It Was a Productive "Day Off" - Appointments and Sewing

I had a very productive Wednesday, although it was every bit as busy as I had thought it would be. While waiting for the orthodontist, I received a phone call from my eye clinic confirming my surgery next week and giving me the times I needed to be at the clinic. So, on Tuesday the 2nd of May, I'll need to be at the clinic when their doors open at 6:15 am. I'll be first on the schedule for my surgery and should be home before 9:00 am which will give DH time to drop me off and then continue onward to the shop. 

The first eye they'll be operating on is my 
right eye, the eye they did Lasik on more 
than 20 years ago. I'll be getting the left 
eye done two weeks later, so by the end of 
May, both eyes will be complete. 

On Wednesday, for my "Next Day Checkup", I'm scheduled again for first thing in the morning, but in the standard clinic this time, so a 7:30 am appointment. I'm delighted. I had emphasized "First Thing in the Morning" as being of prime importance, and it worked out - at least for surgery number 1. I won't know about surgery number 2 until closer to the date for that one. 

I'm really looking forward to being able to see 
again. It's so very frustrating to me, who normally 
deals with very small items, to be unable to do the 
work I would want to create with any kind of ease. 
Vision would help me a LOT. 

I indulged myself a little bit yesterday, and decided to finally do a project I've been thinking about for a while. I sleep on the living room couch and have done since before the Covid shutdown in 2020.  I didn't start doing that because of Covid, I did it for two reasons - the first being DH's snoring and the fact that he's a late night guy where I'm an early morning gal, the second being my broken foot. When I broke my foot on May 1st that year, I wasn't up to going up and down stairs to get to and from the bathroom. I was quite literally crawling to get to and fro. So, I stayed on the main level except for my daily shower. It worked out pretty well, so I kept the habit. I wanted to make a "fitted" sheet for my couch/bed instead of the folded Queen flat sheet I've been using. 

It wasn't 100% perfectly straight, but it was close enough 
for the project. I sewed the open sides together, then ironed 
and pinned the opposite side and stitched that one. I did 
two sheets, so I now have two different sheets for my 
couch/bed, and I'm delighted. This was a great idea! 

I use a Queen top sheet folded in half, and it's the perfect size for my new bed. But I was always straightening that sheet. I've been wanting to sew the sheet together, down the long edge and then down the folded edge for a few weeks now. I decided to do that yesterday. I'm absolutely delighted with the result. I did two sheets for my couch, and now have two "new" sheet sets perfectly made for my "bed".  They lay flat, not wrinkled, and are really comfortable. Score! All things considered, I'm pretty happy. 

So, it's off to the pool for the final swim of the week. I might head to the pool on Monday since I won't be able to swim the remainder of next week because of my eye surgery. But we'll see what happens. That's next week ... and the future, is always undetermined until it becomes the present. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

A Challenge of Three and a Drabble

So, my holiday cards have been mailed (except for Marta - I need your address!!!). Now I'm focusing on holiday gifts because I really need to mail Sharon's gift soon, and I only have half of it done. I'll be working on that on Wednesday, and hopefully will finish it up quickly. I'm quite happy with it so far. 

Holiday cards have been mailed - going all 
over the nation and the world. I just love 
sending cards to my friends. I also got my 
first card in the mail yesterday. Thanks 
to Tinnean for starting my season out 
so beautifully. 

An e-friend on Dreamwidth posted with a request to allow her to choose three random items in your personal tags and tell her about them. So I decided to take the plunge. The three things she chose were (1) beadwork, (2) hard rock and (3) sewing. That's pretty easy, so after a quick explanation, let's see if I can pull a quick tale out for them as well. 

This project of mine is named "Hobby Horse Dreams". I 
constructed a hobby horse, padded it and covered it with 
fabric, then beaded the fabric, added wings and composed 
a poem about a forgotten hobby horse in a dusty attic 
who dreams of flying into the stars. It won People's 
Choice for the exhibit, but didn't win a "prize". Still, 
I'm proud of the piece and love it. 

