On and Off the Needles

I made five of the little toddler caps with bulky yarn and now all my bulky yarn is gone.  I ripped the socks last week because I didn't like the stitch pattern I was using on the stripes.  I like this better 2 rows of k2, p2 and 2 rows of k and repeat for a waffle stripe.  On the hide and seek side of my life with unpacking and organizing the house I have found my SD cards in my camera bag which was on top of the chest of drawers in the bedroom. I knew I had seen it somewhere.  And I finally found the rabbit finial for the table lamp.  That was in the little bag from the shop and tucked in the little chest of drawers that my Swedish great great grandfather made.  All treasures have been found until I think of something else that I need right now and it isn't where it used to be.
Tomorrow is my birthday, it ends with a zero.  No profound thoughts or refections for another decade.  I've have been to my favorite countries that start with the letter I and have no desire to go to the other I countries.  I'm still not taking any prescription meds and my favorite eye wear is still drugstore reading glasses,  my distance corrections is so minimal that why bother.  I have lost a couple more pounds than half my age.  When I wear my old jeans I feel like someone else's legs are walking around in my pants.  The new mantra since moving has been I can't break it if I don't use it,  I still haven't broken any of my pretty dishes but I am enjoying using them.  Another mantra for my life would be make the most of each day, so rather than wasting time doing something I don't enjoy I get up and do something more worthy of my time or I knit faster.  --Ann--  linking to Judy's OTN

Thimbles Found

It seems I spent half the weekend looking for the thimbles, I found a couple in little go bags of sewing tools and finally found the jar of thimbles wrapped in bubble wrap in my Grandma Elsie's sewing basket complete with her spools of thread and tape measure.

  The next few days were spent sitting on the floor sewing these rag rugs together.  I saw some at Skansen the historic village in Sweden a couple years ago and they were actually tacked to the floor.  I could sew until my left foot fell asleep and if I kept going then my left leg would fall asleep so I had to get up off the floor and jiggle my foot awake.  Or my fingers hurt from pushing and pulling the needle, the thimble didn't  protect all the fingers.  I found corduroys that were overalls that I sewed for my little boys, sheets with stylized florals that I used as curtains in the first house that hubby and I lived, yellow flannel sheets that didn't hold up very well, floral blouses and shirts from college days before the designers on TV said that is so little house, a blue and white batik print that I sewed a dress that fit me oh so nice before children, and lots of plaids from shirts and tops. And lots of blues and pinks that were slacks and skirts.  Clothes were so much more fun 30 some years ago.  There were yardages of fabrics that I screen printed in college and some that I dyed.  I counted 15 sheets that were mine and who knows how many sheets that were my mother's or aunt's.  My mother made such good use of worn out and out of date fabrics.  And I get to use it some more.  Walking on memories.  --Ann--

Design Wall Monday

After almost 3 months of no sewing I was able to spend some much needed time in my sewing room. My Elna machine just groaned when I put my foot to the pedal.  She just needed a little oil which I found in the safe spot where I knew I put the oil when I packed my sewing room.  It was in a sealable bag in a tin box and after I thought a bit I found the right tin box, the box that always sat to the left of sweet 16 machine, I should have looked there first.  But I honestly couldn't remember where I packed it.  I just had to pause and think for a few minutes with a cup of coffee and wait for the aha moment. And there it was.
A cousins daughter has a new baby boy, these Buggy Barn sailboats are quick and easy and such fun to sew and I found all these fabrics in my newly organized closet with all the neat and tidy stacks of fabric.  Next to find the jar of thimbles and extra SD cards which might be in the camera bag but then I need to find the camera bag, and a couple books.  It seems I spend at least an hour everyday looking for something in a safe spot that was at my fingertips before we moved.  Or maybe its a memory thing but there are so many things to remember after a move like where I put everything!  The treasure hunt for safe spots continues.  --Ann--  Linking to Judy's DWM

