Miniskeins and Auction Prep

I never really got onto the miniskein train when that hit a few years ago. I watched in fascination as knitting friends traded, looked for special kits, and a plethora of patterns showed up that required specific numbers of miniskeins of specific lengths paired with a solid or a this or that... 

All interesting projects and of course I ended up with a few sets because I am a lemming for a beautiful gradient or I just couldn't resist the Color Kittens theme. But overarchingly they sit in the stash because it either requires more brain space than I currently have or the idea of having to pay attention to when I am changing colors or this pattern requires 7 colors and I only have 6 and why no, I do not wish to completely rework the pattern math thank you.

One of these sets acquired was the Progress Pride set from the now dye-retired Stranded Dyeworks. 

 I even cast it on, hoping to knit through a Gingko Biloba pattern that I've admired for years. And then it sat for 3-4 years.  The problem here wasn't that the yarn was too fussy but that the pattern requires a medium amount of attention. It's not a shawl where I know I'm going to be staring distractedly at a lace chart; it's not socks where I can be on the train, standing, and having a full conversation while the hands go around and around. I have tried to knit this pattern at least twice, possibly three times, and I always flame out somewhere around petal four. 

Enter the Stash Toss over the winter break and I pulled this out again and realized I should (a) knit this up for the Romancing the Vote auction this summer and (b) it needed a different pattern. Fortunately, an Ambah O'Brien pattern, Woollsia, presented itself and we were off to the races. 

Per the recommendation of some other crafters, I'm treating this set of miniskeins as though it were a single skein-- I'm not trying to blend between the colors. (This pattern is also just easy enough that if I were knitting in with a couple of skeins of the same color, I'd absolutely go 15-20 rows without noticing I forgot an eyelet row.) I have lined things up with changing yarn so one side doesn't have any garter ridge bumps. 

And progress is indeed underway! I am just over halfway through, five colors completed, color six (red) underway, and five colors left to go. It's rocking along. 

This is just big enough now that it's not really good public knitting but when I get back into longer meetings where I just need to knit it will be fine and overall it's small enough still that I could work on it on the train.  

The color changes are satisfying in that sense of feelings of accomplishments. I know I'm on skein 6/11 and each skein goes by fairly quickly. That said, I think if it were anything other than what I know it will be -- a specific flag of stripes -- I'd find it more annoying. The hard stripes between this many colors are not something I'd seek out to wear. So I'm feeling validated in not having more actively pursued mini skein knits.  I'll work through the other (does quick math) 10 sets eventually. At least six of them are gradients -- not distinct colors -- though one is a Wollmeise advent calendar. 

I am reminded though that I have bags of leftovers that I've been meaning to turn into hexagons that will eventually be a "socks I have knit" blanket. If I can memorize that pattern, using those up would also put a nice dent in the mess around the stash section of my office. 

I'm hoping to have this ready for the auction pile by the end of January. 

As You Mean to Go On

 "If that means you need to be knitting more, make sure you're doing that." 

It's not often I hear the recommendation that I knit more from someone I report to, but in 2025 I did. We were talking about trying to manage the changes and stress levels coming from the federal changes and the reality that our jobs were changing hourly some days.  

I took it to heart, trying to make sure I was getting back to holding yarn again regularly, not just carrying it in my work bag back and forth and pretending I have made progress while instead I stare blankly at my phone or out the train windows.  Someone asked recently why it is that all of my Zoom calls don't equate to buckets of knitting time and I had to explain that most of my meetings, I'm running them or actively doing something and if not, well... I might be trying to rewrite a to do list or knock out 1-5 quick emails that come in faster than I can read them. 

But over the winter break I did go through the stash, only six months late on my annual Toss the Stash and Try to Re-Sort It Enough So You Can Put It Away. 

Obviously Widge had to help. She spent several hours as I moved yarn around entirely tucked into her cat bed, snoring gently and entirely unconcerned that an avalanche of yarn might end up on top of her.  The Stash Toss, as it usually does, made me want to start about 18 new large and significant projects. I also pulled this upcoming years' worth of sock yarn. I only made it through six pair this year, though there are two pair in project bags that could probably be finished in not too long that will set me up for 2026 finished object counts nicely. 

