Krafty1

What first?

I could tell you about cleaning the old house within an inch of its life. (Not necessary according to the realtors but I'm a firm believer of leaving a good impression.)

I could tell you about the storage unit being full...so full that the rest of our belongings are in my mother's garage stall, my father's garage stall, and their dining room. (Thanks Mom & Dad!!!) PLUS our furniture is in storage at our movers' warehouse!

I could tell you about being "homeless"...eating and reading and knitting in restaurants.  Or I could tell you how glad that I am that my current knitting project does NOT require much concentration because I don't have it to give.

But instead...

I'll tell you how good it feels to sign papers for my very own home! I own my very own home.  The girls and I have a place to call our own.  I saved most of the money for down payment over the past year all on my own.  It's in my name alone...as a single person...damn it feels good!!!!

Packed up in a box

I'm here.

Didn't want to bore you each day with packing photos. Today will be the last of the remnants.  Tomorrow the movers come for the furniture.  All of our boxes of stuff we've already moved by ourselves to my parents' house or to storage...over the past year plus! I'm sure this wasn't the spring break that the girls had hoped for. I've already been made to promise them that NEXT year we are going to go AWAY for spring break!!!

Each day this week we've packed up room by room.  We've boxed things up.  We've dismantled furniture.  We've hauled things away.  Our greatest joy came yesterday when we took the dryer to the dump.  We hadn't managed to conquer the squeal completely and vowed that the squealing banshee wasn't coming with us!

It's been a bittersweet time for my youngest (and for me).  We are really looking forward to our new life in our new home.  But, this was a good home too.  We thought it had been a happy home.  It had been for us.  My ex is the one who packed up his bags, moved away, and never looked back...not even to call/see his kids.  That's how we found out that this wasn't a happy home.  For my youngest, this is the only home she can remember...and now she has to leave it...in her words, "all because of him".  Poor kid.

But, the feeling passes and the joy returns at the thought of our new home and the new life we've been making for ourselves.  Life is an adventure... and we plan to have plenty of them!

 

Things are most definitely looking up...even the fortune cookie says so!

thank goodness for mindless knitting

Miles and miles of garter stitch!  I haven't taken a photo of the scarf since this one from Thursday's trip to FL and back.  The only thing really different is that I'm to the point of working the ruffle.  In other words, increase the number of stitches by half again as many and continue knitting.  At this point there are 400 some stitches in each row of mindless garter stitch.

It's wonderful.  Normally, I'd hate it.  But for those moments when I'm SO sick of packing that I'd just like my own little padded corner, the garter stitch fills the need.  Normally, I'd call it numbing...right about now, numb is good. 

Now hand me another box, I've got packing to do!!!

Now where did I leave off?

Hmmm...I guess it all started on St. Patrick's Day.  That's when the universe went slightly "off" as far as I could tell.

First, at work, while most people I knew were "getting on their green", I was revisiting Christmas. 

Yes, that's the office Christmas cactus blooming for St. Patty's Day.

But it wasn't my only touch of Christmas for the day.

Nope.

I got a belated Christmas gift from my good friend Chip.  There inside was a wonderful necklace!

I love what it says..."Challenges are what make life interesting, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."Its arrival couldn't have been timelier.

That evening, after arriving home late (9PM), I made a horrible discovery...the cable company had disconnected all of my services twelve days early!  No cable, no Internet, and no phone service!  Completed disconnected from the world.

Normally, it wouldn't have been an issue.  However, Thursday morning I needed to fly to Florida for the day for work.  I NEEDED my Internet to check on last minute requests and changes.  Without going into details...because otherwise this post would be "War and Peace" revisited...the necklace was right, how we overcome challenges makes life meaningful!

So that brings me up to date, at least to my previous post.  You see, I thought it was ironic that I was unable to have Internet access while on the ground at my own home, but there I was on the company jet with unlimited Internet access at 40,000 feet!!!

And that wouldn't be the only irony of the day...in the same amount of time it took me to fly back and forth to Florida from Wisconsin, I got off the plane and drove round-trip to pick up Panda for spring break.  Yes, it's true, I spent 10 hours total buckled into a leather seat of one form or another on Thursday!

In both cases the destinations held wonderful scenery and great companions!!  The bonus of the morning though was a creek-side walk with the sun beating warmth on my back...it had been a LONG time since experiencing that particular feeling!!!

The whole world seemed slightly upside down...at least for about 24 hours. But, upside down was exactly what was needed as we headed into our working weekend. Details to follow.

Greetings from above

Interesting stories to share once I have Internet connection at home restored. For the moment I'll use what's available at 33,000 feet.

Maybe just a bit of mindless knitting

There's plenty of work around here these days!  More packing, more loading, more unloading...and that's only to the temporary transfer point.

We need to be out in less than two weeks and won't be able to move into our new place for almost four weeks. But we like to look at all of it as an adventure!!!

