Osborn Fiber Studio

This is a post that needs a subtitle: “It’s like a Block Party, but in the Present Progressive!” Which is oddly symbolic of so much in this post.

I have surfaced from two crazy weeks by the skin of my teeth. There was a lot of reading, a lot of sitting in class, a lot of sitting in conferences, a lot of writing and note-taking, and a lot of prayer. Aside from the prayer, my main way of surviving was with a whole lot of stockinette stitch, garter stitch, and diamond knit-and-purl patterns. My brain is fried, my house is a wreck, and it’s taking me three days to psych myself up to go grocery shopping, but I learned a ton, and I got three finished objects out of the deal. So today I had a blocking party.

These are all original designs, to be published this summer when test-knitting is done. I will let them remain enticing hints for now, but I am very excited that they are done.

If you are very observant, you will notice that these items are being blocked on a wide swath of clean carpet. The house we live in has no carpet, except some rock-hard stuff in the bedroom. This carpet is in our future bedroom.

That’s right: we’re moving. Again. I swore I wouldn’t do this, but after a year in our lovely little 2nd-floor-of-a-house apartment, we’ve concluded that it’s just too small. Plus, an opportunity opened up that is so neat that we are actually excited to move. Meet the house:

We’ll be renting again, and it’s only about a mile from our current place, but we like it loads. It has some major perks: central air (a rarity in these parts), a porch and a deck, lots of sunny yard, finished basement, storage space, etc. It also has a few things we need to work on, like a humungoid poison sumac plant, carpet that smells vaguely of cat pee, and some way to mow the lawn. We’re not moving until August, so right now it functions mostly as a blocking surface and a place to store our housemates (more on that another day) and a whole mess of seedlings.

Our backyard is going to be transformed into a cantelope patch. There might be a firepit. Glee!