A Little Yarn On The Side

Thursday was crazy busy at the store, but theoretically this is our slow season, so the stores are closed for both Saturday AND Monday for the 4th of July holiday.  Since Friday is my usual day off, that means this is a 4-day weekend for me.  YAY!!!!!!!  And do I need it.  I went back to work on such short notice that everything has been really rushed, and my back and hip are exhausted.  Thursday my hip had managed to irritate the sciatic nerve, which is hasn't done before, so I spent the day trying to deal with sciatica.  While it doesn't hurt as much as my long-standing hip issues, that does really, really hurt and it was really difficult to drive home.  I've made an appointment to see my physical therapist again, but it will be two weeks.  In the meantime, stretching and walking are helping it, but I'm still sore.  However, I have finished what I think is one of my longest-planned projects.  I've had "map fabric jacket" on my proje...

Yesterday was my 183rd day without buying fabric, making me halfway to a year since it's a leap year.  And I'm 16 days away from my one-year cold sheeping badge. Then again, when I break down and upgrade Jeeves, that will pretty much take care of my personal allowance for the foreseeable future.......

Today I'm going to figure out a way to wear this, which is a scarf from back when I first bought my serger (2008? 2007?).  I know I've actually never worn it, because while I love the idea of scarves, I always lose my nerve to wear them.  In my mind, there's always a chance that someone will tell me that I'm wearing it wrong (and since that is EXACTLY the sort of thing my sister has always enjoyed doing, that isn't as crazy as it sounds).  But I'm going to wear it ANYWAY.  Because that's part of what I'm trying to do with Me Made Monday.  I think the real key to scarves and shawls is just to wear them with confidence, no matter HOW you've put them on, because in reality no one else knows how to wear them either. 

We went for a 2 1/2 mile walk this morning, and after having to rest for a bit, I hit the sewing room!!! This is some of the oldest fabric in my stash, and it's almost a jacket!  Maybe in the morning I can do a couple buttonholes or pin the sleeves on before going to work.  You know, in case I need a jacket soon in our upcoming 100-degree heatwave.......

By now, I'm probably on every yarn and fabric mailing list in the country, but Denver Fabrics is my current favorite.  Their emails are addressed, "Dear Fabric Enthusiast."  Now doesn't that sound better than "Crazy Fabric-Obsessed Hoarder?"

Okay, I haven't actually been to the Bernina store yet, but I have been checking options online.  HOLY COW!  I really would like a bigger embroidery option, and I do know that I really use embroidery, but I have come to the sobering realization that this is going to be the most money I've spent on something I could neither drive nor live in.  So I'm concentrating right now on finishing projects, saving money, and getting every last stitch out of Jeeves. I did remember Me Made Monday, and for the record, it's not the greatest idea for summer.  Yesterday was 95 degrees, and I wore this I think I have worn it, but I haven't worn it for Me Made Monday (and won't be wearing it again until fall) and since it's new this year , it counts for one of my 20 new MMM things.  If I wasn't working, I might have been a bit harsher about that as a rule, but NOW I'm getting all kinds of flexible.   I did get some crafting in on Friday, "some" bei...

This week I had Wednesday off instead of my usual Friday because the piano people at the main store were attending training, so I filled in for them on Thursday and Friday, as well as filling in for the audio person on Thursday and the guitar guy both days.  It was like a music pop quiz.  We were so short-staffed that I didn't get to leave for lunch, which was a bit disappointing because..... I was going to go look at a new sewing/embroidery machine My faithful Jeeves is having problems again.  First it was not being able to tell the difference between needing a new thread color and having an empty thread or bobbin, but that was workable.  Now it's stopping repeatedly during a design saying he's out of thread when he clearly isn't.  This is all fixable (probably), but my embroidery software can't run on a computer system newer than Windows XP.  Microsoft, of course, hasn't supported XP for years, but personally, I've never found Microsoft's "...