Of Sleepless Nights & Creativity
Knitting news, drum roll if you please ........... I FINISHED KNITTING THE secret uni BLANKET PROJECT that I started in March this year !!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, knitting four inch mitred squares on my 59 peg loom from CinDwood Crafts using 29 pegs, bit by bit, square by square, night after night, I have finally managed to complete all 252 squares, actually the celebration moment came and went yesterday and without realising it, probably through habit now, I actually knitted two squares too many!
But its done, only has four rows left at the bottom to seam then it an be washed, pegged for blocking and drying, then wrapped up as a present for Lionel.
large mixed media portrait by Amy McDonald
Following on from the free Mandala Class the girls and I have been enjoying over the last three weeks, I made three good final draft mandalas for Lionel, two are small and are part of mixed media pieces to be cut out and stuck on to a design I am currently doing over a shoe box turned into a special keepsake box. The idea that we've been working on is that Lionel doesnt currently have a space within our family home to call his own. We've got him a bed with mattress from Freegle, I ordered a Hello Kitty quilt cover for his dovet to go on the bed and we are preparing shelving with spaces for all his things which are already here. We hope to get this all set up before he arrives on the 19th December. As Joseph has moved into the downstairs spare lounge until he starts university in September, the room is so big we have decided to put Lionel in there as well giving him half the room. Now all we really need is a tv for his xbox and its sorted. I have been making pretty things like printing out photographs of him and Dom to go next to the bed, decorating this box for his special things and generally making sure it all feels like his own home from the moment he arrives. I think he will really appreciate the effort as last time he was here when we'd just moved in, he slept on the floor with Ivan in Ivan's bedroom.
More on the art front, I have started the Portraits one by Amy McDonald which is well thought out, extremely well put together and highly impressive especially as its so generously offered for free online with download videos for you to keep along with the pdf files. I learnt a great deal from watching and listening so far, things I thought I knew before but realise now that I didnt. Drawing noses all week, my weak point, I have also finally got round to decorating the cover of my Moleskine journal which I have been using for rough practice sketches over the past six months. Something I've always wanted to do but never got round to it primarily through lack of space mainly, is the mixed media large portrait using all kinds of different materials. Amy has included two different sizes in her Portraits course, I havent watched the videos yet as there were six for the larger size and seven for the half size portraits, but I've downloaded them and as soon as I finish with the noses I'll move on through the course properly. Usually I just skim through things but for this one, as its so thorough, I feel I want to be as well so am working through the sections very slowly giving myself plenty of days to get through them. The pieces of artwork that are more involved than a simple painting with maybe words stuck around the center feature, take a lot longer to build up and dry the layers in between. Something this house is perfect for, larger art work projects, even Angelica has already started building up her collection of works as she now has more space to explore her creativity properly, its a beautiful thing to be a part of, seeing my daughter flourish in this way.
Something funny happened this week also on the art front, Angelica and I both bought each other Derwent Inktense Pencils tin of 24 for Christmas, we did laugh when my parcel arrived and I was trying to hide it, she started really laughing and kept saying we should see if we've both bought exactly the same thing, after a couple of hours I gave in and so we did compare and sure enough, snap. "We're so in sync" she said, "absolutely without a doubt" I replied :)
Another thing I've always done since childhood is draw designs in the style of stained glass windows, these pencils look perfect for that from what I've read from others who already have them. Tamara Laporte aka Willowing did a really good review which you can read here. I'll let you know whether they hold up for stained glass window designs later when I try them wet, I have a feeling though, they are going to be just perfect, the colours appear intense enough for the job and I am excited to be able to give them a good try now I have my own.
On the spinning front, I have drafted "A Dragon Called Karma" MHE Falkland ready for a fractal spun yarn.
First I split the fibre down its length into two, rolled the first one into a ball, split the second piece into two rolled one piece into a ball, split the third piece also down its length into two and rolled both of them into balls, first ball is first single, other three balls are for the second single of a 2ply yarn.
Then I drafted each length so that the fibre can be spun directly from the length without breaking
Numbering the balls is important because during spinning, unless I can finish them all in one sitting, stopping ad starting the balls can easily become mixed up and its important with fractal spinning that the fibre remains in the order it is to be spun in so that the yarn is self striping with an even mix of colours.
Here is one I did back in March
from this MHE Shetland named "Lets Party"
I so wanted to knit with this one right now but its somehow mysteriously been separated from my stash of handspun yarns and is lost packed away somewhere else in the house, I am sure I will come across it eventually whilst we are unpacking things after Christmas.
