{love the way the cut angles my hair towards my face}

Some of my earliest memories are of the bright yellow walls of my childhood bedroom. Maybe they’re what’s led me to needing so much color in my life?

My teenage bedroom walls were a crisp mint green offset by my plum velvet headboard cover and some hand dyed batik curtains that I sewed up from cloth made up of mint green, lavender and a soft cadet blue swirled together. I remember buying the cloth for the curtains and nearly gawking at the $60/yard price, knowing that I needed at least 2 yards; but they were so worth it.

Almost two years ago I painted my studio space a crisp clear blue. Tonight the hubby and I will be blue taping it up. Tomorrow morning I’ll put on the first coat of the ever so wonderful pale beige that the housing department loves, and later that night we’ll do the second coat. As much as I love the blue, I don’t think we’ll be painting a room this color again for quite a few years to come. The blue seems so at home in this bright red iron-rich desert, and for me the two are now tied together.

Our next space is most likely going to be done in rich colors inspired by the spices and wood work of India. Something a bit more warm and inviting in comparison to the starkness that we’ve lived in here. I’m looking forward to creating a cozy environment.

Good bye blue walls, hello boring beige.

cheers,
danielle

..and finding my balance again.

It seems to be a struggle at times to just let go of things that aren’t working. To move on. To find a different path that will lead to a more satisfying end.

When I first started tossing around the idea of a hand spun yoke sweater, I thought I was going to use raglan shaping. Indeed I even cast on for a raglan top down sweater that I thought would look good. By the end of the first ball of hand spun I wasn’t so keen on it. The angles just didn’t feel right with the organic qualities of the hand spun yarn that reminded me so much of bark. So I ripped it out, and a while back cast on for a round yoke that will end up being a henely. A couple of days ago I joined the fronts and have been knitting away merrily since. I love the way the fingering weight yarns knit up into a highly pliable fabric.

I like the way the dye jobs and the spinning turned out. The yarns seem to compliment each other quite well.

Picking up the slipped stitches for the button bands will be fun later; all those curves might make it a bit interesting.

Recently I cast on for a little shawl in a bulky black wool that I thought I would really enjoy. When it comes down to it though, I’m not really such a fan of garter stitch in bulky weight yarn, it feels too stiff. Instead I’ve re-cast on for a feather and fan comfort shawl which produces a fabric that drapes well while still retaining the ridges that my fingers find so appealing.

I rarely knit with bulky yarn and it feels like I’m cheating a bit. The stitches are so large, and quiet a bit of ground is covered quickly.

The last piece that I’m actively knitting is quite different than the others. It hasn’t been ripped out, it’s color is intense, and though it lacks the substance in fabric that the other two have in droves it’s fabric is irresistibly touchable.

The lightest lace weight I’ve ever worked with. I love the way highly patterned lace looks before blocking. All crumpled and bumpy. It’s a bit sad that it has to be blocked in the end and lose all of that wonderful texture. Then again the pattern is called “Wing of the Moth” and I’ve named this piece “Menelaus Blue Morpho” for the Blue Morpho* butterfly that it reminds me of; blocking is really just a state of metamorphosis.

This weekend we’re having our garage sale, according to others the only words we need to put in the local paper are “American garage sale” + our address and the time it starts. Ha! We spent last night putting stickers on everything and writing down prices. Apparently if we don’t list the start time people will try to start buying things while we’re bringing them out to set up. I’ve never really been to many garage sales, especially at the start, so this will be a bit of a trip for me. I guess as long as there’s coffee or chai I won’t be able to complain. Thank goodness it’s finally starting to warm up, which should make the garage sale a bit more pleasant. Does anyone have any tips on how to run a good garage sale?

cheers,
danielle

*Yes mom, I was thinking about your research in Costa Rica.

The balcony off the studio overlooks the back yard and further on the ridge where that the mist rolls over on wet mornings.

If you look directly down you can see the grass in between the lattice work of the shade roof.

I love the little snipits of green amongst the white.

To the side is an eave of the house, which is always a bit covered in dust.

The red dust that I usually can’t abide brings out the wood grain really nicely.

I’ll miss the quiet. Our house is fairly removed from the main part of town and it’s nice to just hear the birds chirping away and the wind howling outside the windows. When we first moved here, I thought the quiet would drive me mad, I’ve spent my life living in large cities. Now I love the rare weekends when there aren’t any tourists and you can walk leisurely through town sipping a latte and window shopping without dodging clumps of people. Over the past few months this place has solidified itself in my mind as home. Hopefully the next move will be the last for awhile; I’m tired of just getting used to a place right before we move on.

