Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Bearing up

Physically things are much better today.  I'm slowly doing some cleaning, nothing heavy but much needed vacuuming and dusting.  I set aside a small area for a mini-art studio, in front of the window with a portable table and a lamp.  I can use my computer desk chair so I don't need to sit on a hard wooden chair.  Now to get the motivation to actually get back to drawing.  I also would like to start working with paints as well.  I've got acrylic, water colors, oils and pastels and no real experience with anything but oils.  The area is good as it doesn't have carpet under it in case I spill something.  I can get a plastic cloth for the table or just let it get painted.  It might add to its charm, who knows?

Emotionally I'm still very drained, very angry still and incredibly hurt.  The fact that firstborn thought I was being territorial and thought it funny added to my pain not a little. He was busy this morning attacking my political perspectives, which I'm sure his new mommy and daddy don't share.  It sounds as if they are lining up with him politically and religiously.  My husband thinks this will all blow over and I'll get over it and firstborn and I will just be buddy-buddy in a short amount of time, but I think this one crossed a line for me that won't be forgotten soon.  I really don't hold grudges but at times I think you need to hold onto the things that hurt you in order to prevent the same people from doing it over and over again.  I had to do that with other family members and I think this is another situation that needs to be held onto as well.

Zach did a bang up job on the rest of the house today without being asked.  He cleaned the kitchen, which for him with his OCD is near-miraculous.  He does try to push past his comfort zone.  The fact that he was shaking like a leaf afterwards really meant that he was incredibly uneasy with the germs and such involved in washing dishes.  Even with the rubber gloves on.  I'm so proud of him.

I would very much like to get back to the frugality mindset we used to be on, especially as we need a new car and soon.  I'm trying to hold out until October because we will have just one payment left on the truck then.  I hate having two vehicle payments going on.  I'm going for more practical this time, with a car whose windows roll down, air conditioning and an engine you can work on, including replacing the headlights without having to put it in the shop.  And no leather seats.  I have burned my thighs too many times in the summer on these seats.

I am thinking of subscribing to a knitting magazine.  I don't knit enough clothes and I don't push myself to knit complicated patterns so I'd like to start doing that.  I got a trial copy of Creative Knitting.  I've bought a copy before and I do like that they use yarns I can afford instead of the pricey brands I have no chance of using... ever.  I've got a few copies of Interweave and Vogue but their patterns are more trendy and expensive to knit so I think I'm going to go with this mag.  They've got Knit 'n Style at StuffMart but it costs a bit more and I don't see as many patterns in there that I like.

There is a pattern in Creative Knitting July 2011 of a girl's dress that I would love to knit for my great-niece but I hesitate to as I have no idea what she likes.  Even with inexpensive yarn it would still cost a bit and the time element involved would also add to the emotional value of it.  To put that much effort into it and have her turn her nose up would put me in a down mood.  Still, I love the dress and would love to knit it.  sigh

It's about time to gather up sock yarn for the winter.  I don't need any thin socks but I might knit a couple of pairs so I can keep some gifts on hand.   And I definitely need more bulky socks but I don't want to use Wool Ease again.  I might just go with wool this time.  The wool socks I knit several years ago don't have a single thin place on them and have never needed darning.  It's getting to be a pain spending all winter darning socks.  Superwash is more expensive though so I might just stick with regular wool.

I got my spun singles out so I will remember that I need to dye them.  I didn't get to them today but I will tomorrow if I can.  I do need to weed the garden tomorrow but that won't take all day and I don't have to get it done all in one day anyway.  I'd love to get it done so I can get back to spinning.  And I need to scour my fleece so I can card and spin it, too.  I just found out that there is a knitting shop out in the country on the way to town and they have their own sheep so I might look into whether they sell fleeces or not.  Or even roving.  It would be nice to have some local wool to wear.

Well, I need to finish up the living room and start supper.  It's later than I thought.  I have labs tomorrow afternoon.  I don't know if they are fasting but I haven't been getting up until noon lately so it won't matter.  I won't have eaten anything by then anyway.

TTFN

2 comments:

Carol said...

I subscribed to the digital copy of Creative Knitting, which I love. I like the digital, because I got access to over two years' worth of back issues. Each issue has a page of thumbnails of the patterns in that issue, so I print those, put them in a notebook and am able to easily pull up the issue I've saved in a file for them to print the pattern when I'm ready for it. Digital is also less expensive than paper.

Kathy said...

That's good to know, Carol. I think I'm going to go with paper copies right now and next year if I still want to keep with it, I might choose the digital copy. I do love curling up on the couch with a knitting magazine though. :)