robknits

What's new

     OK, Kim is demanding a healthy rate of blog growth.  Here's a capsule summary of life chez Rob.  San Antonio is sunny and warm, but it actually did rain -- really rain -- two nights in a row.  I didn't say much to Kim aboutu the weather when she called because she told me it had just snowed in central PA.  (I wanted to be nice.) The job is good, more than good.  The house feels like mine, but needed an air conditioning repairman yesterday, and still needs screens, a lawnmower, a landscaper, and some final unpacking.   On the reality side of life, what I thought was an allergy to whatever blew in with the storm might in fact be a cold, so instead of going to knitting group activities this weekend, I am sticking close to home.

     The knitting is still a bit up in the air.  Meeting with knitters encouraged me to get going, and I did start a sock with the Apple Laine Best Friends yarn.  Here is a picture -- as usual, I think sock toes are very cute.  But I decided at just this point in the knitting that I didn't want to do this one all in stockinette, so I have to decide what stitch pattern I am going to use.  The Apple Laine has brilliant colors and a very luxurious hand.  Thanks again Kim! 

     I found both the beginnings of the second Moving sock and the finished first sock.  I do not remember why the yarn on the sock in progress was broken, but I am going to use this as the carry-around knitting project.  The stitch pattern I used on the first sock was a K3P1 rib which is easy to do in stolen moments.

     I found: all the red sock yarn, two more hanging sweater shelves used to store yarn, and a lot more aran weight, the Victorian Lace book, and more knitting magazines.  At this point I am out of shelves and containers, so dealing with all that came to a halt.  This weekend I will buy more clear storage containers for the aran weight yarn another garment rack; I will put together a closet shelf unit sitting in the middle of the studio; and I will create work spaces in there.  I also found some old WIPs/UFOs, and one, which was on the frog list, now seems like a brilliant choice for life in San Antonio.  This cardi is done (in one piece) up to the underarms.  I used Henry's Attic Monte Cristo II combined with a mystery carryalong that my former LYS had.  It was from a Vogue Knitting pattern that I now have to find again, but I think it was the cover sweater so that shouldn't be too hard.  I think it was on the frog list because it just seemed inappropriate for central PA.  Or because I was sick of it.  Don't remember.  I do like the way the two yarns came together.  Here they are individually.  

     My goal for the weekend is to put projects back together by rejoining patterns and yarns that got separated in the move.  That of course will let me get going again on projects.

     On other fronts: I went to two concerts this past week.  In one, the San Antonio Symphony shared its music stands with members of the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio to play Stravinsky's Ballet of the Elephants.  A fun, free concert at Trinity University.  Then on Monday night I went with some of the same people to hear a quartet called Soli.  Three of its members are also San Antonio Symphony players.  They specialize in modern and contemporary classical music, a genre I would have told you I dislike.  Actually, I always felt I just couldn't hear it, couldn't figure out what was going on.  This quartet played at a local art gallery, with seating for maybe 50 or 60 people in folding chairs.  The music was fascinating -- I was completely absorbed for the entire concert.  They played pieces by John Adams, Hindemith and Elliot Carter (I didn't love the Carter as much as the others).  The cellist played a solo piece written by Crumb.  It was great.   

     I was sorry to miss the knitting club at Yarnivore last night, and I am going to miss the monthly potluck dinner of the Alamo City Knitters tonight.  Not as depressing as it might have been, since there is such a dynamic knitting community in San Antonio -- I can catch up with them again on Tuesday!

Getting back to my needles

     The knitting meet-ups here have helped get me back into knitting mode and out of my stuck-without-a-project rut.  I did need something relatively simple, something to knit on autopilot but as I have said I got stuck when I thought of socks, immersed as I was in my new sandal-friendly environment.  But there was a sudden breakthrough.

     First, I fell in love with the Chevrolace sock pattern from Knitty's Winter 07 issue.  Not sure how I missed it the first time around.  Knew immediately that I want to use the Dream in Color Smooshy yarn that I have in the Wisterious colorway.  (The second from the left in this line-up of last summer's sock yarn splurge.) I couldn't start right away though since the Smooshy is not wound.  So winding that is on the do-next list.  (The other yarns in the picture, from left to right, are Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in Moody Blues, Lisa Souza Sock! in Mother of Pearl, and Schaefer Anne in Mint Caramel Frappe.  All awaiting the perfect project.  I don't like the self-designed pattern I started with the Anne.)