Ann's other spot......Sewing room

My sewing room is finally in working order and look no clutter......not yet......and a whole closet full of safe spots.  Just because its unpacked doesn't mean I know where everything is.  I'm still looking for my sewing machine oil.  I packed it in a safe spot,  its in a little plastic bag somewhere safe because of course I would put an oily can of oil and a plastic bottle of oil in a plastic sealable bag before putting it in another tin or plastic box and then into a packing box with lots of paper but I haven't found it yet.  Its a little too tidy right now I feel like a guest, just give me an afternoon with the rotary cutter.  After all creativity is not a neat process.  --Ann--

Ann's Spot

 This house has a sun room that faces north.  It has east windows and west windows and of course north windows.  I cleared the boxes out over the weekend and tested this arrangement.  I am still waiting for blinds to be installed.  When that is done I will clear everything out and lay down a thin carpet padding and sew these rag rug strips together into a carpet.  My mother was a weaver and always wanted to weave some rugs long enough to use as a carpet.  The house I was living in 30 years ago had hard wood floors in the bedrooms that were not all that pretty so she wove these strips for me and I sewed them together and they were wonderful.  Then we moved and I ripped out the stitching and rolled them up and moved them a couple times.  Now they are out for a good stretch and get to relax in my sun room for many years to come. 

This will be Ann's spot for breakfast and morning coffee, still drinking green tea, and knitting and reading and drinking afternoon coffee and sewing and knitting and reading on football days and football nights, and even on no football days, and watching the seasons change and the leaves fall and blow and drinking hot chocolate and watching the snow fall and blow and enjoying my pretty dishes.  Cheers!  --Ann--

new mantra

My new mantra is I can't break it if I don't use it.  I love pretty dishes, my mother loved pretty dishes. I have more pretty dishes than the average person just ask the movers.  But the thing is I just move the dishes and don't use them because they are so pretty.  Darling daughter has made it clear that she doesn't want all the pretty dishes someday.  She claimed the grocery store premium dishes that grandma so frequently used because grandma didn't care if a piece broke and they went in the dishwasher.  Which leads to the argument that if you don't use it it doesn't become a treasured heirloom.  So I am going to start using my wedding dishes for everyday along with my fostoria goblets ( my mother and mother-in-law bought every last piece of misty blue fostoria the shop had before they went out of business a couple decades ago,  I have 20 goblets and 15 sherbets, does any one really need that many pieces?) and if something breaks so be it. Rather than my pretty dishes ending up at a yard sale or the second hand store and selling for next to nothing,  I am going to use them and enjoy using them and if they break they break.  I know people who have helped set their kids up in an apartment by furnishing it with hand me down pretty dishes from aunts and great aunts and being told to just use them and put them in the dishwasher.  So I am going to honor my mother and grandmother by using their dishes and please my children by maybe leaving them some tea sets of six instead of twelve.  --Ann--

P.S.  I thought green tea might taste better in a china teacup but it really didn't help.

On the Needles

 Sometimes I just have to knit something with bulky yarn on big needles for than almost instant feeling of accomplishment, less than 2 hours per hat.  The pattern is free on Ravelry. And knitting up those balls of bulky yarn freed up some space.  The hats will go to a friends project with the Lakota at Pine Ridge.
Another pair of Christmas socks finished, and another pair started with Opal yarn.  There has been much progress all over the house with unpacking and stashing now to remember where I put everything.  Linking to Judy's OTN --Ann--

