A day.

Today has not been the best.
Last night, I started having some sharp pains in my chest, on the left side.  It wasn't the first time I'd experienced this.  Every few weeks, I have chest pain (!), but it never lasts very long...perhaps a couple of minutes at most, with the pain coming in waves.  I always assumed it was nothing, or at least nothing serious.  Early this morning, though, I woke up to more pain.  I went to the ER around 8am with J at the recommendation of a nurse at my primary care.  I was at the hospital for about three hours, and after an EKG, an X-ray, and some blood tests, I still don't have a diagnosis.  The doctor I saw thinks it might be anxiety-induced.  I have a history of anxiety, so this isn't a terribly big surprise.  It's still crappy, though.

I didn't go to work today.  Tons of guilt about that, which makes the anxiety worse.
I've been deep in thought all day.  I'm thinking about some ways I can reduce the stress I feel, and try to absorb less of the day-to-day pressures I face.
I was somewhat productive here at home.  This is just off the needles:

Sock #1 of my modified version of Froot Loop.

I also watched the entire second series of the BBC's The Office on DVD, which I really like and has been oddly comforting today.  J was sweet enough to rent it for me from Filmzilla.

Anyhoo...I otter go...
Good night.



Cleaning day! Also...is crafting in my genes?

Whew!  I've been a busy bee at home all day today.  (I don't work on Mondays.)  I have been cleaning like a fiend!
The first thing I tackled in the apartment was our bedroom closet, which truly has been an utter disaster until this afternoon.  I wish I'd taken a "before" photo, but here's the "after":

Honestly, the carpet was not visible prior to the clean-up, and there was no space to actually stand.  Clothes and shoes and other randomness were littered everywhere.
Now, though...so much better...sigh.  :-)
I like tidiness.  It keeps my stress level down.  I'm not even a neat person by nature, and it does take conscious effort for me to keep things organized.  (J is even worse.)  But I am much more calm when things are spic-and-span.  I don't want to live in a sterile, uber-hygienic space.  I'm definitely not a germaphobe, and I abhor anti-bacterial household chemicals and all that crap.  I just want things...neat.  Easy to access.  Not all over the floor waiting to be tripped over.  Not cluttered. 
After the closet purge, I cleaned George's cage, vacuumed the bedroom carpet, did laundry, did the dishes, and swept the living-area's floor. 
As I did so, I pondered my love of knitting and other crafts.  I started to think about some of my relatives and their own love of crafting.
My maternal grandmother's mother and her sisters were ardent quilters, crocheters, knitters, and "tatters" (that is, they liked tatting).  I've been told that they often entered their works into county fairs and such, and won prizes.

My great-grandmother and her sisters as young women in Sparta, Illinois.  This photo was probably taken around the end of WWI.  I'm not quite sure who is who. 



I am fortunate enough to have some quilts and other craftworks made by my great-grandmother and great-aunts.  Here's my favorite, a quilt made by them together and other women in their community:

(Bella and Willow are helping by increasing the cute factor.)

The quilt was made between 1938 and 1940:

My great-aunt Gladys's piece on the quilt:

So, I come from crafty stock.  My grandmother was a knitter and crocheter like her mother.  My mom is quite the seamstress, while my aunt likes to cross-stitch. 

When I lived in Chicago, I used to make soap from scratch and sell it sometimes at local fairs.  I called my mini one-girl company Scrub No Evil.  In my run-down apartment kitchen I'd brew my soapy concoctions of lye and olive oil, and use essential oils of patchouli, bay rum, peppermint, and lavender for all-natural scents.
I taught myself how to make my soap, using a few Internet-acquired recipes as basic guidelines. 
I also taught myself how to knit.  It was the fall of 2000 and I was in Americorps, doing wildlife management stuff (specifcally, feeding local elk herds) in rural Washington state.  I found a battered copy of a Vogue knitting book from the 1970s, went to Wal-Mart in Yakima to buy some cheap #6 needles and Lion Brand yarn, and the rest was...history?

Here's a patch I knitted "free-hand" in 2007, sitting on a bus en route to Latvia from Lithuania:

What should I do with it?  Sew it on a sweater, maybe?

