This Is The End

Ok--I have actually moved to the new blog now:
I Am Still The KnittingJourneyman

It is still not 100% up to date -- but I am posting there regularly now... and will be posting there exclusively from now on.

Come join me. 

New Post Up

I am slowly moving things over to wordpress, so I can keep the continuity of everything I do.

Feel free to follow me over there.

Here's a link to the first real post...

Of course, the actual first post was more of an introduction.  See it here.

 Now, please do keep in mind, I do not have the new blog all set up as yet...but I am getting there.

I will probably post notices for the next week or so on this blog, and then everything will be on the new blog...just so you have warning!

Thank you!

Boy's Birthday

            I love rainy mornings.  Today is nippy and damp.  No rain as yet, but it is plain to see that it fell overnight.  I woke up early, because R’s alarm did not go off.  Not that that is why I woke up; that’s just the first thing I heard this morning, him telling me the alarm did not go off, after he finished with his shower.

            Today my son turns 7.  Seven.  I so am not going there right now.  If I start down that path, I’m going to boo hoo all the way to Atlanta and back…and I do have no desire to go to Atlanta these days (sorry, GA…no offense…you’re just not at my backdoor anymore…and the trip is a b*tch to make in high heels…)

            What did I accomplish yesterday?  I threw myself into a near asthmatic fit trying to find my doll face molds….I cannot stay in the basement for more than 5-10 minutes at a time.  And even then, I have to make sure I have taken my allergy pills before I descend, unless I am working on laundry.  Still, every trip downstairs has its repercussions.  It’s the rabbit hay…when my throat started to close and one eye nearly swollen shut, I decided then it was time to flee the basement and hit the showers…and try to calm my brain down enough to breathe.

            I never found my face molds.  I even looked this morning.  R says they are in a box.  Yeah.  Ok then.  Good luck with that.  I will go later today and grab a new mold, or a stamp, or something…

            What did I find? 

            Wow—did you know I used to paint?  On actual canvas?  So it is not exquisite canvas or anything…but I have two paintings, small 9x12in pictures, that I painted myself.  One is a collage and not for sale…if I remember correctly it was my first playtime with modeling paste.  It was also a dreamboard too, if I remember…it’s not right here with me, so I don’t know what I wrote on the back.

            I found a big stash of sewing supplies.  After assembling my sewing kit into one big place (which I still haven’t written about…yet) , I was sort of whiny because I had lost just so much stuff.  Now, I knew I had my scissors all together, but still packed away...but I found stashes of needles and of sewing notions, of measuring tapes and safety pins.  I have yet to find my original stash of safety pins, but no harm there.  They weren’t the good coil-less kind, so I’m fine.   

            I found so many things last night—not anything for which I was looking, but hey.  I found my other two spirit dolls…so now I can take pictures and have them up on the blog…Kerry the Glass fairy sparked a couple ideas about having online portfolios of my work…so there I need to go…

            I found some of my drawings and scribbling (as in pictures, not text).  I am thinking I may be ok at this sale in November.

            I got up this morning, feeling ever like the mermaid struck a bargain and now living on land, fighting every ounce of everything just to be able to move—don’t worry—once I get moving, everything is ok, except the pain in my feet…I took an allergy pill on an empty stomach—not always a bright thing to do…and went downstairs to shovel through some boxes.  Did I find my molds?  Nope.  I did find some stuff for the kids, some of the dream catchers my mother made, some examples of my key dolls that I plan to make for the sale…I am feeling well enough about that now.  Although I don’t really want to part with the one 9x12in painting of the tree…I think I really do need to bite the bullet and have some of the merchandise in my brain made up and offered for sale…

            What else did I do this morning?  Well, I did not finish seaming N’s Captain America sweater yet… I am not happy w my seaming.  There is the real reason I have hemmed and hawed and waited so long to seam the thing.  I did find the star for the chest last night during my basement search…the sweater will be done before N gets here this evening…

            I still need to wrap everything.  His blanket is not done, nor will it be.  However, my boy gave me the solution to my three skein dilemma the other day when we were all at hobby lobby, last Monday.  He does love to help pick things out.  While we were there, he handed me two balls of yarn, one red and one white.  I asked him what I was supposed to make for him with them and he said I don’t know.  Well, I put those two back, since I was only there for the yarn for his chain maille sweater…but the idea kept sitting there.  I know I have white red heart super saver in my stash…actually it’s more of an off-white, but still.  The second color stripe on his blanket is off-white.  His blanket will be white and red…and I know that will make him happy.