I also pulled out a box of things that have moved to my Ravelry trade/sell page and have already shipped off some yarn. 

Looking at what I've pulled out and set up compared to what I've finished in 2025, I'm expecting to knit about 6-7x what I accomplished this year. Even in 2020, which was the year I hit 20k, that's not where I was so this should be fascinatingly ambitious. 

I did make this sweater though! This is a TinCanKnits pattern, Prairie Fire, and it used 1200 yards of Lisa Souza's Polwarth Silk in the Rust Colorway. It's a wonderfully cozy sweater. The pattern doesn't have any shaping, so it fits more like a sweatshirt than a tailored sweater and the yarn is cushy. It's perfect with a pair of jeans. It's currently on the drying rack after having been worn instantly after I cast off -- let us hope that it returns properly in sizing.  

TinCanKnits patterns are always exquisitely written. My only delay in working on the project came at one point on the body because I, as the fallible human, did not read the entire chart and instructions before launching into it. Once I did that, smooth sailing. 

For now though I have wound the skein for the traditional New Year's Eve socks, which will follow me around a couple of parties and hopefully bring in a fresh new calendar with yarn front and center. 

Begin as you mean to go on.... whether at midnight or in the morning. Happy New Year!

Sock Show Friday

I used to do sock project updates on Thursdays and then I trailed off on knitting socks for a decade. I was still knitting them, but not in the Always All the Time and Everyone Has  Rich Sock Drawer way that I was a decade ago. Honey cowls took over for a few years there. But I'm back on my sock nonsense for 2025 and that means I need some updates here to make sure that in five years I knew what I did again. 

I won't get to everything today because at the moment I have at least four pair on the needles. My brain keeps yelling that there is a fifth pair but I can't find it/figure out where it is. I'm sure some project bag will be coughed up somewhere and there will be that ah ha moment. (Note while I'm still drafting but after I got home, there is a fifth pair,  it was on my home office desk.)

What is very familiar is being back at the stage of "Oh I can't work on that pair because I'm at the toe and I need to check foot length." Which is, of course, how we got to five pair on the needles in the first place. It does mean that the four pairs currently that I can think of (orange/purple; green/gray; autumn/at work; bright blue and teal/purple/blue) are all on the second sock! 

I'd set out for 2025 to make a dozen pairs and right now that feels very doable. I've also given myself permission that anytime I'm sad or irritated or just need a hit of dopamine I'm allowed to start a new knitting project. The WIPs will abound. 

I have managed to achieve one full pair of socks so far.  Of course they are Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight. The colorway is Blackbird. I knit a sweater out of this colorway a few years ago and sadly, it is likely the only BMFA STR sweater I'll get to knit, as Tina hasn't been dyeing for a few years and most of us bought one skein in a colorway at a time. These socks were made of the leftovers. I'd forgotten how much this particular batch bled -- my hands were sooty black every time I worked on them and I need to make sure I do a couple of pre-rinses before wearing. 

Socks are an interesting trick -- you have a tube and then *mystical hand waving and occasional swearing* and then another tube and then.... SOCK.  It always gets questions in public, even as most of my friends recognize if there are more than 2 needles, it will likely be a sock. 

I have a huge bin of yarn set aside for 2025 socks, we shall see how far I get.   

Prepping for Next Year: 2024 Romancing the Vote and Ahead

I didn't really make time to blog about Romancing the Vote last summer but the joy and community it brought and continues to bring to me has been so critical. Below are screenshots of the various things I put into the 2024 auction, all of which have gone off to their various homes. One cowl even went to an author whose name was immediately recognizable. I hope it's been a great addition to her winter wardrobe. 

The auction went again to support organizations that work for voting rights, registration, and access and that is a cause I am very pleased to stay engaged with and to put support towards. 

As we got into the week of auctions, it was clear that "more things" would probably sell and I ended up adding two custom honey cowls. I emailed the winners after and we negotiated what colors I had in stash that I could knit up for them. I saw one in a picture in the online wild recently! 