On the sleepless nights front, last night was particularly bad, I had a massive flashback which was particularly upsetting on Friday evening after dozing off on the sofa so since then sleeping has been a real problem for me. The traps caught one rat on Friday morning, I discovered it on my way into Ivan's bedroom to wake up the girls. Up until that point as we had previously seen a little brown mouse we suspected that rats were here but it became so real upon seeing one trapped that morning with its dark grey black long body, pointed head and extra long tail. My knees went weak, mouth instantly dry, hands sweaty, forehead dripping, the fear of death rising through me instantly upon seeing it there. So by Friday evening when the kids were at scouts, I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep straight away only to wake a little while later in a compete state of panic. Not very pleasant at all, I havent had a panic attach or flashback of abuse since October 2004 so it was a bit of a shock to my system and although yes it has upset me, I have been able to process it rather than compress the memory again.
This morning through neither Pat, Joseph or myself sleeping beyond a little doze around 3am for about an hour because of the banging above us, Pat has gone around with cement again this time all the way round the lower level he can reach around the outside of the house, found the nest which is under Angelica's bedroom floor and put down fresh baited traps above it where the holes are they are coming out into the room from. As I am typing this I can hear movement upstairs, its even more unnerving now I know its rats, more than one rat, and having seen one its all become a pretty real living nightmare for me, like one of my worst fears has become a firm reality.
I have used the contact form on Rent'O'Kill's website about two hours ago, around six this morning and will wait to hear back from them with a quote. Got to find the money somewhere for this, I know my system can not cope with them taking over the upstairs for much longer. Joseph has had an incident where they are trying to push up the window cill in his downstairs room which is directly below Angelica's room. Somehow a couple have found their way down inside the wall and are trying to bash their way out. Yesterday we put a set of bricks, actual full size house bricks, on top of the window cill, the rats underneath were banging and pushing the plastic cill upwards and actually pushed the bricks off. Joseph put his ipod loud speaker facing down into the cill on full volume and they stopped banging but as soon as he removed it later the banging, scraping and pushing started again, he got angry and banged on to the cill really hard then sat on it for a bit. The scraping continued but then stopped, when Pat went out a little while later in the morning, he saw a hole in the brickwork under the bottom of the window, too high to have been made from the outside so we are guessing they bashed there way outside rather than inside so he's sealed it up with cement.
Harvey's bedroom floor is full of new holes this morning, Angelica's room has four new holes since yesterday, at this rate the entire flooring in both rooms will have to be replaced if it all doesnt fall down first that is, they are bound to have been at the joists and herringbone strutting underneath the flooring as well by now, its been four weeks since we first became aware of rodents when Angelica woke to see a little brown mouse next to her tv, then Pat found all the droppings. The rats have probably chased the mouse away by now and are taking over, I read they are territorial, hmmm, funny that but so are we and we want out house back - NOW!
My skin senses are so sensitive, I can tell if a moth has flown into the room where I'm sitting long before anyone sees it, similarly with the rats, I know instantly when something is present because my skin starts to tingle, hairs stand up, so you can imagine what I am going through right now virtually 24/7. The activity has increased a great deal over the past four days too, so my unsettled natural sensations have just gone bonkers as well, my legs have hairs standing up and tingling very often throughout the day and night, its not a nice sensation either when you pair it up with the restless twitchy legs I already get night and day. So yes, I've been in a bit of a state but focusing on Christmas and crafts, cooking, preparing things for Lionel's homecoming and generally trying to keep my mind active.
One thing about living here, we have not seen any cats around the area, foxes by the dozen but no cats. Every time we go out for a night time drive we see a fox or two on every road we drive down, even main roads and dual carriageways. At our last place there were cats, lots of them, rats would come but eventually the cats would sort them out or they would just not appear again, one of the two. Point is, the situation was controlled. Here though, it does feel like we are under siege at present and keeping up with all the extra excess cleaning is starting to grate on everyone so it truly can not go on for much longer, something has to give. Hopefully the Rent O Kill place will get back to me today with a quote, it cant be any more expensive than the local council but will be much more professional, the council want to come and lay poison traps, we dont want the decomposing smell rotting away in the walls of our house. Have to wait and see which one of the two options we can go with, I hope they can come on Monday who ever it is we choose, I just want it all dealt with now so that I can rest before all the extra Christmas cooking.
