The Archaeology of a Sewing Basket....

Cambria Tide pools

So much has been going on lately that the days just seem to fly by. Living with MS continues to be a constant lesson in being humble, and with the fires in San Diego last week I'm increasingly grateful that my folks still have a place to call home. I'm also blessed to have such awesome friends. This week has been a hard one for me, I had to learn to self inject my MS medication and was very scared by the entire process. Not to mention my heavy dose of denial is slowly wearing off and I'm beginning to begrudgingly realize that MS isn't going away anytime soon.

Today I made a little jaunt over to my favorite thrift shop while I was waiting for my prescription to be filled and made an amazing discovery....I purchased and funky little sewing basket for $2.50 which included the basket and its contents. I liked the basket because it looked well used and there was something about it that made me smile, not to mention I think I inherited some sort of basket kleptomania from my mother because I definitely don't need any more baskets but boy do I like them!

Anyway, I took my little basket home and set out to discover the contents. Being the archaeologist that I am in real life I couldn't help but take things out "layer" at a time. Even when I could see something underneath a pile of ribbon I resisted disturbing the stratigraphy of the sewing basket. Piece by piece I uncovered a wide arrangement of items. Little hand sewn pockets contained different pieces of ribbon and bias tape, at the bottom of one of the little pockets I was surprised to find a small bag of hot pink sequins and another bag of dime sized silver sequins. In the corner I found a box advertising those little circular thing-a-ma-bobs (for a whopping 15 cents) that you use to prevent the holes in your paper from tearing, but inside the box contained an assortment of needles. Little bits of delicate lace were rolled into little pillows and stacked in a plastic baggie. Cream and pink lace encircled an old piece of card board. Bits and pieces of different thread wrapped themselves around old card stock and a Simplicity pattern label. A few thimbles rumbled around a flowered ceramic dish.

An Air Force Ez Sewing kit contained bits of felt with various sized needles, tan and navy blue bias tape and patches stacked themselves next to the Air Force kit. Old suspender straps gathered with delicate hosiery clasps all held in place by a large safety pin. A single strand of orangish red sequins stood out next to the full ball of hunter green Coats and Clark darning thread. A large pointy needle with a round circle on the end of it stuck itself between soft darning thread. I've never seen a needle like it and I look forward to figuring out what it was used for. Folded in between a funky piece of cardboard were two peculiar looking needles, one which was shaped like a crescent, and the other a very nicely tapered "yarn needle."

In the corner of the basket, almost out of sight stood what I thought to be a stack of bobbins. I was pleasantly surprised to find a silver lipstick type tube with a bobbin on top, when I took the bobbin off it revealed a wooden needle holder containing needles and wrapped around its side was two different types of thread. This lipstick sewing kit was apparently compliments of "Cal's Beauty Salon" and the sight of it just brought a huge smile to my face.

Contained in this funky old little basket were so many little treasures. The bits and pieces of white and cream lace saved perhaps for a future project? Varying colors of bias tape all organized and ready to be used. Needles of all shapes and sizes organized in small boxes, the Air Force sewing kit, and bits of recycled cardboard. Ribbons, clasps, thread, and brightly colored sequins sprouted forth from this funky little treasure box. Granted somethings were cooler than others but I got a good laugh out of this metallic, elastic, fake stone encrusted ribbon that had been clearly painstakingly removed from its original ensemble. It was an interesting afternoon of discovery and well worth $2.50.

I have a ton of ideas in how to incorporate the various bits of lace into a series of projects I'm working on and brain-storming ideas. The "artifacts" from this funky little wooden basket were intriguing and made me wonder about its previous owner. It was a good day for a little creative discovery.

It's a small world after all.....

My fabulous hubby Mike

As of today I've been married 6 years and 1 day to a fabulous guy named Mike. My husband is my best friend and is one of the smartest people I know (he's also pretty darn handsome!). He's funny, silly, smart, compassionate, and we have a great time together. When I first met Mike in college we realized that we had been at the same track meet when we were in high school and I remembered thinking that it was so nutty that we could have been at the same place at the same time and then meet all these years later. I realized what a small world it was.

