Insanity

It's the 19th.... aaaaahhhhh! When I last wrote here I was not sure the red would be ok. It is growing on me. I am slowly getting used to it and it is better now that the whole floor is finished. I just finished the floor today. I am waiting patiently for the floor to dry so that I can get the furniture back into place. That is my job for tomorrow. The new furniture looks great so far. It fits well in the house and we all appreciate the couch-like qualities of the corner dining set. I sometimes wonder if my head is screwed on right when I take on these insane ideas, like painting your floor a week before Christmas. But here I am proving to the world, my insanity by blogging about one of my dumber ideas. Hubby must love me to put up with all of my insanity. Speaking of Hubby, I am hoping that Hubby will cut the shelves for our Christmas villiage. I am hoping that then I will feel like I am starting to get things done.

I love my Christmas villiage. I made it when I was first married. I ordered the pieces from Mary Maxim. They were unpainted pre-cast ceramics which I painted.... of course I had to paint them in my own way and ignored the instructions...... there was lots of room for creativity. I would mix the paints up and create new colours, I would dab the paint on instead of making smooth strokes. I enjoyed every minute of making them. They have always been a source of pride. When we moved into our very small house we had no clue as to where we would put my Christmas villiage but it was a must.... and so it went up regardless of having room for it. Over the years it has been moved from one corner and set of shelves to another more appropriate spot as our house morphs. This year he villiage has grown to an impossible size and so we are puting shelves in the windows so that it can be both indoor and outdoor decoration.

We always deck the rails of the steps with garland and ornaments. Over the years we have collected so many ornaments and many of them have a lot of nostalgia attached to them and so, even though we say every year that we will alternate them year after year, when the time comes to actually choose we end up breaking down and using them all. Our house ends up looking like a Christmas bomb has hit. We don't put up our Christmas stuff until late but we are late taking it down too.

When we moved to the mainland we were surprised that people didn't know what old Christmas day was. Old Christmas day has as much meaning for us as does the 25th. We celebrate all over again.... but instead of celebrating by decorating, we do the opposite... we celebrate by taking down. We hang old stockings and give gift just like on the real Christmas. Some people know it as Ukranian Christmas but for us it is old Christmas day. Our tradition of celebrating old Christmas day started when the girls stopped believing in Santa a few years back.... I had alway celebrated it but not with gifts. The girls were so upset that Santa was Dad and me, that we felt something needed to be done to end Christmas on a better note.

Christmas has been odd this year. Normally I'm further ahead with this than I am this year. But somehow I've managed to let things get away from me. I panic whenever I look at the gifts that are coming in in the mail.... gifts from people that I have gifts for too. Only the gifts that I have for them are not in the mail, gifts that are not even wrapped yet. I've reached the point in the calendar year where I just don't care about dates any more. I've passed panic! It's all about us now. If I don't get all my away gifts in the mail till the 24th, so be it. I'm late. Big deal. It's the 19th and I am resigned to the fact that I will once again be the person that everyone shakes their head at because I just can't meet deadlines. But that is ok. because on Christmas morning I won't have any of those people to listen to.... now it is just about us. Once I get to this point I throw my hands up in the air and say "come what may!" Christmas starts to be fun. My family is so laid back it will be alright I think. Nine days left. Woo Hoo!!!!! Soon it will be all over..... Our family away will just have to enjoy their gifts on Olde Christmas Day instead. Maybe I can start a new tradition. How cool is that? Maybe I'm not so insane after all.

Knit Night

I just want to take a day and not talk about decorating for a moment. Last night I went to knit night and we had a good group of ladies out for that. There's L who is a Grandma and knits the sweatest little sweaters for her grandkids and is now working on sweaters for her grand puppies. Then there is P who is a new knitter and astounds me with how quickly she catches on to the different patterns she tries. She started out with a little square out of handspun wool that I had spun and given her for practice. Then she graduated to plain cotton wash cloths then on to neatly patterned wash cloths and then on to a scarf made with eyelash yarn.... not for the faint of heart that eyelash yarn. So then when I asked her if she wanted me to bring in a few easy patterns for beginner knitters she said her next project would be a sweater with cables..... good girl, I'm thinking.. jump right in. A and M were missing last night. : ( B dropped in and didn't have knitting but it is always good to have her as she is such a great one for keeping the chatting going. Then V had brought along her crochet and was working on bookmarks. They were lovely delicate things. Very pretty. The last young lady that was there was N and I was devastated to realize that last night would be her last time with us. She was in our comunity for a short time and just fit right in with the knitters. She is the person who brought the most devastatingly lovely sox and got me turned on to trying some. Last night she was working on another lovely pair of men's sox. (I think they were men's.) She was getting very frustrated with the pattern as it was a new style of heal that she had never tried and it was not working out to her liking. We won't get to see the finished item which is very sad. But I do wish her well and hope that she comes back to our little town again.... I don't know if that is possible though the company that she worked for here does move their people around so you never know. She is getting married in the summer so I guess a lot will depend on her future with him. But she is a spinner and I do hope I run across her sometime in that world. If you read this N all the best in your future endeavours.

