So that's what was under there!

There is something to be said for having your house taken over by a bunch of men who are demolishing things. I've been very impressed by our contractors so far - not only have they shown up on time but have been very productive, are looking to get the job done by the end of next week, and have made sure to cover half the house in plastic so as not to get everything dirty! It does sound a little bit like I'm walking around wearing plastic bags on my feet, but I'd rather that than the alternative.

In fact, they were so eager to get started this morning that the doorbell rang at 7:45 while I was in a state of semi-undress, having just got out of the shower and not quite decided what to wear. I quickly threw my PJs back on to let them in, at which point they were very apologetic for having woken me up.

I've been taking photos to document progress and have a first few to share with you. I'd like you to meet our old bathroom....One word to describe it? Bland. While retro is "in", there's something about the 1980s white tile and delightful vinyl flooring combo that just doesn't quite work for me. Even better than that, check out the handles in the bathtub. Are those a nice smokey gray plastic? Oh yes, I believe they are. Oh well, out with the old and in with the sledgehammer.

When I got home last night I was greeting by a bathroom with no walls. It's definitely odd to see what's underneath all the lovely tile that existed. You have to excuse the crooked photo - that's what happens when you stick your arm through plastic sheeting and aim blindly!Right now they are putting up new walls and tile is soon to be going on top of that. It's definitely an interesting experience but no complaints so far. More photos once they start laying tile...

May the demolition begin!

When we were first buying our house, one of the things that we were desperate to do is remodel the second bathroom. It started with a broken shower door, which turned into "well, we might as well replace the shower base too cus it looks old". That became ripping out the tile in the shower area and tiling the floor. I made the observation that if we're redoing the floor in one bathroom, we should probably tile the floor in our bathroom as well. After meeting with a couple of contractors, we decided that we could just re-tile the area around the bathtub while we're at it...you know, get it all done at once!

About 15 estimates later (ranging from $1300 to $11K), we finally picked a lovely contractor to help us with our first real venture into the equity building mess of remodeling. He came over today to help finalize our contract with him, and work begins on Wednesday of this week. I've spent so many hours watching Sweat Equity on the DIY Network that we might wonder why I'm not just getting down on my hands and knees and doing everything myself. This is definitely one of those cases where my end of year bonus will buy me the peace of mind of having a professional with a sledgehammer do it on my behalf!

Before and after pictures will be following of course. =)

Acrylic yarn to a good home?

ALL YARNS HAVE BEEN TAKEN. THANKS!

My charity knitting group at work just went through our stash of donated yarn (we were overflowing!) They asked me to post it as we want to share the wealth with others who may have use for it. It has been split into 3 lots.

Note that all of this yarn is acrylic, and much of it appears to be vintage. Send me a message (organicstills [at] gmail) if you’re interested and which lot you would like...first come first serve on that. =)

Lot 1
2 skeins mustard color, 1 skein black, 1 skein navy, partial skein of royal blue, partial skein of brown, 2 partial skeins black (a little tangled together)Lot 2
1 skein white, 1 skein black, 1 skein royal blue, 1 skein brown, 1 skein purple/white variegated
Lot 3
1 skein navy, 1 skein grey, 1 skein orange/yellow/brown, 1 skein + 1 partial skein grey/red/white variegated, 1 partial skein royal blue

What is lavender, fuzzy and makes you sneeze?

After the success of unraveling my first sweater right before New Year's, which yielded about 800+ yards of yarn, I am finding my new supplement to the fiber arts to be quite entertaining. I've never been one for finding excellent thrifty deals but when I read about the finds that the thrifty folk on Ravelry (who inspired me to try this in the first place) seem to come across, I'm encouraged to keep looking!

The selection of thrift stores near home and work aren't wonderful, nor are these places super cheap. The concept of a wool sweater for $0.50 leaves me in awe and extremely jealous as I just can't see these particular stores selling for such prices.

