Sunday, March 30, 2008

Acquiring New Art and Supplies

Can you believe on Friday afternoon this is what our backyard looked like? Weird to have snow in March...in SEATTLE!



I have been acquiring Art and Art Supplies in large quantities recently.

Some of this is due to Retail Therapy sessions with my laptop and some due to impending retirement.

Yes, I am retiring in June. Yes, I am young to be retiring. Although it is very exciting to ponder what it will be like to wake up and NOT have to be at work at 6am it is a bit unsettling in a way, too. (Catholic guilt, once again!)

My friend Amy suggested that we call it "Acquiring ART"!

Here are some recent stash enhancements, I mean Art acquisitions.

This is from Shelley from Butternut Woolens. I met Shelley at Madrona and she is a very sweet woman. I bought some Rabbit's Foot Angora Blend Sock Yarn in Foxglove. YUM



One pound of Targhee in Quitobaquito:



I got sucked into wanting to knit the Moroccan Days, Arabian Nights Shawl from the Woolen Rabbit. This shawl requires 5,000 beads. Anyone up for the challenge????? Maybe a summer project???

I can't get a good photo of the yarn. It is absolutely beautiful though. Check it out on the Woolen Rabbit website as well as on Ravelry.

I'm also anticipating the receipt of a purchase I made via a connection on Ravelry. I bought some Rowan Magpie in the Float colorway. This is a discontinued yarn but if you are a Starmore fan you'll recognize it. I have some in the stash in a Coffee color and now I'll have something very different. It is making its way from the UK and should be here next week. I'll show it to you when it arrives.

I love knitting socks and I will cast-on for another pair as soon as I post this. I can never get the kitchener stitch in my head. No matter how many times I do it, I can't, for the life of me, remember it. So I purchased this cute Kitchener Dogtag from the Bellweather.

The Bellweather blog, Ask the Bellweather, has some fantastic information on spinning. Go there if you want to know something about technique!

I can put this in my sock bag and never have to worry about remembering how to do Kitchener. It is cute too!



I purchased my first Bosworth Featherweight Spindle from the Bellweather. It is .38 oz made in walnut. She's a nice little spindle. I quickly tried some optim with her. I had some issues spinning Optim with another lightweight spindle I have but the Bosworth works great. No wonder people say these are great spindles.



So that is it for now. No homework progress photos to show because....there has been NO homework progress this week. This has been a self-care week.

As my last post indicated...I've not been myself for awhile. So I decided I needed a week of just doing what I wanted to do. No homework, no *should* do knitting, no guilt(yeah, right - you know that is a lifelong goal).

I finished my Vesper Socks in Neopolitan. So cute!





I also made progress on Brighton from the latest Knitty.

This is in Euroflax sportweight in Eggplant. The handles are Grayson E in Black. I have knit about 9 inches so far so I have about 4 more inches before I start the bottom of the bag.



I need to go and do some picking up of all the projects I have strewn in my bedroom and office. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Tell me about your recent Art Acquisitions!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey friend. I had been wondering why the postings had been more sporadic. Am glad to hear that you retiring and ready to open a new chapter in your life. Am sad to hear how depressed you have been feeling..something I know about all too well in my household. It sounds like you are starting to swing the pendulum back to the light....art acquisition sounds like the right therapy! You look as though you have been m ighty productive as well, even though you may not feel like you have. Anyway...love the Blue Moon yarn..mine came the other day and definitely lifted my spirits too. All the best!!

Elise

miyamojo said...

Hi Naomi,
I ordered the Arabian Nights kit and will start when I get done petting the yarn - it's beautiful.
The 5000 beads is scary!
I like your dog tag. I have it written on a post it note and stuck on my table.
You deserve to retire, you're never too young! I'm hoping to 'get out' soon too.
Michele :)

Anonymous said...

AHA! Now I know why I admire you! You are so wise to know how to take care of yourself and respect the down times.

margaret in manhattan said...

thanks once again for being a supreme enabler ... I went right over to Bellwether and got me two kitchener dogtags!

amy said...

love the new acquisitions ;)

i am thinking about you a lot and really hoping things are getting better day by day. i'm sure last weeks snow didn't help things but hopefully todays bit of sunshine helped start your week off right.

love all your new knits! am jealous of the cutey neopolitan socks! see you thursday i hope!

Linda 'K' said...

Missed you at Feral's tonight. Gail used the "B" word - ask her about it! Retiring is huge. It's been almost 3 years for me (talk about flown by!!!). The first year was all about getting used to not making any money - I've never not brought in money. I do have a pension but it goes completely back out the door to pay for retiree med. So that was tough at first. But - we are the lucky ones - we'll never just fade away because we don't know what to do with ourselves without a day job to go to. Our day jobs have interfered with our lives for so long! So....victory! I'm so happy for you (and me!). This could mean a lunch out and getting to know each other better...

Anonymous said...

Can I leave a second comment?

Linda K was so wonderful about my nasty, nasty wit. Ferals was one of those wonderful, nearly-perfect evenings. The only thing missing was our dear Naomi. Which I know was for a good reason. So I'm not complainin', ok?