365 Days Handmade

February 22, 2015
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Day 52/365: Luckily, Sean Has Big Feet

Almost done with the second sock!

Yesterday I realized that I’d left my sock knitting instructions back at the Morro Bay house, and I was pretty bummed out about that. Then, last night I remembered: Those same instructions were typed on a Word document that I’d saved on my laptop. Hooray! (It doesn’t take much to make me happy, apparently.) So I was able to knit the gusset, turn the heel, and start the ribbing for the cuff on the second sock this morning.

When I’m in Morro Bay, I just take photos for the blog by staging my work-in-progress on the back deck or front porch, usually. Since I’m at the Ventura homestead this weekend, I had to get creative with my photo shoot locations. I took the above photo by placing the socks on a low hedge outside. I also tried photographing the in-progress sock on the sidewalk. I like the way this one came out, so I have to share it:

See? Pretty, right?

I originally started knitting this pair for my older brother, who may or may not be reading this right now. As I was knitting the second sock this morning, I had a feeling that this pair might be a little too big for my big bro. So I asked Sean to try it on. My brother wears a size 9 men’s shoe. Sean wears a size 11. He pulled the sock onto his foot, and it fit him perfectly:

This photo tells you a lot about us. Skateboard. Dolls. Books. And I’ll admit that mess on the floor is all me. I’m too busy being creative to bother with cleaning.

So it looks like Sean just got himself another pair of socks. Tomorrow I’m making him be a sock model again. (Remember the first time?) I’m thinking the Ventura Promenade will make a nice backdrop. Stay tuned.

February 21, 2015
by FC5 3 Comments

Day 51/365: 3rd Training Seminar

If you’ve been following this blog since last month, you’ll know that I already had to sit through two all-day trainings and one full day of jury duty. Today was my third all-day seminar in the span of less than two months.

I got to the conference room forty-five minutes early so I could get a seat in the back near the restrooms and exit doors. I was fortunate enough to snag the best remaining seat for that purpose, and then this guy came along and sat in front of me:

I am barely five foot three inches tall, and that is exactly my view of the screen. It was a bummer. I had to move my chair several inches over to the left and into the aisle just to get a better view.

I thought I would learn some new things today, but it was pretty much a refresher course on personality disorders and empirically validated treatments. Luckily, I brought my knitting, and that helped pass the time… until an hour and a half into the presentation when I’d completed two-thirds of the foot and realized: Shit, I couldn’t start the gusset because I left the instructions at home. In Morro Bay. And I was in Ventura. Two and a half hours away, about a hundred and fifty miles apart.

You can imagine my dismay.

February 20, 2015
by FC5 1 Comment

Day 50/365: Fifty?!

Getting started on that second sock!

Wow. Today makes my 50th post in a row. That’s a nice little milestone for me.

In other news, I didn’t go to work today. I cashed in 10 hours of paid leave so that I could drive down to Ventura, because I’m attending an all-day seminar tomorrow at the Pierpont Inn. The name of the seminar is Reasoning with Unreasonable People: Focus on Disorders of Emotional Regulation. With subject matter like that, how could I pass up the opportunity to attend?

(On a side note, I do have to say: That’s another thing I like about working in a prison. If an inmate is being completely uncooperative and unreasonable, I don’t have to put up with it. I can terminate the interview and send him on his way, or once in a while, I can use creative intervention.)

February 19, 2015
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Day 49/365: A Quarter of A Century Already?

Part of my job as a correctional staff psychologist is conducting intake interviews with new inmates who have transferred to our facility from another prison. Today I completed an intake with a 24-year-old new arrival who just started his term last year. He had been sentenced to 19 years in the state pen. As I was going through his files and my paperwork, I looked at his birthday and saw that he was born in 1990, and it occurred to me: Holy shit. This year marks 25 years since I graduated from high school. And: This kid will still have five years of prison time left when I retire.

February 18, 2015
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Day 48/365: Back to The Sock That’s Going to Make the 4th Pair This Year

Remember how I started this sock, and then this unfortunate thing happened?

That night (the 12th), I ordered new circulars from KnitPicks. (It was a completely different brand of needles that broke, by the way.) Kudos to the fine folks at KnitPicks, because they shipped my order promptly and the new needles arrived yesterday (the 16th).

I got to work putting the stitches back on the needles and managed to get as far as knitting the gusset and turning the heel. I’d like to try the Fish Lips Kiss heel at some point down the road, but for now I’m using a basic pattern from Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson (of Wendy Knits).

This sock will look better on a foot, once it’s done. But the colors are pretty, aren’t they?

This is Patons Kroy Socks FX, which is one of my favorite brands of sock yarn. It’s a tactile pleasure to knit. It is also reasonably priced and generally available at most craft stores that sell yarn, which is why I have an abundance of them in different colors in the yarn stash. If you haven’t already, give this brand of yarn a try. I’ll be interested to know what you think.

February 17, 2015
by FC5 1 Comment

Day 47/365: A Sneak Peek at My Drawers

Some days I have a really hard time coming up with a good title for the daily blog post. Today was not one of them.

So, as you recall, on Saturday I went trash picking and on Sunday I got to upcycling. I forgot to mention yesterday that part of the day’s activities included going to Ace Hardware for paint and Home Depot for replacement knobs for the dresser drawers.

