The Avoidance List

Long promised, much delayed, at last THE LIST is here in all its.. frightening glory. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present: The Avoidance List (all 3 pages of it).

1. Read Gaile's letter
2. Clean up my laundry at Dad's
3. Clean off the desk in the laundry room
4. Finish fridge (Dad's)
5. Order the necessary parts for the mini's and the video's
6. Get John's Mom her Mini
7. Liquidate the iPod supplies
8. Return Roaman's and LB clothes in blue bin
9. Sweep and vac Dad's
10. Clean & put together my Vac & give it a home
11. Remove, clean, store the carrier from truck
12. Finish homing the last bits of the trip luggage and jotsam
13. $255 to office
14. Mail pileup
15. Comcast
16. Check Wachovia balance/status
17. Read and delete John's Dep paper
18. Catch up on email
19. Clear out the flotsam from truck bed and wash it
20. Deal with the motorcycle
21. Start breaking down/going through barn crap
22. Shuku and Kerma to SCHS
23. Star pen and LB
24. Ivan pen and LB
25. Clean cat stuff kitchen and porch
26. Wash floor, sink, counters of kitchen
27. Fix blind problem in kitchen
28. Dishwasher
29. Clear out kitchen cupboards, drawers, undersink
30. List The Bodice on Ebay
31. List the Chemise on Ebay
32. Sign up for seller status on Etsy
33. Take pics and put jewelry up on Etsy
34. Clean my porch desk
    
35. Clean up, prune back, and edge front yard
36. Deal with front yard gravel
37. Clean back deck area
38. Get fireplace fixed
39. Deal with the monster sofa (clean or toss)
40. Clean living room
41. Make Star a porch run area
42. Make Ivan a living room/kitchen/hall run area
43. Groom cats and bunnies--the furminator!
44. Star claws
45. Find claw clipper
46. Ivan meds
47. Apologize to Dad (and mean it)
48. Clean the bathroom and shower
49. Restock bathroom cupboards with clean towels
50. Clean fridge
51. Cook in kitchen
52. Recommit to lapsed eating plan
53. Move all cooking supplies into newly cleaned kitchen
54. Sell the harp?
55. Uncle and Mom's ashes
56. Sort and reduce porch boxes
57. Clean and organize hall closet
58. Clean bedroom
59. The bed
60. Reoccupy bedroom
61. Work on the novel, *any* of the novels, & stop mucking about--organize! Plan! Sticktoit!
    
62. Check out sub reqs and get it done
63. Second job (if sub doesn't pan)
64. Knoxville ticket
    
65. Dentist appt
66. Find WellB hoard and put in purse
67. Apologize to P (grovel re air matt)
68. Send P furminator $
69. Date. No screaming or panicing allowed.
70. Exercise
71. Pool mask and snorkel decision/action
72. Find home for yoga mat
73. Pillow for Danielle's mom
74. Uncle John's sweater
75. Patricia's capelet, mittens, lace shawl
76. Fix Danielle's cardigan, neaten, and send
77. Plan for fixing porch and house constr issues: baseboards, ceiling fixtures, light covers
78. Clean up my porch
79. Mailbox to office
80. Pt Comp biz?
81. Dad iPod or sell?
82. Church min 1x wk
83. Vitamin pack and take them
84. Pam haircut
85. Thank you card to D and fam and parents
86. Card to Jasper
87. Prep for Dad visit (stuff out, laundry)
88. Sheets, 'cases, towels washed
    

I can at least report the clearing of 7 items so far, but it's such a looong, impossible list with some really huge tasks.

Knitting update: I hate.. dislike.. just not that enthused over the orange and red arm warmers. Motivation to keep working and not rip them out and toss the yarn on my stash pile is.. overwhelming. Not sure what's worse, the construction mistakes or the color. Should be finishing the second of the merino pair so I can *sell* it on Etsy. No motivation there, either. I keep looking at the hand painted yarn and think longingly of my own clapotis. I passed up some lovely (and cheap!) silk rayon blend on Ebay that would have been enough and was gorgeous because I've been burned on Ebay yarn before and I can't afford it anymore...

