Back in 2005 my office in the basement looked like this:

North-end

Middle

South-end

These metal racks were filled with books in plastic file boxes.  We had had a flood in the basement the year before.  Fortunately none of our books were damaged and we got the leaks repaired - by having the west and south foundations sealed, but I didn't want to risk any damage and also didn't have enough bookcases to put everything out.  I put all our books in a ReaderWare database and indicated which box they're in.

In the fall of 2005, we decided to upgrade this part of the basement (approx. 13' x 30') to house refugees from Hurricane Katrina.  We never actually got any refugees despite putting our house availability up on numerous websites, but we did improve the basement to this:

South end with new escape window

Middle

North end

We used the yellow paint because we have gallons of it left over from painting the living room (we were oversold at the paint store).  The coral paint in the north end photo is the color we have in our dining room.  The room seemed way too yellow until I put that stripe in.

It's been a over a year since we painted/carpeted/rewalled/rewindowed this space and it now looks like this:

South end

Middle

North end

It's a mess, but a more organized mess.  I've been working on getting it sorted and cleaned out on and off.  Someday I'll be done, I think.  I definitely need to find the right storage solutions to store my knitting supplies, needlepoint supplies and weaving supplies.  I also need to get more books moved back in.  Our books have been in the garage for the past year and a half.  We can still find them using the database (and a thousand or so are in bookcases on the second floor), but I'd like to be able to just see them again.

George says that in a few more years he'd like to completely gut the basement and get it set up right.  Such as right now we have a corner room with east and south facing windows which is a very poorly set-up laundry room with lots of wasted space.  We had to install our washer and dryer where the pipes and outlets were, which are on opposite sides of the room.  This would be a perfect location to set up a loom.

I was sitting in the living room on Monday night and my fingers were freezing.  I thought "I need a pair of fingerless gloves."  So I checked out various patterns online and on Tuesday started this pattern:

This is the "Fetching" pattern from Knitty.com.  I knitted them in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran that I had left over from the scarf I knitted George back in December 2005.  The color number is 300506 and I would describe it as Fir Green.  With this pattern, I cabled without a needle for the first time and picked up my first thumbs.  I had to re-do the thumb on the first glove because I had big holes.  Now they're done and I'll leave them next to my chair in the living room for the next time my fingers are freezing while I knit, needlepoint or read.

Thoughts

I've been reading the Knitting Curmudgeon's archives lately.  She writes a lot about people being afraid to try new things in knitting.  I realized that I can often be one of those people.  It takes me a lot of time to work up my nerve to try something new -  a technique, a pattern, a substitute yarn, etc.  I tend to doubt my abilities.  Some of my fear is left over from when I couldn't afford much yarn so I was afraid of messing up and destroying the yarn I did have. 

But some of it is a fear of losing/wasting time.  I don't know where this fear comes from, but it has a big hold on my mind.  I fear losing time to having to reknit an item, to surfing the web and getting nothing substantial done, to just wasting time.  And I waste a lot of time, often doing nothing.  And then I beat up on myself for wasting all that time.  I often fear that my life will just disappear into "wasting" time.  I need to work through that and actually get somethings done.

I started on a sampler using this book, The New York Times Book of Needlepoint by Elaine Slater.  Ms. Slater teaches the new needlepointer 10 different stitches.  She includes lots of diagrams of the wrong as well as right way to do the stitiches.

So far I've marked my 10-mesh canvas for 25 square blocks, picked out 5 colours from the DMC 3-ply Persian wool (3 oranges and 2 greens), and I've done my two squares of brick stitch.  I followed the directions for the first block:

And then looked at Ms. Slater's various examples and did the second block in my own simple design:

I turned the canvas a quarter-turn to work the block as Ms. Slater advised rather than trying to work it vertically.

I'm finding it harder to work with 3-ply persian wool then it was to work with the Appleton tapestry wool I used on the Plums canvas.  Ms. Slater has the learner use 3 strands for all vertical/horizantal stitches so I have to keep the 3 strands as flat as possible for the stitch.  I guess I'll get better with time - practice, practice, practice.