Thank goodness for a bit of mindless garter stitch with short rows for those moments that I actually sit down!

First pair

Hard to believe...my first pair of socks of 2010!

Brainless by Yarnissima

It was a fun knit though it's unclear what took me so long to finish them. Okay, okay, I know...there was a lot on my plate.

My reward...

...the Loopy Ewe parcel.  Sadly, the photography of the yarn doesn't pick up the dark lavender color (that dark blue part).  And, how exciting, not one, but two patterns; a sock and a non-sock project.  Interestingly enough, since my weekend was spent packing up yarn, the non-sock pattern, A Little Jazz, is headed straight for my needles.  The pattern is even more brainless...and that may be a very good thing for the next couple of weeks...when I manage to get a moment or two to actually knit.

Productive

What a weekend! Saturday was spent moving things to storage...the garage attic and garage are now "empty". Okay, so I kept the snow blower and shovels here, just in case, but there won't be any lawn mowing in the next two weeks!

Two weeks...and the mover will be here to move our furniture out and into storage. I can hardly believe it!!  The excitement is starting to well up inside of me.  It hardly seems real after all this time that it's finally happening.

Once the garage was emptied, it was time to get to work in the craft room.  The room is filled with paper products and rubber stamps for scrap booking and card making as well as a ton of fabric from my quilting days and, needless to say, yarn.  Basically, stuff that shouldn't be sitting in the storage unit.  My daughter had a wonderful idea for the fat quarters...packing material!  Sweet.

I've been starting to think about paint colors for the kitchen in the new place.  Before "neutralizing" the current kitchen, my colors were French Country; red, yellow, and blue.  Time to bring some new colors into my life.  The new place comes with an almond colored stove and refrigerator.  I've been considering light mocha, chocolate brown, and green.  While packing, I found this fabric in my stash...

I've always wanted a caffeinated kitchen.  Yes, I bought the fabric for my old kitchen...notice the red, yellow, and blue.  Now I get to use it in my new kitchen.  It makes me smile to think of this sewn up as my new curtains!  It really is getting exciting!!

I had the TV on while packing up the craft room.  St. Elmo's Fire was on and I got to see one of my favorite scenes; a conversation between Wendy and Billy near the end where she tells him about making a peanut butter sandwich in her new apartment.  "It was my peanut butter & jelly, in my kitchen, in my apartment and it was the best darn peanut butter & jelly sandwich I'd ever had!"  Soon, I'll have my own moment like that...when I'm in my kitchen in my house...and it'll be the best!

Smiled Upon

Yes, there are times that we are blessed to find out that we made the right decision.  I gave up the Madness and the very next day discovered in yet another way that it was a good thing.

 

A Loopy Ewe Sock Club parcel arrived on my doorstep!!

Back in January, I entered the lottery for a spot in this year's club.  The theme this year is "Celebrations". My hope was that if my name was selected, that it would be a sign of many celebrations to come.  My name was selected.

It feels good to be smiled upon and be part of the celebrations.  It feels good to be closing on my old life house and on my new life house.  It feels good to finally be moving forward. It feels good to knit what I want, when I can want. 

And since there are fewer hours to knit these days, it feels good to have something to look forward to.  My sock club parcel is as unwrapped as you see above.  Once the purple/grey Brainless socks are finished, I'll open it and continue my own personal celebration of spring/life/etc.  But today will be about packing and putting more stuff into storage. There's a lot of work to be done and so much to look forward to!!!

It feels good to be smiled upon!!!

Ending the Madness

It’s Sock Madness time again.  The first pattern was just released today. 

It was a sign; just what I needed.

I don’t like the first pattern.

I don’t want to knit socks side-to-side;  it goes against all the reasons that I love conventional/toe-up sock knitting.

I don’t need a new “challenge” in my life at the moment; provisional cast-ons, tons of purling, and side to side knitting that doesn’t allow for “size testing” along the way. No thanks!

I realize that not knitting the first sock means I won’t have access to the rest of the patterns during the Sock Madness events, but aren’t there already more than enough patterns in my queue that I’d truly love to knit (not to mention a few that I’d like to design)!

Isn’t there currently enough “madness” in my daily life without adding this “Madness” to it as well. Packing, moving, painting, and who knows what all else are in my immediate future.

It was a sign…withdrawing is the right thing for me to do.

Maybe this pair of socks has a chance of being finished after all!

Note: I will forever be grateful to Sock Madness for restarting my knitting adventures last year.  As many of you know, for awhile after my husband left, it hurt to knit because I thought it was part of what had caused our pain.  Nearly two years later, I have learned that knitting (and blogging) were my coping mechanisms in order to add much needed creative and social aspects to my life, aspects that had long been isolated due to my ex’s years of depression.  However, now I knit because it’s relaxing for me and brings me joy.  My social needs are met on a daily basis by so many people that blogging is now from love, not need, and (as you already know) occasionally sparse!