A Room of my Own: Furniture

After all the coats of paint were dry--including all the Q-tip dots I made with white paint all over the ceiling to cover the red splatters--it was time to build some furniture. Months earlier--when we were working all this out--I purchased a large, adjustable, white craft table at IKEA and I really liked it. So we were planning to match everything to that. Plus, I loved the clean lines and the white energy against the brightly-colored walls of the room. Something about white in a craft room always makes me happy!

These shelves were our best fit -- and price. We used a 4-unit bookcase stacked on an 8-unit one. Fit just right. And it left enough room between bookcase and ceiling to store little photo boxes on the top. We also took the time to secure these to the walls, of course! The finished product is about 8ft/2.4meters high. With this set, I was able to store my fabric, books and binders easily...until I buy more books, that is. And yes, I got sucked into buying those little black folding chairs, too. They are so cute!

The table was called GALANT  but now has another name. I had it for two years before we even did the rest of the room -- how time flies. I love the corner workstation and desk! I had to watch out for the left/right thing on the desk. Got a little confusing.

My hubby and I headed to IKEA to get the furniture we had planned for 2 years earlier: a corner desk for the computer, a sewing table/desk, and some book cases for one wall. For the bookcases, we went with the KALLAX series. (Why does IKEA do everything in ALL CAPS? It always  feels like they are shouting at you, even from the freeway as you see their sign!)

In case you are thinking of bookcases for craft storage, consider this: a while back, we found a huge set of the BILLY series on Craig's List (for pretty cheap!), and thought we had struck gold. That is, until we looked at the dimensions. Be careful that your bookcases are deep enough to actually hold books, binders and craft supplies, or anything else you plan to store. Do you want to fold fabrics on the shelves? Stack boxes?  Measure your stuff! I was surprised by how deep my books were compared to the bookcases.

The little ALEX chest of drawers can be found here. It turned out hold a lot of notions, trims and extra crafting supplies. I even have a knitting drawer in it! As you see, a lot still needed to be done. 

The BILLY series is only 11"/28cm deep, which was not going to be enough room for my supplies, at least not comfortably. A little shopping early on revealed that KALLAX was going to be the best price for us, as well as 15 3/8"/38cm deep, with plenty of storage room.

A little more measuring of the room helped us pick up a corner desk, the MICKE corner workstation and the desk, which has a hole in the center--probably for a computer, but I put my sewing machine cord in there.

I know this is sounding like a commercial for IKEA, but it was so easy to make everything fit! Plus, we made a day of shopping! There's a Starbucks nearby at Cascade Station. This was made more exciting by the fact that we spotted Trailblazer Lebron James -- though we had no nerve to approach him!

Why are we looking at couches?! It must be the IKEA trap.

The one! I was trying to save some $$ and so did not buy the drawers, but it also worked out as they would have been
useless to me. It paid to be patient!

The table, now called BEKANT! What th-?! Does it even matter?! What ARE these names?

Mommy, Daddy...I really need a desk. Yes, she got it. Sigh....and no,
she does not do homework there. 

A Room of my Own

My mantra--I've had this magnet on my fridge for some
time! Turns out it fits into my Craft Room decor now!

This is normally the time of year where I talk about how I have failed to post, what I have done, etc. Well, this year is mostly no different. However, quite a bit has happened over the last year, and while I usually gloss over past events and focus on only the current ones, I will not be doing that this time.

Instead, I intend to take some time to catch up on the blog. There are a lot of things I'd like to share, and I hope you will feel it is worth it, dear readers. Along with life/knitting events, one additional thing I intend to continue is The Sock Project. (You will be able to single out those posts as that name will be in the title). But for today, let's start at nearly the beginning: what I did over last Spring Break.

It turns out that Virginia Woolf was right: having a room of one's own truly is amazing and wonderful; and it is all the more glorious when you have waited 28 years for it. We now (finally!) have only 3 of our 6 children living at home, leaving one bedroom free. A guest room, you say? I think not. A craft room it was.

So, last April--after many months of discussing how to do it--my husband and I set out for real to create a special room for me in our home. Oh, I had been using the room for a little while already, but with weird, odd and end furniture. Not to mention that the room had a strange, musty feel, as though it was always dusk in there. Now it was going to really feel like my room.

My new room has been a marvelous getaway in my own home, the place I go after work and waaaaaayyyyyyyy too much intense human interaction. In fact, it sometimes feels like a vacation when I am in here! (Of course, I am in the craft room right now...)

The next few posts will be the story of how we did it, and will hopefully contain a few good DIY tips along the way. Let's get started!