I am so glad I started knit night. I come home rejunenated and ready to keep going. I would miss it terribly. We have become a great group of friends and cohorts. Knitting is a good thing for bringing people together.

That leaves me. I was plying the red for my hat that has to be finished tomorrow. I will do the weaving today and the felting. I may even have to pull a late night. We will see. Tomorrow is the day of the great adventure into the world of Christmas for spinners and weavers. Our potluck and gift exchange is something I look forward to each year. I must remember to bring the camera and take lots of pictures. Decorating the house will have to be put on hold for now. The couch langours and the floor stinks, the fumes are overwhelming..... but oil paint is like that. It is about 1/3 finished. I will have to stay home on Sunday to work on it. Stay tuned....

Red!

Hmmmmm! Not sure about this!

New Skin And Other Stuff

After skipping a night due to babysitting problems, Hubby and I got back at the new skin for the couch, last night. Very quickly we were able to get the fabric on the back of the couch. I have to cut a fitted piece for the side of the couch today and then I have to start covering the cushions. That is my job for today. Hubby is picking up new nuts and bolts to replace older ones that were stripped. I am hoping to be finished with it by Friday. Perhaps that is wishful thinking but I am a wishful person. Meanwhile my art hat is progressing slowly. I have finished the spinning for it and now have to work on the felting. My art hat is for the annual gift exchange that the NPSW guild has. I should have had this done a while ago but just couldn't get inspired.... nothing like a deadline to inspire.

I have decided on a colour to paint the floor.... thanks to you who emailed me with suggestions. The floor will be a high gloss Fire Red. I don't think I will get time to be fancy smancy with it. Hubby has promised to get 1/4 round in half inch to finish the flooring in the kitchen so that things look finished. When will this all happen? Before Christmas? Stay tuned!

A New Skin #2

So Hubby and I didn't get as far as I hoped. The bottom of the couch is done with extra padding. The back has the extra padding, but not it's outer shell. So far so good. Hubby is not too thrilled with having to do this as he hates anything that smacks of building projects. But though I'm not gone on doing this so close to Christmas, I am glad it is getting done. I think we will finish the skeleton tomorrow and then I will have to finish the cushions. Once the couch has it's new upholstery it will be up to the new furniture that is coming on Saturday.

Next project before Christmas will be the floor. We have taken the carpet up three years ago with the intention of laying new flooring in the near future. Problem is, flooring is horifically priced and so two years have passed and still the flooring is not done. I, at one point, got the idiotic idea to make flooring of our own by making plywood tiles and wood burning them with vines. I have not got the satmina to complete 175 tiles. I did 49 tiles and stalled. So I have decided to keep the tiles done for my studio room when it is built next year. I just need 35 more tiles. The ones that I completed look really great. I just wish I could do enough for the whole house. But I'm a realist.

Meanwhile we have been walking on rough plywood subflooring in the living room... the kitchen has a nice laminate flooring on it and the front porch has vinyl tiles. A friend recently redid their flooring and so we are jealous. It looks great. They used vinyl plank flooring from Home Depot. We want that through our whole house. It looks like wood until you get down on your hands and knees and look closely. But who's going to do that? The laminate flooring in our kitchen is getting old and chipped and we were very disappointed in it's ability to stand up to the wear and tear of our family. The flooring in the bathroom is in bad shape too from a leak we sprung from the laundry area two years ago. So we want to do our whole house like theirs.

Meanwhile we can't afford it right now. Sooo.... I have to paint the plywood subfloor between now and Christmas if the new furniture is going to make a debut. One of the reasons I like living in a log house is because I don't have to change colours every few years. BUT I HAVE TO CHOOSE A CCOLOUR FOR THE FLOOR!!!! I'm not sure I can do that. I walk into those paint places and all those paint chips get me excited. I start to lose any sense of reality and then..... and then..... I just can't do it!

