gadget

Friday, November 18, 2011

Friday 5: We've Moved!

Latest edition of Friday 5. Try it. You'll like it!

  1. When did you last move residences? Does the move to Seattle count if it never felt like home there? I'll consider that a hiatus and a brief return to my nomadic ways, and say the actual last time I moved was in 2002. Because I had a frame shop set up in our dining room and I had to stick 8 foot pieces of moulding out the window in order to saw them down to the appropriate size. Did I ever mention how much I LOVE my basement!
  2. What song leaves you completely unmoved even though it seems everyone else is moved by it? Pachabel's Canon...blegh! Eye roll.
  3. On what kinds of mornings is it easiest for you to jump out of bed and get moving? Spring mornings, when the world is changing too fast to keep up with it.
  4. What object do you get most annoyed about when people move it without letting you know? I kept thinking there must be something my husband moves that annoys me, but no, turns out, it's me. I get on my own nerves. A lot. Because I am always losing track of things...my scissors, the dog's medicine, my favorite handmade coffee cup. But it's the keys to the car that I put down god know where that is my nemesis, that sends me flying around the house as I try to get somewhere on time, searching pockets, purses, bowls, cupboards, sometimes when they are already in my hand.
  5. In what way are you waiting on someone else to make a move? Waiting on husband to retire so we can move to the country and get alpacas.




Wednesday, November 16, 2011

UFOs Part 1...Knitting 2011

We have some wonderful yarn shops in the Asheville area...lots of fiber fanatics here. Lately I've been trekking the 10 miles to Black Mountain to ogle the yarns at Black Mountain Yarn Shop. Don and Donna, the proprietors, have turned this lovely space into so much more than a yarn shop...it truly is a community gathering place. The staff (mostly Don & Donna, but Katy, too) are not just friendly ("Bring your knitting, stay a while, have some tea, hang out.") Where was I? Oh yeah, they are not just friendly, but downright INTERESTED in what you are doing and in helping you make it a successful. They don't even mind if I act like the dogs from "Up," (SQUIRREL!) and get distracted by YARN! when they're trying to show me something I just asked about not 5 minutes before.

Which brings me to the whole point of this post...just how easily distracted I get by shiny colors and soft textures. So distracted, I have a difficult time finishing the things I start. I was on a poncho craze, had to have a poncho IMMEDIATELY. So there I was at the yarn shop, looking for poncho business, when I got distracted by this lovely gem...the Lucy Bag.

To the untrained eye, it looks like I finished it, but I still have a lovely button to sew onto the short handle, then it will be done and delicious. But here is what I shamefully rounded up later:

The UFO Basket of Shame

And here is what is in the basket, and what I swear to finish before I buy one more skein of yarn or start one more project. (Too late, I bought more yarn, but I am working diligently now.)


1. The Short Sleeved Cardi from Aware Knits. Shameful because all I have left is the buttonhole band and the buttons.


2. The Cowl. Knitted from a luxurious merino Malabrigo sock yarn. Super Shameful
because all I have to do is weave in the ends.


3. Camisole from Romantic Style, knit from Hempathy, a hemp & cotton blend by Elizabeth Lavold. Shameful because I've been working on it since last spring and all I have
to show for it is one boob slightly larger than my own.




4. Fingerless Gloves knit from some sort of sock yarn with a pattern I found on Ravelry. Shameful just because.



4. Blue Sweater...shameful because I LOVE this yarn so much and I know
I will wear a sweater like this endlessly. But I lost momentum and I'm not
sure I'll remember where I was in the pattern and the shaping.
This is what I'm shooting for...from an Araucania book with a
half dozen other gorgeous styles.


5. Silk Sari Scarf. Yarn from Urban Gypz, Pattern from Twinkle's Big City Knits.
The holdup...I may run out of yarn and I have to learn how to crochet.
Ooooooooohhhh....this sari yarn is special. It is made from waste silk scraps
from the sari factory by women who've found a way to feed their families.
Fair trade, of course. Learn more here.

That's it for the walk of shame...but I'll be crossing all of these things off my list in the days (or weeks) to come. Let's just see how far I can go before I break down and start a poncho.

Oh, and guess what? I have a similar pile of sewing UFOs. Will it ever end?


Thursday, November 10, 2011

Friday 5: Hanging Out

New discovery: Friday 5. I'm starting on Thursday, because I can.


  1. Where did you hang out with friends when you were a teen? There was a pond in Charlotte where we used to gather on the weekends when the weather was warm. They tried to keep us out with boulders, trees felled across the dirt road, "no trespassing" signs. Didn't they know that forbidden fruit is exponentially more delicious?
  2. Where did you hang out with friends when you were in your twenties? Bars. In Madrid we took the last subway out at night and rode the first one home in the morning.
  3. Where do you hang out with friends now? Porches, patios and coffee shops.
  4. What great hanging-out memories do you have? My second trip to Bonnaroo with my friend Pattie, who never meets a stranger. We camped next to some crazy Canadians and a red headed kid with his older brother, and ran into friends from the year before...Cape Man, his sidekick, and more. They all gathered at our campsite before the music started each day to share stories, jokes, food, music.
  5. What ingredient makes hanging out better some times than others? A sense of humor.