Crazy Lanea

H is for House

I say house, because it doesn't ever really feel like home when you're in the midst of a remodel.  We bought our house in 2000, not long after we got engaged and decided that buying a house was far more important than throwing a wedding right away. It's a 1,500 square foot Cape Cod-ish (no fireplace = not really a Cape Cod) house, built in 1970.  The 1970 really showed, so we knew all along that this was a fixer upper.  We started working on the kitchen a year or two after we bought the place, and it took forever because we did most of the work with the help of family and without  much professional help.  This time around, we decided to hire some good friends to replace most of the floors and give the downstairs bath a major face lift while Scott and I handle simple stuff like repainting most of the rooms and shuffling our stuff from room to room so the guys can work.  Scheduling, of course, is tough. 

I'll skip the before photos--the old carpets were beige and nasty.  The old bathroom had an odd pink tub and 1"x1" pink and white glittery tiles, but the glitter had tarnished, and there were some obvious problems with the wall behind the shower tiles and tub. I had put a pretty cool mosaic on the old bathroom counter , but then the sink got a bad crack in it during  a party, and there was no way to replace the sink without destroying the counter.  That's when I started lobbying really loudly to gut the bathroom. 

I came home from Chicago a couple of weeks ago to find that our friends and contractors Mike and Ben had started demo on the bath. Now, we're down to the finish work.  That tile on the floor is fantastic.  I love it like I love cake.  The pictures do not do it justice.  Scott and I still have some touch-up painting to do in there, and we need to add the blinds and towel bars and all those touches.

 

With the bathroom close to completion, the guys moved on to the rest of the floors.  We're installing bamboo floors in all but the bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry.  I am absolutely enamored of the bamboo. 

And it looks great with our kitchen floor, even before the transition piece is in.  

Now we have a lot of a paint colors to choose, and a lot of stuff to move from room to room to room as the work progresses.   It's hard work, and I may have just broken a toe in a tragic run-in with a step stool.   Kayo and the cats disapprove of all of the work, of course.  Kayo expressed his disapproval on Thursday by running away, in fact, so we're making cookies for the charming woman who took care of him until she could get in touch with us. 

So, back to working on our house. 

Branching Out, in more ways than one

I may have a problem. 

When I was visiting Juno a few months ago, I bought some gorgeous hand-dyed Lobster Pot Cashmere yarn in a soft green.  I held off as long as I could, but decided to bring the yarn with me to work on when I went to Chicago last weekend.  And then I gorged on it.  I would have swallowed the skeins whole if I didn't think someone would call me on it.

This is Branching Out.   You can't see from these dark photos how pretty the subtle color changes are in the yarn, but I think this is a great pattern for the yarn.  It allowed me to use as much yarn as possible, to make something really wearable, and to wear it where my skin will truly benefit from its warmth and softness.  Ahhhhhh.

When last I wrote, I was talking about that lovely trip to Chicago I took last weekend.  On Sunday, Meg and I went to a great quilt show.  I was overwhelmed both by the marketplace (they were preying on my weakness for batik and Asian textiles, those sneaks!) and by the quilts on display.  I was astounded by the talent of the quilters showing.  I was paying a lot of attention to the use of black, to scale, and to the downright mania-inducing tiny patchwork some of these artisans engage in.  I'd never been to a quilt show before, and it was mind-blowing.  Photos of quilts never do them justice, and the people showing were brilliant technicians and great artists.  I hope I can come within a mile of their skills one day.

A  quick note--all of the quilts I photographed were open for photography.  At this quilt show, there were very clear signs displayed on a number of  quilts requesting that they not be photographed.  This is just a small percentage of the fantastic work that was on display. 

There was a segment of the show dedicated to architecture in quilting, and another on photo-realistic florals.
 

This chicken quilt greeted us on the way it--it won the day.  And this fantastic embroidery?  Yeah, that's the back of a quilt. 

 

I fell in love with this crow quilt.  Of course I did.  The purples and blues in the birds themselves, and the branches.  Wow. 

And the crazy-making patchwork . . . some people have so much more patience and dedication than I do . . .

And, well, frogs play cards.  This was from a competition where quilters were challenged to use a specific line of fabrics as inspiration.  Gold star, I say.  Though black fabric mixed with batik and hand-dyed fabric was my obsession of the day.  Look at how those colors pop.

 

And then there were the reds.       

   
It was just all so good.  I'm afraid I've already crushed your browsers with photos, so I'll stop. 

After the quilt show,  Meg was off to staff a show at the Old Town School of Folk Music and Jonathan and I went to a pub where he was playing in an Irish session.  And the wonderful Rachel came to hang out and listen to tunes and chat.  We've been online pen pals for years now, and last weekend was the first time we got to actually sit together and talk.  What a blast!  Listening to a friend play great tunes while talking about other great music with another far-flung friend . . . that's a good way to spend a Sunday night. 

Monday morning, Meg and I got to go to Rachel's bookstore and see the spot it's moving to sometime soon, and then all three of us had a nice lunch.  It was tough to get on that plane back to Dulles.  Can one of you come up with a cheap teleportation method now, please?  It would make this friends-all-over-the-place thing much easier to handle. 

