Still unpacking...

Since I work 7 11 hour nights in a row, I haven't had a lot of unpacking time since I moved my stuff here. I do have most of the kitchen boxes unpacked (and still no blender), but it's amazing how much stuff that means I have to WASH and try to figure out where to PUT... and now I'm getting to the boxes that I'm just not sure what to do with right now, because they are in front of the bookcases, etc., that they have to be unpacked into, and the boxes are just really heavy. And there's a mattress and box springs leaning against one bookcase. So, I guess I will just have to unpack things on to the floor for a while so I can move them.

I hate moving. :-) I will be so glad when it is all done!

Cranky unpacking weaver who isn't weaving

Hard to believe I have done NO weaving or embroidery for MONTHS now. No wonder I'm going crazy.

I finally got all of my stuff moved up here October 27th, and am in the process of unpacking. Had the movers not piled boxes in front of my bookcases and shelving units, that would be easier. I'm focusing on the kitchen first, will deal with the books and art stuff later (which, of course, means any "play" time will end up after it's all done - a cruel scheme on someone's part, I'm sure).

My poor furniture has mold issues, which isn't helped by the fact that this HOUSE has mold issues - the plumbing had problems before I moved in, and the crawl space under the house flooded, and now every time you open a cabinet door you almost can't breathe because of the mildew smell. Add to that the layer of mildew all over my furniture from the theoretically climate controlled storage unit (which was over 100 degrees when I went there in August), and my allergies are not happy.

Yes, I am complaining. I'm quite certain it will all be better eventually, but right now, I am CRANKY. I just want the mold to be gone, everything to be unpacked, there to be a PLACE for everything, people to do what they SAY they are going to do, and all of these boxes to be GONE so I can just weave and be happy again.

And I WANT to find my BLENDER. I have three, and the only one I have found is the one I got for my wedding, which doesn't even work anymore and I had thought I got rid of it when I got the second one when I lived in Dallas, but apparently not because it got packed, but I can't find the replacement OR the one I bought when I was in Brenham. I need to be able to make smoothies again!

Okay. Going to go find my allergy pills and get back to unpacking again...

http://lala412.livejournal.com/819925.html#cutid1



That is a link to my livejournal post that has the pictures of my cast iron muffin pans. I thought it would take up way too much space on here, and I don't know how to cut and hide things here like I do on LJ, so, there you go. Linking to another site is the best way I know how. :-)



Posted for http://oneparticularkitchen.com/

Short update

Sorry I haven't updated for a while. I got a job in Ponca City, Oklahoma at the end of May (or was it the beginning of June? I'm confusing the two job offers I had - I accepted one and not the other, and they were a week apart) and moved here in mid-June. I am still not completely settled - I had been staying in a camper my parents let me borrow, at an RV park just outside town, but at the beginning of July started renting a house with a lab tech who works for the staffing agency I used to work for - she will be working in the lab until I am out of training.
Once she leaves and the owner empties the house (she was renting it fully furnished, decorated, bills paid, etc), I will be renting it on my own and moving all of my stuff up from Dallas.

So for now, I am less "moved in" than I was even when I stayed with my parents the last few months, because I have to have all my kitchen stuff but yet there is no room in the kitchen for it... and I don't want to put stuff away in furniture that will be sold off in less than a month, so everything in my room is staying in boxes. Needless to say, no embroidery or weaving has been done in about 6 weeks, between the camper and here!! I haven't done much besides play computer games and work.

I will definitely update again when I do more!

Alligator

Here is the page on my website for the alligator I made for the triplets. Wrestle Me

Frog

Here is the frog I made for the girls. Here is the pageI made for it: Kiss Me

More Monkey Pictures

I made a page on my website with more pictures of Jessica's monkey. I am also working on pages with closeups of other animals I have made. Here is the page of Stuffed Animals.

Woven Journal/Card

Woven Journal

I created a page on my website for the Woven Journal I made for my nephew. It was also his birthday card. Here is a picture of the front of it.

Stuffed Monkey for Jessica

Here is a stuffed monkey that I made for my niece, Jessica. She's pretty smart - all I had done was the body - just a stuffed blue and purple tube with the separation for the head and body, and she looked at it and asked if it was going to be a monkey. :-) It's made from her favorite colors, so I'm thinking it wa equal parts deductive reasoning and wishful thinking, but she was right!

The muzzle is a spool-knitted piece that I rolled in on itself and then couched to the face, a lot like I did the rabbit's tail, but with a wider base attached to the surface. The ears were done in a stitch which I think has several names - I have been trying to find instructions for Peruvian Single Needle Knitting, which I had in an issue of Piecework from the mid-90s (still have, technically, it's just in storage), and I think this is it, but I wouldn't swear to it. I saw an embroidered teacup on another blog which looked almost exactly like it, but the stitch had another name, but I don't remember the name. At any rate, it's basically a buttonhole stitch done over a thread up away from the fabric. The pattern in Piecework had you doing it in a circle around a felt form to make finger puppets, and then coming out from that base to form the features - I made two puppets, a maroon-bellied conure and a rosy bourke parakeet (both based on birds I had at the time). The rosy bourke didn't get completely finished.

Anyway, I'm glad I found that post and adapted it for the ears - I plan to use it for a crown on some frogs, too.

I made the limbs and tail extra-long, which Jessica liked - she can fold the arms and use the tail to wrap him around things. She now wants an entire collection of woven and knitted animals - she has another creature, a rectangular one, which is knitted, and a leash which she spool-knitted herself.

Spool-knitted, felted crochet hook and weaving needle case

Here are some pictures of the case I made for the crochet hooks and needles I use for weaving. I used some Peruvian yarn I bought at Twist, my mom's favorite yarn shop, when I was in Wichita at Christmas when she took a day off for us to go out shopping and to a couple of museums. The yarn felted nicely. I spool-knitted it on an eight peg spool knitter and used a safety pin to thread a flour sack towel through the center before washing it in the washing machine in a laundry bag in hot water. I can't remember if I dried this one in the machine or not. I stopped drying the stuffed animals, but I think I went ahead and machine dried anything that didn't have limbs. :-)

Below are details of the case. I sewed up one end and then use the tail to embroider a couple of flowers at the bottom. I liked it so much I did one at the top on the opposite side, as well, and then I added a drawstring.

figuring fabric "count" on weavette fabric

I think maybe nine for the Sugar and Cream on the Weavette (top photo), and six for the Lion Brand wool on the HR Tumbling Block loom.