Back in November 2006, I finally did something I've been wanting to do on and off for years - I took a class on Needlepoint.  The only class I could find was at Churchmouse Yarn & Teas on Bainbridge Island.  I missed the first of the 3 classes, but was able to meet with the teacher an hour before the 2nd class so she could show me what they had done.  With the teacher's help, I picked out a pillow kit for my first project.  I was unemployed in November so I had plenty of time to work on the canvas.  In 3 weeks, I completed this:

This kit is Cleopatra's Needle's Herb Pillow Tapestry Kit : Fruits of the Forest Collection - Damsons.  Dimensions: 10" x 10", Wool: Appleton Tapestry Wool

I started working the canvas and thought I would probably grow bored with the stitching.  Instead, I was fascinated by the way the wool brought the canvas to life.  I couldn't stop stitching. 

I'm now working on a couple of other projects.  I feel as if needlepoint is allowing me to open up creatively.  I have ideas for color combinations and stitches beyond the tent stitch.  See what I've got:

This is DMC 3-ply Persian Wool in 29 colors.  I'm going to have lots of fun.

Boy, I have a lot of photos that George & I have taken since we got digital cameras.  I created a lot of new folders so I can more easily find what I'm looking for.  Here's a photo from June 2005.  It's of my niece Catherine (left) and her friend Mel (right) in the Temple Bar area of Dublin.  This was a trip I'd promised Catherine if she did well in high school.  Not only did she do well, she was a National Merit Scholar.  George said it was a good thing the trip wasn't pro-rated.  We would have been in Europe all summer!  As it was, we spent a week in Ireland and a week in London.

I knitted this premmie jacket for the daughter of a boss I had a few years back.  Unfortunately, the daughter died at 10 days old so I never gave the jacket to her dad.  I'm keeping it until someone else I know has a premmie.

This isn't a very good picture, but it's the best one I have right now.  I'll try to get a better shot before I put this up on my Finished Projects website.

I've just spent the last 2 evenings finally arranging all the digital photos I have on my desktop from 2001 - 2006.  I created new folders by date(s) and events.  Now I can more easily search through the photos to find what I want.  Since this is now done (tho' I still need to copy some 2006 photos over from George's computer), I'll be putting more pictures up on the blog.  Here's an example from 2002 Jul 6:

Doesn't it look delicious if messy?

I started a six-month contract at Geospiza, Inc. on November 26th.  My job is to write up test cases for the core program, Finch.  I'm working for Jim Hancock again who hired me at CVS.com and then at Washington Mutual.  It's nice to work for someone who knows my work and likes it.

Geospiza is a small company, about 24 employees, and everyone's been great to work with.  They're planning to hire a couple of more programmers in January and Jim is looking for a performance tester to fill out his team.

I've come to the conclusion that I have to set myself a schedule for blogging so I'm going to blog at least once a week.  That's my New Year's Resolution for 2007.

I haven't blogged about my knitting, or my new passion needlepoint, because I've been unable to find my photos.  I'm going to check out the photos that are on my laptop and George's.  Hopefully I'll find them.  At which point there will be some knitting updates.

Wish me luck in keeping my two resolutions for 2007: Knitting from My Stash and Blogging Weekly.

Wendy of WendyKnits.net posted the following on 14 December 2006:

Knit From Your Stash 2007!

A few days ago, L-B mentioned to me that she was thinking about attempting to knit from her stash exclusively in 2007. I, of course, laughed at her initially, but started thinking that attempting to knit from my stash exclusively was not a bad idea. Both L-B and I have stashes of epic proportions. L-B had suggested a period of 9 months of knitting from the stash, so that we could go to Stitches East next October and buy yarn there.

So, in a phone call this morning, we sketched out some guidelines.

Knit From Your Stash 2007

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone?

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.

So. I have put it in writing. I've got yarn for a number of very alluring projects in stash, and I am hoping to actually get to most of those projects next year. We'll see how I do.

And anyone else who would like to join us in this is welcome to do so!

I have something of a stash but what I really need to work on is knitting up items for which I have bought the pattern, yarn, and needles already.  My rules will be as follows:

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through August 31, 2007 -- a period of eight months so I can buy yarn in Italy in September.

2. I will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that I really and truly do not have the yarn for, I may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.b. If I am knitting something and run out of yarn, I may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.c. I get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- I am allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

2.d. I can buy specific yarn required for any knitting classes I take at my LYS.

3. I am allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

These rules should work for me as I have so many projects to knit up.  And I have lots of partially finished projects to finish.

Please wish me luck!