I had huge bushes (trees!) at both houses, the last as high as my second story bedroom window.  Friends would always appear that week to cut bouquets and despite heightened allergic discomfort, I always had to bring in one full bouquet for the kitchen table, much to the incredulous dismay of also-allergic K.  Bad mom.

Copyright issues have been a hot topic for years among artists and craftspeople, often rightly so.  It's a tricky subject, however, when accusations of infringement are raised pertaining to designs based on long craft tradition.  Throw in the internet as soap box, stir the pot a bit and things can get pretty ugly quickly.  A recent such episode on a popular quilt blog left me with a distinct feeling of *ick*, so when I read the title of Fleegle's recent post, Copyright Confusion, I almost clicked by without reading it...No more, please!  Prompted by Ravelry discussion boards on the topic, her take is wonderful comic relief.  Click over for a good laugh. 

For years I have stumbled out of bed in the morning and started my day by downing 3 cups of coffee (Starbucks...strong) over an hour or two.  I recently broke the habit and have been coffee free for over a month.  (Aside from a sip from M's mug on Sunday morning which did not leave me craving more.)  I'm surprised at how easy it was.  A startling side effect...my handwriting is suddenly much nicer.  Not so much success, however, in shedding a measly yet stubborn 4 lbs.  It seems to have settled in one place (*ahem*) and is preventing me from wearing last year's cropped pants out in public.  The struggle continues.

I've been spending some of the week diddling around with my new sewing machine.  Have I mentioned before how much I dislike instruction manuals?  Despite that, I'm getting comfortable with it but am not really working on anything special.  My many WIPs are neatly stacked within sight (Me, me!  Finish me!) but...eh.  Dare I start something new?  Why not?  Something fresh, a result of play, not plan.  Like these two quilters, Isabel and Lucyellen.  Fun pieces, aren't they? 

Shakin' all over

It hardly seems right to be posting mitten shots...sheesh, Christmas-y looking mitten shots, at that...just as I am preparing to dash out to buy my pansies for the front porch.  A front blew through this morning, however, so I'm taking advantage of coolish, gray day to showcase my latest, before summery weather reappears.  I think this mitten is my favorite yet.  In fact, I like it so much that I'm making another.

The mitten on the right has been finished and blocked.  As you can see, the other is a bit lumpy and twisted, but all will be equalized in its blocking.  (It's waiting for a thumb, as well, but that should be taken care of tonight.)  To block, I usually pin my mitten (on a towel) to a firm background and cover with a wet facecloth.  After a few hours, I flip it over and repeat.  I noticed that this week that Alice over at Kathryn Ivy has shared a tutorial for DIY mitten blockers.  Something else to consider.  And I'm happy to report that my instincts were correct.  Knitting the cuffs first absolutely diminished any sluggish feelings toward working on the second mitten.

Official Ravelry portrait

These mitten photos seem dark to me (do they to you?), but when I've tried to lighten them a bit, the lovely red skews to orange.  The yarn is, in fact, that luscious dark red that quilters refer to as *turkey* red, one of my favorites that works wonderfully with these greens.  Hmm, now what next?      

A friend from California emailed yesterday to ask if I'd felt the earthquake.  Oh yeah, I did, though I apparently was in such a deep sleep that when I awoke, I thought it had been part of a dream until they mentioned it on the news while I was making my morning tea.  Later, knitting away on my mitten in a doctor's waiting room, we felt another good jolt.  It surprised everyone because the office was in a large hospital, no flimsy office building, and it lasted quite a few seconds...first some small trembles, followed by a good shake.  Maybe I need to make myself an emergency *grab and dash* backpack to hang by the back door like they do in Japan.  In any case, I'm not complaining.  We'll take any excitement we can get here in the heartland.  And speaking of excitement....

M volunteered to assemble my new sewing table this afternoon.  I got tired of waiting for it to come in and swung by the shop yesterday to finally pick up my machine, table or not.  Turned out they had had the tables for several days but had neglected to call people.  Tomorrow's dedicated to yardwork but Monday's the start of a pretty open week and I'm planning to spend a good part of it playing with my new machine.  Can't.wait. 

Seeing double

Your eyes don't deceive you.  An actual pair of mittens is in the works!  I had the hardest time pairing colors and pattern for this project but after knitting one cuff, I knew this combination was a winner.  I promptly cast on the second, to test my theory that knitting two mittens at the same time will prevent my falling into the SMS trap.  (SMS...Second Mitten Syndrome, cousin to the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.)  So far, so good!

The sewing machine is still at the shop.  I literally stumbled on it, heading to my favorite local quilt shop to kill some time during our house inspection.  (Ok, one small good thing did result from the whole fiasco.)  Turns out the shop is a new Janome dealer and there sat my preferred machine, waiting for some serious test driving and dangling a tempting promotional price tag.  Aside from the reduced price, it came with a free custom table, which remains on backorder.  After asking you all for machine recommendations in January, I had done a little research and then decided to put off my purchase until after the move.  However, sales tax here is 6% and by late summer will be 10.25% in Cook County, so that sealed the deal for me.  I'll pick them up together when everything is in. 

Thanks for all the commiseration on the house situation.  I really try to avoid mentioning it here but there's no getting around the fact that it's the stressful backdrop to everyday living, cramping my handcraft life and as a result, what I have to offer here.  When I don't have much to write about, I get cranky, because for me, blogging is all about the conversation.  (And I've already told you I'm a big gabber.)  Frustrating as the house business is, we're no different than thousands of people across the country dealing with the same situation...*extreme buyers' market*.  And everything else in our lives is wonderful, so we can't complain.  Too much.  *grin* 

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

Anyone who has met me can attest that I am a big gabber.  I like nothing better than a good chat and if I have big news, I can hardly contain myself.  To explain my absence over the last week and a half, I'm a little superstitious and instead of tiptoeing past all the activity going on behind the scenes here, I chose to keep my mouth shut completely.

But today I'm back.  And what have I been up to over the last three weeks?  Wrangling with prospective buyers over a finally agreed upon price, accommodating their repeated requests for access to the house for various reasons, preparing for their inspection day, answering their response to inspection by scheduling numerous evaluations, estimates, and in some cases, work by various contractors for a multitude of mostly stupid, niggling items of concern to them and, finally, househunting in Chicago, for an eventual place to land.  This morning they responded to our bend-over-backwards efforts (not to mention considerable monetary outlay) by changing their minds.

So, how was your week?

The smallest ray of sunshine arrived this morning in the form of a phone call, amongst the many stomach-churning others (realtor, M, family).

My new Janome sewing machine is in and waiting for me to pick it up at the shop.