The Stay-cation

I was so tired I was literally asleep on my feet. No more late night "parties" coupled with weekend workshops for me! Now, catching up on much needed rest, I am again reminded that it will soon be time to take that "Stay-cation" I mentioned in a previous post. This is just a stay-at-home vacation instead of going away somewhere. We have been having extreme heat here, and I am trying to stay inside with the AC. Taking my mother out for adventure is out of the question unless it cools down. As promised, here are the various ideas that I have accumulated and plan to schedule into a weeks time:

• Movies to watch on the TV, with seriously scrumptious munchies and beverages, good for a few thousand calories I would think
• Catching up on reading at Barnes & Noble, hopefully not bringing home too many books and mags
• Eating lunch out a few times
• Quick and easy dinners
• A few exciting creative projects
• One short out-of-town outing returning the same day
• Date or other quality time with the spouse besides watching TV together
• Visit a local Farmer's Market
• Visit a local museum

All of these are easy enough to do. With a bit of prior planning, the stay-cation will be just as fun as a real vacation. It will take the same prior planning, taking care of anything that might cause frustration or distract us from the plan. What needs to be done first? As with any vacation, there are a few things that need to be taken care of:

• Bills all paid
• Laundry all clean
• House cleaned and Beds changed
• Yard cleaned, mowed, etc.

Yet, there are additional considerations when staying home that make it more like getting away:

• Creative projects planned and ready to play with
• Grocery shopping done
• Special little touches prepared, like the serious munchies mentioned earlier.

Oh yes, one more thing, ...Tell the hubby that I am not available for work, only lascivious living for the next week. ...Maybe longer. ...And maybe I'll have such a good time I won't come back!

The Cobweb That Caught the Sky

COBWEB: A flimsy, insubstantial snare spun by a special breed of spider to entrap its prey

After weeks of repair and remodel, I needed an outlet for a gentler creative side of me. Picking up knitting needles once again after months of neglect, I vowed that I would just simply let them and the yarn take me to places I have never ventured before. I did have in mind something sort of Rodarte, who I have venerated ever since the sister's 2008 lines came out. Based on nature and totally radical knits, they represented for me a no-rules way of creating something out of nothing more than an idea. Characterized by loosely knit webs of fine mohair capturing bold areas of color and heavily textured, they have captured my spirit, which has always been a voice in the background begging me to give it a try.

The yarns seemed to just fall into my hands. Even though I had planned for another use of a wild diva that looks like bits of wool tied to hologram metallic thread and nylon cord scraps, it called to be a companion to the more sedate natural tan silk fingering weight that I have been hoarding from Artfibers for years now. Artfibers has the most gorgeous stuff I have ever seen in one place. All their yarns are spun to order. Amazing, yarn heaven, and it is worth a visit if you are ever in the San Francisco area. Then, a painted pastel nylon ribbon that had insisted on coming home with the diva (for some reason), entered the mix. And that was it. Just three yarns, ...quite a change of habit for me since I am usually working with anywhere from six to ten in any one project.

After trying several large needle sizes on the fingering weight yarn, I settled on a #13. At that point, I just began by casting on three stitches. The only thoughts for an end result were perhaps to make a cropped vest to go over summer tops for a little cover. From then on, all I kept in mind were basic rectangular shapes that roughly met my measurements. Free of regard for any sort of edge consistency, I simply knit until the pieces were relatively the same length. Individual stitches were another form of abandon. I threw in short rows, drop stitches, and varied knits and pearls to add more irregularity, and jigged and jogged the hems and edges. The yarns were picked up and dropped at will, creating shapes that drift like clouds of diva yarn and held by patches of ribbon that look like the sky. Yarn tails fly free like the tails of kites.

Once the pieces were of a relatively matched length, I cast off the back and fronts, and joined the shoulders as well as at the sides. To give a bit more shape and weight for a nice drape, I crocheted a single row of chain stitches to the edges with the ribbon yarn, and added a tie of the combined yarns braided together at the front.

I have written up a downloadable pattern/guide for those of you special spider types, who want to give this a try with more guidance than I have given here. You can find it on Ravelry as the Cobweb Vest, or my Etsy store, or by simply emailing me a message.

It's Hot Out and I Am Too!

After a long blogging dry spell. I am getting back into the fun of it. I am also moving ahead with a list of great projects. I didn't get to do the Bootcamp again this year, with too much on a priority list of home repair/remodeling, and that was such a slow down for me personally. Sometimes life is just like that, but we have to keep on. Once the "Cobweb" was completed, I was inspired to write it up as a pattern. Pattern writing is a challenge. I have to keep asking myself what a beginner would want to know and did I include everything that is essential for success. Now that is scratched off the "To-Do" list, I am surging on to other things. Already on the needles is yet another Rodarte inspired top. That yarn I over-dyed earlier this year just kept telling me that it wanted to be completely free in a wild knit. Well, it is well on it's way to completion. In fact, I thought I was putting the finishing touches on yesterday, and then as I tried it on, it told me it wanted more. Now, I am planning to add a little skirting to it as soon as I get the side seams sewn up.

I'm On Vacation! (I Wish!)

That's right! I wish I was on vacation. I haven't had a vacation for about three years now, and I want one! The challenge is that it is nearly impossible to leave home now that I am the sole caregiver for my elderly mother. When I go anywhere, she goes along, and because this carries a number of risks, we mostly stay home. So, what I try to do is fill my days with new and interesting tasks and educational pursuits. I am fortunate to be self-employed and have a wonderful husband who supports me in all I do. He also helps out as best he can. He brought me chocolate last night, as I was probably showing withdrawal symptoms after running out. Now is he a "Keeper" with a capital K" or what?