I own and operate a bead store. I have beaded on and off throughout my life, but seriously got involved in beadwork when my hands were unable to handle fiber arts any more. So, that's mid-1980's to early 1990's. I re-learned beadwork, took lots of classes and workshops, taught around the country, entered competitions, published projects and patterns, and generally made a pretty good name for myself in that art. COVID has changed a lot, including my finding a doctor who gave me back my hands, so my craft has switched back from beadwork to fiber once again, and I'm very happy. 

There are all too many times when I feel stuck between 
a rock and a hard place. It would be nice to have my life 
under my own control again, but it's still going to be a 
while before that happens. 

But, being between beading and fiber sometimes puts me between the devil and the deep blue sea - in other words, between a rock and a hard place. Thus ... hard rock. I deal with hard rocks in my jewelry making, but that's not what I meant by my term "hard rock". 

I love my sewing machine. It's the same model as this (although 
mine is in better condition). I've always had a sewing machine 
of my own since my mother bought me a Bernina in 1978. 
My niece has my Bernina now, and I have a New Home 
(now called Janome). Great machine! 

As for sewing, that's a lifetime thing. I'm not a talented seamstress like my mother was, but I know my way around a sewing machine and patterns. For many years I made a lot of my clothes - it was a matter of lack of funds and desire for new things. I recently got my sewing machine repaired, so I'm back in business once again. Yippee! 

Now for a quick tale. Late last month I did a quick drabble of a woman seeking the body of her beloved at the broken gates of Minas Tirith. I'm going to continue that tale and tie it into the three items chosen by my on-line friend  ... 

The wails of others surrounded her, but she heard them not as she fell to her knees beside him. Her trembling hand reached toward the bloodied fabric under the mangled breastplate. Hesitant, it hovered, before coming down to rest on the beadwork. He had laughed while she embellished the sewn fabric with beads. "I'll flash all the way to Mordor," he proclaimed. But he took the token, pushing it next to his heart. Now his body lay broken on the hard rock, the bloodied token all she had left of him. She collapsed, keening, as tears flowed down her face. 

That's it for today. Be well, stay safe, and please wear your mask. Always be kind, and I'll be back on Monday. Thanks for the challenge, Bladespark! 

 

Time To Play - My Day Off Was A Lot of Fun

I got an early start today, not that I wanted to be running an hour ahead of schedule, but I happened to awaken 45 minutes early and it wasn't worth going back to sleep for such a short amount of time. I'll be dragging by my Sunday catch-up sleep, but it goes that way sometimes. 

I needed a day where I could spend a few hours playing 
with my knitting machine. I'd been studying on-line 
classes for much of the previous week, and wanted to get 
some hands-on practice. I even set it up correctly 
without reference to the manual! Baby steps - LOL. 

Yesterday, being my "day off" should have been focused around continuing to clean Sewing Cabinet #3, but instead, I indulged in a day of play (between some general housecleaning and the usual several loads of laundry, the grocery shopping, and a few other errands). As soon as I could, I pulled my knitting machine box out of Sewing Cabinet #1 and opened the box. Before long, I had it set up again on the table I've chosen to use for the time being, and I was reaching into my bag of wound yarns for the pink/salmon colored yarn I had chosen for my "practice" yarn. I settled down with the manual and began working through it. 

I purchased the pattern to make this carrying 
case for my knitting machine last week. I went 
on an Etsy hunt for appropriate fabrics yesterday 
and got those ordered. It'll be nice - wine colored 
fabric with golden strapping and a nice sturdy 
lining of blackout curtain lining material. 

The various classes I've watched on Craftsy and other websites have all recommended working through the manual as the best way to get used to the quirks of individual machines, and I was determined to do this. I'm bringing the swatches I knitted to the shop with me so that I can wash and block them, then I'll photo them and share with you, but I'm really happy. By the end of my time frame, I had managed to cast on, move stitches for eyelets, do slip stitch and create ribbing. I had a blast! I decided to pull the machine down when I got to two-colored knitting - I was running a bit tight on time and didn't want to rush through this since Fair Isle is one of the main techniques I really want to do on the machine. 