And the team behind RTV has said we will indeed be back for 2026. On one hand, the idea of July 2026 feels like it is a million years from now. On the other and at the speed I have been knitting recently, that's basically tomorrow. So I'm back into the stash, pairing up things for yet more honey cowls to knit on the go. I have a plan for a great big shawl for people to fight over -- we'll see if I get it done enough that I am confident to submit it. 

A Redo

 I started this pair of socks on New Years Eve just before 2020. I finished them in May 2020, amidst a lot of optimism about what I'd accomplish for Stash Dash that year.  

And then they sat. I usually try to keep a backlog of finished socks here and there, sometimes I need a new pair, sometimes they are for a gift or I just haven't seen my mother in a while to have her try on whatever it is that fits around here.  She and AudioGirl continue to get first rummage through my finished objects--though it the pair is too small for all of us, then obviously Sibling the Elder gets those. 

But somewhere in there, moths made some damage, necessitating a complete rip out and redo. 

Having yarn in the quantities that I have means that the moth battles are continual. The stash lives in double layers of plastic and gets upended into piles regularly to check for damage. Finished projects get dried and into Ziplocks. I have traps up. But even with all that, occasionally I will see damage and when you consider there was a move and the first few years of this endless pandemic rolling along... I can't say I'm dreadfully surprised.  

Originally I thought these socks would just need a repair on each sock but it turned out it was more like 3 different break points on each-- spread across legs and feet and heels. And while I believe the leftovers are here somewhere (glances at a giant bag of leftovers that I 100% did not go rummaging through), I knew that trying to do that many repairs would leave a lot of extra rubbing spots and so, time for a redo. 

I ripped the socks out while watching a mandatory training -- preserve me from trainings that have a "click here to continue" every 35 seconds. But the training is done, the socks are restarted. 

The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Harvest Star colorway. I've been working on acquiring more BMFA STR-L for socks recently through Ravelry trade/sale contacts. I have a couple of long pending orders with BMFA but it's unclear when those will come through and so I want a backlog. Fortunately, a few very nice people have been more than willing to trade yarn for dollars.  

Bigger issue of course is do I have space for any new yarn? Of course I do not. But space has never been a primary consideration when beautiful yarn is involved. 

I should also see about getting that sock project in my entryway and putting it on my desk rather than far enough away that I can't reach it and therefore don't have it when I have five minutes and another training video to watch. 

Marking the Year End and 100

 I finally wove in the ends, so officially I've finished the 100th pair of socks that I've made.  It only took 15 years.  Fortunately, I have it well documented when I started with the Tsock Tsarina Sock 101 kit in summer 2008. 

This picture is about 3 seconds before I put them on for a Christmas Eve event.  They are, keen eyed readers will observe, my favorite Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock base. It is unclear if I'll ever be able to get more of that from the dyer -- between health issues and mill issues -- BMFA STR might be a "only from people selling their stash" -- and why yes I did just have to stop myself going to see if I could acquire some. I'm fine, I have a lot. Especially at the rate I've been knitting this year.  

I also have my end of year amounts.  

This was surprisingly more than I realized I'd completed. I had some vague optimism about completing one more shawl and indeed in the past few days I've made a real dent. However, there are about 80 rows left and I have things planned to do other than knit for the next three days (seriously, what else should the week between Christmas and New Years be for??) 

My brain is finally quiet enough though that I have aspirations of all the knitting I will do in 2024. It will be multi-colored and brilliant. My yarn will FINALLY fit back in the stash boxes, and I will also find homes for the variety of things that currently don't have one.  

We shall see what actually comes to fruition but I have optimism and needles.  

Not the right needles, obviously. I need to get a few more. Also we need to talk about the yarn store I went to in Canada and and and and... 

  

Spite Yarn

Since the store is now permanently closed, I will tell you about the time I bought yarn out of spite.

When you see me, even if I'm not knitting there's probably an Emotional Support Sock in my purse. So about a decade ago when I happened to be up at my very new boyfriend's apartment for the weekend and realized I was without wool, I popped into the local yarn store to get something that would tide me over for the five or six hours until I got back to my stash. This was when I was knitting 10-15 pair of socks a year, so I was more fidgety than I am at present. 