            Add into that I am now more determined than ever to find a dvd of finishing techniques for my knitting.  No wonder I prefer to work seamless items…to the point where I won’t even bother contemplating seamed projects, unless I feel a need to re-write the pattern for myself in the round…and so far, I have plenty of seamless patterns to choose from.  Writing it out for  myself is superfluous.

            His red chain maille sweater…I made the mistake of working on it while I was tired…I need to frog about 6 rows, and since I am wimpy about doing it…I’m stalling on that.  Not that I ever thought, not after Wednesday anyway, that I would have it done in time for his birthday or anything…but still….

            I need to run to the store yet.  N requires a red chocolate cake for his birthday.  We fluked into red icing at the store the other day—so woo hoo.  I keep thinking red velvet cake, red velvet cake…but I am thinking N won’t like red velvet cake…so I am making a combination of the two…plus lots of cupcakes….We’ll see how it goes.  I have to grab a red velvet cake mix.  The chocolate portion is already done.  That and I need to run to a different store to grab … doll face molds…I have a 50% off coupon for michael’s and I am not afraid to use it!

            And with that, I am going to get back to work…because I still haven’t even wrapped the boys presents yet…so…ciao…

New Moon On Wednesday

Yes, I know it's Thursday...I am of course running behind, on all things...

      The September New Moon was yesterday.

It is time to meditate, to brood (like a hen) over a new crop of ideas…do the ideas really have to be new?  Or can I take my perfectly usual ideas and fluff them up a bit, set them back up on the pedestal and work harder this time around in order to achieve these goals?  I like that image…these ideas, turned into goals…and letting the work begin.

Where do I want to direct my energy?

Home.  My Home.  OUR Home.  Capital H.  Some days, I wander around, wondering if I really belong here, if I really fit in here.  I am the airy fairy artistic type.  I have warned R about this over and over.  I will never be conventional.  He knows that—he knows me.  It does suck to date someone you’ve been such good friends with for 11+ years…the man knows my moods and my behaviors better than I do some days…it is disconcerting.  Be careful what you wish for…I wanted a man who ‘got’ me, who understood me…yeah, well, now I have one…and it can be very …painful, annoying, aggravating, etc…when he points out he recognizes my actions and knows what comes next based on my past relationships…and I can’t quite get the point across to him…or to myself…that no matter how nuts I am or how estranged I get, the one huge difference is I do not want to leave this relationship, I have no desire to end this relationship, and nothing in Heaven or Hell or anywhere in between is going to destroy this relationship.  It’s just getting over my guilt, after all we went through as friends, much less as lovers, living here again…without shoving all of his stuff aside and feeling as if I am completely taking over…among other things…

Home.  Energies directed towards Home.  Turning house into Home, Our Home.  That includes organizing, building things like shelves, putting up mirrors and pictures, mopping, vacuuming…nestling in…nesting…on a whole other level.

                              (c) 2010 T Webber

Funny.  Home is the first thing that comes up.  It really does mean so much to me. Home with a capital H.

Next is my art.  Drawing.  Painting.  Sculpting.  Today I need to find my molds and make some doll heads.  I decided that I am making key dolls for the craft show in November.  I still need to pull out some of the alpaca fiber I have and see what I can do w that in regards to my dolls as well.

The one doll head I sculpted by hand that I love so much…I can’t find it.  I can find the other three that didn’t do a thing for me, but not the one I love and want to use as a template.  They were all together on top the dresser…now, who knows?

I had such an epiphany not too long ago, while reading America Knits by Melanie Falick.   The piece in there about Katharine Cobey hit me, hard.  Hard.  Knitted sculptures.  Wow.  I knew I wanted to move into other fields…I still yearn for the day when I get my blow torch and plenty of metal with which to play…but Katharine’s work really touched me.  Enough that her recommended reading list is now part of my going to buy list…except that I already own quite a bit of what’s on her list.  She has a new book coming out soon, Diagonal Knitting.  I am excited about that.