I'm taking full advantage of my reduced membership 
fee for Craftsy. There are some links that don't work 
yet, but there's still a lot of information on there that's 
helpful, and some great patterns and ideas. 

I feel much more confident than I did last week, though. I think I'm starting to understand what the machine can do, and I did a lot of rows of knitting in the time I could maybe have accomplished less than ten rows by hand. I can hardly wait to actually make something cool. I want next week to arrive already so that I can play some more. LOL 

Another resource I've been using a lot is "Knit it Now", a 
store that specializes in knitting machines and how to 
use them. I really like their instructor, and their classes 
are excellent. I'm seriously considering a membership 
in them, although it is NOT inexpensive. They have 
weekly classes and what I've been able to see, they 
are really comprehensive and they have a large back 
library of episodes. 

I also found a pattern for a case for my machine, designed by one of the knitting teachers I've really enjoyed. I purchased the pattern (very inexpensive) and then hit Etsy for the various fabrics needed to make it. I've got everything ordered and coming in now - a nice dark wine colored light canvas exterior with blackout curtain lining, golden yellow mesh strapping and some fusible velcro. I'll read through the pattern carefully today and start making the pattern pieces from the brown paper rolls I have to wrap artwork into. I'd like to get PIP (I've named my machine PIP - Pretty In Pink) into a carrier - I think it would be better than the box in the long run. 

A lot of their intro courses are no charge, and 
I've been taking advantage of that, but the 
more advanced classes and on-line classes 
are pay. Their students are from around the 
world and I love the instructor. 

So ... that's my story and I'm sticking to it - LOL. I think I'll look through some more pages of cowls in Ravelry. I chose several the other day at the shop - all free of charge. They'll make some good, smaller projects to get my practice in with PIP. I was so wrapped up in knitting, I didn't even weave a single row on my loom! I might be early enough this morning, though, to squeeze one or even two rows in before I make breakfast. So ... have an excellent day, be kind, stay safe, and please wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

On Wednesday I Cleaned Sewing Cabinet #3 - Photos and Progress Made

DH and I spent a lovely and relaxed evening watching an old episode of "Vera" and eating iced cream, or in my case, Halo. After the episode ended satisfactorily, I actually got a great night's sleep which has been rare lately, so I'm starting things out today on a really great note. 

After I moved things away from the cabinet doors and 
could open them successfully, I started clearing down the 
piles of fabric that were more than three feet high. This 
photo is already cleared down quite a bit. You can see 
lace hanging on the left from a stupid structure that's 
always gotten in my way. I removed it later and reclaimed 
the left corner. The Inkle Loom is on the floor. 

Everything I had removed before taking 
the photo above is stretched out here, on 
the floor. Piles of wool in black and dark 
green, muslin, interfacing, and bags of 
ribbons, and ribbons, and ribbons. 

I've been taking spare moments at the shop to watch YouTube and Craftsy videos of my knitting machine, determined to get it conquered and make wonderful things. I have two large bags of coned yarn I picked up from the Weaver's Guild in prior years. I was going to use them on my rigid heddle loom, but I actually think they're also perfect for my knitting machine. I found them while cleaning Sewing Closed #3, and I was actually delighted with the find. It's all in colors I adore and it's going to make some really cute hats. I think hats will be a good initial project, not as time consuming as a sweater (although there's beginning pattern for a baby sweater that I might make for my Cousin Missy's daughter's first child born in May). I need short projects until I'm sure I can hold my own with the machine. 

Just one small example of the various 
cottons I have. I was sewing and wearing 
Navajo-styled three-tired skirts for years, and 
made them from these fabrics. I've also never 
met a "going out of business" sale at a fabric 
store I haven't fallen in love with. *sigh*

I spent six hours on Wednesday continuing the cleaning process for Sewing Closet #3. I had started it the week prior, but really had only gotten the crap piled in front of the closet cleaned up, barely opening the closet itself. Actually, to be truthful, I opened the closet, realized that it needed serious work itself, and closed the doors again. 