Yep, knitting four inch mitred squares on my 59 peg loom from CinDwood Crafts using 29 pegs, bit by bit, square by square, night after night, I have finally managed to complete all 252 squares, actually the celebration moment came and went yesterday and without realising it, probably through habit now, I actually knitted two squares too many!
But its done, only has four rows left at the bottom to seam then it an be washed, pegged for blocking and drying, then wrapped up as a present for Lionel.
large mixed media portrait by Amy McDonald
Following on from the free Mandala Class the girls and I have been enjoying over the last three weeks, I made three good final draft mandalas for Lionel, two are small and are part of mixed media pieces to be cut out and stuck on to a design I am currently doing over a shoe box turned into a special keepsake box. The idea that we've been working on is that Lionel doesnt currently have a space within our family home to call his own. We've got him a bed with mattress from Freegle, I ordered a Hello Kitty quilt cover for his dovet to go on the bed and we are preparing shelving with spaces for all his things which are already here. We hope to get this all set up before he arrives on the 19th December. As Joseph has moved into the downstairs spare lounge until he starts university in September, the room is so big we have decided to put Lionel in there as well giving him half the room. Now all we really need is a tv for his xbox and its sorted. I have been making pretty things like printing out photographs of him and Dom to go next to the bed, decorating this box for his special things and generally making sure it all feels like his own home from the moment he arrives. I think he will really appreciate the effort as last time he was here when we'd just moved in, he slept on the floor with Ivan in Ivan's bedroom.
More on the art front, I have started the Portraits one by Amy McDonald which is well thought out, extremely well put together and highly impressive especially as its so generously offered for free online with download videos for you to keep along with the pdf files. I learnt a great deal from watching and listening so far, things I thought I knew before but realise now that I didnt. Drawing noses all week, my weak point, I have also finally got round to decorating the cover of my Moleskine journal which I have been using for rough practice sketches over the past six months. Something I've always wanted to do but never got round to it primarily through lack of space mainly, is the mixed media large portrait using all kinds of different materials. Amy has included two different sizes in her Portraits course, I havent watched the videos yet as there were six for the larger size and seven for the half size portraits, but I've downloaded them and as soon as I finish with the noses I'll move on through the course properly. Usually I just skim through things but for this one, as its so thorough, I feel I want to be as well so am working through the sections very slowly giving myself plenty of days to get through them. The pieces of artwork that are more involved than a simple painting with maybe words stuck around the center feature, take a lot longer to build up and dry the layers in between. Something this house is perfect for, larger art work projects, even Angelica has already started building up her collection of works as she now has more space to explore her creativity properly, its a beautiful thing to be a part of, seeing my daughter flourish in this way.
Something funny happened this week also on the art front, Angelica and I both bought each other Derwent Inktense Pencils tin of 24 for Christmas, we did laugh when my parcel arrived and I was trying to hide it, she started really laughing and kept saying we should see if we've both bought exactly the same thing, after a couple of hours I gave in and so we did compare and sure enough, snap. "We're so in sync" she said, "absolutely without a doubt" I replied :)
Another thing I've always done since childhood is draw designs in the style of stained glass windows, these pencils look perfect for that from what I've read from others who already have them. Tamara Laporte aka Willowing did a really good review which you can read here. I'll let you know whether they hold up for stained glass window designs later when I try them wet, I have a feeling though, they are going to be just perfect, the colours appear intense enough for the job and I am excited to be able to give them a good try now I have my own.
On the spinning front, I have drafted "A Dragon Called Karma" MHE Falkland ready for a fractal spun yarn.
First I split the fibre down its length into two, rolled the first one into a ball, split the second piece into two rolled one piece into a ball, split the third piece also down its length into two and rolled both of them into balls, first ball is first single, other three balls are for the second single of a 2ply yarn.
Then I drafted each length so that the fibre can be spun directly from the length without breaking
Numbering the balls is important because during spinning, unless I can finish them all in one sitting, stopping ad starting the balls can easily become mixed up and its important with fractal spinning that the fibre remains in the order it is to be spun in so that the yarn is self striping with an even mix of colours.
Here is one I did back in March
from this MHE Shetland named "Lets Party"
I so wanted to knit with this one right now but its somehow mysteriously been separated from my stash of handspun yarns and is lost packed away somewhere else in the house, I am sure I will come across it eventually whilst we are unpacking things after Christmas.
