December Updates

I wonder if everyone takes as long as I do to feel at home in a new place. I suspect that on a bell curve of adaptability, I would fall toward the end of slow-to-adapt. That said, I feel like I'm getting there in our new house. I have my new lair just about set up and almost always know where to find stuff I need within an hour of starting the search. Of course, if I had less stuff, I could find things within a minute or two. I'm working on the "Less Stuff" goal, but it's slow progress.

On Saturday, Mr. SABLE and I made a quick trip out to St. Vincent's to see if there were any couches we could live with. Our couch and comfy chair from our other living room are in the family room here. The living room here has been a big empty space, with some of my equipment camped out in it, but no real comfortable place to sit. Until we sell our old house, it was out of the question that we would go buy new furniture. We found a couch we both really like, in good condition, at a good price. Suddenly, the living room feels more like home. Then I was keeping an eye on Craigslist for a small table to go in the dinette area of our kitchen. Monday evening, Owen and I went and got a nice round table and two chairs that works perfectly. $30 for the set. Those two purchases have done so much for my morale, I might actually tackle some of the random boxes stacked around in corners and such.

Even though there's been little action in the blog, I've been doing stuff to keep my hands busy. I did a fair amount of spinning this fall and a bit of weaving.

Here's a scarf I'll be giving to my mom for Decemberween/Giftmas/Festivus/what-have-you:






She only reads my blog if I send her an actual link to a post, like when I compose a rant I think she'd enjoy, so I think it's ok to post it here.

I also knit a scarf for my mother-in-law, whom I also believe does not read my blog.






This is from the book 60 Quick Knits, which features projects using Cascade 220. I used some mystery yarn I found in my stash. I believe it's a wool-dominant blend that came to me in a big thrift-shop grab bag more than 10 years ago. Mr. SABLE and I agreed the color was completely right for his mom, though I seem to get different results on the color every time I photograph it.

I also knit a blue ribbed watch cap for my mother-in-law's husband and, finally, after months of dormancy, fixed and finished a sweater I started to machine-knit for my dad in March. I just need to get some stuff packed up and taken to the post office and then brace myself for the two-week school vacation which is fast approaching!

All the News

I guess my blog posts are kind of thin on the ground these days, eh?

I have been knitting. I'll try to get some pictures in a bit. I'm making a machine knit sweater for my dad, some socks, some handwarmers, a men's sweater for a future Knitcircus... I think that's all the current projects.

But the big news is, we have made and had accepted an offer on a house and plan to move in June. When I look around at all the stuff we own and all the chaos, I can't quite imagine how we're going to pull this off. But we will. The house is very convenient to all kinds of stuff: all the schools, Mister SABLE's work, many shopping options, and most of Owen's friends. It's generously-sized and will give us a bit of breathing room. We'll have a real family room!

Spring has come to Madison this last week or so. Of course, we'll have a brief return to winter this weekend, but still, I'm encouraged that the snow pack we had since December pretty much vanished in last week's warm rain/fog misery. And we've had abundant sunshine and warm days so far this week, so the mud is drying out.

In early December, right before the first big blizzard that kicked off the winter, the little guy had lost an iPod in the yard. We looked for it that night, but in the dark without a real clue as to where it might be, it was hopeless. We weren't even positive it was lost in our yard, but retracing our steps of that night did no good. Then the snow came and we assumed that even if we found it, it would be toast. When the snow pack was mostly melted, he went out looking for it in the yard. He was about to give it up as hopeless, but glanced over toward our neighbor's fence line and saw something orange. BINGO. We dried it out overnight in a baggie of dry rice. Plugged it in to charge the next day and it works just fine.

Now I must start the phone calls and other details. Phone the mortgage guy. Phone the storage place. Phone a house inspector. And begin the purge. I might even do some yarn give-aways: we'll see.

Actual Knitting Content!

I've been knitting a bit! I'm making another pair of my Making Waves socks using this wonderful yarn I bought at YarnCon in the fall.


It's Turtle Cove Farm's Turtle Feet; colorway Standing on the Shore.

This yarn is really wonderful to knit with and the colors are so deep and enchanting, I feel like I'm snorkeling on a coral reef, not standing on the shore.

I also decided to take out an earlier effort to make the best of this Rowan Tapestry.

First it was a simple garter stitch scarf, knit the long way. Then, it started to become an oversize entrelac. Now, I've decided on just a normal-scaled entrelac pattern and I hope to never frog it again. This yarn really likes to stick to itself, so it's a bad candidate for frogging.

And there's been some weaving.

This is a piece of cotton cloth from which I'm going to sew a messenger bag. I had a cone of 8/8 cotton (knits at worsted weight) hanging around a while. The black stripes are Tahki Cotton Classic. I'm still thinking through all the details of the bag construction, so stay tuned for that.

Have you all noticed (well, Northern Hemisphere Dwellers, that is) that the days are getting longer? I'm eager for spring this year, even though there might be a lot of upheaval for us. We're hoping to buy a bigger house, still staying in the Madison area. We've been in this house for 13 years, which is longer than I have lived in any one place in my whole life. I'll add that I am not the only one in the family with pack-rat tendencies, and you can imagine what we're up against. Getting a loan? Piece of cake. Packing and moving? That's another thing altogether.