By the time I called it done for the day, the cabinet 
looked like this and the next photo. My serger now 
sits on top of the built-in drawers, sewing books are 
at the very back, and my keyboard, which had been 
buried, is at the far right. I'm not finished yet, though. 

But, on Wednesday I continued. I have at least one more Wednesday to spend on it next week, but it's coming along quite nicely and I'm happy with my progress. I have come to the realistic conclusion that I own TOO MUCH FABRIC. I used to sew a lot of my own clothes. I almost always had a sewing machine with me, and if I didn't, I hand sewed (which I'm NOT fond of). I sewed dresses, skirts, and shirts. I sewed the headboard covering for our waterbed and curtains for the bedroom. I sewed a lot, and loved it. I fell out of the habit when I had enough money to actually buy clothes instead of make them. But there were always things I had to make - they weren't available to purchase. 

The shelving is completely filled with fabrics, 
mostly cotton/poly, but some excellent silks and some 
outstanding woolens too. I need to sell down at least 
50% of my fabric stash before I'll be comfortable. 
I have at least one more day of serious cleaning to do 
on my sewing cabinets, but then I'll be finished 
with the cleaning and ready to start working with my 
materials, fleece and yarn. Baby steps and intense 
Wednesdays are the story of my life - LOL. 

I have cotton and cotton poly mixed print fabrics in the hundreds of yards. I think it's time to start looking at setting up an Etsy store to sell down my stash. I could live 100 years, sewing every day, and not make much of a dent. I think I need to photograph, post and sell some of it. I think "Sandi's Stash" might be a good name for an Etsy store, don't you? 

On that note, and with the photos loaded, I'm out of here. Have an excellent day and please, be kind, stay safe, and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Membership Recommendations and A Warm-up On the Way

My Sunday was relaxing, although I was busy all day. Sunday is my day to sleep in and I indulged in that, catching almost eleven hours before awakening. It's how I catch up on my sleep after six days of short sleeps. I also don't exercise on Sunday, it's a "catch up" day for my body too. 

For years I've been told that catching up on sleep 
on the weekends is actually not good for me. But, 
I've been in my sleep/wake schedule for years, and 
it actually works really well for me. I only get one 
day a week to "catch up", but I do love my extra 
3-4 hours on that single day. 

DH was involved with his computer and then with the football game, so I took advantage and did another five rows of looming on my shawl after breakfast. It still doesn't look like I've done a lot, but I've actually done almost 1/8th of the total threads. Of course that means that 7/8 of them remain to be woven. Last week I didn't weave very much, I tackled loose warps, tightening where I could, and I marked a couple of broken warps that I'll have to adjust when I get to that part in the weaving. I have plenty of silk still spun, so making a broken thread whole again isn't a major problem. 

DH is the Vikings fan, I support the Denver Broncos. But,
after this week's games, we both finally have one in the 
Win column, both standing at 1-3. We'll have to see 
who does better this year, his Purple People Eaters, or 
my beloved Broncos. 

I've been watching a series of classes on Craftsy.com for my knitting machine. I'm just aching to get to work on it, I want to play with my new toy. I think I've finally figured out where I will set it up, but I'll have to pull it and box it back at the end of every work session. I don't have to room to keep this "active". Still, the e-classes have been excellent and I'm excited to dive in. BTW - Craftsy (which recently purchased itself back from a different company) is offering a fabulous membership offer to anyone interested. One year for only $5 (normally $79). That would give you total access to any of their classes, and the quality of their classes is top-notch. 

I fell into Craftsy because they had a series of 
machine knitting classes by the woman who wrote 
several of the machine knitting books I have on 
order. I've been watching her classes and the 
quality is excellent - so much better than anything 
I was viewing on YouTube. It was hard to beat 
a $5 membership offer, so I nabbed it. I thought 
you might be interested, so I posted it here too. 

