Day 41: Nope. Not gone away yet.

Emily wanted to stay in the city for her birthday tomorrow.  So let it be written, so let it be done.  Ultimately, I was in no mood to try and pack the car and drive in this heat anyway.

So Monday is organizing day.  I didn't take any pictures before or after today because I filled the car and took about 5 medium boxes of stuff to Value Village.  It wasn't particularly visually interesting.  And just in case you thought I was a champion getter-ridder of stuff, it was my mom's car not the van.  The van was in for servicing (and expense...).

So I did organize some stuff.  I did enough sorting to realize I've lost an envelope worth of stuff that I needed.  Grrr.  This is the thing about a messy house that gets me crazy; when I can't find what I'm looking for.

I decided to do a bit of artwork to give me something to take a picture of...

This is a 'Curler Unit Ball' from Trash Origami by Michael G. LaFosse and Richard L. Alexander.  It is made up of 12 identical forms folded separately ( Kusudama).  I'm not sure what I would use it for but it was interesting to make.  In general, I prefer origami to make something useful - I already have too much stuff.

P.S.  Why, yes!  That is Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  I found it today at the Value Village.  You've been looking for one forever?  Oh dear.  I'm sure they didn't have a second one.

Day 17: Unfinished Friday

I'm still in the eddies of the tidal pool.  I must have worked on 5 or more things (list to follow) and not finished any of them.  I find I need a day a week to just putter at stuff.  Part of the puttering is putting stuff away which is a huge problem for me.  Still, by the end of a day of puttering, I don't feel like I've gotten much done.

What did I putter at today?

1. Part of a scarf knit.  One of those ruffled ones I've photographed before.  Purple, this time.
2. Some movies taken to Deja vu discs.  They didn't take all of them though so now I have half a bag of videos I don't know what to do with.
3. More tidying of the completed reno space.
4. Photos gathered from various computers and cameras and installed on my computer.
5. Part of Dan's room is slightly cleaner.  The Brownian Motion of Lego: a future doctoral thesis.

I did come up with a good idea though.  I'm going to get a stamp made for Nimble Mind Studio and use some of my weird and wonderful handmade paper to make business cards.

I also finished a book:  The Time Twister by  Jenny Nimmo.  It was quite a good read.  I have to admit I was surprised; an award winning childrens' author and series I haven't heard about.  I don't know why I'm surprised; every time I go to a bookstore, I'm overwhelmed by the number of books printed every year.  Why I think I should have heard of every good author, I don't know.  Pride goeth...and all.

Day 13: It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.

I've had to take my glasses in for a new lens.  I can't find my back-up glasses.  So I'm wearing sunglasses.  Yup.  All day and night for two to three days.  Or I can go without glasses and see everything but quite blurrily.  Should be interesting.
This has, however, taken the edge off of my ability to do... well... anything.  I'm still working it out.  Luckily, I don't actually need to see to type.  You may get days of drivel because I have yet to figure out how to spend my time.  It's only 5:15 and I'm writing my blog so what does that tell you?  Actually, I had to wait until 9 to finish the blog entry; my computer came down with something and had to have a lie down.
So, I finally got around to taking those photos of the finished stuff from last week.  I did take them without glasses so I'm rather depending on the self-focussing abilities of the camera.  You judge.

A picture of the dried rhubarb/papyrus.  I can't seem to get it to dry fast enough to prevent the centre from starting to rot or mildew.  A problem they didn't have in Ancient Egypt, I expect.  Of course, if you take the weight off to let it dry faster, it curls up and cracks.  Hmm.  Ironing is my next thought.  Got any others?

Two scarves, photographed in the light cube that I bought a while ago.  Another goal for this 365 project is using regularly some of the equipment that I've purchased already.

Anyway, the top scarf is knit with Ondas yarn by Katia with the free giveaway pattern.  A very quick knit (like I could have knit it in an evening except I was using sharpened chopsticks for needles).  The colourways are quite fun.  I keep meaning to take Emily and Daniel to choose colours for their teachers -- not a bad end of year gift, don't you think?

The second scarf is a pattern of my own.  I just was looking to use up some Rowan Summer Tweed.  It was kind of a tough knit.  The cotton/silk blend didn't want to slide much on the needles so the cable rows were no fun.  Still, this might look good and not be too hot during the summer, eh?

Somehow I also managed to get it together enough to clean my one surface late today.  A long while ago, I gave up all media for a week; no reading, tv, radio or computer.  It was amazing how much cleaning got done is sheer boredom.

So this is my side table where all of the 'TV' work gathers to reproduce and party.  It's a struggle to keep this table from cascading crap all over the place.

So this is what it looks like cleaned ... or at least sorted.  Someday I'll figure out how to organize all the little oddments of yarns but then I'll probably die.  This is also apparently where pens go for a good time.  No wonder I couldn't find anything to write with.