Lists and Plans

The swatch after being blocked, and the yarn.

The weekend endeth. It endeth well. In a flurry of energy, I bounded out of bed at 10:48 this morning and went to breakfast with the spouse. Really, I was energetic and enthusiastic even though it was so early. Okay so I didn't get much of a jump on the day, and I took a nap in the late afternoon, but I really did think about all my current projects today. Mostly I straightened and set up work areas.

I got the sewing area ready for the next great round of Dave's Hawaiian shirts. I planned the layout for the garage staging area of give away and throw away items from the lake storage. I organized my spinning, knitting, and computing area...

I have noticed when I save posting till after 11:00 at night, I am winding down and mentally cataloguing the day. It's good for me as it sets up the next day, but it doesn't make for an interesting post. As I am getting ready to go back to Austin the day after tomorrow and I have a ton of things I want to get done and a few things I need to get done before I go, it's hard to think anyway other than in linear, logical, orderly lists.

Tomorrow I need to get up early so I can call the vet to ask if I can pick some green apples from the backyard of the clinic. My jelly and jam making supplies have all arrived, though the copper pan arrived a bit crushed--I was able to bend it back out but I'm not sure I want to pay that much for a damaged pot. I let the restaurant supply company know about the damage right away... and have heard nothing back since. I'll go ahead and make a batch of green (unripe) apple jelly in the next couple of days so I'll have it as an ingredient for the next round of confitures I'll be making when I get back.

Dave is beginning to look a bit ragged in his 14 year-old Hawaiian shirts so I want to get a few new ones cut in the next couple of days so I can take them back to Austin with me and sew one or two up. I didn't bring a machine here this summer as I just planned to cut them all out and bring them back to sew this fall, but I think I'll have time to whip up one or two while I'm home. I hope. Unless everything there has gone to hell in a hand basket.

Now that the design for the bed is done I am ready to order the wood from Dupuis. I'd like to get that cut list in to them tomorrow--along with the list for the Doug fir for the workbench. I bit the bullet and bought three pieces of woodworking equipment and will be setting up the last studio area in Austin when we get home this fall. There is one last room underneath the master bedroom that is only accessible from outside and which seems to have been the workshop space for the first owner. There is a cement floor, lighting, and even an AC unit in the wall. I currently have it filled with all of the things I would have stored in the garage or a tool shed, but the garage is a glass studio, and we don't have a tool shed. We do, however, have a closet under the stairs to the apartment which will make an excellent place to store all the art fair display supplies, tables, tents, etc. I can hang yard tools and hoses and such by the potting bench area under the back deck--unless the new rain barrels take up all the space there. I'll have to co-ordinate the layout with Jay when I am back next week.

The yarn I spun, plied, and washed was dry today so I balled it up and knit a few swatches to make gauge for the sweater coat I am going to knit from my Tour de Fleece yarn. It's much prettier than I expected it to be. I don't like barber-pole striping in yarn, like you get when you twist two different colors of yarn together. However it looks better when it's knit as it looks more heathery and not stripy. Now I just need to figure out if I'm going to have enough. The pattern calls for a certain weight of mohair yarn instead of a yardage. Mohair weighs like dandelion fluff so I have no idea what a commensurate weight in wool would be. Surprisingly, I ended up making my gauge with the same size needles the pattern called for. I can only assume that had I used cobweb-like mohair (even the three strands knitted together that it calls for), I would've had to go down several needle sizes.

When I come back from Austin I'm going to bring some sheet glass in my suitcase (in tile-sized pieces) so I can use them as the base for the glow-in-the-dark tiles I want to test. I have a lot of frit--and even a few jars of morceaux--here, but I don't have any clear sheet at all.

I'm going to see if the local animal shelter would like the rabbit play yard and super hutch. If they don't, I'll try to sell them. When they're moved out from under the deck I'll have room to set up my fleece skirting and prep station so I can do the big fleece for my master spinning class that I brought from Austin.

And that's enough to fill my brain for tonight. Good night!