Run Down and Run Over

Y'all, did you know that home repair is FUCKING STRESSFUL?!

Who would have thought?!

As such, I'm bloody exhausted. Especially because I dealt with a supremely bad panic attack over the weekend.

So, instead of trying to be my usual chatty self, it's going to be a list post.

1. We hosted a dinner party for Renee, Kevin, and Nancy (Kevin's mom). I've never cleaned this house so much in preparation. But I wanted the place to look good. I was super proud of how the dining room turned out, especially the table.

2. I made just a little bit of soup for them, too, since they had family coming into town.

And yes, that's a rolling pin that I had to stir the pot with because I didn't have a spoon long enough to reach the bottom.

That problem, however, has been solved by my awesome new kickass adoptive aunt (and Kevin's sister), Jeaninne.

Oh yeah, this witch has new cauldron stirrer.

3. The weekend after that, we decided to redo the dining room. I had some grand plans originally, which got tossed out in favor of even grander plans.

John got to pick out the color and he did a fabulous job.

We still have to paint the ceiling and get a chandelier (which I have some exciting plans for), but I LOVE how it looks so far.

4. Yes, we're totally doing a Steampunk themed room. As such, I want any metal in here to have some good aging to them, so I got to play with some paint. And I'm SUPER PROUD of how my outlet covers came out.

I also redid a mirror in the same style.

It's behind the bar and it looks so good.

5. The new curtains have completely transformed this room.

6. We also made our hallway purple by mixing in some leftover colors together.

7. The day we were painting, I made some new friends!

8. I'm finally on the last chart of my Quiet Queers Craftalong project.

I'm so ready for it to be done, let me tell you. Nearly 600 stitches per round is a little tiring. But it's going to be amazing when it's done.

9. I have a new bag to carry it in, though, and that's helping with the motivation.

The bag is from MinnieMoonSewing on etsy. And I'm in love.

Yes, yes, I know that it's not green, but I do love the yellow.

AND NOW I HAVE AN AWESOME PLACE TO KEEP ALL MY FANCY PINS!

So we have:

Woolsabi pin from Nerd Bird Makery

Just One More Spinner pin by Twill & Print (gifted to me by my lovely Makenna <3)

Destination Yarn Logo pin from Destination Yarn (not currently on the site. I purchased mine at GLFS)

Larissa Brown Yarn Ball Moon Pin from Twisted Yarn Shop

The sheep pin was purchased at Great Trails a few years ago and I don't have the maker's name.

10. The bathroom has gone from this:

To this:

We got the hardest of it done. Hoping to finish it this weekend coming up. Still have to install fan and lights and finish fixing the wall. AND we have to replace the friggin drain under the sink now because of course we do.

Oh, and paint. That would also be helpful.

Quick shout out to Kevin and Renee for being willing to help us do all of this. There was no way we'd have been able to fix this on our own and we certainly couldn't afford someone else to come in and fix it. Not to mention their generation pieces and parts donations as we realized that we didn't have everything we needed.

11. To try and keep myself calm and relaxed during all the renovations, I started a new improvised scrap shawl.

And it's like the exact opposite of everything I like. But I'm also in so totally in love with it. I don't quite understand why, but *shrug*.

Look at how fun all those colors are. And it's mostly random scraps and minis I had laying around (a lot of them from Mikayla's destashing, so thank you dear) held with just bare ivory yarn. And it's absolutely magical.

Like I said, it's totally not my colors, but this is all I want in my life now.

In fact, I love it so much that I started a second one using black as my base color.

I *may or may not* have a bunch of neon minis now in my posession to add to these..

With more on the way...

12. I may release this as a pattern eventually, if anyone would be interested? It's a great scrap user-upper. Like, I have a bit of yarn in here that was only like a yard long and it just WORKS.

13. I'll leave you off with my beautiful face because I had some really good selfies recently.

And just for John.

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Bliss, Twist, Pissed... So List

So, a day... A SINGLE DAY... after posting about how great my new phone was, I picked it up off the desk AND THE SCREEN WAS CRACKED!

I hadn't dropped it, tossed it... indeed, I was being purposefully careful and gentle with it since our cases hadn't come in yet. Needless to say, I was pissed.

And through a bunch of bullshit, we have to pay a bunch of money to have it fixed.

So a comprehensive blog post isn't really something I can do today.

List post it is.

1. First and foremost, I want to take a second to acknowledge the conversation happening about racism in the knitting community. I apologize for my lateness in saying anything about this on here.

This article from Vox gives a good overview of the situation.

Please take a few minutes to read it and understand what's going on.

I'm working on a longer, more in-depth blog post about the whole situation, including links to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color) artisans who have been generous enough with their time and energy to help us white yarn crafters as we start to acknowledge and work on unpacking our own racial biases. I'll also have links to resources to help in that regard.

As you can imagine, it takes A LOT of emotional and mental energy when you really start digging into biases and racism that you didn't realize you were participating in. So it's taking longer than I like, and I apologize for that.

But I'll leave you with this statement: I refuse to be part of the "silent majority" that some of the worst perpetrators of the racism shown in the knitting community claim I am a part of. I will work on unpacking my own biases, do my best to listen to BIPOC when , apologize and change my behavior when I stumble. I will also do my best to amplify and support the voices and businesses of BIPOC yarn crafters.

2. I got some amazing squish mail today from Knitcraft & Knittery including this indigo test skein...

And these GORGEOUS skeins of her fingering weight in a fun AF colorway name, Drunk Mosquitoes.

These might actually be contenders for my ceremony shawl because...

3. I'm changing shawl patterns... again.

I KNOW, OKAY! I'M A TERRIBLE PERSON WHO CAN'T EVER MAKE A DECISION!

But to be fair, I also JUST found my dress, and it was not I expected I would end up with.

There are some minor changes I'm planning on making, but I am SO in love with it.

But you can see how having my super large cape-like shawl is going to cover up and overwhelm the dress.

So I've decided on a Boo Knits pattern instead. Still gorgeous, full of beads, but a better compliment to the dress.

But that means that I'm going to have to decide on what yarn I want to use.

Joy.

4. I'm still cranking away on Teroldego. I'm through the colorwork section and am on the striped section before the big lace section.

I was hoping to maybe have it done in time for the next pj party, but I don't think that's going to happen. Especially because my wrists have been bothering me, so I've been trying to give them a break.

5. I GOT MY BULBASAUR FUNKOS!

I want like 80 more, but John says no. :(

6. In addition to the new phones we got recently, we were able to get an iPad tacked onto our plan for just a couple more bucks a month, so I've been having fun playing with Procreate and the Apple Pencil.

7. I'm particularly proud of how this bujo spread came out.

8. It was hair color time for us. Saturday, John went to a purple with more blue undertones.

As for me, mermaid is officially out.

And witch is in.

I am SO in love with how it came out. I can't wait to see how it fades.

And in case you were wondering what I look like as a blonde...

9. And here's a picture of Oj to finish out the post.

If you'll excuse me, I have about a billion different green yarns to look through. 

Until next time.

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