     Sock-yarn blankets were also on my mind, as a way of providing a continuing mindless project.  The problem was I couldn't help trying to plan the colorwork on a mitered project, which was kind of beside the point.  Finally, I picked up one of the afghan or Tunisian crochet hooks I have, one too small to make a nice fabric out of heavier yarn, and started experimenting with bit of leftover sock yarn.

      I can't stop. 

     I love the woven look you get with afghan/Tunisian crochet.  And I love the motion involved.  But the relationship among needle size, yarn size, and fabric is quite different in Tunisian crochet than in knitting.  I am using a size G Susan Bates hook.  That's a 4 or 4.5 mm size hook, the equivalent of a size 6 or 7 needle, that I am using with fingering weight yarn.  In knitting that would get me a lacy fabric.  In Tunisian crochet, that gets me an OK blanket-weight fabric, but I really could have used an even larger hook to get a drapier fabric!  That's why I ordered such huge hooks to experiment with fabrics for jacket patterns.  As you can see, I am working in broad color groups with a few contrasting colors thrown in.  The result? I need to knit more socks to get more leftovers!  That helped reignite my interest in knitting socks too.  Isn't that funny?

I don't think I like the brown/copper bit I used in the blue-ish strip.  And I think putting together lots of strips will look as uninspiring (to me, but then, it's my blog) a grannie-square afghan.  So, I think I am going to make strips of varying lengths and then somehow put them together with navy blue sections, in a quilt-like kinda way.  Til then, though, I am just going to make strips of left-over sock yarn.

     So in addition to knitting Chevrolace out of the Smooshy Wisterious, I am also going to start a pair of all-stockinette socks with the  Apple Laine Apple Pie sock yarn in the Best Friends color Kim gave me as a going-away present.  I was also able to look back through the blog to discover what stitch pattern I had used on the Moving socks, done in Paton Kroy Eclipse.  So I can work on sock #2 there.  So with a sock yarn leftover project in motion, and 3 sock projects about to take off, I appear to be back in my basic knitting status.  But I still have to find the following:

• More sock yarn is hiding somewhere.  Missing is my stash of red sock yarns, including the gorgeous Mysterious yarn I bought from the Knitting Zone.  There is an APB out for red sock yarn on Inspiration Drive.
• The Campanula WIP.  I know I saw it somewhere.
• My knitting notions in a clear cosmetic bag.  Now THAT is critical.

I could be blue

     This is the first time in years I am not spending this gorgeous May Saturday at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival with other fiber-loving friends.  And these past 2 weeks I have, finally, been feeling the emotional strain of moving so far from friends and family.  So, in a moment of self-pity, I took a picture of Bam and thought of MDSW.

     But, ya know, it is Saturday, and gorgeous, and I am quite happy.  Why? Last night I went to Yarnivore.  I was feeling kind of sorry for myself, no one to play with, go to dinner, go to a movie, go to hear music, on a Friday night.  I thought, well, a knitting group is not really what I had in mind.  But I went over to Yarnivore, figuring time spent in a yarn shop is never a downer.

    Wow.  I love the shop.  The owner, Melanie, is great.  And the knitting group rocks.  I left 3 hours later, full of hummus and pita chips, a bit of rose, and lots of rollicking fun, laughter, knitting and new friends.  Kate (rockharder81 on Ravelry) invited me to the knitting potluck happening at her house later this month.  Anne (haashausknits on Ravelry) said, "Girl, I was mad at you!  Why didn't you tell us you had arrived in San Antonio!"  Birdy agreed.  All on the Alamo City Knitters group on Ravelry.  Stacy immediately gave me her phone number.  Keyla sat next to me and chatted.  More and more folks came, chatted, knit, planned... It was great.  Felt like home.  Especially when Diana gave me hug as we left.

     The cherry on top?  A former colleague, Lisa, had given me a gift certificate to Yarnivore at my going away party.  So I came home from the party with loot and a renewed focus on knitting and spinning.  Here's the loot.  First, some Sockotta, part wool, part cotton, part nylon sock yarn.  In the past I have knit only one pair of socks from this kind of yarn.  My hands felt the lack of elasticity, but my feet love wearing the socks.  These colors really grabbed my attention.