Another membership that I nabbed on special, was the National Sewing Circle. They currently have a one-year membership offer on tap, also for $5. Again, this allows you to access any and all classes and patterns they have available. As a note - both of these memberships are auto-renew, but you can cancel them at any time, so if you decide you like it, but not enough for the full membership cost, just mark down on your calendar that you want to cancel your membership in September next year. Viola! Problem solved. 

I learned to sew at my mother's knee, and she was a 
professional seamstress for many years. So I learned 
a lot. But I haven't done any serious sewing for more 
than two decades, so I decided to join for $5 and 
refresh my skills. I'll get my money's worth, I'm 
quite sure. 

On that crafty note, I'm putting on a hoodie, making my oatmeal, and enjoying the fact that our temperatures this week are expected to be closer to our normal - highs in the upper 60's and low 70's, and lows in the lower 40's to lower 50's. Since we actually got below freezing last week (thank goodness for those tomato covers I purchased earlier this year), it will be a nice autumn warm-up. 

A month or two ago I purchased three of
these Tomato/Plant covers from Amazon. They 
were a reasonable price, and a LOT easier to 
handle than the old mattress pads we had been 
using to protect my tomatoes in cold temps. 
We used one of them for all three of my 
tomato plants last week for several days, and 
they work really well. I'm pleased with my 
purchase. 

Have a truly excellent day, be kind to everyone you happen to meet, and spread some love and joy - we all need more love and joy in our lives. Be safe, stay healthy, and please, wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Le Tour and Photo Blog of Yesterday's Sewing Cabinet Cleanup

Today is the second day in the Alps, and the most mountainous of the entire Tour. Yesterday was stunning and wonderful, a summit ending after a steep-steep climb that cracked most of the riders. Today's stage will be pushing the riders once again to their limits, as we head towards Sunday in Paris. Here's the profile for today's stage. 

As you can tell, it's a lot of climbing and some 
wonderful descents on today's route. The finish 
won't be as gnarly as yesterday's was - it's a 
downhill finish today - but there's no rest for the 
riders and there might be several who will 
miss the time cutoff after today's stage. 

Yesterday, my weekly "day off" turned into a massive effort focused on finishing the clean-up of my fiber/sewing cabinet. The store had contacted me, and after four weeks, my sewing machine was fixed and ready for pick-up. I had to finish cleaning my sewing cabinet so I had a clean space ready for my machine's homecoming. I had already cleaned out shelves 2 and 3, the storage cabinet next door, and most of the floor. The dreaded shelf #1 - catch-all for everything small, remained. 

I'm making the rest of the blog a photo blog. I started cleaning around 9:00 am, left to get groceries and pick up my sewing machine at 10:30 am (less than $100 for the repair - SCORE!), had a quick lunch at 11:30 and worked solidly until I phoned Aearwen at 4:00 pm. After our call, I fixed dinner, then returned to work on the cabinet for another hour before DH got home from work. Finally, it's 98% done. There are still a few things I want to re-arrange, but I'm generally pretty happy with the results of many hours of hard work. 

After about an hour in, a lot of the shelf had been cleared, 
but I still had the hanging baskets to tackle, and the 
entire right side. At least I can see the table top where 
I put my sewing machine. 

Where was the stuff I pulled off from the top shelf? 
Well, it was starting to get stacked and semi-organized 
on the floor behind me. I was developing quite the 
collection of thread spools, needles, buttons and a 
variety of sewing aids. 

After I returned with my fixed sewing 
machine, I continued pulling things out of 
the cabinet. I needed to wash the shelf, and 
also needed to vacuum the entire floor, so 
everything had to get pulled out of the floor 
level including the "Big Bag of Fleece" I 
had made on one of the first cleaning days. 

Looking back at the cabinet, most of the right 
side has now been cleared and only the bags 
on the left need to be removed. Almost 
ready for a good vacuum. I also pulled 
the cloth from the top of my antique 
pedal Singer machine. I love the machine 
and it still works. I might as well celebrate 
it a bit (and wash the covering). 

Now everything was vacuumed and cleaned up, it was time 
to organize things and put things back in an
ORGANIZED fashion. That's what I've started to 
do here, with my sewing machine back on top, pin 
cushions on the right and fleece on the left. 

