Step Into My Thimble

Craft Life Evolution

13 Feb 2010 | 09:57 am | Category: Knitting, Life, Sewing

I figured things would change when I picked up and moved across the globe… And they have, I’ve barely had the mental energy to think about crafts in the past month. But it’s all still on my radar and it will return to my routine soon enough.

I have noticed that I can buy a decent sewing machine, at Carrefour in Mall of the Emirates (and probably elsewhere).

Magrudy’s bookstore in Festival Centre has yarn and sewing notions, among other art and craft supplies, way in the back.

I am most looking forward to checking out the textile shops here sometime. They are in Satwa on Plant Street.

And I have started making a Berroco pattern, Nimbus, in a lightweight cotton blend, and with a revised gauge of course.

Finding time to make things won’t be too hard–kiddo still goes to bed around 7pm regularly–it’s the navigation in this wacky city on the way to places where you can get supplies that takes forever. A little bit at a time…

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Wrapup

01 Jan 2010 | 08:10 pm | Category: Kid, Life

I can’t get it together to write a comprehensive end-of-year summary this year. It’s just been too crazy since mid-October. A few great things have been going on in the last little while though, worth mentioning.

Social opportunities galore. Everyone wants to see us, get in one more dinner or playtime with the kid or whatever. We have a lot of really good friends that I will miss like crazy.
Got a fabulous new haircut. After fearing layers in my giant mop of hair for the last 15 years, I gave it a try and it’s awesome.
Finished knitting Nuss. Also awesome. Hair and Nuss together below.
Watching my kid turn into much more of a little person all the time. She is beyond the halfway point of age 3 and doing a lot of good things, not the least of which is sleeping an average of 12 hours a night. Also being more difficult than ever with her thrashing and refusal to do normal things like pee or get dressed, and the level of public bad behavior has definitely gone up (she’s 3.666!). My mom always brags about how I was reading by this age, which maybe might have some shred of truth if Maeve is like I was. I know she recognizes certain words already like “no” or “mom” and lately she digs looking at graphic novels to find terms like “BAM!!!” and “POW!!!” We had a long talk about exclamation points the other day.
Despite the leaving what was a good life behind, I am getting more excited all the time about going to Dubai. IN ONLY 21 DAYS. I was musing about how it will be awesome to go to the airport to MOVE somewhere instead of just travel there. Sucky with all the luggage and 3-year-old and customs and security checks, but otherwise very very awesome.

This year I think I read about five books total. It’s miserable. I barely find time to get through “selected” articles in each New Yorker anymore. I have been reading the same Paul Theroux book for about two months now, a little here and there at bedtime. It’s really good and the fact that it covers so much of Oceania in little chunks makes it perfect for this kind of reading, which is not helping me. Someone please recommend something that sucks you in, fiction or non.

We finally became Mac people all the way. The iPod touch Rodney won at his holiday xmas party in 2008 was the gateway drug. I love having a computer that, when you push the On button, is just on. None of this waiting for 10,000 processes to run anymore.

Generally for me, 2009 was not that bad of a year. I had a happy life, a good job, a comfortable house, good friends, I ate well, we were thinking about going to Mexico or somewhere next year. It got a little crazy in October, but luckily the solution came about quickly. And what a wild solution it will be. Stay tuned and have a wonderful 2010 yourselves!

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Give a Hoot

23 Dec 2009 | 02:46 pm | Category: Knitting, Life

Well, it’s been a while. I think most readers here are also following Flickr, Twitter, Facebook or some other source of info about me, but if not, the big news is that we’re moving to Dubai. Yes that Dubai, the Vegas of the Middle East. We leave toward the end of January. It’s sad and exciting and crazy all in one!

There is another family blog in the works that will focus primarily on that adventure, so this one will for the most part be relegated to craft news. Maybe some of my old readers will come back if I return to some sort of consisten subject matter here! Anybody remember the glory days of Secret Pal swaps? I hosted #2 way back in 2004. Were you there?

I’m bringing some yarn with me. I’ll be working full-time, maybe with a commute, so I expect to have a little knitting time each day. Instead of big warm sweaters for Midwest livin’ I am taking things in a lace shawl/scarf kind of direction–lighter things to cover the shoulders in air conditioning–and probably some cotton kid stuff for you know who. I hear it isn’t easy to buy nice yarns there, so I have stockpiled a little fingering-weight hand-dyed.

At the moment, I’m near done with my Nuss cardigan, but as I suspected halfway through it, I am going to run out of yarn. The extra ball has been ordered, and I hope to finish that project before I go.

I also made a pair of Give a Hoot owl mittens for a friend. I just love how they turned out. The pattern is easy and fast–I had these done in two nights I think.