On the sleepless nights front, last night was particularly bad, I had a massive flashback which was particularly upsetting on Friday evening after dozing off on the sofa so since then sleeping has been a real problem for me. The traps caught one rat on Friday morning, I discovered it on my way into Ivan's bedroom to wake up the girls. Up until that point as we had previously seen a little brown mouse we suspected that rats were here but it became so real upon seeing one trapped that morning with its dark grey black long body, pointed head and extra long tail. My knees went weak, mouth instantly dry, hands sweaty, forehead dripping, the fear of death rising through me instantly upon seeing it there. So by Friday evening when the kids were at scouts, I lay down on the sofa and fell asleep straight away only to wake a little while later in a compete state of panic. Not very pleasant at all, I havent had a panic attach or flashback of abuse since October 2004 so it was a bit of a shock to my system and although yes it has upset me, I have been able to process it rather than compress the memory again.
This morning through neither Pat, Joseph or myself sleeping beyond a little doze around 3am for about an hour because of the banging above us, Pat has gone around with cement again this time all the way round the lower level he can reach around the outside of the house, found the nest which is under Angelica's bedroom floor and put down fresh baited traps above it where the holes are they are coming out into the room from. As I am typing this I can hear movement upstairs, its even more unnerving now I know its rats, more than one rat, and having seen one its all become a pretty real living nightmare for me, like one of my worst fears has become a firm reality.
I have used the contact form on Rent'O'Kill's website about two hours ago, around six this morning and will wait to hear back from them with a quote. Got to find the money somewhere for this, I know my system can not cope with them taking over the upstairs for much longer. Joseph has had an incident where they are trying to push up the window cill in his downstairs room which is directly below Angelica's room. Somehow a couple have found their way down inside the wall and are trying to bash their way out. Yesterday we put a set of bricks, actual full size house bricks, on top of the window cill, the rats underneath were banging and pushing the plastic cill upwards and actually pushed the bricks off. Joseph put his ipod loud speaker facing down into the cill on full volume and they stopped banging but as soon as he removed it later the banging, scraping and pushing started again, he got angry and banged on to the cill really hard then sat on it for a bit. The scraping continued but then stopped, when Pat went out a little while later in the morning, he saw a hole in the brickwork under the bottom of the window, too high to have been made from the outside so we are guessing they bashed there way outside rather than inside so he's sealed it up with cement.
Harvey's bedroom floor is full of new holes this morning, Angelica's room has four new holes since yesterday, at this rate the entire flooring in both rooms will have to be replaced if it all doesnt fall down first that is, they are bound to have been at the joists and herringbone strutting underneath the flooring as well by now, its been four weeks since we first became aware of rodents when Angelica woke to see a little brown mouse next to her tv, then Pat found all the droppings. The rats have probably chased the mouse away by now and are taking over, I read they are territorial, hmmm, funny that but so are we and we want out house back - NOW!
My skin senses are so sensitive, I can tell if a moth has flown into the room where I'm sitting long before anyone sees it, similarly with the rats, I know instantly when something is present because my skin starts to tingle, hairs stand up, so you can imagine what I am going through right now virtually 24/7. The activity has increased a great deal over the past four days too, so my unsettled natural sensations have just gone bonkers as well, my legs have hairs standing up and tingling very often throughout the day and night, its not a nice sensation either when you pair it up with the restless twitchy legs I already get night and day. So yes, I've been in a bit of a state but focusing on Christmas and crafts, cooking, preparing things for Lionel's homecoming and generally trying to keep my mind active.
One thing about living here, we have not seen any cats around the area, foxes by the dozen but no cats. Every time we go out for a night time drive we see a fox or two on every road we drive down, even main roads and dual carriageways. At our last place there were cats, lots of them, rats would come but eventually the cats would sort them out or they would just not appear again, one of the two. Point is, the situation was controlled. Here though, it does feel like we are under siege at present and keeping up with all the extra excess cleaning is starting to grate on everyone so it truly can not go on for much longer, something has to give. Hopefully the Rent O Kill place will get back to me today with a quote, it cant be any more expensive than the local council but will be much more professional, the council want to come and lay poison traps, we dont want the decomposing smell rotting away in the walls of our house. Have to wait and see which one of the two options we can go with, I hope they can come on Monday who ever it is we choose, I just want it all dealt with now so that I can rest before all the extra Christmas cooking.