I haven’t knit in years. I think the last time I had a project going was when my mom was in the hospital 3 1/2 years go; her recent stay (see last post, she went home yesterday) made me go through one of my many yarn boxes and find some needles and yarn. I thought I’d try and remember how to do short row shaping, and I made a little short-row swatch as a reminder-project while I was with my mom at the hospital:

Short rows are good for sock heels and shaping at the hips and bust of garments; I suppose the above shape is self-evident towards this end. There’s a great tank-top pattern and short-row tutorial here; I did have to check it one night to make sure I remembered how to do it.

I’m worried that I might start knitting socks or something. This could be dangerous.

I made macaroni and cheese and brought her some for dinner tonight. No generic elbows for me, though: this dish had Vita Spelt penne pasta, Welsh cheddar with shallots, shitake mushrooms and a generous dollop of butter and milk.

If you’re stuck in a hospital, home cooked food tastes pretty darn good! I had some myself.

Yes, that is duct tape (circa 1958) holding the old shower in place. No wonder it always wobbled.  I should send this image to the duct tape people as a testimonial to how long this stuff holds up. It was still sticky!

Here is the new shower, set considerably higher I might add; my old shower was for midgets.

Here’s the very cool and curvy tub faucet…

And here’s my tub, scrubbed nice and clean and white; I didn’t have the tub re-glazed as it’s held up well. Plus I’ve heard re-glazing involves very stinky solvents, which would certainly give me a migraine.

This is the view from the hall. I just love the tile, which is porcelain from Italy. The small white tiles are glass.

Eric from Absolute Installation tore out my old green tile from 1958 and put up my new tile. Several bricks fell out of the wall during the process (good thing this is a double-wall house) and he mortared them up just fine. I asked him to place random inserts of the small square white tile, and I just love the way it turned out. Even smaller tiles in the same color frame the window and the 2 small corner shelves. Eric was very professional, things were always tidy after he worked, and Bearbear just loved him. I wholeheartedly recommend him; it’s hard to find people who do great, honest, artistic work AND whom you can trust to have in your home.

I put a magnet on the back for added utility; here it is stuck to my sewing lamp:

The base, in theory, will sit on some flower petal shapes:

Here are the shapes, the one the top is finished, the other three need to be sewn and have the bit of batting stuffed inside:

This is the painted rayon/silk fabric that will be stuffed with batting and stitched around the base to resemble something faintly round and will be stuck in the pill bottle top:

Since I have no bulk polyfill, and since today is a no-car day for me (bicycle only) and since I have no interest in pedaling to the fabric store, I chopped up some fusible polyester batting I have gathering dust (why would I ever use polyester fusible batting?) and I think a handful of this stuff chopped will provide an un-lumpy pincushion stuffing.

Pressure is on. Pincushion exchange is in 3 days! I just hope mine will measure up. I don’t want to have the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Pincushion.

I got some ideas for this pattern from this excellent (miniature) pincushion pattern:

http://www.craftstylish.com/item/945/how-to-make-pretty-pincushions/page/all

As if cutting the felt wasn’t hard enough, gluing it on took for-ev-er.

This is what is really hard about being an artist. If you quit art making for any period of time, getting back into the process takes baby steps; and only after a few baby steps does the routine return.

More pincushion tomorrow.

Today is my dad’s birthday–2 days ago it was our friend Gloria’s birthday. So yesterday–the day in between–I went to Sonoita, where they both live, and brought  a chocolate cake I’d made, with both of their names on top. My folks invited some of their friends over to share:

The cake was very yummy. It’s the same chocolate cake I make every time, from a recipe from the Vancouver Sun from February 1986.

Here’s a picture of me and my dad; I picked a sunny spot indoors for the photo, with the net result being glare on my glasses:

On my dad’s birthday I also remember Uncle Bill, my dad’s identical twin, who shares the same birthday of course but who died several years ago.

Here’s to another yummy cake next year.

My carpenter pal Rob Saunders is 74 and does (still!) beautiful work; he built me beautiful bathroom cabinets. He worked with his son to take out all the crap in my old bathroom; once the drywall was patched, this is what I was assigned to paint…

…along with this…..

I took the photo above  from the bathtub. It’s a very small bathroom, a little over 8 feet deep and not quite 5 feet wide. Aside from beautifying things, the purpose of the remodel was to maximize the small area with as much cabinet storage space as possible.

Here are the very sad looking towel racks from the old bathroom:

I started with a coat of primer. Even in the middle of the day (remember, it’s sunny here in the winter so there’s lots of daylight) I had to use a very bright, scarily heat-producing lamp to see what I was doing.

I left the original blue where I knew the cabinets would be placed; you can see some of the color I picked to go over the primer, a nice soothing warm color called Parchment, appropriate I think given the amount of time folks spend reading in the bathroom.

I also took this time to do my own “remodel” of my small hall closet, which is 2 feet deep, 2 feet wide and about 8 feet tall. Here’s a view from floor level:

Like the bathroom, the closet is blue: and let me just say that once you put something in a dim dark blue closet it’s impossible to ever find it again. Here’s the closet once I took out all but the 2 highest shelves.

My goal was to turn the closet into something I could use for shoes, coats, bags…like any normal hall closet…so that my front door area could be tidier, and not look like this:

I painted the closet Parchment, too. And because I no longer had a bathroom mirror, I didn’t notice that painting such a narrow space made me get paint in my hair, which was pointed out to me at work the next morning.

I put in a dowl and some small hooks for hanging stuff up.

Once I finished painting, Rob and Tom put in my new cabinets, new sink and new water-saving Toto toilet. The cabinets have recessed lighting and a recessed fan. I can now see myself in the mirror, and the bathroom is nice and bright.

Now, if you didn’t notice the disgusting green tile in the background….that’s being replaced next month with something much nicer. Be prepared for another bathroom blog post!

I got this new bike yesterday from Roadrunner Bicycles; it’s a Giant Cypress DX.  This one is red, the same color as my first-ever bike when I was 5.

Just recently I was reading a bicycle magazine while I was at the dermatologist (in this climate, with my complexion, I need stuff burned off annually). When I saw the magazine I picked it up because I thought I’d like to ride again some day. The Giant Cypress was reviewed in the magazine as an affordable hybrid “comfort” bike.  After that, I had a very bland “eureka” moment (my generation is a bit disaffected) and thought this could be a good idea. I did my research over the next few days and learned lots of tallish and slightly wide-ish people like me have had good success with this model as a commuter bike.

The folks who helped me at Broadway BicyclesRoadrunner Bicycles –Elliot and Paul–were very helpful. It was a low stress environment, and the whole process of being sold a new bicycle (even though I already had the model in mind before getting to the hop) was very pleasant and charming. I really appreciated the friendliness and enthusiasm.

My last bicycle didn’t fit me, and riding it caused too much pain: had to stop. I used to ride to work several times a week; looks like I’ll be able to get back into that very soon, especially as my ancient Mazda just completely conked out in traffic yesterday, and will be towed to my mechanic tomorrow!

I joined the Tubac Center for the Arts earlier this year, and I entered an art quilt in their annual Member’s Juried Exhibit, which is showing now through January 2, 2012. I went to the opening last night, and there were so many lovely paintings and photos on display. The show was put up very well; it’s a very beautiful space.