DesigKnit

It has been quiet on the blog here lately. Things have been pushing in, crowding out the crafting time. They’re important things, so I’ve let them push and have put off the crafts for a calmer time. After this past week, most of those important things have been done, and it’s time to start pushing back.

I believe that this is the key moment that defines whether we dream, or whether we create. Productivity is determined by the point at which you push back, the time when the creative urge becomes as important as (or more important than) the other things that cry out for attention.

I also believe that being willing to push back is essential to being productive in the non-creating times. I am willing to work hard and to forgo my crafting time without resentment because I know that I will return in due time. In fact, a break is sometimes the best way to recharge and refresh my drive to create. When I live without it, I realize what it means to have it there.

In that spirit of pushing back and reclaiming mental space, Branden and I have been hard at work preparing the physical places where we carry out our work. This has been ongoing for several weeks now, and has been mostly complete for the last two. Now, it is just a matter of finishing touches.

Today, we bought a carpet for my office.

We’ve also been working on turning the basement into a dye studio. When we first came to view this house, we were excited to find a sink in the basement that is suitable for dyeing.

We were a little less excited to find that that sink is surrounded by a very nicely finished basement with new white countertops and beautiful cabinets.  It’s much easier to ignore a few stains on an unfinished cement floor than it is on linoleum and new cabinetry. To avoid damaging the property, the first step of creating my new dye studio was to protect all the surfaces.

We bought a huge roll of sheet plastic, and I began cutting pieces to size.

We wrapped the countertop, the cabinet doors, covered the walls, and lined the cabinets with plastic. Every surface that belongs to the house is covered (or will be soon). Then we bought a roll of archival quality artists’ tape, and hung it all in place. We added in my dye tables, and a piece of utility carpeting to keep it from being slippery. So far, I think it’s cost about $30, and most of that was the tape. (It is worth every penny.)

We’re also planning to buy rubber standing mats, but haven’t ordered them yet. Soon.

All my empty jars are ready and awaiting dye.

And the other supplies are lined up and ready to go.

I placed an order for more fiber this Friday, and I’m hoping for a dye day in the next few weeks. Stay tuned for Polwarth, Shetland, and Finn. (As always, color suggestions and challenges are welcome…just leave a comment or follow the link in the sidebar.)

We’ve never lived in a space this big before. In fact, this is the first time that I’ve had a room all to myself since my sister was born (I was 2 1/2 when that happened). It’s a new thing, having all this space to spread out and work on crafts. We are very lucky, and plan to take full advantage of the area we have.

And lest you think I am getting all the room, you can see that Branden’s geek cave is also fully equipped with things to keep him busy and productively amused.

In fact he is – at this very moment – hard at play.

I think it is time for me to do the same. More soon!

This week started out with a kind of last-minute trip back to Madison on Sunday night, which lasted until Tuesday and in which I worked 24 hours in 2 days, but managed to collect a huge amount of data for our paper-in-progress.

Being back in Madison meant that I got to sneak out of lab for lunch and knitting with my favorite knitting group. The three of us have met once a week for over a year now, and it was nice to be back for a visit.

The other thing that was nice is that it actually gave me an hour to sit down and actually knit. I think I’ve only spent about 30 minutes doing that since we moved. (I know!)

The terribly neglected and not often mentioned sweater has acquired a second sleeve since the last time you saw it:

And that sleeve is moving closer and closer to completion. I did decide to pull back and redo the shoulder shaping for the first sleeve, so it needs a few more inches added, but it’s getting close.

But really? At this point I’m just glad to have taken up the needles again. Slowly, slowly, things return to normal.

Slowly, slowly normalcy is beginning to return around the edges of our lives. I’ve given up hoping for a return of sanity (at least not until mid-August or so, anyway), but at least things are starting to quiet down again, and there are glimpses of downtime amidst the rush. On Saturday, we went to our new farmer’s market.

It is berry season.

Actually, I almost missed strawberry season altogether this year. This was the last week for strawberries (and they were phenomenal) so we bought a lot. While we were at it, we bought blueberries, too.

If you buy nothing else at the farmer’s market, buy your berries there. They are worlds better than the ones we’ve been getting in the grocery store while we’ve been too busy running around to make it to the market on Saturdays. There is nothing like this flavor, and they freeze beautifully. I’ve been using a lot of frozen fruits lately, and the store bought ones are just never the same as these that come fresh from the farm to my freezer at the height of summer. They are beautiful.

We froze some, and then on Sunday I canned some. I’ve been hankering to try strawberry balsamic black pepper jam since I saw Elizabeth’s pictures on her blog, and so I started with that. I used low-sugar SureJell because that’s what I had, and kind of mushed together the SureJell and Ball book recipes to get what I wanted. The first day, I couldn’t taste the pepper much at all, but it’s beginning to bloom a bit now, and it adds a really interesting warmth to the jam. Definitely a keeper.

I also made blueberry sauce, which thickened up beautifully despite having no added pectin or apple juice, a testament to the berries’ quality and ripeness. It has already become my favorite salad dressing base. A little sauce, some white wine vinegar, fresh herbs from the garden, olive oil and a little salt, and you have instant gourmet dressing. Love it.

We don’t actually eat a lot of jam in our house, so most of the sweet canned goods I make end up turning into sweet-savory sauces of one kind or another. Plum and apricot preserves become sweet and sour sauce for chicken, strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry jams and sauces become salad dressings or pancake syrups. Cherry preserves get worked into muffins or brownie dough as extra moisture and flavor. Of course, the sauces and looser jams also make for amazing ice cream toppers, especially paired with chocolate sauce. Everything finds a use, and seldom on a piece of toast (especially since losing gluten, bread baking is not the same and certainly doesn’t happen as often).

So we added a few more jars to my absolutely favorite cabinet in the whole pantry:

All the remaining jars from last years’ bounty, and a whole row of empties just waiting to be filled. Who could ask for more?

And then, last night I finally sat down to do the finishing on the woven piece that I took off the loom just before the move. It would be nice if it were 6″ longer, but it fits almost perfectly on the dining room table that came with the house. I’m noticing in the picture that last night’s ironing didn’t really get out all the wrinkles, but I think I’m going to ignore that for now. I’m so pleased that it has found a home in the new place.

Tonight is the first night that I am going to take off from unpacking and preparing the house for guests. We’ll be going again full swing tomorrow, but tonight is time for a cease-fire. I’m not honestly sure what I’m going to do; I’ve been going for so long that I’ve kind of forgotten what was queued up before the rush, but I’m sure I’ll find something. Knitting is closest, I have some weaving books to peruse in search of my next project, and the wheel is calling. There’s never a shortage of things to do, is there?

Just a quick post to say that we’re still alive, and we’re completely moved into the new house. We even got a really good start on unpacking yesterday; the three day weekend helped to get things off to a good start. Nothing like crafting happening yet, but I’m sure there will be some soon. Be back then!