Take a look at these weapons. These are the 4-pitch English 
wool combs I just purchased. They are now on the shelf in 
their protective boxes. Thieves beware! I have
combs! LOL  You can see some buttons below on 
the top of my sewing machine shell, and some spinning 
tools in the below-shelf holder to the right. 

I'm almost finished here. The first shelf now 
has things boxed up, not scattered here and 
there. The wool combs have a home and 
my spinning wheel bobbins are organized 
by which wheel they belong to. My 
machine is back in its' home. It's not 
perfect, but it's functional once again. 

I had a bunch of long things that I needed to 
collect together into one container that 
would fit into a narrow space. There are 
things like heddles and sheds for my weaving, 
as well as the parts of my rigid heddle loom. 
I ended up cobbling together a small box to 
hold most of them. The very tallest of the 
items ended up in the storage cabinet next 
to the sewing cabinet. 

One of the things that really sold me on this house was 
the sewing area, closed behind doors and almost 
invisible. This is how everything looks after the mess of 
earlier in the day. I now have these two cabinets done. 
I have the double-door cabinet to the left still to deal 
with, but I'm saving that for another day (or month). 

If you've come this far, then good on you! I'm delighted with my progress, put almost 13,000 steps onto my health watch with all of this work, and my body is complaining that it's not used to so much work (probably true). It's not perfect, but I'm pretty happy, and it's functional now - something it hasn't been for a long time. Have a great Thursday, spread love and kindness, and do a bit of cleaning. It's never our favorite task, but the feelings of accomplishment are major. I'll be back tomorrow for the final day in the Alps on Le Tour de France. 

Drivers License Sucks and Le Tour de France Update

Yesterday's appointment for a new "La-di-dah" driver's license turned into a bust. Apparently the fact that I don't have a social security card (I lost mine decades ago and since I'm self-employed, have never really needed to get a replacement) shot the process dead. I had everything else of the paperwork, but without the Social Security card, a W-2 or an SSA-1099, I couldn't get the fancy license. *sigh* I'll arrange for a duplicate SS card, I probably should have one anyway, but I think I'll get a passport instead - less effort, less money and it lasts longer. 

Apparently, not having a physical social 
security card damned me from being able 
to get my "La-di-dah" drivers license. *sigh*

I was so stressed, I sat down at my loom and did another row in my shawl. I'd show you, but really, it's a project with hundreds of threads and it's going to be very time consuming to get anywhere that looks like I'm accomplishing something. Still, I think I got four rows in yesterday between other things, so I count that as good. 

I've looked at several tall, narrow book cases 
for the inside of my narrow closet, but they 
all seem too high. I have no more than 63 inches
of height and it can't be any more than 
16 inches wide. I'll probably have to make 
something, but I'm not ready to commit to 
that quite yet. 

The majority of my day was spent cleaning. DH had been complaining that I had stacked boxes of books in front of his work station. Well ... he wasn't really wrong. The books I had pulled from my sewing cabinet were in boxes blocking one bank of drawers that contains some of his art supplies. So, I decided to clean out the small closet yesterday so that I could put the books into there. After several hours of work, I ended up with three boxes of photos and four boxes of books taking up space in the closet. I want a bookcase in there for my sewing books, but I'm not ready to commit to that yet. I want to get the storage cabinet cleaned first before making a final decision. 

I had two goals yesterday, though - cleaning the small cabinet and cleaning off the first shelf in my sewing cabinet. I didn't get to that first shelf at all. But, my sewing machine hasn't been returned from the factory yet, so I'm OK on my loose schedule. I'll make it my first priority for next Wednesday instead. 

Today's stage has a lot of ups and down as we continue 
our ride towards the Alps. We'll have mountains and 
peaks for most of the rest of the race, and those are 
always glorious to watch. Things might change with 
crashes on the flats, but the mountains are more 
exciting. 

