I know I don’t normally talk about work much here, but since it takes up at least a third of my time, it seems to be worth mentioning now and again.  I’m leading the redesign and complete content overhaul of a federal website that launches on July 13th.  I can’t show you the new version of the site yet, but this is the old design: http://www.childstats.gov/.  It may as well have been coded by a team of squirrels and birds managed by angry hobos, there’s so much trash in the pages.  I’m adding the new version of the publication, which is significantly longer than last year’s version; and cleaning out reams of horrid code that gave me nightmares for a good long time; and trying to set the site up to be significantly easier to update in the future.  Aubrey the wonder-designer as gotten rid of the whole oxygen-deprived-children design scheme and designed something lovely and airy and intuitive.  So this project has and will continue to consume a great deal of time and energy, and I’m really looking forward to finishing it.  I’m grossly behind on gardening, fiber arts, reading, and social obligations, and I just hate that.  can I be independently wealthy now, please, so I don’t have to slave away like this?  Please?

The main field of the blanket is very close to finished.  At this point, I’m just wallowing in soft yarn and making sure the blanket is comfortable for someone taller than I am.  Now that I can’t help but be covered by the thing when I work on it, I’m happy to say that it’s quite soft and warm but not stifling, barring DC summer heat.  I’m almost accepting of the color variations, though I will always be the sort of person who teeters on the edge of loving bright, random color variance and wishing the damn hippies and clowns and rainbow unicorns would tone it down, already.  Because some of us need to rest.

There it is, several squares ago.  The table is 59" by 33".  And, because the texture makes me intensely happy, another shot:

It turns out that someone bought the not-yet finished lopi felted bag I had on display at the Tuatha booth during the Potomac Celtic Festival a few weekends ago.  I was still working on the needle-felting when Maryland Sheep and Wool ended, and Mary insisted I leave the thing with her, muttering that only I thought it needed more needle-felting (not true–Brooke and Lisa agreed that more would be better).  I soothed my worries by lowering the price, which was the wrong thing to do, because someone snapped it up and now it’s floating around out there in the world, not living up to its potential, and I’m tortured about it.  Damn artistic sense, always plaguing me. 

I’m starting to really hunger for a new project.  The blanket is getting to be too hot to work on in this weather, so some something smaller is appealing.  I could frog and restart Print o’ the Wave, but that sounds a bit like too much dedication for me to gin up while I’m grinding towards a huge deadline at work.  I have some great silk/bamboo loveliness that I intend to make into an adorable short-sleeved scooped-neck bit of charm, but the pattern grew legs.  The sock yarn is building up, so that’s an option, but that would make three pairs of socks on the needles, and that’s crossing some imaginary line in the sand for me. 

But relief is on the horizon: sewing season has started.  I need to make Scott some new stuff, do some mending and alterations, and, well, clothe as much of my tribe as I can.  So get ready to see me creeping towards that mile of hand-sewing I’m sure I’ll complete eventually.

And, also, Deadwood.  Season III is finally coming my way, thanks to that blasted Netflix gizmo.  They’ve been holding out on me.  So don’t be surprised if I start cussing like mad, and exuding a lot of dust.  I aim to be one entangled inebriate, I tell you.

And finally . . . Scott installed a new dishwasher, replacing the not-very-old one that was both very stinky and very very broken.  I hated the old one.  I hated it like poison, what with its regular threats to leak or stink, and its refusal to clean anything well, and then its collapse into ruin right after Mike fashioned counter clips for it.  The new one is more efficient, much prettier, better for resale, and nigh silent.  It’s as sexy as kitchen appliances get, and now only some paint, some in-cabinet lighting, and some construction adhesive stand between me and a completed remodel.

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