I'll get going for now...gotta get some other things done, like start dinner, do some homework, check the ol' e-mail...

Till next time!



Moose sock blockers!

About two weeks ago I ordered a pair of wooden sock blockers with a moose design from Purrfectly Catchy Designs.  I got them this past week, and they are fantastic!  I love them.

Lookee here!

 The socks are my Northern Lights socks, which I finished a couple of weeks ago.  Yarn: Farm Blend (llama, wool, mohair) by Blackberry Hills in Wisconsin.  The colorway is so beautiful...ice, navy, sky, storm, star...

 

Deep Gemstone Lake socks, also finished a couple of weeks ago.  Yarn: Mirasol Chirapa (100% merino)--

what a great yarn to work with!

I've been taking lots of pictures today of some recently finished knitted socks on my new "mooses", which have been great because it's hard to take good photos of your own feet!  (At least, it is for me.)  In general, I have a somewhat challenging time taking photos of my knitted projects.  It's hard to find the right light and angle to properly show the definition of the stitches and the true color of the yarn.  My camera, a Nikon Coolpix L3, is decent enough (I guess).  It's the only digital camera I've ever had, and I received it as a college graduation gift from my aunt and uncle back in 2006.  I have considered getting a newer camera, but ultimately I feel that since I have taken some great pictures with it in five countries (and countless situations!) over the past five years, why give up on it?  I just have to be a more creative photographer by working within my camera's limits.

Various knits from the past year or so!

Rusty Cables pullover, adapted from Cathy Payson's Placed Cable Aran pattern from Interweave Knits, Fall 2007.

Short red knitted dress, created using the Incredible Custom-Fit Pullover method by Pamela Costello.  This is a wonderful, simple and effective un-pattern, by the way.  I highly recommend!

Cypress, a long cabled green hoodie.  My sister is the model in this photo, and it looked so good on her that it is now hers.

Okay!  It's a lovely Sunday afternoon, so I should get off the computer and do something else (like knitting or spinning...)

Just one more photo:  J and me, cross-country skiing near Grand Rapids back in February of this year.

(very tall guy + very short girl = fun!)

Autumn is here

I ride the bus almost every day.  Again, I don't have a car, so I use the bus to get to and from work and also to get around in general.  When I don't bus, I bike or walk or get a ride in J's car.
Today after work, the bus home was very crowded, and it was slow due to heavy traffic on Franklin Avenue.  I usually knit when I'm riding the bus because it's a good way to pass time.

This is a sock I've been working on, both on and off the bus.

I recently moved to a new neighborhood, and my commute time has doubled.  It takes me about an hour each way to get to and from work.  Depending on the time of day I depart from either point, it requires a combination of at least two buses and/or a train ride thrown in.  During any given week, my commutes can potentially include seven or eight different bus routes and the light rail.  Hence, I have plenty of time to knit on my ride, and as long as I'm not too tightly squeezed between other passengers, it works out.

Tonight there's a chill in the air.  I like it.  After such a hot summer, I welcome the coolness.  I can't wait to wear my warm knitted socks.  Currently I have no less than four pairs in progress, and I just finished three other pairs within the last few weeks.  I'm on some kind of sock knitting rampage!  I can't get enough.  When things get stressful or manic at work, I think about beautiful, colorful sock yarn and design possibilities, and I feel better!
I think that I have a fairly good-sized stash of yarn to work through.  Certainly my stash is nothing compared to other folks's, but it's enough to keep me busy for awhile.  I have decided to use up as much of the sock yarn I have before acquiring any more.  I want to be much more careful in the future about where my yarn comes from.  I care about the sources of the animal fibers in the yarns that I use to knit with.  I'd like to buy yarn and fiber from small-scale sellers who are concerned about the welfare of sheep.  I also want to focus on locally-produced yarn.  For these reasons, I'm looking forward to next spring's wool festival at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Lake Elmo, MN.  I went in 2008 and 2009, but skipped it for two years.  (I think I was afraid of going a little crazy with yarn buying, like I did before!)  I know it's 8 months away, but I am quite excited about it!
I am currently spinning a merino/tussah silk blend with the intention to make socks.  I bought the roving in '08 at this place (which apparently just closed its doors), but haven't done a thing with it until recently!  I weighed what I have, and it's over 6 oz-- definitely enough to make 2-ply socks, I would say!