     The other loot/gift from Lisa?  Some to-die-for, merino and silk roving in a colorway called Jacaranda.  (Yes, it is purple, and teal, and green.  Why do you ask?)

     The experience blew away my blues. 

     Now, to the house.  Now in place, at the entrance to the studio, a gift from my State college next door neighbor (pic on the left).

Also about the studio:  I realized I had been so focused on putting away wool, fiber, fabric, etc., that I had not established places to work.  No wonder I can't get started.  So I am off to remedy that.  But... I still want to hear all the Maryland Sheep and Wool stories. 

Finding my feet

     The camera and the computer are once again communicating.  When I went shopping for a new cable, I ran into that incredible-rate-of-technological-change thing.  I didn't come home with a new cable, but with a teeny tiny little card reader.  It will apparently read memory cards I have never even heard of, but, more to the point, it reads SD memory cards, and thus my computer can see my pictures.  I work in a field and a context (libraries in universities) that obsess about new technology -- I really never again need to hear that we are working in/toward the Library 2.0 -- but I still can't keep up.  We are working on setting things up so that the students sitting in the library can use their cell phones to text questions to the reference librarians, and I half expect to go in to work next week to discover the students are wayyy past that.  Anyway.  Pictures.

     After all that, I decided I don't want to post another crooked picture of a halfway organized closet.  The yarn is slowly marching its way (soundtrack: The Volga Boatmen) into the closet.  I need some more clear plastic boxes for the heavy wool and wool/mohair blend yarns.  Though some inspiration for using it has just come along.  Knitters for Macuwita sni  has suggested we concentrate on mittens this year.  I love knitting mittens, as I have said as nauseum on this blog, since they are small projects that allow for a lot of creativity and color.  They also do not lie on your lap in 80 degree weather.  They also provide a very satisfying use of all those small leftovers, or stray skeins.  And, done in nice thick warm yarns, they are finished very quickly.  So you may see more mittens chez Rob.  I am actually really focused on lace, but have not focused long enough to start the projects I am interested in.  And I think that lack of attention means I have once again screwed up the Free and Easy Pie Wedge Shawl.  Hmmm.

    On the uplifting side... I have been experimenting with yarns uncovered in the move that just refused to work in any project I tried for them.  Some of those apparently unknittable yarns are taking very well to Tunisian (afghan) crochet, especially when I realized that if you go up, oh, about 4 sizes above the recommended needle size you get a lovely fabric.  StitchDiva has some great tutorials, as well as some gorgeous handmade supersized Tunisian crochet hooks.  But I didn't really want to spend $30 a needle for experiments, and the locally available afghan hooks don't seem to come in large enough sizes.  Someone on Ravelry suggested Twin Birch and I ordered some needles from them.  When they come in, I will try the formerly unknittable yarns on the supersized hooks.  They already look pretty interesting on the needle sizes recommended on the label, but the fabric produced that way is too stiff.  After the needles come, I will try again.  Oh, and I bought myself a little present when changing addresses on all sorts of websites (Paypal, the mortgage company, the insurance company) led to computer-based frustration. (Get this: to change my home address, Paypal wants to send a security code to my old phone number. Is it just me or is that really something worthy of being published in the Out of the Gene Pool section of News of the Weird?) Ahem.  Found at Michaels, where I was getting pictures framed:

A very nice small bag that will keep my carry-along knitting from snagging on everything in my humungous shoulder bag.  And you can see what's in it, which is important.

And another anecdote on what makes San Antonio charming: I went again to the Candlelight cafe on Sunday, looking for the knitting group.  I hadn't, however, posted that I would be there, or asked if anyone else was going, so at first I thought I would be there alone.  Then I saw someone knitting.  So I went over and introduced myself and was invited to join the folks at that table.  While she was not there for the knitting group, it turns out the knitter was Bobbi Ravicz, the founder of Yarn Barn, which is transitioning to its new owner.  Bobbi told me about the weaving guild, and how she started as a weaver, opened the store at first to supply weavers, and now that she has semi-retired from the store she will finally have time to weave again.  We talked about lace and about Lacis, about knitting with wool in San Antonio (Bobbi says absolutely!), about looms, shops, and Maryland Sheep and Wool.  I left with her phone number.  Nice.

Two steps forward...