What I really want to do is some hand painting of my own yarn. Still have a ginormous ball of that crochet cotton that is, technically, fingering weight, and is just gathering dust. Procion MX dyes are inexpensive. BUT, the last thing I need is *another* craft project right now, especially with The Parent & Spouse Unit's Sept visit looming--more humiliation for me, oh boy!

Read an editorial in Interweave knits about knitting being, for a large chunk of knitters, more about the processing of emotion (while knitting) than the end product of sock or sweater or whatever. Will need to think on this more and try applying it and see how it works (or doesn't).

Not feeling very chatty. Ciao.

Yarn Vacation

I'm just back from Ann Arbor and a hasty tour of some tasty Metro Detroit yarn stores, with a modest bag of purchases to gloat over. It may be a lean bag, but then, these are lean days and I will take to gloating when I can, thank you very much.

Currently on the needles are a set of armwarmers. The yarn is a 50/50 blend of cotton and viscose, soft, nicely sheeny, and best of all, an insanely cheap clearance purchase. Yay! The needles are...um, a US 2, I think, which is why the knitting is going slowly. I decided to do some random striping blocks of orange and winter red since my intended plan didn't work out--I should have written down the lovely stitch pattern I lusted after in the store instead of blithely assuming I could find it when I got home. Dumb me. To be fair, I did find something approximating the slip stitch pattern I remembered, but not only was it a pain in the rumpus to translate into the round, I wasn't as excited about the result as I was in the yarn shop. Ah well. I will persevere because I am totally enamored of the armwarmers I knit early in the summer, out of Koigu Painter's Palette. Made of a very soft merino, I love to wear them for all of 60 seconds before the itching drives me nuts and makes me peel them off. I hate being allergic to wool! Even though I searched high and low for an affordable variegated yarn (no wool, no acrylic, no alpaca, no cashmere--no options), I settled for what I've got and will resolve to love them to pieces as soon as they're finished.

Waiting in the wings are a pair of skeins of Lenpur, by Rowan, a linen/rayon blend, DK weight, that is a dusky blue with hints of purple. I'm planning a second pair of armwarmers for me, highlighted with a silver of the cotton/viscose clearance yarn mentioned above.

Two skeins of flecked yarn (one lime green, one natural) in a sport weight are waiting to be turned into dish towels. Regular rectangular towels, not the ones with little tubes that fold over and button closed, that just scream "old lady" to me. Yuck. Not my thing. Nope, regular dish towels. Saw a sample in the yarn store and fell in love with the idea. Besides, anything that motivates my butt to clean and pamper my kitchen is worth it. But that's another story...

I also bought a basic pattern for a capelet, because my friend Patricia requested one for Christmas. Haven't decided on a yarn or color yet. But I did find the perfect yarn for a pair of mittens I've been wanting to make for her: Berroco's Blackstone Tweed in Plum Island.

My poor Uncle's sweater's supposed to be my next project, but I'm in a money pinch and can't afford the yarn yet. Sweater's eat up a lot of yarn. The pattern I was leaning toward is the Sampo Cardigan that zips up the front. I could certainly make that in a warm wool from Knit Picks, probably in an evergreen or a silver, since he lives in Canada and is NOT particularly smart about keeping himself warm during the winter.

Maybe a nice pair of wool hiking socks for my brother--upstate NY and only marginally smarter when it comes to warmth. Guys (roll of the eyes). Socks don't take up much yarn and I think I have several skeins of stash stuff I can use.

As for me, I have found two other yarns that would be perfect for a lace shawl or the much desired clapotis. But they are still out of the question, due to cost. Wail! One's a bamboo/silk blend in a pale, smokey violet hand paint. The other colorway is called Bluestone, from Alpaca With A Twist. Alpaca's not nearly as forbidden as the other fibers I'm allergic to...especially since a lace shawl won't be doing much contact with bare skin. I tell myself :) But really, I want the bamboo silk. If only I could be trusted with nice things... If only I could become the girly girl variant of my dreams...

Life is complicated. So is knitting.