But what to do about a vacation? Well, I do have a plan, and that is a vacation at home! I have been styling a home vacation for a while now in my head, and am about ready to launch for later this summer. I am not giving out my secrets yet, but will share as I go on a daily basis. I plan to go on my "staycation," as others are dubbing this growing phenomena, in late July. For one reason or another, there are a lot of us. Either too financially burdened to go anywhere, or for reasons such as my own, people are trying to get more creative about what they are doing, and to explore their own communities more. I have even heard of locals doing the "tourist thing" in their towns. I sure do wish that there was a chocolate factory nearby so I could tour it, or a sourdough bread bakery like San Francisco's Wharf district. Trouble is, I live in an area that grew from banking, university and military based functions. If I went to a bank and said I wanted a tour, they would likely call security; the University would send me to registration and admissions; and the post might consider me with suspicion. Its too hot and humid to explore outdoors until fall, and malls are boring, so I have to put my thinking hat on and do some research. I remember once having a visitor that my husband brought to town on business. We drove that poor man up an down Main Street several times before we gave up on trying to show him what a memorable town we have. We all joked about it and had a few laughs over it, but ever since I have wondered what else we could have done to leave a more exciting impression. So, my challenge for the next few weeks is to put together an interesting and exciting line-up of activities and experiences that will result in a memory as wonderful as all our vacations where we were able to get away and see the world away from home.

Can I Frog My Bathroom?

Can I "frog" the bathroom? Well, technically "No." Yet, I did nix the plan for "Cave Art," and go off in a different direction. I don't do this sort of thing very easily. I am like the bulldog that has a death grip on the bull's neck, and won't let go or let a project beat me. However, this was really turning into an example of Murphy's Law in action and it was snowballing and gaining momentum and power with each day. The issue that seemed to be behind it was that the paint was "re-wetting" and pulling off the walls. Although I left a fan running on the walls for days, and that helped some, it was not enough to do the faux work that was part of my plan. Besides that, my right wrist was having carpel tunnel fits and I was icing it several times each day. Being a massage therapist, this was a disaster. There were other problems too, like getting the tape off without pulling sheets of paint off with it. So, I decided that it would be in my own best interest to choose another decor style for the new bathroom. I allowed enough time for the present paint to cure (about a week), and then painted it all a chocolate brown. I was able to get the shower walls fauxed with some copper and bronze metallic, and left it to dry for over a week with no further ill effects. Now the other walls are done and the wrist is feeling better.

Life is just like this at times. We need to recognize when we are going against the flow rather than working with it. At least I can appreciate the experience for reminding me of this, and I am really loving the new look.

Cave Art for the Bathroom

It was supposed to be inspiration for a knitting project, but as that was so long delayed, somehow the project that I had in mind exploded instead onto the new bathroom walls. How did I go from "serene and uplifting" to this? How will I convert the bright golden yellow named "grilled cheese" and the intense orange companion I chose into "serene?" Well, that waits to be proven. However, burnt umber in glaze will quiet it all down. Thank goodness.


What I am contemplating is how it came to this. The Creative Spirit that resides in me was actively planning a pullover sweater. Frustrated at what seemed an endless delay, it burst forth in paint colors instead. My plan for a soft green/teal/or maybe gray/and silver color scheme got lost in a moment of temporary insanity at the paint store. Now that plan is all about a brilliant gold that morphs into a burnt orange, overlaid with burnt umber to calm and age it. And true to form, I must include some metallic bling. Gold, bronze, copper, and ...oh what the heck, silver too. I worked with a sample board to see how the layering would look, and make sure that I would get the look that I had in my head to create. I might have begun by painting the wall a dark brown and layering a wash of the gold and orange over that, morphing the colors into a gentle blending, lightening as I went along. However, I decided to lay down the gold as a base coat, and go darker. This is about as far as I got until other life got in the way. Things like going to work and a dental appointment will set me back til later this week but I fully expect to have finished photos to share by the weekend! YAY!!!!

Endless Noise and Mess

Yes, that is the way my house has been for over a month now. After weeks of a bathroom repair that required the shower to be rebuilt, I now have what the contractor termed an "industrial" bathroom. He said the whole house could fall down, but that bathroom is built to last. Through crashing hammers, saws, fumes and the layers of dust from pollen, dirt, and stone dust, the bathroom building is over. Even the week of scaling the popcorn off the kitchen ceiling and repairing that damage, and the entire mudding and plaster sanding experience is over. What is left is a lot of serious cleaning, but wait! There is painting to be done!

After those nerve wracking weeks of construction, it's my turn. I like painting, but it's not as easy at it used to be. I have to divide my work time with meals and other duties, and it is hard to get a good flow going. The kitchen ceiling is now completed, and I have been putting things back in place. I even have a resolution to be clutter free. ...If that is at all possible.

The bathroom is more of a challenge than a simple coat or two of paint however. After the DH and I first tried out the new shower, and I felt like a Greek Goddess, and he related to a Roman Emperor, I knew that this was a job not to be taken lightly. Much more than wall painting is needed. All the beautiful tile work deserved a freshly painted ceiling and trim. After 30 years, there was yellowing and surface marring. Even the door hinges and other hardware had become corroded, and the vanity light and switch-plates are seriously inappropriate. The cabinet is worn and tired, with knobs that were never even. Yes, this job may take a while.