 Some of the merino/silk roving...

...being spun.

Randomness:

I love all shades of blue.  I especially like deep, dark blues, midnight, navy...

I love the north woods.  J and I like to canoe and camp together.  Here's a photo from one of our camping trips a year ago, near Grand Rapids, MN:

We canoed on this lake after the stars came out...

While I love being in the forest, I also feel very at home in the city.  I have lived in concentrated urban areas for most of my adult life.  I lived in Chicago for more than half of my twenties, and before and after Chicago I have made my home in Minneapolis, where I was born and raised.

My twin sister has lived in more places than I have.  She, like me, lived in Chicago for awhile, but then moved to Portland and then on to Moscow, Glasgow, and then Riga, Latvia.  When she was living in Riga I stayed with her for most of the summer of 2007.  I had an amazing time exploring not only Latvia, but also Lithuania and Estonia.  I even got to visit Berlin!  After my trip, I was inspired to do some Latvian-inspired knitting, so I bought this book upon returning to the States:

I haven't knitted anything from the book yet (!) and I've had it for four years, but I think I am going to eventually make some Latvian-motif inspired socks, as I don't really like wearing mittens.  I bought some beautiful hand-knitted mittens in Latvia and Estonia, but I rarely wear them.  I'll take pictures of them soon!

I mentioned before that I love coffee-flavored ice cream.  Well, yes, that's true, but I just plain love ice cream in general.  Here's a photo from my archive-- it's me on a street in Riga eating some good ol' cheap basic ice cream (which, by the way, tasted way better than its American equivalent coulda):

(It's hard to see that I have a half-wrapped cone in my hand, but anyhoo...)

Okay, it's after 8pm here and I have to wake J up from a nap so we can go buy some cat food and litter at the nearby pet supply shop (oh, the joys of domesticity!).  Before I go, however, I'd like to say that I have recently come to appreciate the art works of Charley Harper.  Here is one of my favorites.

I love loons.

Good night.

What I am doing at this moment

Right now, I am sitting here at home with my domestic partner watching an episode of BBC's The IT Crowd on DVD.  My partner is reading-- yes, actually reading --a 1978 issue of Playboy  that we found next to the dumpster outside of our apartment building this evening, and he is getting one hell of a kick out of the ads and articles.  Our three cats are curled up in various places within our small, somewhat cluttered place.  It's getting late and I have to work in the morning.  It's a typical evening.
How did I get here?  How did this happen?
At this point in my life, age 31, I need as much peace and quiet as I can seek out.  The building in which I live happens to be right next to a highway entrance ramp near downtown Minneapolis.  Thus, I am often disrupted from my desired peace and quiet with the annoying sounds of accelerating motors and the squealing of tires.  I find, however, that I am getting more and more used to such noises. 
I like to keep my life as simple as possible.  I prefer small spaces, few gadgets, minimal complications, no debts. 
Some things about me:
I am barely 5'2".
I have a twin sister who lives in a house in Saint Paul with chickens and ducks in the backyard.
I don't have a cell phone or a car.
I like ice cream that tastes like coffee.  I wish real coffee tasted that way.
I have a boyfriend/domestic partner/roommate/partner in crime.  We'll call him J.
J and I share a trio of cats whose names are Bella, Sally, and Willow.  We also have a rat named George.
J is 6'4".
I used to live in Chicago.
And...
and.
More assorted fun facts to come.

As it is getting later and later (and later) I will try to keep this short.  One thing I want to express, however, is that I love knitting.  One of the main reasons I wanted to start this blog space is to post my thoughts and photos about my projects!
I also love spinning on my spinning wheels and making yarn.

I'd like to make a few introductions:

My Saxony-style spinning wheel, bought at an antique shop in Osceola, Wisconsin in 2008.  I know nothing of its origin.

Louet S10 spinning wheel.  I got this used on Ebay from a seller in the Netherlands, also back in '08.  How terribly un-local of me!

A pair of socks I recently completed.

George!  (Yeah, it's blurry.)

I will start adding so much more in the days to come!

Good night.