Upside Down

I just realized that it is August 2012 and I have not blogged for some time.

Last year on my birthday I asked my children to give me something I really wanted -- a leather-like lounge chair that would fit in my bedroom and allow me to work or read with my feet raised.  They obliged me and the chair came to live with me somewhere around the first of October.  I love the chair and it was a life changer.  Now I am freed from the computer chair at my desk and I can sit and read or watch TV with my legs supported.  The arms of the chair are comfortable enough for me to knit or sew now.

So I started knitting again.  It had been since my children were very small.  Perhaps 35 plus years. 

I first learned to knit when my next door neighbor taught me when I was about 14.  I made easy slippers from her yarn stash and gave them as Christmas gifts.  I saved my allowances to get yarn to make myself a sweater.  I bought some black acrylic yarn and made a longsleeved crew necked pullover in a simple stockingette pattern.  I loved that sweater and wore it all through high school regardless of the season.  It was a uniform with a straight black wool skirt and black loafers to match.

When I was a young married, I purchased a red cable knit pullover and a pair of black slacks.  With my long hair in a bun and a white turtle neck, that became my new working outfit, just another type of uniform.  I realize now, I just opted out of fashion decisions.  I found some simple outfit and just wore the same thing for years.  Nowadays, I wear denim jumpers and a white t-shirt.  I have about 8 of these (all the same) and a stack of t-shirts.  That's it.  Same-o, same-o, still opting out.  Also, stacked in my drawer are 8 cotton night gowns, half in a blue and half in a pink pattern.  They are comfortable and unless I am going outside, I wear these easy garments all day and night and change them about every two or three days.  Laundry is simple, you see?

In my bedroom/lounge I have three 66 gal covered plastic bins for my yarn stash.  This yarn is for knitting projects in the winter and spring.  I have one more bin of 2 yard swatches of cotton fabrics for summer sewing.  I sew school shirts for my grandsons and I knit them each a pullover and a cardigan sweater for the year.

For this year's birthday, I am giving myself two sewing classes -- one for making jelly roll quilts and one for learning to make smocked yoke children's dresses.  I look forward to learning new tricks.

I have collected some patterns and how-to books to fill up a shelf by my chair.  I have some on making socks, some on sweaters, hats, gloves and scarves.  And this spring, just for fun, I have made about 6 teddy bears from fake fur yarn for the kids.  Easy-peasy.  I have four binders full of free patterns for projects I have found on the interwebs.  So many ideas, so little time.