Grandmothers flower garden and organizing

       This was my first project after our very first move 30 some years ago.  It was our first move away from our home town, I was 20 something married and only knew a couple people in our new town.  Hubby had to go to a business meeting for a couple days and I needed something to do.  I got out my fabric scraps which fit in a shoe box no kidding a shoe box filled with cotton scraps, I knew I was going to be a quilter someday.  I made a cushion for my rocking chair from velveteen then I started this pillow of grandmothers flower garden,  I hand pieced the hexagons then hand quilted it.  I kinda remember trying to machine piece it but gave up and found I could hand stitch faster and easier than trying to maneuver it under the machine.
      The sewing room is a work in progress and there will be no photos until it is done because photos of messes are for insurance claims.  Unpacking the fabric was the easy part.  I can't put books on the book shelf until I deal with the 6 big boxes that are sitting where I want to put the book case, I won't have room on the shelves in the closet  for those things until I move the boxes of books. I can't unpack the sweet 16 machine until I clear off the table where it will sit, I have to find a spot for those things.  Its an overwhelming and all encompassing process.  Right now there are stacks of quilts on every piece of furniture in the family room and the guest room because small quilts were a good way to top off the boxes.  Each quilt needs to be refolded and stacked somewhere. Then there are the art supplies that are on the table and the floor and on top of the stacks of quilts which need their own special place. And I'm doing all this without the benefit of coffee.  Eight more days of no coffee!  The instructions on the antibiotics I'm taking say drink lots of non-caffinated liquids.  So I have resorted to drinking green tea and herbal teas which taste like dust to me for just enough caffeine to keep away the headaches.  I really miss my strong cuppa joe in the morning and the afternoon.  Counting the days until I can get a caffeine buzz.  Which will come first sitting down to sew or coffee?? --Ann--

Better than a new box of crayons

I have spent the last week lovingly caressing, fondling, folding,  refolding, patting and smoothing my collection of quilting fabrics. I'm sure I touched every piece of fabric that I have. The top shelf is lengths for backing, the next 2 shelves have stacks of fabric two deep with longer yardages of similar colors in the back stack, the fabrics are sorted by color and theme.  It really is better than a new box of crayons!  The two totes are filled with bags of leftovers from various projects and the seeds of inspiration if I need to make something small and quick.  Oh the ideas I had while I was working..............next to get the sewing machines set up and find the cutting mat, rotary cutter, thread and scissors.  And get the design wall up and running again.  --Ann--

On the Needles

I thought the movers were going to pack all the things by my favorite chair into one box, so far I have found my baskets of yarn and patterns and stuff in three boxes and still haven't found the books that were sitting by my chair. Four moves with professionals and they all pack a little different.  Good thing I kept these socks with me.  Knitting is so calming when everything else is not.  I haven't written anything for weeks and the words just seem clumsy between my head and the keyboard.  I haven't found my blog notebook where I write ideas for posts and rough drafts, or the chunk of batting that all my socks pose, or my box of buttons.  I guess I have a lot of unpacking to do today, I need to think of it as a treasure hunt since the last big room to unpack is my sewing room and stash of lots of fun things then I can knit tonight. linking to Judy's OTN  --Ann--

New View

Here's the new house and the new view .  Its a twin home so the window to the left is not ours.  We are realizing that we need to downsize some more.  The square footage is about the same as our old house but it is lacking in storage closets.  The closets in the bedrooms are huge but its not the same as a closet with shelves in the family room for games and toys and quilts and seasonal decor.  I'm slowly unpacking the boxes and deliberating do I find a place for it somewhere or do I let it go.  So far the granite countertops have not helped in the process,  I haven't broken anything yet!  This is our 11th move in 38 years and by far the most stressful but I'm not going to go into the stress with the people who bought our old house other than to say if they would have been working with a realtor they would have been told not to even ask those questions especially when they didn't have their finances in order.   I'm letting that go too.
The unpacking was interrupted by three days of sleeping and it wasn't just from exhaustion and stress.      I could understand my back, shoulders and neck aching from unpacking and lifting but when my hands ached and looked swollen and red, then my knees hurt I called the clinic. I was walking like I was 25 years older than I am.  By the time of my appointment my right ankle hurt and before I left the other ankle hurt too.  Anyway I'm being treated for Lymes.  The antibiotics have worked wonders and kicked out the sore threat and sinus infection which started the day after the truck was unloaded.  I feel back to normal nothing hurts!  Now I can start unpacking and organizing my sewing room.  Cheers to modern antibiotics  --Ann--