Now, I have been to art galleries and whatnot that had knitting on display…the last one I remember were knitted bowls without a bottom that ended much like jellyfish tentacles, all suspended from wires and entwined with one another.  It’s been four or five years since then; that really is all I remember, other than my sense of utter awe that someone would knit art…that knitting could or would…or SHOULD be considered art…

My epiphany revolved around the whole…I can do this.  I can open up and explore this avenue of/for artwork.  I believe it was the Ritual Against Homelessness that really caught my eye, but there were so many other things as well…the Portrait of Alzheimer’s is another that I simply fell in love w instantly…

I am being drawn to books like Kitchen Table Entrepreneurs and Crafting A Business all over again…I believe my counseling work is important, but there is another realm, another facet to my life that is just begging me to reach out and grab it…and I think they are all combined with one another.  Spirit inhabits everything I do…I simply have to embrace that and express it more fully, more completely…

            I have the skills.  I have the talent.  I have that mind-numbing nerve-wracking terror of…success.  That is what I need to overcome, right there, fear of success.  How does one do that?

            Kerry the Glass Fairy, my divine and utter Muse, worked so long and so hard to get me into craft shows…over a year she asked and suggested and recommended…then again, if either of us had been more prepared we would have split a table at Pagan Picnic this year.  I allowed that break-in at the house across the river to hinder me for far too long…

            And there is a boom! Gotta do it!  Right there.  Pagan Picnic.  Time to select a booth size and reserve that table/space…ohmygosh…I am serious about this….wow.  I don’t think it occurred to me how serious I was until right that moment.

           

            Now, I am not planning, necessarily, to make a new dream board this Full Moonhttp://jamieridlerstudios.ca/full-moon-dreamboards…did you know that the Full Moon and the Equinox are on the same night this month?  I am still happily working with my last dreamboard…but then again, I may make a much smaller one for this month…I feel more ‘stuff’ brewing and bubbling…a dreamboard may be exactly what I need to draw that all forth…this is the first time I haven’t said anything about my writing or my counseling work…I am interested to see where the rest of this goes…

A Wish, A Wish

                                                   2010 (c) T Webber   SoulCollage (r) card

What do you wish for less of?

It’s been awhile since I’ve done this, even though I always light a candle for all the other wish-casters every week.  Let’s see if I remember how to do it, shall we?

My wish this week is simple: I wish I had less drama and stress in my life.

Strange as it seems, it is always outside influences that wreak the most havoc.  As in, yes, I worry about my new job.  Yes, I worry about my 9yo’s inherent laziness towards her education.  Yes, I worry about my 7yo, all the time.  Yes, I worry about being prepared for my very first craft show in November.  Yes, I worry about any number of things.  But these are not really the things I need less of…not really.

What I wish is for people to stop trying to interfere, to improve things, to point things out, to involve me, to involve my family, to help, to hinder, to all sorts of other things.

One step back…this is a visual demonstrations.  I forgive, but I never forget.  I hold grudges.  The old guy next door disrespected me once before, a long long time ago and I have never really forgotten it.  I take a savage pleasure in affecting his sense of … rightness…when it comes to our yard.  Our yard.  Not his yard.  I would never do anything to his yard, ever.

We planted azaleas this week-end.  Three little azalea bushes, bought to start the landscaping process at the rental house while I was living there.  Well, since someone else moved in, we decided to let them landscape any way they wanted.  We kept the azaleas here.  Yes, they stayed in their store containers in the front yard all these months, until this week-end.

The guy next door is very precise.  The type that mows his lawn every other day.  Seriously.  His grass reaches 2 inches high and he’s out there at the crack of dawn with his mower (No, he is good.  He does wait until a decent hour.), mowing it down to its approved of one inch or shorter.

We figured out where we wanted the azalea bushes.  We sprayed painted a circle on the ground.  E dug the holes, or she started the holes.  R finished them out with the posthole digger.  We planted the azaleas.  I put horse hay (the rabbits never did like it, so it’s all for gardening now) around the base of the plants. 