The yarn store was small and had an okay selection but the store owner seemed deeply unwilling to sell me yarn. It became clear over a few minutes that I was not her preferred clientele (who all appeared to be richer and older than I was, then about 30). I remember getting a condescending answer when I asked if she carried metal needles. Oh, *those* were just not as good. My 20 years experience with mostly metal needles at the time was surprised to hear that. Also, wooden dpns that are 2.25 mm thick.... do you know how easily those snap when I sit on the bag accidentally? 

Spite Yarn

But I was determined and I found at least one colorway that I liked. What was I going to make, she asked? Socks.  She was SHOCKED! I COULDN'T! Great, do you have this colorway in any other base. Well, NO. Cool, I'll take the Madtosh Singles skein then. House slippers it would be.  

I'd say it was the most resentful $30 I think I've ever had a yarn store owner receive from me but I think that prize goes to the yarn store owner in La Crosse who physically got between me and the yarn on my first visit -- and kept scooting around so I couldn't get to the shelves -- that actually takes the cake.  (Caveat, the only money I ever spent in the LAX store was for a gift card that we gave away at an event.) 

The Philosopher spent years suggesting I try the store again after we moved in together and one afternoon I did. The owner was alone that day, I wasn't offending any of her knitting groups and we sort of chatted about yarn. I remember making a comment on how obviously something was Kaffe Fasset and his delight for Bonkers amounts of colors and her response of "well No One knits plain black socks."  

My response to that was to pull a pair of half finished plain black socks out of my purse. Yes they do. When your mother asks for plain black socks, that's something you make. Oh. 

I asked what she suggested for baby blankets, of which I was planning to make a few. She handed me super bulky multi-colored yarn in weirdly mixed colors that was never going to be machine washable. And with that I left. 

The store closed permanently sometime last year. I tried to think of it as a loss but it's not for me. If she'd been remotely friendly, I would have spent stupid amounts of money and heavily promoted them. I would have come in and knit and loaned them finished objects for the display window. 

And in this pass through the stash, I've decided the Spite Yarn needs to go. No, I never did knit it up into socks. I worked on it for a few inches and then went back to my own stash and one of the hundreds of other skeins I have.  

I've kept the yarn because spite and because the colorway is beautiful but I realized in this pass through the stash that I have several skeins from dyers I love in similar shades. So it's off to be in someone else's hands, someone for whom it won't immediately invoke spite. 

That's growth, right? 

I'll Just...

 The eyes of my knitting are always faster than my hands, bigger than my stomach, choose your metaphor. And yet it is a near constant that I will find myself reviewing the stash and starting a sentence with "I'll just..."

"I'll just whip up a baby blanket"

"I'll just make a full size adult sweater this week." 

"I'll just spend some time this summer making a few new shawls and six pair of socks." 

It's fascinating the ongoing disconnect between what I think I can accomplish in the limited time that is allocated to my knitting these days and the wonderful belief that these projects won't take tens to hundreds of hours each.  

The midsummer / July 4th weekend Must Review The Stash pang hit and I ended up going through the yarn bins at length over the weekend. Part of this was because it's been a year, always good to pull things out and see what you have, check for damage, reallocate bin space. And part of it was to actively get a few things into the Sell or Give Away piles.  

And I did end up winding up more yarn -- two more shawls that I've had yelling at the back of my head, yarn for a couple of pair of socks, and one more honey cowl for when I finish the one I quite literally just started. 

Here's the final work in progress / wound yarn for socks/Honey Cowls of Fall 2023 bucket. So what if I have only knit one shawl this year (oh right, you need the final details on that) and three pair of socks. I've got almost six months left, right? 

I'll just.... get started. 

Winding Amongst the Side Dishes

Friends invited a few of us over for a back patio dinner -- burgers and brats and whatever sides the spirit moved us to bring. I brought the prep for one of my usual multicolored fruit trays and two knitting projects.

First up, I needed to finish the toes on these socks. This is the 99th pair of socks I've finished, which means either the socks that are currently in a project bag or another pair soon will tip me over into that "more than 100" category. That's absolutely wild. I've only really been knitting socks for about 12 years, so that's something like 8-9 pairs on average a year. Though realistically it's been more like 3-5 in the past few years after a very strong start. 

