30 November 2008

a buffet of randomness

There was a huge sigh that huffed out of me this morning when I realized that there was only one stumpy little post separating two Where I Stand Sunday pictures.

It is the joy of returning to work. I went back last monday after having been off for quite a while nursing my back and the re-entry was not kind. The mood there is less then joyous (I work for GM for those who don't know), its just one huge waiting game. Keep your fingers crossed for us if you are so inclined.

On the art front, there has been some work being done. I'm still not feeling the love for art quilts so I'm continuing with my knitting assault. There has been much progress on Stonewall:


While I am really enjoying the yarn, I was feeling slightly homicidal toward it yesterday. Its Noro Silk Sock Yarn, really posh stuff - except for the freakin' knots and sections that are hardly spun that pull apart into roving puffs.

I experienced both.

Twice.

At the end of the first skein which meant I was already facing an upcoming join.

There was much cussing involved as I ended up with five joins rather then the one I had anticipated. *&^(% yarn...

I'm also eyeing it thinking about the blocking of it. If you click on the picture you can see all the texture that the pattern is producing. I'm kind of liking it and when I stretch it out to see what it looks like flat, I'm not sure I want to obliterate the sponginess of it. I guess I'll have to decide when I get to the end of it. That photo above? That's not even to the halfway point. Lots of knitting, dudes, lots of knitting.

Oh, and I'm also taking on some knitting for a wedding. Mary is tying the knot next september and I'll be casting on for a stole for her once the yarn winds its way over to me. I have my eye on a couple of patterns but suggestions are welcome.

On the writing front, today marks the end of NaNoWriMo. Truth be told, I sort of bent the rules to feed my needs. When I started the challenge, I already had 149 pages done. I had kind of stalled so there was nothing like the completely unreasonable lure of writing 50,000 words in thrity days to get me moving again. (I dig challenges, I must defeat them all.)

I ended my word count at 93,000 and 326 pages. And now the fun part is upon me, editing the beast:


Writing is a different monster from the kind of art I usually make. But I'm totally enthralled with it. I upgraded my version of Word to 2008 so I can utilize all the nifty comment and revision tracking tools it has. Who knows how long it will take me to work through the second draft but I've been picking at it everyday so I'm hoping by the spring to have a solid draft done.

Let's see...what else?...

I cleaned my studio today. Again. For the billionth time.

I'm considering a stash diet for 2009. With everything that is going on with GM right now, I am again in a holding pattern when it comes to the topic of getting my own place. Space is limited and to be honest, I bought all this stuff because I loved it so its time that it got to come out and play.

In the grand scheme of things, my stash is not obese. My fabric stash is contained in four of these, my yarn stash has grown considerably this year but I'm working my way through it.

The thing about my fabric stash is that I still have a lot of commercial fabrics lurking in there. As I'm moving forward with revised ideas of what I want to do with my fiber art, they aren't really fitting in so much anymore. I don't want to sell it for many reasons, among which are the fact that I know I wouldn't get anywhere near back what I paid for them and I really like them. Michele sent me some books about doing traditional quilts so I think I may attack them for that. Should be entertaining to watch me try to make accurate seams and blocks. I can hear the swearing now, should be spectacular...

We have been warned that we are getting a few inches of snow today. I suppose its time since the calendar is turning over onto December tomorrow but still, it will make rush hour more like rush hours. The new city I'm working in seems to be in the path of a snow belt, getting dumped on from all the lake effect snow. Thank goodness for my iPod...

On that note, I'm going to wander off and find something creative to do. I spent the morning cleaning up the downstairs since I'm hosting a pot luck Christmas party for the art groups I belong to this weekend. Its left my back cranky. I do believe some knitting is in order....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Missed you! Good to hear from you.

Anonymous said...

ok so when we feel the need to go feed our urge for a fix of fiber i will remind you of this post....and we will go anyway hehe

Yarnhog said...

Ouch. I didn't realize you worked for GM. Sending positive energy your way.

Noro often has those unspun bits. Spit splicing them usually works well. As for the blocking, what about a gentle steam blocking instead of a hard wet-blocking? That way you could control the amount of flattening.