Long time, no post!

It's been more than a year and a half since I checked in here! I gave up working on the house while I got back to work and such. Now I have a new job that I like and am suddenly giving the house the attention it has been patiently awaiting.

My health has been great and I have been enjoying it so much I mostly stopped blogging. :)

I still don't take enough pictures!

3 projects have mysteriously shown up on my dance card:

1. I'm almost finished removeing the carpet, horrible ancient linoleum, and even more horrible glue from one downstairs room.

2. I had someone come in and get rid of the mold stinking up my other downstairs room. I bought some gorgeous bamboo flooring and now have the unenviable task of learning how to level, or at least flatten, a floor.

3. I suddenly have a sewing room. Ok, not so suddenly since my roomate moved out and I took over the room. Sewing room means curtains!

Tilli Tomas yarn

I know I'm late to the debate about Tilli Tomas' price fixing but one thing mystifies me. Am I the only person on the planet who doesn't like TT yarn? I bought some (horribly expensive) silk with tiny sequins yarn to use in a small shoulder shawl and have found that the yarn is fuzzing up in a not so attractive way. The spin on it is pretty loose and the fibers are pulling away from the rest of the yarn. The other thing I'm not so crazy about is the thread they use to attach the beads/sequins/pretty bits to the yarn. I don't suppose there's any better way to do it but I don't like the look of it.

I like their politics - they're rather like Lantern Moon in terms of commisioning the yarn from impoverished communities. I'd love to learn more about that part of their business. Don't like their yarn at all, though. :)

Time flies when we're having fun...

Lots of things going on, like, cancer treatment ended, I've gone back to work, and I actually have enough energy to knit again. Some neighbors and I started a knitting group at a local soda shop/ice cream parlor and it's turning out to be a whole lotta fun. The shop is Pops Ice Cream and Soda Bar and you can find them here:

1916 Memorial Avenue Roanoke, VA 24015 (around the corner from The Grandin Theatre, next door to Spikes) (540)345-2129

We meet on Wed nights from 7 to 9 pm.

HOURS
Friday and Saturday: 11AM - 11PM Sunday: 11AM - 9PM Monday & Tuesday: CLOSED Wednesday & Thursday: 11AM - 9PM

Their MySpace page is here: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=71549640

The place is a 1940s/1950s style joint owned by two rockabilly fans. The atmosphere is fabulous and they encourage people to hang out. They serve gourmet grilled cheese sammys and the soda syrups are made by the owners. Yum.

update.

Here's another piece that I did last year:
I never realized how spidery it looked before. :)

I haven't done much, ok any, knotwork this year. It's been a crazy year what with moving, my mother passing away in April, and my own diagnoses and battle with breast cancer this summer. I did buy a house and am in the midst of unpacking (sloooowly!) and putting together a studio there. That's a wonderful feeling, having enough space for all my stuff and the luxury of a room solely devoted to my art projects.

I started a house blog, because I apparently need to compartmentalize every aspect of my life and put it up for public examination. lol.

That blog is here: www.khandromesquared.blogspot.com

recent stuff....

Here are some pics of things I've made over the past few months:

This is a pair of earrings made with glass crystals and black clon macrame cord. The design was inspired by some knotwork in an old early 20th century fine knotting pamphlet.

I have been obsessed with this color green all year, and have a big stash of beads in it. For some reason this color makes me feel happy, and I can't seem to stop making things with it. The president of our local bead society bought these earrings, which is a pretty huge thrill. :)



One of my favorite neighbors bought this pair of earrings, to "support our local starving artists." I haven't seen her wear them yet. lol.



My friend Pippi keeps telling me to use more pink because "pink is the new navy!" I get a lot of comments on these earrings, the most common of which is "I like them, but they're too big!" I love huge earrings and my designs definitely reflect this. Not only that, the knotting needs a lot of space to really strut its stuff.

One of my goals for the next month is to make a much shorter version of this pair.

busy busy busy!

It's been months since I updated, and that's because things are crazy busy around here. I'm moving to Virginia in Dec. I have a new job there, the weather is gorgeous, there are no refineries within a mile radius of the area, and there's an amazing guy there. We found a lovely retirement community for my mom with a heated pool, library, and computer lab, so she's psyched about going, too.

I've made quite a bit of jewelry these past few months, and recently learned to make beaded cabochons. I'm still working on some knitted ufos, but am mostly beading these days. It feels wonderful to be creative make things, and I've even sold a few pieces.

One of my goals for 2007 is to learn lampworking. There's a lot of farmland in the area, too, and I'm still daydreaming about a tiny flock of sheep.

Change rocks.

Monica's Lace Stockings

I suspect that I'm supposed to show the picture of the FO once it's done, not the almost but not quite finished pic. Oh well - I finally finished Monica's Lace Stockings from White Lies Designs but gave them to my friend Amy before a pic could be taken. Amy's promised me a picture of herself in full naughty school grrrl regalia; in the mean time that's me trying them on just to show that I do actually knit... :)

I stiched them up on Clover bamboo dps. The yarn is Cascade Fixation. I bought the kit from WLD's site.

Anything but knitting

So I start a knitting blog and all I show here is non-knitting stuff.



I've been on a necklace binge since December. My local bead shop - The Bead Cellar - has ojime beads and I've been buying them up like crazy. I'm afraid my camera isn't really up to the task of showing the amazing detail of the carving or the rich color of the accent beads. The cat necklace was a Yule gift for my mom. The horse and rabbit pieces were for friends.

It's all about the fiber, baybay!

I found my camera! This is why cleaning is Good. :P A recent email inspired me to actually put something up on this blog so here is my latest fiber obsession:



I found a book of old victorian macrame pamphlets published by Lacis and have spent the last 2 weeks learning. I managed to miss macrame the first time around in the 70s, well, because I was embroidering, sewing, crocheting, and making bongs in ceramics class. 0:)

I have a lot to learn, but that's the point after all. :)

Time flies!

I am down to the last 6 edge stitches on the Spiral Shawl from Meg Swanson's A Gathering of Lace. It's going to be HUGE once I block it, and I made it smaller than the pattern called for. This is my first effort at knitting an edge sideways onto live stitches and I'm really liking it!

I have really got to get my camera running...