The yarn is Sophie's Toes in a one of a kind colorway. According to my notes I picked it up in 2017 at YarnCon. That feels like a lifetime ago. She stopped dyeing a few years ago and I've lost track of her. Very nice knitter, I hope she is doing okay. 

Once the toes were cast off (and yes, I tried on one sock a couple of times while it was still on the needle to gauge length) I needed to wind up yarn for the Honey Cowl that is going to be desk knitting for the next bit. 

Fortunately, this group of friends has seen it all when it comes to my knitting. Flinging a skein around my knees and handwinding didn't even bring a blink of an eyelid. It was soothing to be in company that close, friends who are so familiar with your habits, hobbies, and oddities that something like getting this skein into a ball doesn't even register anymore. It's just part of what you expect from me. There are many friends and colleagues where I will never have that level of ease.  

The yarn for this is Fiber Sprout (the green) in her Night Zone colorway and Valley Yarns from Webs in Black. I caught the Anniversary sale this spring and bought a lot of black yarn to help with a variety of projects around the Chateau. Yes I bought more yarn so I can theoretically "use up" yarn. Yes I recognize the amusing nature of that. 

Anyway... I hope you're able to find friends with whom to sit outside, share a meal, and wind yarn at without concern for a few moments. 

Au Revoir 2022

It's the end of another year. Not my best year overall, some really amazing and good changes but also some pretty significant losses. A lot of change for nearly everyone I know and that has meant we're all flailing around trying to sort out what comes next. 

 

There's been a little knitting. More than I expected, honestly. I'd set myself a goal of 25 projects and I got through 12. Yarn as comfort object carried from room to room has felt very much the theme of the year. But I've got new socks for New Year's Eve and I'll start another shiny new pair as we ring in the new year. Same as I always do. 

I've also been thinking about Franklin Habit a lot recently and his still fairly recent move to Paris. It was fascinating to watch him pare down the books, the yarn, the everything for an international move. Only the most precious thing went along. There's a lot of things here that are very nice, but they aren't precious. And the precious is getting lost amongst the other things...

A death in the family points out to me again the shortness of life and how holding onto things you do not love, which do not serve a purpose, which are no longer needed, well mostly that just makes me tired. Is it a great surprise sometimes to find I still have thing? Sure. But usually it's just extra stuff.  I'm in my usual winter "why is there so much stuff" round, which spawned UseUpYear two years ago and continues to peck at the back of my brain. 

I hope you achieved some of your craft related goals this year and if not, that you can give yourself grace that usually yarn doesn't go stale. 

Adventures in Shelving: Part 8 of 8!

We finally know how many blog posts this is going to take! Apparently 8 was the magic number. 

In the last episode of As the BookShelves Happen, the Philosopher was continuing to polish shelves.  Once all of the shelves were finally complete and had rested for a couple of days to let the finish oil set, we went on an entertaining game of shelving heights. 

If you are also a book lover and have a *robust* library, picture if you will trying to estimate how many bookshelves you need and of which height. Oh, and don't use regular measures, use a few books that are about the correct height. We defaulted to three/four books -- a regular paperback, a trade paperback, a Lovecraft book (unpictured) and this very tall knitting book that I grabbed from my office. (Knitting books live in the home office next to the yarn, not in the livingroom).  And we tetrised, and planned, and discussed, and how many-Cthulhu's did we actually need? 

That many, apparently. Note that this isn't actually the final pattern -- a few shelves did get moved around a bit more, but you can see it beginning to take shape. We used all 27 shelves that I'd ordered. Had I planned that? Not really. IKEA let's you stage your IVAR shelving digitally-- sort of, it doesn't work quite as well as I'd like -- but I'd ordered "this many seems like it should be correct" number of shelves. And it worked out nicely. Go me. 

Isn't the color of the shelves lovely? The Dark Bourbon really did turn out well. Each shelf is different with the knots and occasional wood plug and all the striations. The Odie's Oil finish is absolutely stellar.  It initially feels like absolute satin. That tones down over the first 48 hours but the hand is really lovely. It's also food-safe, though I doubt I'll be doing any vegetable chopping on these shelves anytime soon. 