Ask me what my favorite colour is and I start to panic.... I love them all.... it depends on the day... on my mood... what the weather is like.... I just can't choose.

So, I chose green for the couch now I need to decide what to colour the floor. Help!!!

Getting A New Skin

I am giving our couch a new skin. We had gotten a great shaker style couch from a friend but the fabric was in sad shape. So my plan was to replace the fabric at some point in time. As Christmas creeped closer and I had so much to do I decided that I would just throw a great quilt over it for Christmas and ignore it till after the Yuletide season.

Daughter #1 had her 13th birthday over the weekend and I had promised her a day of shopping and a movie at the theater (that's a big deal in our house) and dinner after. So we headed to the nearest shopping mall to do some shopping. When we were done, Hubby and I wanted to look at TVs for a family Christmas gift. We headed to the nearest furniture store TO HAVE A LOOK. Shortly after we left with the agreement to pick up our TV with a new Dining set as well, next week. I came home and spent the next few days staring at my depressing living room trying to figure out what I was going to do to make the old suitable to receive the new. Thus, the new skin for the couch. This is what it used to look like... well it was the best picture I had.... I can't help my couch always having piles of wool.... : )


This is what it looks like now.

I am hoping to finish it in the next few days. Then I have to paint the floor. Yeesh!!! Is this insanity or what? I thnk I should take a picture of the living room now and the living room after I am done. It could be interesting.

Knitting...? I wish!

I have several projects on the go right now. I haven't finished the second Baby Surprise sweater and I am still working on the wristlets for Daughter #1, I have started spinning the fibre for Daughter #2's wristlets, and I still am working on the scarf from the workshop from several weeks ago. I even have a pair of socks on the go. So why all these projects? It's a bit of a long story.

I don't seem to be able to get the Baby Surprise sweater done right now, it is not inspiring me any more. So I have put it aside until after Christmas since other projects are taking priority with Christmas looming. The wristlets are the main priority right now and even the scarf seems to have been set aside because of the wristlets. The sox are a story all unto themselves. I have never knit sox before but one of the ladies who comes to knit night brought along a pair of sox that she was working on. They are lovely purple things with a pretty vine growing up the side and I was so taken with the lovely, fine, merino yarn which she is using, I felt the burst of an urge that I have not had before. Suddenly the need for socks became foremost in my mind. Now I am not crazy enough to take on those very fine lovely things that she was making, so instead I'm making lace ones that are based on the lace pattern that I am using for Daughter # 1' wristlets. In other words, I don't have a pattern!!!!

I guess I need to clarify that somewhat. I began my sock odyssey by borowing a sock pattern book called "Knitting Circles Around Socks" by Antje Gillingham. A wonderful book explaining how to knit two socks at the same time on two circular needles. I was intrigued, I was charmed, I was hooked. I took the book home to study closely. I copied one of the patterns and then I proceeded to knit a sock doing my own thing using four dpns and concocting my own pattern.

I'm a freak... I may have mentioned that.

I never do anything by halves. I always jump in feet first and figure it out as I go along.... I think it is called FLYING BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS. I don't just fly, no, I manage to grab the hang glider with a broken wing and remember my helmet just as I leap into the great beyond. So here I am now trying to adapt the patterns I have to accomodate the yarn I'm using and the fact that my socks are on four dpns and not on 2 circulars as they should be all add up to aaaaahhhhhh! Oh hell, I'm smart, I know I can do this. It will all work out I'm sure.... They may just be too big or have the heal on the side but I'm sure I can do it.

The sock thing came of necessity this weekend when I locked myself out of my vehicle and then left the keys 93 km away. How did I do this..... suffice it to say that Hubby will not let me live it down. I have a very good reason... I was distracted by Pops (my father) who is in the hospital and I was distraught. It would take a whole other blog to explain.... all I can say is that it involved a scheme to save Hubby and me a tank of gas and me a long trip driving on roads that were dark and moose ridden, and a change in jackets.... let me offer you this advice as a lesson well learned. WHEN YOU CHANGE YOUR JACKET MAKE SURE YOUR CAR KEYS ARE IN THE NEW WINTER JACKET POCKETS!

Anyway, the jist of the story is that my knitting was left in the vehicle all weekend until I could get the keys delivered to me. So what is a knitter to do, I ask? My method of fixing this problem was to go buy new dpns and yarn and start a new project.... enter sox.

WARNING: I don't suggest FLYING BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS, someone might get hurt!