In Le Tour, today is Day 12 of racing. Yesterday Caleb Ewen came up with the stage win in a well-timed and solid performance at the finish line. Primoz Roglic held onto the Yellow for another day with a 21 second lead over the next rider. Of course, those large leads can disintegrate in the mountains in a fhash. So, on that note, I'm out of here. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Back and Forth and Back Once Again - Yesterday Was Frustrating

Yesterday was a day of fits and starts, retracing steps, and unavoidable delays. All told, when I finally was able to get to my sewing cabinet to continue my cleaning, it was already mid-afternoon. The schedule was the usual - laundry, shopping, and cleaning. The reality had unexpected bumps in the road. 

Target is originally a Minnesota company. I have
one ten minutes north of me, and a smaller one
(the original Target store in the world) seven
minutes south of me. I usually go to the northern
one - it's larger with a bigger selection. 

The first stop was Target. I needed a new set of earbuds for my laptop, and DH needed a new calculator - "one with larger buttons". I got what I needed, wandered through the office supply and the school supply parts of the store (no calculators available except super-duper ones - like buying a hydrogn bomb instead of a July 4th sparkler), so I left Target without the calculator. 

"Oh," I thought, as I unloaded the car from Target (is it even possible to walk out of there without several bags of stuff?). "The office supply company is in the same shopping center as the grocer. After I get this next load into the washer, I'll get a calculator there." The best ideas ... yeah. 

Office Depot is a mile from my home in the same shopping
center as my local grocery. Unfortunately, every shop in
the center was out of power. There is construction occurring
to the west, and I suspect an electrical line was cut by
mistake. 

Driving up, I parked and walked to the door of Office Depot, only to see a sign that they were closed due to a power outage. Back in the car to go to the grocer at the other end of the complex, and they were turning people away at the door - no power there either. Home again instead. 

Putting the Target purchases away, I realized I had forgotten one item that I needed before next week, so it was off, again, to Target where I purchased my single item and headed back home. I decided to take one more look at the grocer, but no - power was still out. 

By the time I was able to clean up some more, I only had an hour of
so of time available. I ended up cleaning the pedal portion of my
sewing machine, which now looks MUCH better than it has for
years. 

I settled down and tried to relax at home for a bit, finally phoning the grocer around 12:30 pm. The gentleman I spoke with said they thankfully finally had power once again, so off I went, for the third time. I found an inexpensive calculator at Office Depot that fit DH's criteria, and headed over to buy groceries for the week, buying a lot of wonderful fruit which always makes me happy at this time of the year. 

I added two more exquisite pieces of wool fabric to my "Wool" bag on
the far left of the upper shelf, and more calico to my calico pile in the
center. I did a bit more rearranging. I'm still not 100% happy with it,
but it's getting there and I'm thrilled with the idea of being able to work
with fiber and fabric once again. 

Finally, when I got to my sewing cabinet, I had approximately an hour to spend, so I couldn't tackle the bottom shelf. That'll require a greater time span. I hit the rest of the floor instead, clearing out the pedal portion of my old pedal Singer machine. I found several more large pieces of wool fabric which I added to the bag on the top shelf, some more calico for that pile, and some beautifully dyed merino which moved over to the spinning pile. The patterns were stacked neatly, and the books that I pulled out of there ended up combining with last week's odd books and magazines to make Box #3 of books on textiles, weaving, knitting, spinning, dying, etc. So I didn't get a lot done, but what I did was good. 

I spent the evening listening to my Colorado Avalanche get their victory over the Dallas Stars, pushing their game into a one-game playoff for who moves on in the Stanley Cup, and watching many You-Tube videos on how to use an Inkle Loom. I know I have one of these in Sewing Cabinet #3 - the one I haven't even started work on yet. I hope to get to that by next year - LOL. Still - baby steps. I'm happy with where I'm at right now. Next week - Shelf #1 - a total mess of small parts and things that I need smaller boxes from the shop to be able to consolidate effectively. 

Today we have a hilly ride up to a second mountain-top finish. We're
getting closer to the Pyrenees, and today's finish is on a mountain
that hasn't been part of Le Tour for more than 30 years. It'll be
new territory for almost all of the riders. 