So yesterday to celebrate our anniversary we went to Disneyland and had a blast. I haven't been feeling the greatest lately and it was nice to be at the happiest place on earth with the person that makes me the happiest girl on earth and even though I wasn't up to riding any of the rides we had fun looking at the different Disney pins (I'm a pin trading nut). Mike is what I would like to call an "enabler," especially when it comes to pins. This trip he finally picked out a few pins of his own, granted they were Star Wars themed Mr. potato head pins, but still, the effort was appreciated.

We also entered the realm of Department 56 at downtown Disney. On a recent trip to Vegas with my folks my mom and I started collecting different village series of Department 56. My mom is collecting this and I started to collect this. Well after looking around the store Mike discovered this village. I naturally protested against him insisting that since they were having a sale we should collect both villages. That Mike, well he can be pretty persuasive. I was glad that we both liked the North Pole village although Mike had his eye on something from the original snow village series. One never knows when they may need a decorated cow at the north pole.

It was a super fun day and a great way to spend our anniversary. I am so thankful to be married to my best friend and it was nice to have such a fun day. Today has been a rather lazy day, Mike and I watched the Charger game (well Mike watched it and I organized my pin collection). Its been a good weekend.

No new news on the crafting front. I've been continuing to work on my free-form crochet purse that has taken on a life of its own but it keeps me from being distracting and freaking out about having this. I think I'm starting to get a bit more scared lately and I think it has to do with everything sinking in. I keep reminding myself that "its all a process" it was nice to spend time at Disneyland and be distracted by it all. It was good to feel a little "normal" for change.

Free your mind....and the rest will folllow......(hopefully)

Little Petroglyph Canyon

For some crazy reason I've had music from En Vogue stuck in my head lately, I was never a particularly huge fan of them but I did have their CD and I really liked their song Free your mind. Part of the lyrics are "free your mind and the rest will follow" and well frankly this past weeks crafting projects definitely needed a mind that was free (not to mention my brain has been working a bit on overload since my diagnosis with MS last week so I could use a little break).

So I've made some crafting progress in the past week. I made a Tunisian crochet poncho out of my variegated green hand-spun yarn and it turned out warm and cozy. I've also developed a new obsession- free form knitting & crochet. No rules, just yarn, different needles and go! Freedom!!! Now that's my type of project. I took a free form crochet class last Friday at Debra's shop and it was a blast. Keep in mind, I'm a knitter, not a crocheter. I know how to chain and apparently how to do a single crochet but beyond that I have no idea what I'm doing. Crochet freaks me out, between the double, half double, treble stitches- well frankly its just too many stitches. Knitting is easy, everything is knit or purl and combinations of those two stitches. Now the crocheters may beg to differ but I like only having to deal with two stitches, however in free-form you can do whatever you want and it doesn't matter. So with yarn at the ready and a few of my favorite crochet hooks (yes I'm not a crocheter but I can't help it I like pretty crochet hooks) I was ready to go.

We started out forming a circle (I though I was doomed) luckily the infamous sock knitter the fabulous Martha was on hand to give me some encouragement and make sure I wasn't messing up too bad. Martha is a fabulous crocheter and a pretty awesome knitter too. She was one of the students in my sock knitting class and she is a total delight. I was so happy that we were both students together for this class. The divine Miss. Patsy was also in the free form class and as usual had some beautiful colors and textures picked out for her purse. I just love seeing how every ones projects were coming together. I learned early on that my "circle" was really more of a ruffly representation of a circle but it was free-form anyway so it didn't bother me one bit. By the end of class I looked like I had crocheted this but I was quite pleased with my psychedelic toxic jellyfish. The initial shape also reminded me of the heads on the figures pictured in some of the Coso Petroglyphs.

Well ever since Friday I've been "hooked" literally. Since I don't have to stress about following a pattern I love the freedom of just changing hooks, adding new yarns and textures and just following the existing form. I think the simplicity of just following the existing form is what soothes me the most since the past few weeks have been pretty stressful and I'm still coming to terms with the reality of having to live with this.