Jolene's mural, done around 2003. She is now 28 years old and has not lived at home for 11 years!

To begin with, the room we used had survived two teenagers. It first belonged to our oldest daughter, Jolene, who is an artist. She is our free spirit, with a BFA in dance and a love of visual art as well. Back about 14 years ago, she painted a mural on one of the bedroom walls. It took her several weeks to complete and meant a lot to her; in fact, it took me quite a while to finally make the decision that it would not truly be MY space if I left it up. So, I took some nice photos of the mural and intend to put them into a special book for Jo. Then I had the daunting task of covering multiple layers of acrylic/latex and some oil paints, along with a healthy dose of teenage angst.

A triple layer of KILZ did the trick and brought the room back to its original very drab self. It also revealed the red "mistakes" that were all over the ceiling and floor moulding, leftovers of the mural and of another wall, which at one time was fire engine red.

Sad, but time to move on!

When my son Alex inherited the room once Jolene left for college, he hated that red wall (mostly because my daughter had painted the outline of a girlfriend on it, and it was just plain creepy). Alex requested that it, along with the non-mural walls be painted white. Now, those white walls were dirty with years of stinky teenage boy.

Covered! Whew. 3 coats of KILZ

The filing cabinet and a couple of the white walls. Also, note the bamboo
shade in the window. Not at all conducive to my 50's theme.

Morning always bring me strength and determination! Anything seems
possible!

Notice the coffee cup -- always at the ready!

In the early morning of the day after the KILZ completion, I contemplated. Colors, themes... I realized that my hubby and I had not really done a very complete job of planning the room. We really had a rough sketch for IKEA furniture and a budget, but had not gone much farther than that. I thought about how drab the room was...like an old office space lost in time (except for the red splatter here and there). It even had an old, dead taupe-colored filing cabinet, given to me by my mother-in-law. It was so useful...and so plain.

I decided the room needed energy, and I had only one week off work, so I hit the paint department at

Inspiration!

Home Depot. I had recently been doing a little research into the 50's era for another project, and had been charmed anew by the decor and clothes of the time. I decided to use 50's kitchen colors as a jumping off point, as weird as it may sound for a craft room. but I love the robin egg blue and the cherry reds of the time, so I decided to go for it.


More next time! Stay tuned!

Here is a tiny sneak peek:

The End of Betsy's Stalking.

Meeting a knitting hero!

I continue to work on the Wendy Johnson socks -- the heel has me slightly confounded at the moment. Truthfully, I was confounded about 3 weeks ago and put them down "for a minute," and have not picked them up just yet. They are sitting next to me right now, keeping me company. Nagging me, really. The live stitches on them have been moved, however, from my addi turbo circulars to some Knitter's Pride Dreamz circulars. I was irritated with the tiny needles and blunt tips. And when a girl wants some stilettos, where does she go? The yarn shop, of course.

On a very rainy Sunday afternoon, exactly one week following my last blog post, I headed to the fabric store. ( I know -- I said the yarn shop. I will get there. Promise.) I needed Easter dress patterns and fabrics for me and my daughters and oh, WOW were there some serious coupons that day! I took Amy Rose, my 7-year-old with me to occupy her while daddy worked on the car in the garage. 

The garage, complete with a "Tailgater" radio, loads of tools and shop towels all over the place and one swearing daddy is no place for a first grader. 

We set out on our fabric adventure. 

Amy Rose and I spent over an hour at the magical fabric store. Just like newly dyed yarn, there is something about the smell of new fabric that calls to me. Mesmerized, I follow it all over the store, my nose leading the way. With each new colorful, fragrant row, there are new enchantments. If the Pied Piper were made of new fabric, I'd follow him to the ends of the earth. 

At the fabric store, this fantastical journey with the piper always ends in paying him. I gave my due to the young lady at the cash register and the spell was broken. 

I suppose that this created some sort of a letdown, coming off the fabric store high, because I mentally--and somewhat unconsciously--began looking for another fix. I lingered in my running car for a moment. It slowly occurred to me that Blizzard Yarn and Fiber, one of two newer shops here in Vancouver, was close by. I knew they had an excellent needle selection, and it was on the way home. I needed some pointier needles, after all -- some stilettos! Yes, of course! I couldn't continue my Wendy Johnson socks another minute without better needles. Another reason for another lovely nose-enchanting high!

Armed with those few, thin, grown-up "reasons" to stop by the yarn shop, I headed that way.