     Lots of unpacking in the craft room took place last night chez Rob.  As usual, once I gave myself permission not to do what had to be done, I was able to motivate myself to do it.  It is too weird that I respond to my own urges by saying, "Hey, you're not the boss of me!"  But hey, whatever works.

     The heaviest yarn is piled up in bags at one end of the ginormous walk-in closet, waiting for clear plastic bins.  After living here for a year, I will determine if I will ever again be able to touch aran weight wool and mohair, or if it has to be redistributed throughout the fiber world.   The sock yarn is being stored, appropriately, in a hanging shoe bag on the garment rack.  While at the moment even the sock yarn feels too woolly to touch, I don't want to give up making socks.  I could happily live in sandals and clogs for the rest of my life, but I found myself cooing over the handknit socks as they emerged from suitcases and laundry bags.  So I am holding off on the sock-yarn afghan idea.

     Bookshelves and cubby units are now holding books, spinning and weaving equipment, weaving stash, and fabric.  Another storage unit thingie is awaiting assembly.  Then I have to decide where the work tables go.  There are still boxes left to unpack, but a very manageable number of them.

     You may have notice that no pictures accompany this entry.  My computer suddenly decided it does not recognize my camera.  After a number of attempts at correcting this (turning things off and on again, using a different USB port), it occurred to me that perhaps the problem was the cable.  But get this: buying the official replacement cable will cost over $40, while other folks insist they have the equivalent for about, oh, $5.  Hmmm.  I am going to shop locally and then, hissing in frustration when I drive all over town with gasoline at $3.45 per gallon without being able to find it, I will have to decide which to order online. 

     Meanwhile the creative ideas keep bubbling up.  Once I can find everything (more or less) I want to get started on a number of projects, lots of them experiments for decorative or art pieces.  Ideas keep exploding for:

• lace or modular pieces done with the small bits of weird Habu yarns that I have
• an art quilt done with two beautiful pillow tops I bought, some gorgeous and emotionally resonant fabric that used to be window treatments in my mother's bedroom, and some other designer fat quarters in the pretty-much-never-used quilt fabric stash
• finding and resuming work on Campanula.
• Some small weaving projects from Time to Weave and Handwoven's March Bag of the Month.

All, of course, while I continue to work on the house and learn my new job and meet new people and take Pilates classes. 

Sounds good to me.

Designing my space/Meeting knitters in SA

     With so much going on, and not much time or energy left over at the end of the day, there is lots of blog fodder but few blog posts.  This entry might be of epic proportions or the first of many... I am not sure yet.   Topics to come include:  Designing my space, The Itch, Finding the Inspiration Collection, Why "Studios" was a disappointment, Shelves Bags Shelves Bookcases Hooks Cubbies Rollers, Fiesta, Meeting Local Knitters, and Oops I bought a front loader and suddenly want to make felt coasters.

     Designing my space and Shelves Bags Shelves Bookcases Hooks Cubbies Rollers are, I suppose, the same topic.  As the infinite regression of unpacking rule explains, in order to do something that appears to be simple -- i.e., oh, I think I'll start knitting a scarf -- you discover you have to take care of approximately 6 preliminary actions.  These can include everything from finding which box has the laceweight yarn to building an addition on to the house.  The studio is full of intimidating piles of stuff (see the photos of intimidating piles of stuff) and I needed to figure out how to organize everything.

After much waffling and delaying, I realized that I was trying to create permanent sorts of storage and work areas in a room I had never worked in.  Instead, the room needed modular, movable, redefinable storage.  I moved a couple of units like that (otherwise known as a bookcase and a little shelf unit) into the humungous closet in the studio, and then ran out and bought an inexpensive freestanding garment rack.  Designing a huge closet of built-ins before I lived and worked here??? Nuh uh.  I clambored over and through the boxes til I found the hanging sweater shelves that worked in my last yarn closet, et voila .. began unpacking yarn and tools.  So a bit of progress has been made, and maybe 4 or 5 more boxes were emptied.  I have some more pictures of the developing storage space, but the computer has just informed me it does not recognize the camera, and I am going to leave that problem for another time.

