ABQ Love

We've been reminiscing lately about our short time in Albuquerque. You can ask any of the friends we made while there. We hated it. We complained constantly about living there. And since we've left, we've missed it so much. There are still things about ABQ we don't like, but we miss our friends, the community, the quirkyness (I like to call it Austin-lite) and the atmosphere. Most of all, we miss living in a LGBT friendly, democratic state.

Honestly, our first choice would be to live in Portland, OR but realistically we can't afford Portland. I'm beginning to think moving back to Albuquerque would be a nice 2nd choice. We will be visiting soon but until then, a pic of one of my favorite stores in Nob Hill, Masks y Mas.

ETA: I forgot some things about ABQ. It's where A and I were married. It's also where we conceived and had L. Very special memories in ABQ including showing our friends ultrasound pics and the entire table saying "AWWWW LABIA!"

Last FO for the weekend

I think.
L has been into Angelina Ballerina lately so started this for her. Set it down after all the knitting was done because it was ridiculous to finish. The amount of seaming and finishing in this project was agonizing. I'm happy with the finished project but the pattern left much to be desired.

Some recent Knitting FOs

 Fuzzy the Hedgehog for L. She loves him!
Pattern can be found here on Ravelry. 

 Juneberry Shawl by Jared Flood. No berries on mine as I left out the bobbles. Pretty intense project but fun!
Pattern here on Rav.

This is kind of a double FO. I hand dyed the yarn to stripe like this. Then knit into a Hurricane hat. Love how it turned out but it's a little bright for a hat. Also, with my short hair it makes me look like a chemo patient. It fit's L a little loosely but I think she will wear it more than me.
Hurricane Hat pattern on Rav.

A Glimpse into my World

A quick picture of my craft corner. Back in September we moved into a tiny 1 bedroom apartment so that we can start eventually saving money to get out of Arizona.

Since we've been here I've rearranged a few times and we are finally starting to get settled in. We have L and all of her toys in the bedroom. Instead of a couch in the living room we have our bed. In the dining room/kitchen we have our small pub table that the sides fold down on, my craft area, and our chest freezer.

It's a little cramped but it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. The key is to keep EVERYTHING cleaned up at all times (this never happens here!) because nothing is in a room you can just close the door on and ignore for a few days like in our big house.

Anyways, here it is. My sewing/craft area.

I'm always interested in what's in other peoples' craft areas so I will explain mine a bit. On the wall on the right is a vintage rigid heddle loom that my mom had as a kid from the Sears Roebuck catalog. I will be learning how to weave on this very soon. Beneath that is my portable ironing board, buttons knitting needles etc. You can see my small desk Ottlite glaring at you. My machine and rotary cutting mat. This is all on a table from Ikea that folds down to the size of the little shelf you see underneath. I never fold it because it gets used too much and there is lots of storage underneath. You can see my thread and rulers/templates hanging on the wall and some plastic drawers with current projects in them. on the other side of the drawers is our chest freezer. I keep my yarn swift on here to wind yarn into cakes when needed. My dad made it for me and its a table top one instead of an umbrella swift. I need to figure out how to store it but for now it lives on the freezer.

There is also a hallway closet that I store some of the yarn and some fabric that fits. Once its more organized I will post a pic of that too. I'm getting good (or at least I think I am) at making the most of small places. It's cluttered but functional. It's starting to feel homey. Now I just wish it was on the 1st floor instead of the 2nd, and I wish our neighbor wasn't an escort. That's right. You read right. She's an escort that "entertains" in her apartment. We share the stairs with her. When she's busy, there is no sleep for us. Someday she might get evicted. We'll see.

Slow crafting ahead.....

Not much to update. I haven't made ANY progress on any of my quilts.
I did finish a quilt block for the block bee I'm in on Ravelry. Sawtooth for your enjoyment

I do know after making this block I will NEVER do an entire quilt in this pattern. Too fiddly.

I've been knitting a lot more recently. I finished a Juneberry Shawl. It's a Jared Flood pattern that is supposed to be pretty difficult. It took me a bit to catch on but once I understood what was going on, everything was fine. Definitely a pattern you have to pay attention too while knitting! Once I finished it, I felt like I was missing something. Even though I have a gazillion other projects I could be working on. So I started my next shawl. It's called Batik. This one is worked bottom up in fingering weight so I had to cast on 363 stitches. But the further along I get, the faster it will go! I hand dyed the yarn for this project and I love the way it came out!

I will definitely be dying yarn for projects in the future! LOVE!