Amy Rose protested in the back seat, "I just wanna go hoooooomme!! MOM! I'm so tired...." some familiar little kid whimpering followed, as if extra noise created needed and convincing emphasis on the statement. It was a mix of fake crying and moaning. It was accompanied by some deep leaning to one side in the car seat to be sure I saw the exhaustion. 

"Honey, it will only be a minute. Then we'll head straight home. Promise." 

More whimpering. I was unmoved. I was following the Piper again. This time he just had a different

instrument. 

The 10-minute drive felt longer than ten minutes to both of us. As I parked in the spot right by the

front door, my suffering waned. I dragged Amy Rose from her car seat and we headed into the store; I danced in, Amy Rose plodded.

Once inside, though, Amy Rose's mood lifted. I thought that maybe she heard the Piper, too.

It was Amy's idea to head over to the voices around the corner. We peeked.

And there she was. I thought. Betsy. The woman herself. I knew it was her. I was pretty sure it was her. I had never seen her in real life, though, never heard her voice, never watched her knit as this woman was doing now. Maybe it wasn't her. Maybe I just wished it.

I stared too long. Nervously laughing and chatting momentarily with the other women as the saleswoman who was working that day stood to help me with my needles. I welcomed the escape and we walked back to the front of the store where the needles were kept.

She has no idea, I thought. She doesn't even see me stealing glances back over around the corner. I nervously bought my needles and was poised to walk out of the store, never knowing the truth.

"Mommy, can we stay?" Amy Rose shook me, "Let's look around. Maybe can we sit down at that table and have a rest?" She said this so everyone heard.

Stunned and horrified at the idea of lingering and the possibility of being found out as the stalker I truly was, I stammered, "S-s-s-ure, honey. Let's look over here." Still glancing back at the table, I dragged Amy Rose to the back left corner of the store, as far from the rectangular table as I could get. I feigned shopping for yarn. Everyone at the table had gone back to the business of knitting and visiting, they had no idea of my obsession!

I sneaked around the isles, stealing glances of the Betsy-look-alike and hearing them women talking. After a while, I had to dare to walk past the table to another part of the store, so as not to be accused of shoplifting instead of stalking.

We smiled at the knitters.

There was nothing in the other room.

Okay, I thought, there's no option. We have to pass back by the table. We'll have to sit down. I asked the women unnecessarily, "Mind if we join you?" They are gave an energetic "Sure!" and invited us to a couple of chairs. I inconspicuously pulled out my Betsy McCarthy "Starter Stockinette" socks (seen in the last post) and began working on them.

After too many minutes of small talk, asking the other women questions and trying--but failing--to listen to their warm and interesting responses, I decided to strike. I addressed Betsy. I told her I felt silly, but had to ask if she was who I thought she was. And, after all that self-imposed stress, turns out it was hardly a big deal. Turns out she is the most approachable, humble and sweetest-natured person you could ever hope to meet.

I confessed I was knitting her sock right in front of her, and she just smiled. Of course, she likely knew it all along. Then, she told me about her life here in Vancouver, how she takes walks with a mutual friend of ours (who still lives in her building, in case you were wondering!) and how they take walks through downtown--and knit at the same time. Once, she told me, it took several blocks for her to realize that her yarn ball had fallen and been trailing behind her, unwinding all the way! That last story did it for me: Betsy McCarthy was a kindred spirit to me in some ways.

So, I guess, when you meet your heroes, sometimes it turns out okay. Sometimes they are more than you may have imagined, and maybe you even will have something to talk about. Sometimes, they may even let you take a picture with them at the local yarn shop, where it turns out you both buy yarn.

The Sock Project: Stocking Betsy McCarthy

I have come, once again, to the heel gusset of my toe-up sock, Rosebud, by Wendy Johnson. Now it is getting exciting! I like this pattern because the lace is not overly complicated and is (so far) only across the instep. Plus, there is a nice relaxing plain-ish round on the even rounds. An advantage of toe-up knitting, as we all know, is the try-on factor. And this socks seems to fit well so far! I think it is a keeper.

In keeping with my spazzy knitting style, I have, of course, started a second sock simultaneously. My rationale is that one needs a plain, simple knitting project for those times when the show you are watching is getting too good (X-Files? Oh, YES!!! Plus, Ghost Adventures just started up again...ahhh, guilty pleasures!), or if you are visiting with friends, or your family is asking for dinner...again! I love to feed people, but does this seriously have to happen every day?! In this last scenario, as I stand up and roll my eyes, headed to the kitchen, I have not lost my place and I will not be freaking out later about which round I was on. 