And then came the loading of the books. The far set of shelves is mine, we split the middle, the near shelf is his.  This was still mid-loading, but as you can see, no problem filling the shelves. It's now this wonderfully cozy giant wall in our livingroom. I love it. 

You didn't think that was our only shelving to tackle, did you?  While we didn't get these refinished, I did go ahead and do a temporary load so that more cardboard could go away.  These two small shelves were in my bedroom when I lived in LaCrosse and they've moved the three times since. They aren't especially fancy or nice but they serve very well and I'm looking forward to painting them next spring. For now -- it's my children's book collection: 

And my graphic novels and coming books. Astute readers will see I have all of the Girl Genius graphic novels and a stack of the original small format Cathy Guisewite books. 

It's so lovely to have our books out again. But it's also made me realize just how many books I have that aren't read and so that's something I'm making plans to address. They're lovely books and they are *right here* -- I own them even.  

Adventures in Shelving: Part 7 of Several

 Yes, I'm aware there was a break in progress. Meet the fall semester in a household of two people who work at universities -- one of whom is actively teaching 3 different courses plus a slew of NIH DMP presentations and the other of whom is in a law program.  Our priorities involve getting the cats fed and snuggled, bookshelves will eventually get sorted.

So shelving staining was completed, the piles of shelves came inside and tuckpointing on our 1920s brick building did indeed commence. The men were diligent in their labor and also in managing to make very heavy loud noises directly over my head during meetings frequently. 

Now there needed to be Odie's Oil on all of the shelves. This was, again, the Philosopher's project. Fortunately, it can be done indoors but it's still pretty labor intensive and, while the Chateau isn't small, there's not good space for sprawling 27 shelves around.  

The uprights moved directly into where they would finally go -- I'm really thrilled with how those turned out and how it contrasts with the stained shelves. It gives a sharper contrast between the sections and looks very solid. 

Anyways....once the Philosopher got a few shelves done, it was time to start getting things vertical. Harder said than done because again, we don't have empty rooms. Also I'll admit I kind of missed it when he was putting up the third and fourth verticals? I watched/helped this one go together but I think he got the others up before I got home one night? It was a process. There are rubber pads and felt underneath everything to make sure our floors are okay. 

Additionally, there was a brief detour through birthdays. The Incredibly Patient Mother has been on the hunt for "art deco book ends" for us, she's very aware of all of the books we're about to unload upon these shelves and that there will be a lot of room for some visual surprises.  See all these cool patterns? 

Last Friday, the final shelves had been oiled and aired for 48 hours, and we were ready to play layout. While these shelves are indeed flexible, the reality is that once they are loaded we aren't going to want to take things down anytime soon. I'll have to dust periodically but those big floofy wands are looking increasingly charming (send ideas if you have dust floofs you recommend for your shelves). 

Oh, and yes we had to immediately weight the shelving down with book boxes -- felines do indeed enjoy climbing.  

Adventures in Shelving: Part 6 of Several

I know you were waiting with baited breath but yes, Dark Bourbon won.  However, there was also the issue of the uprights. The 89" (226 cm) uprights that arrived in the first order back in late June/first week of July.  We'd gone through a variety of discussions of options about finishing these.

The plan had pretty much always been that we would have a contrast. I think this was somewhat based on an example we saw somewhere on the internet where they'd done darker uprights and a lighter stain on the shelves and the contrast looked nice. Honestly, we've gone through so many options of "but what about....." --  anyway, Plan A was paint, Plan B was different paint, Plan C was one of the other stain colors we'd already purchased, Plan D was the Hedgehog goes back to HomeDepot for Ebony stain. (Yes, the bottom of Test Shelf 4 is Ebony -- we needed a significant swatch.) 

But the Ebony stain wasn't working.... and so it was back to Plan B -- a satin finish Behr paint in the color "Dark Secret."  If there isn't at least one dark secret book on our bookcase, clearly we're doing it wrong. I have so many mystery books, there's got to be something. 

The Philosopher has been on staining duty which meant painting the uprights was my project. This was our major push over Labor Day weekend. Thankfully the weather held and there wasn't rain. Our downstairs neighbors were definitely curious -- but since we're very good about drop cloths and we're not being loud, they weren't too concerned.  I did a coat of primer, because pine is going to soak up paint and then two coats of the Dark Secret. 

