Three Miracles!

First, there is my lamp. DH repaired it and this is the side where the break and repairs show a little.


So all I have to do is turn it to this side! And it works, too. I am thrilled that it was salvageable. Also, I think the breakage and repairs may constitute patina, so now it's an antique, right?

Thanks, DH!!! (And no, it will not be residing on this hutch, where bad, bad Baxter knocked it from.)

And now for a second miracle. I finished the scrapbook for my oldest granddaughter, who will be ten in October. It covers the first five years of her life, and I have decided that I will stop all the rest of the scrapbooks at age five, as well.

It only took me these past five years to catch up.

I have three more grandchildren to make scrapbooks for, and I am going to be more faithful about getting them finished. (Maybe) Second granddaughter's scrapbook is current to age two and a half. I have the first page of my grandson's finished-he's going to be four this Friday. And I do HAVE the scrapbook for my third granddaughter--it's still in the Michaels' bag. She will be two in October. Impressive, yes?

The third miracle is this hat---not because I made it but because it's made of wonderful 100% cashmere, not something I have ever used before. It was on sale for 75% off at my LYS just before the shop moved to a new location. There was no way to let the yarn stay in the shop! And it is, as the Ravelry group Selfish Knitters would say, MINE!

An Hour Gone By

Many of you (no one) have asked, "Where do you do all of the creative things you do?"

Well, here it is, my office/adjunct kitchen/storage room.
Impressive, no?

I gave up on winding each ball of the Koigu sock bits as I needed it and took the thirteen remaining skeins to the basement to wind all at once. I learned this:
Put a knot in the end of the yarn that you put in the winder. That way if something hangs up while you are starting to wind, the yarn won't pull out. I didn't learn this myself; the Koigu people put a knot in one end of each skein and I eventually figured out that it could serve a purpose. It's probably what they intended.

This is also my scrapbooking area. How is my scrapbooking going? Well, it's going nowhere. I have been stalled on the four scrapbooks for my grandchildren since there were only three grandchildren. Knitting took over my life.

Winding the yarn was a lot more difficult than I had figured. Some of the skeins were an unholy mess. Some I had to wind from both directions in order to untangle them. It took an HOUR to wind eleven small skeins.

Do you see that red tangle there? Oh, yes. It looks all pretty and innocent, but it broke me. I could not untangle it no matter what I did. It exhausted my poor logic skills and almost exhausted my patience.

Did I give up? Did I quit like a certain half-term governor?

Why yes, I did. I'll sort it out by hand later. After I do some Zen-restoring knitting.

Or I'll take it to Los Angeles this weekend for younger daughter, who has unlimited patience for this sort of thing, to do.

Right, S?

On Scrapbooking and Good Intentions Abandoned

When I told my daughters that I was going to make scrapbooks for the grandchildren, they laughed---with good reason. Both girls have albums with odds and ends of pictures and various awards taped to crispy, yellowing pages. Of course these scrapbooks were put together before the scrapbooking craze, and I didn't know anything about using acid-free paper and non-yellowing tape, cutting and pasting all sorts of designs on the pages, and stamping. When older daughter was little, even getting photographs was tough. We used film cameras, the film had to be sent off to a processing center someplace far away, and we just crossed our fingers and hoped that the film or pictures would not be lost in the mail. By the time I made second daughter's scrapbook, I had lost some enthusiasm for the project, and a few years ago she pointed out to me that I had labeled some of her school pictures with the wrong grade and age. I told her to scratch out the incorrect information and write in whatever was correct. She was moved...

After my first two grandchildren were born, my neighbor started working as a scrapbooking pusher representative. My older daughter's neighbor was a stamping pusher representative. The perfect storm!!! I bought all sorts of supplies, and put together a beautiful, complicated and elaborate scrapbook for grandchild #1. Then I made a somewhat less beautiful, complicated and elaborate scrapbook for grandchild # 2. Grandchild #3 is a little over eighteen months old. I am two years behind in scrapbooking, so imagine grandchild #3's scrapbook: Oh look! There's his birth announcement and a photo! Grandchild #4 is expected in November. That poor child will be lucky if I don't lose the birth announcement before I remember to buy the scrapbook!