     As mentioned in an earlier, entry, the magazine Studios, a special production of Interweave Press's magazine Cloth Scissors Paper, came out just as I moved and was the first new fiber purchase to come to the new address.  But it was, unfortunately, pretty disappointing. Their solutions and studio designs consisted of lots of white shelving and baskets with contents organized by color.  Well, yes.    There were a couple of good ideas provided by some of the fiber artists they interviewed, but all in all, it was not much help and not even the ads were tempting.  I could have used a good article about lighting, or vacuums for fiber.  Though there was one studio, built in a hayloft, that had me drooling.  So I am working on organizing the yarn closet in modular movable ways, and then, once most of the boxes are empty, I will try to figure out where to put the two tables I have, what kind of lighting I have/need, and ... don't get me started .. the chair issue.

     With help from a new member of the Knitters Review forum, I have gotten back to work on the Free and Easy Pie Wedge shawl, and that's what I took with me when I finally got myself together and went to my first San Antonio knitting group meeting. (See Kim?  I made it.) This group meets EVERY Sunday ( oh bliss) in a wonderful, casual, funky coffee house/wine bar/ brunch-lunch/live music cafe called the Candlelight.  I met Amanda, a serious dyer of yarns with an Etsy store -- www.LoneStarArts.etsy.com -- who was knitting socks, and showed off one of Cookie's Monkey socks. Amanda is also a nuclear engineer.  (Really.)  She also told me that there is a fiber festival, aimed at weavers, spinners and, of course, knitters, in the town of Boerne in the fall.  That's very near here!!!!   Juanita was there, knitting socks from Amanda's yarn.    She is a graphic artist who, in order to test some machinery at work, printed out two decals about knitting that are now among my favorite possessions.  I will scan them when I get the scanner hooked up.   Where would you put a decal that explained that you knit so that you don't kill anyone?  Amy, who is a teacher, was at Candlelight too.  She is close to finishing the fish blanket (these are someone else's fish -- I couldn't find a picture of a finished fish blanket).  Amy started the blanket as a new knitter, which was very brave.  The cafe was great, the knitting was great, the knitters were great and I realized as I drove home that the route took me past Central Market, a Whole Foods kind of place.  So this might be the beginning of a great Sunday routine.

     The itch mentioned above is not medical, thank you very much.  It is a creative itch.  I have ideas galore that I really want to get to.  But the half-done state of the house is depressing, so while I found some of the yarn I have ideas for, and found the needles, I am going to stick to the Free and Easy Pie Wedge shawl and focus the creativity and energy (such as it is) on the house.  It is hard at this point -- I am very ready to be over the process of moving.  And it was very hard not being with family last night for Passover (especially since a series of problems and issues meant they didn't call).  But I just did my first load of laundry in the new washing machine (who would have thought that could be so exciting, but finally, it is here and installed), and I am going to get a LOT more done before bed tonight.  So I can get to that gorgeous purple and copper yarn you can see in the hanging shelves above. 

Fiber reappears

     Fiber returns chez Rob. 

• Some knitting happened last night, on the Easy and Free Pie-wedge Shawl from the Helen's Lace label.  First knitting done since everything went into the moving van.  Unfortunately the label itself was not where it should be, in the ziplock bag with the yarn and the shawl-in-progress.  After sitting and staring at it a bit, I remembered what to do on 8 out of the 10 rows in each repeat.  I cannot for the life of me remember what happens on row 9, though I know it is different.  So I got 8 rows done.  Now I either have to find the label or find someone who knows what happens on row 9.
• The first yarn to arrive at the new address -- 5 balls of Jojoland's Melody in colorway 8. But the first Internet purchase to arrive at the new address?  The Studios issue of Cloth Scissors Paper.
• Why?  Well, here is a picture of the studio.   Nope, forget it, that is way too depressing.

Still waiting to happen:

• While I have missed several opportunities to attend knitting get-togethers here in San Antonio, I now have them on the calendar, and even programmed into my cell phone's alarm.
• I really want to get to some silk spinning, but that has turned into an infinite regression problem.  Before I can unpack the spinning wheels, I have to make some space in the studio.  To make some space in the studio, I have to unpack the boxes.  To unpack the boxes, I need to take a lot of yarn out of them.  To unpack the yarn I need a place to put it.  To (re)make my yarn storage, I need to measure the walk in closet and get closet rods and shelves in there.   So I have to head back to Lowes or Home Depot (!!#%***!!!#*#*!) in order to spin silk.  My response to that? Let me know if you know what happens on row 9 of the Free and Easy Pie Wedge shawl.