As I'm finishing this episode -- the last 8 shelves are finishing Side 1 drying (it takes 3 hours) and the uprights are all done and just airing out. Philosopher will finish Side 2 in a little bit and then tomorrow morning we'll bring everything inside just in time for them to start tuck pointing our courtyard. That should be a whole extra level of fun. 

Once things are stained, we need to apply the finishing oil. That'll be both sides at a time and I assume my hallway will be lined with shelves.  But the end is in sight. 

Adventures in Shelving: Part 5 of Several

Way back when we'd been wandering around IKEA and I'd been eyeing various shelves, what had initially appealed to me was the black Billy bookcases.  They would be crisp. They would anchor the room. They wouldn't be either white or the shade of IKEA pale wood that everyone my age has far too much of. (She says, sitting in her home office and staring at an entire wall of that shelving.) 

Once we'd settled on the IVAR, I was adamant that we not keep them natural pine. It was too casual for our living room and since we are going to be living with these for a number of years, "aged pine" was right out. We have a significant amount of that already -- see the shelving my yarn stash lives on.  Thus the Philosopher and I watched an extensive amount of YouTube and rummaged through websites and color ideas in order to try and get a sense of what color stain would look best. 

Sampling was delayed by worrying about shelf arrival. If we were going to have to get an entirely different plywood to make shelves -- staining shelves we weren't using didn't seem useful. But once the shelves arrived, the Philosopher set up a station on our back deck and tested our three chosen colors. 

Reader, I didn't like any of them. The top one, Gunstock, was orange. The middle was fine but it was an entirely unexciting brown. And the bottom calls itself cherry and I think it's lying. Cherry should be a dark brown with red undertones. I've owned cherrywood furniture. We looked at them again in the daylight. 

And then we went to HomeDepot. 

Seriously, what is summer, or periodic adventures of the Hedgehog and the Philosopher without a multiple trip run over to HD? Armed a new with water based stain in four colors (the previous three colors are oil), we returned home. 

This picture is from when I got home after this year's white coat ceremony. It meant I hadn't left campus until well after 7 p.m. and while joyous, I'd started teaching that morning at 8 a.m. and was really tired. But coming home, I found three of the four samples waiting for me.*  And they were universally better. I liked all of them. You can see them here on the deck set up next to the oil samples. The middle bar split is because the Philosopher was testing the fancy finish oil he wanted to use. 

We looked at the samples in our actual living room under real daylight and the color Dark Bourbon seemed to be a favorite. Here is the bottom of Test Shelf Number 3, which is entirely  Dark Bourbon so that we could see an entire shelf against the just barely pink of our living room walls. (The wall color, which the Incredibly Patient Mother and I applied last year, is still glorious and absolutely glows in the evening.) 

We appeared to have a winner....possibly... 

*Color 4 of the Water Based Stains is the Varathane Aged Wood Accelerator Stain. It looks really neat but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it for the shelving. It hasn't been opened but is on standby for another project of the  Philosopher's. 

Adventures in Shelving: Part 4 of Several

So, reality set in as we approached the end of July, with the Philosopher's birthday eating a number of days and a variety of other tasks that were not shelf related. And there were ongoing questions about whether Ivar shelves would ever be in stock again and did we really want to go the making them from plywood or something else? There was the Great Debate of July 2022 of whether we do actually need a table saw and where exactly would we put that? Also just how much quarter round stock would we buy? (HomeDepot, always thoughtful, sent me a coupon that we stared at until it expired in the midst of all this.)

I rang again on August 11th and now they'd updated to 400 shelves arriving to my local store on 8/22. Griped on Twitter and got a even less precise amount and date from their social media tweeps. (I know, they're trying, but getting the 273rd ask of "have you signed up for alerts" when nothing actually *arrives* to alert me about.... )

And then, on August 17 I was doing my usual "let's see what IKEA says today" and there was a notification I hadn't seen before: Delivery was a yellow dot rather than a red dot, with the notation of "currently limited to large orders."