I also recently read this by Crazy Aunt Purl and it made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt. It was great to read about the misadventures that led to her discovery of knitting and I could relate to a lot of what she said about knitting being a calming force. Not to mention its something great to do when it feels like all of your troubles are going to consume you.

So by "freeing" my mind if you will for the free form crochet I've also had to free up some brain space to deal with some of the stress I've been facing. Needless to say manipulating yarn with hooks is a lot easier. I've also come to the realization this week that as scared as I am about having MS and all that entails I know that I've got a great group of people in my life that care about me. My family who knows me, loves me and is there for me. My group of friends who pretty much rock the house and are made up of some of the most talented, intelligent, creative, compassionate, silly women and men I know. My fur-family of my two cats and dogs who faithfully keep me covered in pet hair and are ready to assist with any new project I'm going to tackle. Best of all, my best friend, my hubby who, well, frankly, is pretty freaking cool. Where I'm irrational he's calm, when I'm up tight, he's silly. He can do the best John Black face ever and it makes me laugh (you have to be a Days of our Lives fan to understand the funny faces that the character makes when he is trying to be series, lets just say he does this funky eyebrow raise that makes him look anything but serious). I have a great group of people in my life and I'm so blessed.

So today I'm off for lunch with one of my bestest friends Matt and hopefully tonight I'll be back in force at the Tuesday night craft night.

Not much knitting but a whole lot of spinning....

So what does a cow in a field have to do with anything related to knitting or crafts....not a whole lot. I just took this picture when I was in Virginia last year during a difficult time and that day the cow was one of the few things that made me smile.

So its been a long while since I've blogged and a lot has been happening. I would love to say that I finished this, but I'm still on the second clue. I have made some progress learning how to use this and I have created some beautiful yarn so far. Its no prairie dream yet but I'm getting there. I at least know where my inspiration lies. So far I enjoy using loud colors and adding random bits of other items like other cut up pieces of yarn, some beads (which aren't as cooperative as I could like), some funky tinsel stuff, and a few random paper flowers. Any progress I have made on the embellishment front tends to fall apart during the plying process but I'm learning and so far some of the yarn I have made is a lot better than any of the yarn my mom has ever spun. As a side note I am not being rude while stating this fact since my mom the OG spinner who's been spinning since I was a baby has stated (rather begrudgingly I might add) that my yarn is better. Needless to say I am enjoying that fact almost as much as I am enjoying the spinning. Lest I get too cocky I am sure the spinning gods will take their revenge, and I'm pretty sure my two cats are in cahoots with the spinning gods since roving tends to get a little mangled when I get ahead of myself.

So not a whole lot of knitting has been going on, a fair amount of spinning progress has been made but as of late I have been more under the weather than actually accomplishing anything all that craft-tastic. For the past few years I've been struggling with dealing with what I thought was fibromyalgia which clearly has not been a fun endeavor. However if it wasn't for my illness I would probably not taken up knitting, reading about knitting, obsessing about fibers, obsessing about bloggers, yarns, needles, gadgets, llamas (ok well maybe I would have obsessed about llamas but that is just because of this and honestly can you blame me?). Anyway over the past few years I have gained countless comfort from engaging in knitting and other crafts. Even when I have not felt well enough to engage in them I have been able to read a book about them, or surf the Internet reading other peoples blogs and being inspired.

Well the past few weeks it has been rather hot in my neck of the woods and it became clear to myself that my bodies reaction to the heat was not very consistent with fibromyalgia at all. Many doctors visits later, tests, MRI, etc...I found out that I have multiple sclerosis.

I'm still new to figuring out what this all means, how I'll cope with it, who I'll turn to for support etc....but I'm keenly aware of the importance of knowing what gives me comfort and what will get me through this next challenge. If anything I know that I will continue to obsess about crafts and learn new things during the good days and the bad days because crafting through a crisis is a great source of comfort. So today as I was sorting through stuff on my computer I came across the above picture of the happy cow from Virginia and I was reminded that even in the midst of something terrible you can find something to make you smile. Happy cows make me smile.

