I'm Still Here

My muse seems to have left me. My linen lace flirty skirt has attacked me. I've been tagged TWICE! and I just can't seem to put pen to paper . . . er, fingers to keyboard. I've probably lost the small following I had. Come back, pleeeeeease!

First of all, after I made my list and checked it twice I remembered a lot of projects that should be incorporated into that list of priorities. I'm going back to my modified version of Guru Laura's Rule of Threes. More on that to come.

Secondly, the first plunge into the lace of the flirty skirt has derailed me. "Knit the knits, purl the purls" has me all a shook up. Are YOs knits or purls when you get back to them on the next round? When you're doing YOs is there such a thing as a purl YO? In my shaken up stage I took another plunge and enrolled in TKGA's Basics Basics Basics which wasn't to arrive for weeks. It arrived in days--so fast it made my head spin! So now I'm shook up and my head is spinning. Not good when at the threshold of the big holiday season, especially when you're trying to clear out and sell two houses and clear out and remodel the one you're living in. But I can do it because I'm a woman--W-O-M-A-N!

And last but not least, in this entry are seven random and/or weird things about me you probably don't want to know and couldn't care less about. 'The reason for these seven things?' you ask. My guru Laura, The Scarlet Knitter, tagged me. To make it even more interesting one of the other people she tagged, Necessary Chocolate, also tagged me. Thanks ladies! Now do I get to write 14 random/weird things about myself? I can do it, but I'll limit myself to seven right now:

1. I'm left handed until my right hand thinks it can do the job better and then I become right handed. I write right handed, eat left handed; draw right handed, color left handed; wield a knife left handed, cut with scissors right handed; juggle? I use both hands and still can't do that.

2. I love Cape Cod. It makes me happy. It is my Laughing Place.

3. I'm a hobby junky.

4. I'm a collector, a very bad thing when you are a hobby junky. I have doll, rabbit, dollhouse and coin collections. Also yarn, fabric and needlepoint stashes. I mean COLLECTIONS and STASHES! I won't even list the minor ones.

5. I hate heights. I'm talking about higher than the second floor. Flying requires much psyching up on my part. Forget walking across a bridge. Save me from those glass capsule elevators providing a panoramic view as I rise or fall. (Well, it feels like falling!) And don't even think about getting me over to the observation window in a tall building. Just writing about it makes me weak in the knees. Steps with no risers? There'd better not be very many!

6. I can keep a secret . . . forever.

7. I am a loyal, protective and trustworthy friend. After all, I will carry your secrets to the grave.

Second seven to follow. Right now I'm trying to come up with three others to tag. Problem is many of those I'd like to tag don't have blogs. Kind of defeats the whole purpose, doesn't it?

Bona Fide Knitter

Making a List . . . Checking It Twice

I went to a dollhouse miniatures show on Saturday. Dollhouses were my passion three hobbies ago. There is knitting, sewing, doll collecting, quilting then dollhouses. Before that there is needlepoint with a little cross stitch and crewel thrown in and crochet. What can I say? I'm a hobby junkie. And you will notice that I don't refer to any of them in the past tense. Anyway the biggest most prestigious show in the area, Philadelphia Miniaturia, was held last week in Cherry Hill, NJ.

I hadn't attended the show in years. My mother, Margaret, and I used to attend yearly without fail when we were Mari-Mar Miniatures. We were never vendors there, not good enough, but we knew many there from other shows we were part of and we'd spend the day shopping and getting the inside info from friends in the know. We retired from the miniatures game and my mother became unable to attend the shows. She passed away almost two years ago. When I first got there yesterday it was odd not to be able to reach out, grab her arm and say, "Mar, look at this!"

Oddly enough the show was almost too big. There were sooooo many vendors--two ballrooms and a lobby full! Many were new to me, but there were still some friends left from the old days. We talked about the show's beginnings in Philadelphia, actually Willow Grove, a Philly suburb. It was held in a seedy motel, the George Washington Motor Lodge, and was the show not to miss. All the best miniaturists were vendors there. This year's show was the 39th year and the vendors are even more talented. Miniatures have come a long way since using acorns, bottle caps and "found" items to outfit a dollhouse. I watched some of it evolve in the 80s and 90s, then missed a decade. In the new millenium, miniatures and dollhouses are really something to behold!

I was determined not to buy anything. I have a workroom full--a miniatures and dolllhouses stash to rival any yarn stash! Looking on the vendors tables I was freshly reminded of just how much I do have. However, around my third hour there, I succumbed. It was the needlework that got me. I know I have many needlepoint kits of the fine scrim--40, 54 and even finer--that I gave up on when my eyes aged, but I didn't have any knotted work or punchneedle. I do now! What the heck! My eyes have been rejuvenated with surgery. I can see again. I'm going for it. I also bought another magnifying headgear thingy as insurance. I should be good to go.

Which brings me to the list I'm making and checking twice . . . I'm packing in new projects for my hybernation this winter as if I don't have enough already packed in! However, it is now time to rein myself in and make a plan. I'm currently working on the lacy skirt without regard to time, temperature, meals, obligations or completing the beach socks. The skirt has grown unwieldly and can no longer be my take-along project so I will go back to completing the beach socks while on-the-go. The list continues as follows: finish lacy skirt and start lacy socks, finish Abundance Afghan then start the Vivian Hoxbro sweater. If my timing is right this should occur right after I've had a class in shadow knitting at the Pottstown Knit Out and Crochet Too in January. That's as far as I'll go with the list today. I'll check it later and again tomorrow.

I have another list to make. I've been tagged! More on that in the next entry as I have real life and the real world intruding on my hobby schedule today. I'm outta here.

Bona Fide Knitter