Today's stage of Tour de France piles three climbs at the end with a mountaintop finish. The last 8 km of the ride are a grind up Mt Aigoual, after the riders have already pushed up through a Cat 3 and a Cat 1. Strong legs will take the day today. 

Have a glorious Thursday and be kind to each other. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Sewing Cabinet Clean Day #2 - I Saw Floor!

My day off was spent continuing my deep clean of my Sewing Closet, and I expanded a bit into the separate, smaller closet on the right which has my full-length mirror and used to hold my mannequin (which currently stands in front of the third cabinet to the left which I won't be cleaning for quite a while yet). 

To see what this looked like before I cleared the top
shelf, you'll have to go back a week in my blog posts.
Once that top shelf was emptied, I started clearing
the pile of fabrics and fleeces to the left of the sewing
machine table. 

I started by pulling everything off the top shelf. Although there wasn't a lot of stuff on the shelf, there was quite enough to keep me busy, and I combined it with dredging down to floor level next to my sewing machine table, and a small clean of the smaller cabinet with the mirror. I did pull a few more sewing books from the small right-hand cabinet - some of my mother's needlepoint books (written in German, of course, so illustrations only for me if I keep them), as well as several excellent sewing and dying books I had collected over the years. The books went down into the craft room to join the two boxes of books I had pulled together last week. 

The side closet is quite narrow. I do have to pull all
of this stuff out and either give it away or put it
back properly, so that I can use it for my mannequin
once again, but that wasn't on the agenda for now. 

The majority of items on the shelving of the mirrored closet are off-season storage in the boxes, and photo albums on the very top shelf. I rearranged the shelves which was all that was needed just now. I'll return to this closet at a later date. Then I returned to the main closet once again. 

I started putting fabric into the shelving, rearranging
to have the fabrics I use more frequently on the second
shelf, those I don't use often on the top. I bagged up
my fine woolen fabrics to help moth-proof them and put
them on the upper shelf at the far left. I have some
wonderful Pendleton woolens that I would like to
keep intact. 

I was finding a lot more wool and fleece than I thought I had. I knew I had the dark brown Romney fleece - a gift from the late 1980's from DH, but I also found lots of exotics - angora, merino wool, and even a small bit of qiviut (yes this is one of the few words that starts with Q but doesn't follow with U). Qiviut is the inner hair of the Musk Ox which is picked from the bushes they walk through in the Arctic. It's amazingly soft, incredibly warm, and VERY expensive. The fact that I have a small sample of this fiber is amazing and precious. 

On the side of the sewing machine table, I cleaned
down to the floor level. You can see one of my larger
hand spindles leaning in the corner at the back. The
large blanket bag that I'm now devoting to spinning
fibres is partially cut off on the bottom right. I think
a good vacuuming is on next week's agenda. 

I decided to grab one of my large zip bags for quilt storage from my linen closet and devote it to spinning materials instead. I ended up with a large amount of cleaned wool and fleece. The majority of my afternoon was taken up by cleaning and washing that dark brown Romney fleece DH had bought for me. It's lovely wool and it will spin beautifully. The new medication my Dermatologist has me on is working like a dream, and I'm hoping to be able to actually spin again. I miss that craft quite a lot. 

My spinning wools, silks and specialty fibers are now
protected in the large quilt protector zip bag. I had the
brown Romney fleece still drying in the laundry
room (it wasn't dry until early this morning, but
will be added to this storage container next week).
I have two more fleeces to wash and card before
they can be spun. I'm really looking forward to
working with fleece again. 

By the end of the day, I had burrowed down to the floor in the closet (next week will be a serious vacuum after I clear the front of the sewing machine stand) and I was sad to have to replace items onto the floor there once again, but I know it's temporary. I have one or two weeks of cleaning left for this cabinet, and I have two more fleeces that I need to clean and wash before storage. I guess I won't be bored on my upcoming Wednesdays - LOL. 

Have a wonderful day, be kind, and please, stay safe. I'll be back tomorrow.