Do I still knit?

     That's a serious question.  I have not touched my knitting in weeks.  Now, of course, in the past, months went by between bouts of knitting, and most folks would not consider a hiatus of weeks to be anything to even think about.  But we know better, don't we?  It was very disconcerting to not miss knitting, and even to being to wonder about all the time I had sat (relatively) still, concentrating on my needles and yarn.

     Now, after my second week in my new job, I am slowly settling in, feeling as if I actually live in this house and that the act of moving is coming to an end.  We are starting to meet the neighbors.  There's one, below right, who appears to have an affinity for my deck.  Maggie doesn't object either.

  And I am very comfortable in a town where you can buy funny wine at Target and in the supermarket.  On the left is the funny wine -- funny because it is Bandit Pino Grigio from a company named Three Thieves.  It is pretty good Pino Grigio, and I bought it at Target.  Lightbulbs, a toilet plunger, and some Pinot Grigio.

      There are still boxes and boxes of things, especially in the room that will be my studio.  There are still piles of things waiting for their new home.  But today I went with a new friend to the Crownridge Canyon Natural Area, just an exit or two past where I work, to walk in the gorgeous weather and learn a bit about local flora and fauna. I can now sit comfortably to read, without -- well, almost without -- jumping up to take care of just one more thing.  So knitting has crept back into my head and the desire to knit has crept back into my hands.  It has also come up because, here in south Texas where the temperature has been in the 80s since I got here, I have been absolutely freezing to death.  Restaurants and university buildings, especially, are just downright cold.  So I have been fantasizing about shawls and stoles, and cardigans. 

     Taking a break from my routines, though, has also allowed some creative thought to creep in.  The corrugated cardboard "yarn" I bought years ago from Habu is slowly knitting itself into a piece of wall art in my head, and, when I find it in all the boxes marked "yarn," my hands will finally begin working with it.  A tremendous desire to spin has been building.  But first, I have to tackle the walk in closet in the studio, making sure I have the right storage so that I can unpack all the boxes piled up in that room and see and have access to all the fiber, yarn, wheels, spindles, shuttles, looms, and the sewing machine.  I can't wait, so I am off to measure the closet.

     Before that, though, a note about the blog.  Starting anew here made me think of doing some minor but long overdue redesign of the blog.  The name has also undergone a minor change.  All my whining about ending up in a 50s ranch led to the name change, actually.  Some of the street names in some of the developments around here terrified me.  What if I found the perfect house on High Stepping Drive?  Or Gomer Pyle Boulevard?  Or worse -- on War Paint Lane?  One of the areas named each street a different phrase that started with the word "Spring" -- Spring Brook, Spring Meadow, Spring Shower, Spring Blossom.  Not offensive, but I would never remember which street was mine.  The house I ended up buying is on Inspiration Drive.  At first I flinched, kind of embarrassed.  Gradually though I came around to accepting my inner 1950s identity and decided to own living on Inspiration Drive.  I have decided I have to live up to living on Inspiration Drive.  Thus the tweak in the subtitle of the blog.

Moving, Part 3

     Can't call it "on the road" anymore, since I am here.  So here is Moving, Part 3, which is all about pictures.  The very first installation I did when I got here was for cable/cable internet access/and cable phone.  But of course I didn't have a tv with me, and took until just a few minutes ago to resignedly sit down to start a long annoying process of making cable internet access work.  So I plugged in the cable, started the laptop -- and there was the internet.  No installation.  No passwords.  Just. Instant. Internet.  And really really fast internet too.  So... some pictures.

Maggie demanding her lawyer.

Frannie assuming the travel position:

And now, pictures of the house.  As you can seen, these are nude portraits.  My stuff is still somewhere on the road, and while I am in severe sticker shock, having bought appliances for the kitchen yesterday, they have not yet been delivered.

First, a front view, with car.  Looks pretty southwest-ish, doesn't it?  That's pretty satisfying, because in other ways, this house is such a continuation of what has been.  I grew up in Levittown NY, and appear to have moved to the San Antonio version of that.  But as my friend Sabine, who first saw the house with me, noticed, I was immediately comfortable and at home in this house.  Next, a view from the kitchen through a corner of the living room into the family room.  The family room is on the left , with i ts window hidden behind the tree in the picture from the street.