-danielle

Feeling really reclusive after recent hectic and stressful weeks.

Needing to be enveloped by soft wool in a simple color being knit into a simple a wrap.

Finding an unexpected bright spot and wearing it without regard to season; the color will keep me warm.

Having time to recoup, but not finding nearly enough.

Knowing that the the reprieve from chaos will be over by Saturday morning and that it won’t stop until we’re finally back home, where ever that may be.

Glad for this bubble of fresh air and a game that appeals to my management tendencies in a way that indulges my love of a good story.

-danielle

Lanes. Landas. Landars. Lander. Lande. Landers. All of these are misspellings of our last name that the packers wrote on all of our boxes and things. Odd not to see the most common misspelling in that list: ‘Landis’; even though that’s how the name is pronounced.

This has easily been one of the most stressful weeks for us since we’ve been together, I was pretty much at my wit’s end. No sleep, constantly doing laundry, packing and sorting. While the guys were packing up our main floor Steven was packing up his computer and all it’s accouterments, but since I had already packed up all of my stuff I just sort of wandered around aimlessly. All I wanted to do was find a nice little dark hole that I could curl up in and go to sleep.

The hubby had a great idea to head out for a strolling lunch that involved oogling some lovely jewelery. First we started with some opals that were lovely, small, and very expensive. Steven kept asking me which one I would like to take home, when I pointed out the large firey black opal with shots of blue set into a white gold bezel with a smattering of diamonds hanging from a thick white gold snake chain, he stopped asking. We’ve been saying that we should pick up an opal or two while we’re so close to Lighting Ridge, and time is dwindling. So we veered off the beaten path and headed for a shop/gallery where we’ve been stalking some amazing hand carved wood tables and cutting boards. Am I glad that we did. In a case by the front window I lost my breath. In it were a pair of earrings that just sang to me. To my surprise Steve told me to go in and try them on.

{handmade silver beads + green}

The handmade silver beads are what captured my attention; they remind me of paper globe party decorations. I’m thinking that I’ll have to rework the earrings though, as I’m not that keen on their rigidity; instead it’ll just be the handmade bead with a dangling hand carved red flower, but that will have to wait for 3 months.

Apparently we’re celebrating my part* of our anniversary now since we’ll be in the midst of moving around September 3rd. With this lovely pair he *heckled* me into getting a couple of other pieces, all for much less than any of the opals we had been looking at.

{opalite earrings}

{smokey quarts + freshwater pearl :: encased in silver}

The opalite earrings are huge and a bit heavy, but I really like them. The pendant is far too cool, I put it on the chain when we returned home and wore it for the rest of the day and today as well.

The packers/movers got everything packed up in far less time than was allotted them; less than 7 hours. This morning they returned bright and early to load it all into the first of many shipping containers in less than an hour, much to their chagrin.

{whew}

Next it’s all headed to the port of Adelaide for inspection and repacking into a wooden crate, and into another shipping container. Then its gets loaded onto a barge and goes across the largest ocean on the Earth and off loaded in Los Angeles where it’ll go through customs inspections and get repacked. Once it’s repacked it’ll be loaded onto a truck, driven across the Nevada desert, and the Rocky Mountains, after which it’ll be stopped to load up our belongings that have been stored in a very secure location under a mountain outside of Colorado Springs (yes THAT mountain). When everything’s cleared and loaded up, the truck will drive through the wheat fields that make up the very flat landscape of Kansas. Then it’ll drive through the rolling hills that are covered in bright orange and red be-leafed trees and over bridged streams and rivers that babble merrily underneath, and end up on the other side of Missouri, in St. Louis and arrive at our front door. The whole journey will take 3 months if everything goes according to plan.

In the mean time, our house is empty and hollow feeling. All of the stuff we’re selling has been crammed into our dining room, and the stuff we’ll be keeping with us for the next 3 months doesn’t even fill 4 suitcases.

I really hope I have enough yarn to last me.

cheers,
danielle

*I’m going to be throwing him a LAN party with our friends when we get back. Sadly we weren’t able to have our friends at our wedding, and we’ve always wanted to have a huge computer/console gaming party with all of them.

Edited to add: Just in case it’s not obvious, Steven and I are really happy right now. We’ve been under a ton of stress for the past month, and it’s finally been lifted for the most part. I think the journey that our stuff is going to take sounds really awesome minus the whole customs part, and you know, being in a confined space… We’ve done the drive from Denver to LA and back and the scenery is just breath taking plus we wouldn’t mind a detour through Adelaide in the least.