• American Cancer Society (Burbank) - gorgeous stuff, but pretty expensive and more a place to go if you're trying to buy a $300 pair of designer jeans for $50.
• Goodwill (North Hollywood) - nice big and bright store, but terrible quality of sweaters right now. They're mostly acrylics and sweaters that just aren't in good condition.
• American Way Thrift Store (Burbank) - where I've been having the most success so far, but is accompanied by that very authentic thrift store "smell" to go with the dark and dusty warehouse looking room that it's comprised of. It also seems to be quite popular and is picked over quickly so the good stuff isn't around long enough to go on sale!

On my most recent trip this week, I went to American Way (at the intersection of Magnolia and California in Burbank, just in case any locals are reading this). The sweater section seems to be hugely depleted right now, probably on account of the 3 days of cold weather that we've had recently. Go figure that I would start trying to find sweaters to reclaim during the "cold" part of the year in L.A. Having said all that though, I did find a couple of nice sweaters.

The first is a beautiful lavender nylon/angora/wool blend. It appears to have been made in a raglan style and the seams have been pretty easy to work with. The downside being that I am completely covered in lavender angora rabbit fuzz and have had several sneezing sessions this afternoon seeing as it's taken over my office completely. The lace weight yarn that I'm getting from it seems worth it to me though and I am hoping to have well over 1000 yards once I'm done (insert happy dance).

The other sweater is a wool/rayon/angora/cashmere blend. The seams have been a little resistant but I am being patient and trying to remember how lovely and soft the yarn will be once I can get it undone. The other interesting thing is that what appears to be a worsted weight yarn in the sweater is actually 6 strands of lace weight. I'm going to keep it as a worsted 6-ply (sort of) because I don't really want to deal with un-stranding and weakening the yarn.

I am telling myself that this new fascination with commercially made sweaters is so that I can learn more about the formation of knitwear. After all, guys have been taking things apart to find out how they were put together for years right? =)

All the pretty colors

I was told today that I've been included in a treasury on Etsy (always a nice thing to find out!) The colors are so pretty and eye-catching that I just had to share.

One way to stash bust

I just came across this video of Extreme Knitting, an art form brought to us by Rachel John in the UK...trust a crazy brit to come up with something like this! (I should know, I am one). Using hundreds of strands of yarn and fence post sized knitting needles, she creates seriously over sized knit pieces that have no apparent practical use, but definitely look comfortable; which is a good thing because it seems like a lot of work to create the piece in the first place.

I'm in awe of the artistry involved in her work and I'm still sitting here scratching my head and trying to figure out how on earth you'd keep the yarn from tangling. I have issues untangling 2 strands, let alone several hundred. I am inspired though and am now contemplating whether it would be possible to knit a large rug with needles the size of the handles on my Swiffer duster! Well, if my yarn stash ever takes over, I now know how to get rid of it quickly.

Happy (Crafty) New Year!

2009 is finally upon us! While I'm not one for New Year Resolutions (just seems like setting up for failure), I have been formulating a list of fun crafty things that I'd like to try this year. I'm not under any assumption that I will actually manage to do all of these things, but one can wish! =)

- Try dying yarn with Kool-aid (perhaps move on to roving if that works out ok)
- Do the cross stitch pattern that I bought (see picture)
- Figure out if I really do want to buy that darn weaving loom!
- Finish the sweater that I've been working on for a year now that's been hiding...crazy cable patterns lead to long time knitting!
- Sew the curtains for our bedroom
- Learn to sew zippers properly
- Go on a couple of field trips with my camera (definitely need some new portfolio shots)
- Thrift more yarn (I had fun with my first sweater so will try to find more!)
- Attempt to felt something in the washer
- Write down a couple more of my knitting/crochet patterns. I have them in my head but not yet on paper.

In between all of this, my number one priority this year is to get my inventory fully listed on my own website and figure out the details of Zencart! I've been making some progress but definitely want to focus on it more.

If you have crafty things that you're planning this year, please comment below as I'd love to know what you're going to be up to!