Craft Report: My third ball

I found out that I was working with a katia bremen dos yarn in bain/dye-lot..  (dry cleanable or cold wash, no machine drying, lay flat to dry – notes for myself..)

As I said, I have a feeling I purchased 6 balls of this although I’m just on my third ball.  I’m finally connecting it to my now practically 3-foot-long scarf.  (Time to go up to the attic and search for the other balls of this yarn if I have it.. — otherwise, I know where I have the white ones..)  I am so tempted to get more yarn for other projects but I just have too much upstairs.  I’m at least 4 scarves away from needing new yarn.  My next project will be with one of Alan’s old sweaters.

That’s the sentimental side of me.  While someone else can use the sweater, I think I can make good use of the wool to do something I can use, too, instead of buying expensive wool yarn.  In fact I have a merino wool sweater that somehow came back from dry cleaning with a hole on the sleeve that I’m thinking I can turn into an almost see through blouse to wear over a tank top or a cami.

Ideas, ideas.. Sunday afternoon and I’ve put away some of the small chores that needed to be done.  My allergies are still here and they seem to have been aggravated by my outing yesterday with Angel and Ofie. 

Back to my project — I can’t wait to finish this and put it away.  I’m might proud of the first real knitting project I am finishing with correct stitches.  Finally!

Things I left behind

When I was getting ready to leave Manila in 2000, I took my bestfriend Fe’s suggestion that I should leave whatever I could get in New York — collections or possessions I could start over — given that I had limited baggage allowance on the flight from Manila to here.

My postcards had travelled to New York earlier after Alan and his family’s pamamanhikan.  I put my postcards in a bag and he lugged it as his handcarry.  There were some books which were part of a small library I was starting to put together of the novels I had been reading, some CDs, and a rather huge pencil collection.

I picked out friends who had expressed an interest in reading somewhere along the way, and I gave away my books.  My CDs, too, and the pencils went to my sister Offie and her “inaanaks”.  I took a select few like the more memorable purchases I made (such as an Alan Chang set I purchased in Hong Kong myself), but the rest, I left with her.

As Fe promised, these were collections I could start anew here.  I still collect pencils although I am not as active in purchasing them as before.  I would usually buy a souvenir from a place I visit, like the Louvre in Paris where I even got a free pencil from their children’s store.  I have started rebuilding my little library, even managing to get some first editions signed by the authors themselves (only in America will you be able to have Caroline Kennedy, Jaime Oliver and my utmost idol, Tom Clancy autograph your book!)

I had started collection Starbucks mugs and now have the shelf top of my kitchen lined with my mug collection, numbering around 50 more or less.  Postcards, of course, still take top priority.  I have been distracted from active collection by my number one concern now, Angel, but I am trying to grow it little by little.   (Postcards will be a dozen posts by itself!)

But back to the things I left behind — I went back to take more of the pictures I left in 2000 and the poetry I had patiently scribbled through the years.  I never got to bring back any of the law books I read while at the Ateneo School of Law.  I know I might’ve kept my notes or handouts from the preweek review but I might have given them away, too.  I would want to take some of them here to put in my little library.

I was even able to bring my JS Prom invite and my Senior Ball invitation, mementos of a youth I look back to with such fondness.  I wish I could find my 18th birthday souvenir — of all things not to have a piece of!

They are all part of a previous life I come back to from time to time in my head.  Memories of a former self which still lives in my heart.. things I will always cherish.

The Handyman in this house..

.. happens to be me.  The door of the undersink cabinet in the bathroom fell a few nights ago, and I had to wait for the wood glue (which I got myself, by the way) before I could try to put it together again.  I gave it a try a few hours ago but the whole thing kept falling apart on me.  It’s one of those wooden shelves that you can assemble to fit any nook and cranny in your bathroom and/or kitchen.  The way the wood broke is making me rethink trying to put it back together again.  It was not pre-measured and was actually tooled by the previous owner of the co-op who remodeled the bathroom a few years ago.

After several attempts with no success, I decided to pay heed to my sister’s suggestion to just try again later.  I had banged on the wood with the palm of my hand and now there’s something that feels swollen in my right hand.  (I know I should’ve patiently looked for the hammer in the house..)

 I will try again tomorrow.  Who knows?  I might be more successful then.