I wasn’t watching for the neighbor on purpose; I just happen to catch the look on his face as he walked past our little azaleas.  It was a look of utter disgust.  I don’t know whether he likes azaleas or not, but the hay thing bothers him.  It’s not like I piled hay all up in a big mound, or threw it all over the place.  It’s just an inch of hay, close to the base of the plant, to help maintain moisture and give the plant something to feed on as the hay breaks down.  It’s the bushes, planted out in the middle of the grass, with no bed laid, no real planning.  That is what bothers him.

He never said a word to us.  So far, he hasn’t done anything to the bushes either.  He does trim everything on that side of our house.  We have a forsythia bush there that has been his private domain for years.

This is the less stress thing of which I speak.  Those azaleas may bother the ever-loving bejesus out of the man, but he wrinkled his nose up, kept his own counsel and walked on.  And when he saw me later, he waved and smiled, which for us is conversation.  He actually spoke to me once and I nearly fell over.  He’s the strong silent type. 

I want less stress from other people’s issues…All that just to say that one little thing.  I may not be drama-free myself, but I don’t go inserting myself into other people’s lives simply because I can.  I keep my own counsel, until asked.

That’s it.  Thanks.

This Week--The Week-end--A Little Last Week--Update

Well, I have already lost an hour cleaning out my inbox this morning.  And that is just going through and getting rid of all the stuff I won’t read (too many groups and newsletters, not to mention all the sales ads from various places)…at least my stove top is soaking to remove all the grime from last week when I was too tired to actually do more than wipe at it instead of clean it off well…the dogs are fed and well-petted…the rabbits are going to a new home soon (as much as I hate it, I have to take them to the House Rabbit Rescue, so thank you so much to Rescue people…)…small fry is still asleep, but I am not considering that a bad thing right now.  We’ll be up late tonight, so I am making sure she gets enough rest…we get to go to bowling league w R tonight. 

We definitely did get a great deal accomplished, not only this week-end, but last week as well.

Our composters have arrived…and are in need of being put together.  We should have assembled one this week-end, but we were all tired and raggedy and wanting to just spend time together…so we’ll be doing that Wednesday instead.

We finally planted the remaining outdoor plants, two pampas grasses and three azalea bushes…we also set up our raised bed ring around our tree in the front yard (there is still debate as to what sort of tree it is).  Instead of moving the hostas, since the ring turned out to be smaller than we had thought…although we still could have moved the hostas, we were really too tired to anyway…we planted the chocolate mint in the ring…

That was actually fun.  Both kids helped.  N helped spread the dirt and then walked around and around in the ring to tamp down the dirt…E put the rocks in (crystals I can’t throw away but won’t let in the house anymore) …we found two little green inch worms…I think they may have been on the mint and not on the tree, but they could have fallen off the tree while I was filling the ring with dirt.  I can’t wait until next year to see that ring over full of mint…

This is also the time of year when I am contemplating what other bushes we need to get and get into the ground asap before winter comes.  I know I want mock orange bushes and lilac trees…but E and I have decided we must have lots of flowers, especially sunflowers, after all the birds and butterflies we have seen this year…I may have to set her up an area in the front yard that is nothing but flowers…which for me means bulbs since I usually suck at raising flowers…but we’ll see.

We planted tomato seeds in one planter, the one we were growing garlic in…and though we forgot we did it, since we thought the seeds were old anyway, we now have a tomato plant growing on the front porch, with flowers blooming on it.  In the back yard, although one planter seems to have no more tomato plants, the other planter not only has strong plants, but the plants are flowering as well.  Another planter that had nothing in it that I dumped a bunch of salad seeds into does have lettuce growing in it.  Now that I have the rabbity garden goods growing again, the rabbits are going to go live elsewhere.  Seems rather sad. 

I did get N’s room turned around (so he wouldn’t be sleeping so close to the curtains).  All the extra bedding is finally out of his room…although the chest still needs to be moved yet.  At least all his broken nut cracker toys are on his dresser now (for the record, he breaks the nutcrackers…he loves to open and shut their jaws, but he also loves to remove the lever that you raise and lower to work the jaw…so I don’t think any of his nutcrackers have the levers in the back any more).  He was happy he had his nutcrackers and his bakugan stuff from the holidays last year.  I finally got his stars and his dream catchers up on the wall…now it feels more like his room…even though the closet is not yet 100% his yet.  It is at least progress.