Off to the phone lines once more. Because, reader, as you will recall, I have already paid once for delivery and somewhere in all this, they'd offered to waive the second delivery fee whenever the 25 shelves came in.  It wasn't my best of phone calls, the first two rounds the system hung up on me even though I was following the usual prompts. But eventually I got routed to someone who could see my case number and we went through all of the usual information that's needed. Why yes, yes I do know you need my name, address, phone, AND email address. Also the item number and my case number.  

To the delightful woman who just kept poking around when I was repeating "no, it says we can do this, can we keep looking?" :  Thank You. I know I refused to get off the phone and your patience was much appreciated. For indeed 25 shelves does count as a large order and yes, she did have the note for the waived delivery fee and yes, she could get that sorted and send me an invoice. And then also fix the invoice when the system was being weird. 

So at 7:50 p.m. on 8/17, nearly two months after I placed the first order, there was finally an order placed again.  Annnnd wouldn't you know that they got them back in stock at my local store at 9 a.m. this morning (8/18).  If I hadn't had meetings....

Saturday dawn bright and early with emails and text messages all confirming that shelves were coming. Shelves would arrive today. The local delivery company (not the same one as before -- maybe they don't want to come back a third time?) said between 2-6. I did everything I could to invoke them coming earlier: I ran an errand that took me out of the house; I prepared a messy lunch. I forgot, however, the time honored tradition -- showering. Shortly after the Philosopher hopped in for a shower the notification that the driver was 15 minutes away arrived. (Should have done that at 9 a.m.!) 

The driver arrived and I counted the shelves multiple times. We were going to make sure that everything was here.  We counted at the truck, we counted after he brought things up the stairs, we counted one more time on the back porch while he took a photo of the delivery. (Yes, of course I tip; No, we didn't have him bring things into the house. Personal preference.) 

And now, now I have shelves!!

Are we done? Oh of course not. Part of getting these shelves also mean that we were going to need to finish them. I don't particularly like the honey shade of pine that has aged for a while and without some finishing, the shelves were going to look more industrial than I want. 

So now we have to test sanding, staining, and a super fancy finish oil that the Philosopher bought. 

More soon.... 

Adventures in Shelving -- Part 3 of Several

If you've been around the Philosopher and I since we bought the Chateau, you'll probably heard about his newfound delight in tool shopping. We are now a RYOBI household and own an unreasonable number of batteries because everything is cordless. Personally, given preference, I would have probably gone with Makita brand but that's mostly because my 7th grade self still thinks Very 90s Teal is a really lovely color for lots of things. Electric lime green is so 80s. 

The Philosopher was beginning to run low on patience waiting for shelves. Now that we had a *bit* of time before fall semester for both of us, we really deeply wanted to get the bookshelves done so we could unpack the remaining ~30 boxes of books before the weather headed back to temperatures that do not lend themselves this kind of work. 

(When I initially draft this, it was Sunday, July 17. There are still no IVAR shelves in stock at my IKEA. I called yesterday to get an update on when they thought shelves would arrive. On Call 5 I learned that now 100 shelves were supposed to arrive on July 21 with Medium Probability and they recommended that I ring back on July 20 to see if that had changed to High Probability yet. Astute readers will notice that this is *half* the shipment that had been promised since July 2 and that's still unlikely -- and also I'd need a full quarter of the shipment, just me.)

He started eyeing plywood. We only needed two sheets if we skipped 1 of the 27 shelves (2 delivered, 24 other) -- this could work, right? But from a friend we heard some stories of Very Warped Plywood thanks to stain. Hmmmm, the challenges continue... 

Adventures in Shelving -- Part 2 of Several

 Now then, when I'd first spoken to IKEA Customer Support, we talked about when would be best for me to verify shelf delivery and start the 25 shelf order again.  IKEA, I learned, doesn't unload trucks during the day while the store is open -- understandably as they don't want to be running forklifts around the warehouse while there are also squishy humans using the large floor carts as scooters up and down the aisles. (Just me?)

So the truck might arrive Tuesday into Wednesday and be unloaded for Wednesday morning OR it might arrive Wednesday at some point and be updated for Thursday. Cool. 

Wednesday -- no shelves in stock
Thursday -- no shelves in stock

Friday.  Now, readers, you will recall that I was expecting 3rd box for my table. