And on the seventh day…

(Okay, so I had some problems with the original host of my blog, so I’m just transferring them. Just, y’know, FIY for anyone who might possibly care)

I have been planning on setting up a knitblog or a cookingblog for ages now. Instead, I think I shall set up a RandomBlog. I will make half-hearted efforts to keep track of my knitting, sewing, and vegan cooking here. Most certainly, it will end up as a page for complaints, apologies for not actually blogging about said things, and then very random tidbits and pictures of pizzas and knitted goods.

I chose today to set this up because I am trying to get my life back on track. Who am I kidding? Scratch that ‘back’. I’m just trying to find a bloody track. I have spent this summer being idle, relaxing, and trying to let go of a lot of things. As I sit and watch my kitties slumber next to me, I feel that I certainly have much room for improvement in the relaxing area. However, school will be starting soon and I would like to be productive once my summer ends.

I think that I have identified the main creatures which keep me from being even mildly productive:
a) my house is a mess. It’s too small and we have too much stuff. I’ve gotten rid of almost 3/4 of our stuff since we moved in, and yet there is still no space. It is no longer our stuff that is the problem, but the space in which the stuff ought to go.

b) I try to do too many things at once, and then have too many things up in the air and when I do decide to sit down and finish something, it’s been so long since I’ve worked on any of it that I just don’t know what to do! Aaagh!

So my main plans are to: Organize the bloody house. I have a walk-in closet in my bedroom that is supposed to serve as my little study-sew-meditation area. Currently it contains piles of things that I don’t feel like dealing with. Eep. That needs to be cleaned out and properly organized. When I’ve wanted to sew, all it takes to curb that desire is to walk in and look at the mess of crap in there. Yuck. Since money is severely lacking in my household, I am trying to come up with creative and cheap ways to set up organization things. Since we probably won’t stay at this apartment for all too long, it will need to portable and not custom-fit to our current environment. My solution so far is to start knitting up a bunch of baskets for my trouble areas.

Area Number 1: My armoire. I keep most of my clothes hanging in the hall closet, but there are a good many that need other storage. Someday I hope to rid myself of this ancient and ill-fitting colour-schemed armoire, but for now it is what I am stuck with. I need the bottom drawers (which are surprisingly well-organized) for knitting and crafty stuff. The top doors open up to a big area with just one shelf. All of my underwear, socks, sweaters, tank tops, etc… are piled in lumps and messes which inevitably end up in an avalanche on the floor. I will not need particularly sturdy baskets, so I am thinking of using any old yarn that I have lying around. I can knit custom sized ones that will fit on the shelves, that will fit the sizes of sweaters and all that good stuff. Currently am working on putting my first one together out of scraps of Sugar’N'Cream. I have bunches of acrylic lying around that will also go into this project.

Area Number 2: Oh that walk-in closet. The biggest pile of stuff in there tends to be clothes that I don’t want to put away or don’t want in that avant-armoire avalanche. With that gone, things should be much simpler. I am thinking of making a few felted baskets that I can hang from the walls. These would be for school supplies and that pile of ubiquitous Stuff that always ends up hanging around. You know what I mean. Things that you can’t throw away but that you’re not really sure what to do with. I would also like to get some canvas and a couple of dowels and try to recreate these awesome little storage units that I found in the dollar store in Victoria. It’s pretty much just a dowelly frame with canvas attached. I’m thinking that no sewing would be necessary, just a tiny saw, some scissors and some hot glue. These would take care of school books and papers.

Area Number 3: My bedroom. I don’t know what to do here. Once the Boy is up and out of the house, I will take pictures of the house and post them. My bedroom has my armoire, my huuge canopy bed, a tiny nightstand, and my husbands futon mattresses. I think my room needs curtains, big time, but unless I come across perfectly matching lime green, yellow or orange fabric in the right size at a thrift store, I’m probably out of luck there. Can’t afford real curtains I think once I get all of the clothes and crap out of there, it will be happier. If only I could do something about Boy’s mattresses.

Area Number 4: Living Room. It’s getting better. I think we just need a few of those boxes for storage of items. Probably also felted ones.

Area Number 5: Kitchen. There is no hope for the kitchen. None.

Area Number 6: Bathroom. Since it is flamingo patterned (my mother decided that I loved flamingos. So now I do. In the bathroom. ? ), I am thinking that I will find some of the same Sugar’N'Cream pink that I used to make our washcloths out of, and just knit a couple of hanging baskets. Maybe if I double knit them with some ribbon or fishing line, they would be strong enough for hanging? Will have to experiment.

Second of the main plans: Organize my list of crafts. What am I working on? I don’t know. Hmm.

Knitting WIPs:

Cable Neckwarmer
Knitted Boxes
Iris (Sweater for my mother)
Stupid Friggin’ Afghan
Scrap Blanket

Sewing:

Citrus Quilt (I’ve been working on it for two years now. Two. It just needs finishing quilting. I could probably finish the whole damned thing in about four to five hours).
White Linen Pants – Truth be told, I think these are getting frogged. I know you can’t frog sewn things, but I prefer the term because it makes me think of cute little green hoppy things. And I love cute little green hoppy things.
I recently bought a book on patternmaking and custom-sewing. I would very much like to start making the things that are outlined in the book.

Okay. So. There it is. I’ll come in later with some pictures and round out my ramble.

A teut a’l'heure.