They were stripped of their knobs when I rescued them from the trash.

You can click on the photo for an enlarged view, but you can see where the holes were drilled for the drawer knobs. Apparently, the top drawer had two knobs, while the second drawer probably had two handle-type pulls.

I didn’t like the placement of holes in the top drawer. So I used some of Sean’s wood putty and filled the extra holes that I planned to paint over. Then Sean took his drill, measured the spots for the new holes, and drilled them in for me.

I knew I wanted glass knobs for that vintage shabby-chic look, and I found exactly the perfect ones. They’re faceted crystal, and they remind me of disco balls, the way the light bounces off into rainbows. At six dollars a knob, these were the most expensive purchase for this makeover.

Costly, but oh so pretty!

I gave each dresser drawer two coats of paint, and that seemed like enough. When the paint dried, I had the pleasure of installing my new glass knobs.

So, to recap, from this:

To this:

Sean is back down in Ventura now, and I’ll be headed down there for this weekend. It’s still foggy in Morro Bay, so I’m going to wait until we’re both up here on a sunny day to take more photos of the completed project. Stay tuned for the Big Reveal in probably two weeks!

February 16, 2015
by FC5 4 Comments

Day 46/365: One Person’s Trash…

Remember this old bureau that I rescued from the landfill yesterday?

I spent most of today fixing it up, with Sean’s help.

Click for a closer look of the dirty, dusty details.

First, I pulled out the two remaining drawers and discovered dust and a spider and a few other tiny bugs and crawlies. So Sean and I carried the empty dresser out to the driveway, where I gave it a major powerwash with the garden hose.

See? Much cleaner.

Sean got started measuring the space where I wanted a shelf, since one of the three drawers had been missing its front panel and was beyond repair.

Measure twice, cut once.

In the meantime, I started painting. I went with two coats and thought that was a good place to stop.

Wet paint!

It was foggy in Morro Bay today, so it wasn’t the best day to be taking photos in natural sunlight. But I think you can get a pretty good idea of where this project is heading.

What do you think so far?

P.S. The name of this paint is Good Life.

Which is kinda appropriate, ’cause that’s what we’re living, baby.

February 15, 2015
by FC5 3 Comments

Day 45/365: Happy Valentine’s Day to Me

Sean and I were taking a shortcut to the Embarcadero by way of a side street off Main. We were passing a parking lot of a commercial building when I noticed some furniture that had been put out near the dumpster.

“Hang on,” I said to Sean and ran across the parking lot to check out the furniture—or more specifically, a bureau that caught my eye. It had exactly the kind of curves that I like. At the same time, the front panel of the bottom drawer was missing, along with every single drawer knob. Still, it had potential. I could remove the broken bottom drawer and rearrange the remaining two drawers so that the top section could be an open shelf.

I ran back to where Sean was waiting on the sidewalk. “Can we go home and get the car and come back and take that dresser home?”

“What do you want that old dresser for?” Sean asked. “It’s all jacked up.”

“Please,” I said. “Humor me.”

So Sean, being The Most Patient and Best Husband in The World, went along with my plan and we walked back up the hill to our house. Then we got in The Rental and drove a half mile back to the dumpster in the parking lot, only to discover (when I went to lift one side) that the bureau was coated in grime and filth, and there was no way that The Most Patient and Best Husband in The World was going to agree to slide that dirty old bureau onto the clean carpeted trunk of his car.

So we got back in The Rental and drove the half mile back up the hill to our house, where I ran into the garage and grabbed a bunch of rags and an old bedsheet, and then we drove back down the hill to the commercial building’s parking lot, and this time we successfully loaded the bureau into the back of the car.

The Most Patient and Best Husband in The World drove us back home and unloaded the bureau into the garage.

“This is your project,” he said. “It’s all you.”

“Okay,” I said, already thinking about my paint color choices and whether I should go for Shabby Chic off-white or Beach Cottage aqua/turquoise. I also thought it best not to say any more, because I was still going to need his help to get the job done. Someone’s going to have to build a shelf in that space where the missing drawer should be.

Click on the image to get a better look!

February 14, 2015
by FC5 1 Comment

Day 44/365: That Same Darn Sweater

I’ve gotten this far down on the body of the sweater, and I’ve got that much yarn left. Unfortunately, this particular yarn was purchased several years ago and I’m pretty sure that it’s been discontinued. I’m at that point in the sweater-knitting process where I usually give up and move on to another project (as my two other very similar half-finished sweaters will tell you). But part of the reason I started this blog was to give me a reason to complete all of my unfinished projects. So I will persevere and maybe just switch to crocheting the rest of the damn thing, as we all know that in the time it takes to knit the bottom half of a sweater, you could crochet an entire bedspread. Luckily, it’s the start of another three-day weekend.

February 13, 2015
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Day 43/365: You Should See The Other Guy

Given my unfortunate skateboarding incident four days ago, along with the recent unfortunate incident with my size 3 circulars, I haven’t made any significant progress with my current projects.

At the same time, I do have to tell you that I’ve enjoyed walking around the prison with bruised knuckles and a wrist brace all week. Because when any of the inmates asks, it gives me the opportunity to say (as I hold up my hand in a fist), “This is what happened when that last guy disrespected me.”