a decent start

to the new year. which is now a few weeks old.

Spent the weekend in a familiar place, reportedly haunted — everything there is “haunted”, tourists love that shit — but we’re not ghost-hunters or tourists, or anyway not that sort, and we’ve never experienced anything spoooooky to speak of … except maybe this time: I was in bed and felt like someone was leaning over me, curiously looking into my face & into my head. Not a hurtful someone — only interested. It was only a long moment and then I fell asleep, or fell deeper asleep. Nothing else happened.

Over breakfast I mentioned it to C, who gave me wide eyes and a “omg I felt that too.” We neither one saw anything and we were both mostly or entirely asleep — so who knows — connected dreaming? It was interesting, anyway — but nothing more than that happened. If that was a happening.

C shopped for clothes and I did not buy anything at all, except a pair of tights (black; opaque; striped). I have a rule not to buy clothes this year but tights are not clothes or barely clothes and I don’t have any black ones anyway and my only neutral pair was jacked up from the inside of my boots (aggravating, and how does that happen), and I’m allowed to buy replacements for necessities.

Still looking for wool-en tights. Argh.

Came home and worked more on the t-shirt quilt, promptly messed up the backing (it wasn’t cut straight in the store, and I should expect that by now, and when will I learn? perhaps some sort of cross-stitch pillow would aide my memory), fixed it, sort of, and now: only need to finish it on the machine.

Which is to say I HAVE A SEWING MACHINE AND IT WORKS. And it’s old enough (’74-ish) to be well-made … I hope … I’ve only done a few test-patches on it so far but it is so much better than the other one. The tension adjusts and holds, the fabric pull is smooth, the stitches are formed better … the forty-year-old needle actually seems sharper than the modern ones — is that possible? The other machine was a chore — the tension was never right, it loved to chew on fabric … it just never worked well. And when it did (to tease me.) it only ran for an hour or so before seizing up.  I hope & expect the vintage machine will work a little better … And it’s in a cabinet so all the bits and parts are right there. Really I didn’t want a cabinet machine, but in retrospect it’s a better choice. And it’s lovely underneath the double windows. Yeehaw!

Clothing, clothing, clothing … I’m sort of planning to knit a sweater (cardigan; grey/black kettle dye; inside snap closure; steek; 3/4 length sleeves) but I’m not quite sure.

And then I have to dye the yarn (silk/merino sockweight).

And then I have to decide on a style. I’ve knit raglans before, so I might want to branch out: set-in sleeves? contiguous? short-row? Shaping or none? Negative, zero, or positive ease? Top-down or bottom-up? What about the collar? THERE ARE SO MANY OPTIONS.

Maybe I should just buy a pattern and have done with it, but I always want to do it myself, because of course I am smarter/cleverer/more hardworking than any silly old knitwear designer who does this for a living, right? Right. Of course.

… er. More plans for the year include Bread, Chocolate, Wine …

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