I had my ‘office space’ cleared up…then I went to the library…then I needed to print something.  Now it’s a mess.  One day here soon I am going to have to do something else for a desk.  Technically, I have one waiting downstairs.  I need to finish off that space (and that will be after the rabbits leave).  I have a Green Tara plaque that cannot be hung from a wall that I need to put somewhere…but then if we go there, I have quite a few Mother statues that need a shelf or two…and these are the good ones, like the one from the monks in Italy…sigh…

We did go to lowe’s and look at wood…all we really need to do is figure out what style of bookcase we are going to build…I ordered all the wood-working books (and then some) this morning…I also ordered a wood-workers wooden toys that teach book as well.

We made it to hancock fabrics yesterday…and I am still hyperventilating a bit over that….but for what we bought, we did really well.  They had simplicity patterns on sale for 99 cents each (limit 10) … E found her Halloween costume.  She had been planning to be a vampire this year (N plans to be a vampire as well…) , but once she saw that mermaid pattern, it was all over.  I let her pick out her fabrics, with a little bit of help … and boy, does this kid owe me now.  I also picked up a good 10 yards of muslin so I can play with my one really old dress pattern…OR I can play with my Red Queen pattern…what?  Did you think I would be a mermaid?  I like my knitted mermaid pattern better.  

I bought plenty of supplies for the Glass Fairy’s purse I am making…I have a firm liner fabric, as well as enough matching thread to create a thread horse of epic proportions…I had help.  N helped me pick out thread.  It was on sale…I need thread…so I stocked up.  My original plan was to re-stock my sewing kit, since I cannot find half of it at the moment and haven’t seen it all together since at least 2006…all I need now is a bag or basket to stick everything in…although there are still a few little things I will grab when I get around to it.  Despite how much we spent, I am feeling rather good about things at the moment.

Hancock had mccall patterns on sale for 99 cents each (another 10 limit)…so I got patterns for the kids…well, N changed his mind on his…but E is in heaven.  Why the sudden re-interest in sewing?  Well, last week, I went through my closets yet again and tossed out a whole bunch more stuff…I had this major epiphany not too long ago (that I have not finished writing about yet, which is why you haven’t heard about it) and I found out…I can make my own clothes.  I can knit, crochet, sew…use duct tape and fallen leaves if I so desire.  It doesn’t help that I get stuck watching seasons of America’s Next Top Model (J Alexander’s book Follow The Model is so awesome, I am buying it for E—not for ‘modeling advice’ but for all the solid real life advice) and Project Runway, and so on, as different networks run old seasons during the day on week-days…and sometimes on week-ends.   I am inspired…not to mention, E still says she wants to be a clothing designer when she gets older…so I am trying to inspire her and help her learn different things…like all fabric is not created equal…much like all yarn is not created equal.  Just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean it drapes or moves…or that it is easy to work with…

I finally got my hands on Fairy Tale Knits by Alison Stewart-Guinee.  I had seen a pattern for free when the book first came out…and for some reason I kinda went meh and went on to something else…but with library access and too much time to scan for knitting books via the online library catalogue…I decided to borrow it… I ordered my own copy this morning.  I started the Modern Chain Maille sweater for N for his birthday this Friday.  The kid will be 7—he doesn’t really want anything for his birthday—other than two cakes…his dad has to get him the chocolate cake with chocolate icing—I have to make him the red chocolate cake with red chocolate icing…with no pictures or words on the top…just the cake.  That’s all he’s really asked for…except for the hat he asked me to make him awhile ago.  I started a scarf to match, but frogged it.  I started mittens, but frogged them.  I will make him mittens before too long here.  He likes them.  And probably a dragon scarf too…no clue as to which patterns I will use…yet.

But, I actually got very excited with the book…I am also planning to make him the crown hat, the princess version…the prince version looks too cluttered to me, not quite a crown…but there are other patterns too…they will both love the pirate stuff.  Not to mention, these patterns go up to size 8 (most of them) and they are worked in the round, rather than seamed, for the most part.  I am all about the seamless work these days.  There is a great deal to be done with this book.

I have to decide what sort of blanket to make our friends.  Their baby shower is coming up.  Do I make the normal ultra plush ultra fluffy baby loved and approved blanket that I always make…or do I make something else since we just gave a similar blanket to another couple for their new baby…and they are all friends, so is it impolite to give the same gift, even in different colors, just because they are both having babies, even though I know every baby who has ever gotten one of these blankets ends up loving the blanket to death and then some?  Hmm.  I have a little bit of time on that one…but not that much.  I may let R handle this one.

I haven’t picked up my cotton silk t-shirt this past week.  Too busy trying to come up w something for N.  Same goes for the silver bikini.  I only have about 50 more rows before I bind off the bottoms…but N comes first.  I did pull out my crochet hooks and work one whole panel (that’s one whole skein of yarn, btw) of a blanket just for N in his favorite reds…I am surprised by the lack of red yarn in my stash, but at least I had some…three skeins of red heart super saver.  Here is where I got the pattern.  I love the pattern.  It’s so easy even I can do it.  My crochet skills are rather lacking.  But this is fun.  I am not changing colors; I am simply starting at one end of the skein of yarn and going until I can’t finish a complete row anymore.  I didn’t measure a thing.  To start the foundation chain, I simply worked a chain as long as N is tall, or a little bit more so.  When I first saw this pattern, I had thought it would be a great pattern to make a blanket for our bed…I may as yet do that.

I have a blanket that my grandmother crocheted; my mother said it was the last thing she ever crocheted before Arthur got her for good (Arthur—come on, you know him…Arthuritis…arthritis…).  I covet this thing.  No one is allowed to touch it.  It looks as if it is all single crochet, done on a small hook…two panels crocheted together.  I have tons of knitted and crocheted blankets, most that I picked up at thrift stores or inherited from other sources (as in, this is what I kept after the divorce) , some from my mom that are in the same category as the one from G (no touchy)…but none that I made.  We have small throws I have knitted…and that N has usually pulled and yanked until there are fringes where no fringes should be—he’s very tactile—that I will take full responsibility for—I am extremely tactile as well...but we have nothing really more than a throw for over the back of the couch to keep your feet warm or something that I’ve made.  So, this blanket works really great here.  I may not get it done before his birthday…and I know I am going to need more yarn…one skein of red heart super saver does not very far go with this.  Right now…the blanket looks more like a long scarf…and I have three skeins of red in my stash…I used to have more…but I used it or I gave it away when I went through all my yarn last year…I can’t even find my own coveted maroons either…sigh.  Anyway, I want the kids to have a blanket, each of them, which I made for them.  Knitted or crocheted.  Although I am thinking this month, being National Sewing Month, would be a cool month to sew them blankets…I have a ton of fleece remnants and pieces downstairs.  I may not be able to make huge blankets, but I could make something.  That is totally back burner at the moment.  At least I have started N’s and we’ll see what I can accomplish by Friday.  I have to seam his Captain America Sweater…and decide about the star.  I have to finish the chain maille sweater.   Plus, I have to see about making him a red velvet cake…we’ll have to see.  I know him, the little pain.  Red chocolate means one thing to me and one thing to him.  I have to be prepared…

Today I need to run to the store and buy supplies for my craft show so I can get busy on that.   After I finish some of N’s stuff.  We are going to Branson next week, so I will be able to get a bunch of new ideas…maybe…what I want to do is get back into making my own soap again…but even if I made it today, the soap wouldn’t be ready by November anyway…

All right.  Enough of my own writing for now.  I have to get some work done.

Plans for this week?

Finish N’s birthday stuff.  Hopefully get some things ready for the November craft show.

Four to six articles per day.

Set up sewing kit…and hopefully sewing area.

Unpack and sort through the rest of the old kitchen stuff…yeah…that’s not done yet.  Did you think only books were left in boxes right now?  Nope.

Mop floor in basement.  Kids spilt milk and ice cream down there.

Mop up rabbit area.  I also need to clean out the hay bin before we send the boys away.  *sigh*  I hate to see them go, even though I haven’t been able to go near them for more than half a second in so long.

That covers that.  I have to go…too much to do today and it looks like rain.  I can’t drive in the rain.  Panic attacks ensue.

TTFN….you must think this in the original Tigger’s voice, or it does not count.