Right--back to the remodel.  We have a new tub and most of the tiling is done.  Now we're moving furniture so the floors can go it and vacillating over paint chips.  I have to face packing up all of the books and my studio, and figure out what I can knit in the meantime.   

Chicago

Last weekend, I went out west to visit with Two Sock Knitters, and another Sock Knitter, and a whole passel of contra dancers.  The University of Chicago hosted a fantastic dance weekend, complete with the fantastic bands Cosmic Otters and Nightingale, and the amazing callers Adina Gordon and George Marshall.  We went to tons of yarn shops, a quilt show, three of the four contra dances the weekend provided, restaurants, Irish sessions--I haven't caught my breath yet. 

We get the fun started with a trip to The Fold.  Of course we did--how could we not.  Jonathan got some spinning pointers from Toni, and Meg and I dedicated ourselves to supporting small business in the greater Chicagoland area. 

Toni has a thing or two worth considering on offer, in case you haven't had a chance to stop by.

   

As usual, I didn't take enough photos, and many of the ones I did take aren't great.  Our surroundings for the dance weekend were beyond compare, though.  The university's buildings are gorgeously ornate.  Even the locks were gorgeous. 

The stairs were worth the price of admission.

And the dancing and music?  Hot.  Inspirational.  Astoundingly good.   What a dance weekend. 

As if I wasn't happy enough with all of these things, both bands included footwork in their sound.  Ahhhhhhh.  These are Keith's feet during Nightingale's Friday night dance.  I couldn't take pictures on Saturday night because I had too much dancing to do.

I'll tell you about the quilt show and my visit with another sock knitter next.  Now, I need to go prepare for the continued remodel here at our home sweet home and count the days till my next chance to dance.  Soon, I'll be able to dance on my own floors for the first time in years AND I'll be rid of the biggest source of allergies in my life.  The mere thought is making my eyes well up with tears of joy.   Get on your feet, and tune up your instruments, people, because the floor is going to catch fire under your toes if I have anything to say about it. 

G is for Gardening

G is for gardening. 

I come from a long line of people who like to play in the dirt.  I feel like I never get enough time in the garden, between my crazy commute and my copious hobbies.  But when I do get down into the mud, I love it. 

I love blooms, and berries, and herbs, and vegetables as much as any gardener does.  But I plant and tend for the love the growth itself, and of transition.    Watching  a favorite perennial emerge from the soil is a gift every single time.   Or finding a sport that traveled from a neighbor's garden or across the yard. 

I love taking part in this annual bargain with my plants--I offer them shelter and care, and they return year in and year out, breaking through the soil to fill whatever niche in our landscape.  I've had this Cranesbill since I was 18, and have moved transplant after transplant from one home to another since I first planted it. 

I love the decline and the deliquesce as well--gathering the fallen leaves and composting them, and harvesting compost wriggling with earthworms.  I'm a dyed in the wool tree-hugging, dirt-worshiper. 

Scanty evidence, finished objects, and questions of gauge and color

A couple of weekends ago, a bunch of us wandered out for the woods for a very relaxed camping trip smack dab between the Equinox and April Fool's Day.  Normally, I would carry back photographic evidence.  This time, I bring only this. 

It was really cold, and throwing an event is a fair amount of work.  But this bug sure is green!  I hope you can settle for it.

While we were freezing, I finished the butterfly moebius.  It ended up being a really great thing to wear while camping.  No dangling ends to be  a danger while tending a fire; soft enough to wear while sleeping; versatile enough to wear as a scarf, doubled up around my neck for extra warmth, wrapped around my neck and head--it's a great  garment.   I definitely want to use Seasilk again, and to repeat this knit.

I also finished the first of the horseshoe socks, and I really like it.  I need to give serious thought to my sock gauge, though.  I knew I was progressively knitting my socks tighter and tighter, but these served as a great touchstone when compared to  . . .

the kilthose I finally finished.

The hosen are knit on 2.25 mm needles, and they felt like tree trunks compared to the needles I'm using for the horseshoe socks.  I certainly want to continue to make socks that last a long time, but I think I'm risking injury and wasting yarn by knitting at this crazy gauge.  Must.  Stop.  Knitting.  So.  Tightly.  I had to use a contrasting heel and toe and still used 45 grams of the teal yarn for the body of the lace sock.   That's madness. 

Though, I will say that I felt like I flew through the last 3/4 of that second in the kilt hose pair, working on bigger needles in such a plain pattern. 

In case you haven't caught onto the repetitive color scheme working here, look at the skirt I'm almost done with. 

It's a very simple four-gore skirt in a lovely rayon batik.  I forget how much I hate to work with rayon until I, you know, work with rayon again.  And then I lament it, and whine, and cuss, and throw tantrums.  I'm toying with the idea of paying someone to hem this thing, because of the rayon,  the fact that I still haven't gotten myself a dress form, and my desire to wear this to a dance weekend in a few days.   I did set in the zipper with no complaints, so that was nice. 

Now--evidence that I occasionally work with colors that are not blue. Look--it's something mostly green and neutral . . .

The outside of the felt tote is entirely pieced now, so I just have to plot pockets, pick a fabric for the lining, sew that, and add the straps.  I'm loving that the two faces of the bag are relatively plain and the sides and bottom are brighter.