My second, simpler sock is another "back to the beginning sock," by Betsy McCarthy from her first Knit Socks! book. I purchased this book years ago when it first came out. I didn't know at the time there were loads of knitting books and this one was recommended to me. Plus, Betsy McCarthy is sort of a neighbor to me. She lives in my city, Vancouver, WA. She lives in the quaint downtown area of Vancouver. I even know where. 

Look! It stands up on its own!
And without starch, too!

Am I stalking (or is it stocking...) her? No, but not too long ago, I happened to have just one degree of separation from her. I should have taken advantage of it at the time.  I had a casual acquaintance through work who was her neighbor--like across the hall neighbor. And Betsy McCarthy personally taught this casual acquaintance of mine to knit! For free!  This casual acquaintance of mine is also the person who recommended the "Knit Socks!" book! Once I had realized the significance of all this good fortune, it was too late: my casual friend had disappeared and I have never seen her again. 

That's okay, I still have the book. And later, I also purchased the second version, you know, just to support my local gal. Plus the patterns are very, very simple and functional -- and well written. Pretty important stuff. 

The sock I am working on from her is simply called Starter Stockinette (now we really are getting back to the beginning!) I was having a little trouble her recommended getting gauge on a US3/3.25mm, on my Rowan Superwash Wool worsted weight yarn, which I am madly in love with, but I digress. The pattern called for US3/3.25mm to get 6 stitches to the inch. 

Two things: 

1. That is pretty dense for worsted. Red flag or hard wearing sock? 

2.  I have only knit this particular yarn at about 4.5-5 stitches per inch in the past, so was unsure about needle size. 

It fits! Just enough slouchy on the ankle. I can push it down a bit after
washing. Superwash softens up anyway. 

The answer to the second question required a bit of swatching. So, I knitted in the round for a while and realized I had to go down to a US2/2.5mm. And what do you think? Yup. Almost total cardboard. BUT I am going for it because I think it will be tough fabric and it feels like a boot sock. I need some of those. I am seriously down to the holiest of holies on that. I so love them in my hiking boots -- even if it just for walking around town in order to accidentally bump into Betsy McCarthy. 

I wonder if she likes Starbucks...there is one near her building...and I do sooooo love Starbucks....

Get cozy,

Janelle

                     

The Sock Project: February 5, 2016

The old one

I have decided that the best way to name the posts on my ongoing sock project is to use the date. I was thinking of  "Stardate," or "In the Year of Our Lord," but neither quite fit the bill. So, for now, regular ol' date it is.

This week's story is about learning -- and when is knitting not about learning? It is endless, which is one of the most enjoyable, challenging and annoying traits of the sport. Or hobby. (I dislike that descriptor. Look, the only time I am closer to a sport is when I cook for the family on Superbowl Sunday. Let me have this one.)

I began at the beginning, sort of. I picked out a pattern I had downloaded (free!) long ago called Diagonal Lace Socks by Wendy Johnson. I even had the yarn for it. Alas, since my last post, I have frogged the toe, foot and part of the heel. I felt it was too big, in spite of getting gauge, to stretch well enough on my foot to show the lace. I could have easily altered the chart and pattern for 8 less stitches or so, but I decided that I also didn't love the lace pattern. And what is the use of spending so much time on a knitting project if you don't love it? The yarn has been redirected to another Wendy Johnson pattern from the Toe-Up Socks for Every Body book called Rosebud Socks.

This pattern is interesting, has the same design elements that attracted me to the last pattern: a gusset

Rosebud Socks. I like them already!

from the toe, up; lacey (but prettier), and a toe-up heel flap. Same brand of yarn -- Dream in Color Smooshy -- and same gauge as the previous one. There is one small catch:  it calls for a 66 stitch circumference, just like the last one. Pushing it for me, especially with lacework that needs to open up when worn.

And to boot, this lace pattern is also a bit more complex.  Won't be able to alter this one "easily" mathwise! So this time, I went down a needle size. Last time I used a US1, and I got gauge, but the pattern really called for a US0. This time, I am following the rules and using the smaller size. Sometimes I have learned, you might be getting gauge -- or you think you are -- but just a tiny adjustment makes all the difference. (Ever have that weird experience where you get the stitch gauge, but not the row gauge? Or vice versa? I think this might be something like that. I am hoping, anyway!)

We'll see what happens! So far, so good. And I think a toe makes a good swatch. And a foot is an even bigger one if one is still not certain whether to continue a pattern.

And if you haven't checked out Wendy Johnson, you should. I love her patterns and her blog. On the blog, you can watch her knit up project after project. And she knits so fast!! It is positively inspiring. Especially if your socks are wearing out and you have to really get on the stick.

Happy cozying,

Janelle