    The kitchen will be very nice, once the sticker-shock inducing appliances and my table arrive.  At the moment it is furnished with some folding chairs and some bags and boxes.  The floor is a large ceramic tile that looks like stone, and the appliances are all stainless.  Once I get over the sticker shock I will replace the old dishwasher you see, the only appliance that came with the house. 

     Now for the living room.  Hmm.  I don't have any living room furniture.  My current stuff will be going into the family room.  On the left, the room added on t o the back of the house that I will be using as a studio.  Those gorgeous French doors open onto a rear deck.  At some point I want to cover the deck.  And I need to buy a grill.  Here's a picture of what you see through the French doors.  This room also has a walk in closet that will be great for organizing all the fiber art materials.  The last picture I have to show today is of another bedroom in the house that is going to be the study/music room.  No pics yet of the room I am using as a bedroom, and of the guest room.   

Well, I am off to find some dinner.  Tomorrow morning I go to work at my new job, and, tomorrow night the refrigerator will be delivered.  I really really want my stuff, and rumor has it the truck will arrive on Tuesday.  And a million thanks to everyone who has called or sent emails or left comments here on the blog!

On the Road 2: Floods and Cats

     In the depths of moving pyschosis, with the tvs unplugged and the cable turned off, I had no clue that a major storm was tracing my route to San Antonio til the morning I left.  The New York Times weather map showed I would be driving along the curved spine of that storm.  That information hardly registered.  I drove in snow flurries, a moment of hail, and some rain to Dayton.  When I left the next day, the rain was worse and the visibility was pretty awful.  As I continued through southern Ohio and into Illinois, I began to notice that there were farm fields that looked like lakes.  Poor farmers, I thought.  Hope that dries out before it's time to plow.  Then farther into Illinois and into Missouri, and I saw telephone poles in the middle of what looked like more lakes.  Water lapped close to the edges of the interstate.  When I spoke to my sister, she mentioned flooding and the rest of the world knocked on my moving-obsessed brain.  The interstates are built on slightly elevated road beds, so those roads were fine but the folks in southern Illinois and Missouri were really hit hard.  I read in today's paper (a San Antonio paper!) that folks in one  Arkansas town whose name I saw on an exit sign are facing evacuation.

     When I left Forrest City AR however, the sun had finally come out and I drove the rest of the way in sunshine.  The trip was long, and I was really tired of hotel stays by night 3, but it worked out really well to spend one more night on the road, and arrive Friday morning, rested and happy, in San Antonio.

     So how did the cats do, you ask? (Well, some of you ask.)  Amazingly well.  Incredibly well.  Each one rode in a carrier on the back seat, with a blankie or towel inside.  No yowling.  No car sickness.  When I arrived at my cousins' home in Dayton, Terry had already set up two LARGE dog crates (used to be used for German shepherds), and we put each cat inside, with a litter box, said blankie, food and water.  That worked well too.  Maggie soon demanded out, and I let her out into the bedroom, but the new room combined with a curious resident cat and dog outside the bedroom door was too much even for my brave Maggie, and she ended up in a defensive position under the bed.  She came to me though, and I put her back in the crate.   Getting Maggie into her carrier the next morning was of course no problem.  Frannie though had decided she was not leaving, and we ended up in a comedy routine with Terry lifting the back of the crate to tip her toward the carrier and Frannie clutching the wiring and hanging by her front paws.  I am sure the howling laughter did not make her more comfortable.  Then, once we got her into the crate, the unlatched door (sorry again Terry) opened, and she ended up under the bed.  But Terry is patient and used to cat behavior, and in another comedy seen we used a foam bolster and a curtain rod and got her into the crate.  Frannie made it clear we were vicious cat abusers.  And traveled the rest of the way in her new travel position.  But the cats were so quiet during the trip that at one rest stop I pulled off to make sure they were still breathing.  I have pictures I will add later.

     Along the road I kept them in hotel bathrooms, with their carriers, blankies and disposable litter boxes, and it was not hard to find pet-friendly hotels.  Having started out in the master bathroom in the house here, they now have the run of my bedroom and one other room.  There is still no furniture, and probably won't be til Tuesday.  Sigh.  I am off to buy appliances, curtain rods, and other exciting things, and have explored enough to find the Starbucks I am in at the moment, the Super Target and Best Buy.