Here, there and everywhere....

Well its been a while since I've updated my blog. I guess you could say I've been a bit busy the past few weeks. I've been here, here , here, and most recently here. I guess you can say time flies when you are having fun.

The fabulous fiber fest was fun and delightful. I discovered Lisa Souza's Yarns and all I can say is WOW! I finally found the motivation to attempt a sweater, of course I need to finish all of my various socks in progress, MS3, and my flower petal shawl. I'll get to it eventually but in the meantime I've been pretty busy mastering my spinning wheel. Granted I'm not quite creating the most uniform yarn but I like all of the flubs and bumps I'm putting into it. I'm enjoying cutting up scraps of other yarns and adding it to my roving as I go, it gets to be pretty funky but with this as my inspiration my yarn is pretty tame! Morbid I know but it sure made me laugh!!!

Vegas with the folks was fun. I enjoyed being tour guide and was glad to have a good laugh at the Fremont Experience. All I have to say is that the "fabulous Constantine" wasn't quite as fabulous as he thought he was. We caught a cool Imax movie at the Luxor and I enjoyed my mom getting scared by the 3d fish. I only wish we could have seen the Dinosaurs movie, then I think she really would have jumped out of her chair.

The gem fair in San Diego was nuts but fun. I stocked up on some supplies for my jewelry business and made some good contacts. I've got lots of great ideas but before I can start making new items I've been updating my inventory which is not nearly as fun as making new items. So far I think I've got everything entered an accounted for but the DH needs to double check a few things, it helps having a bean-counter in the family.

Last but not least, I survived the San Diego Quilt show and all I got was fabric! What?? Yes I can hardly believe it, after years and years of relentless pressure I finally found a quilt pattern that I liked and the fabric to go with it. I told the vendor that I wasn't sure if I wanted to give my mom the satisfaction of purchasing items to make a quilt since she's been trying to convert me for years. See my mom likes stuff like this where as I like colors like these, pretty much the brighter the better. So you see my dilemma...anyway I found some fabulous batik and this pattern that looks easy so now I've got that on my list of things to do.....So many projects too little time!!

Well that's the update for now....I'm off to make a version of this for my mom so she can keep track of her good deeds for the day

Beads, beads, beads

Wire wrapped stone pendant and glass earrings
Another distraction that has been occupying my time has been jewelry making. I took a few class this past weekend and was able to cross off a few things on my to-do list.....(the pictures aren't that great, knitting is a lot easier to photography).

I'm happy to have finally learned how to wire wrap pendants and "donuts" and I'm incredibly happy that I finally can do tubular peyote stitch. I have to admit I thought peyote stitch would be a lot easier than wire wrapping but I was totally wrong. I struggled with the peyote stitch but luckily the teacher had lots of patience with me and I finally got it. Once I understood what I was supposed to be doing I absolutely loved it. While I'm used to reading knitting patterns, beading patterns are a whole other thing. It takes some getting used to but I'm looking forward to learning more about beading and finally using some of the beads that I've been acquiring off and on for years. I know my husband will be glad that I finally start using some of the stuff I've been acquiring although he probably realizes that it is just another craft mess waiting to happen! I can't help it though, so many cool crafts to do and so little time!!!

Tubular Peyote Beaded Necklace

Alpaca Jelly Fish

MS3 is on hold while I've been working on this:

Audrey Scarf - Designed by moi for the Crochet Cafe

I've learned that I'm obsessed with Royal Baby Alpaca yarn from Misti Alpaca. I thought my obsession with sock yarn was bad, but I have a feeling this will get me into more trouble.

I've also learned that if you click the wrong button in your photo tweaking software you can make your scarf look like this:

Alpaca Green Jelly Fish

Now I'm not sure if Misti Alpaca comes in lime green but I'm kind of liking the green/blue bead combination. I think I must click the mystery button more often.....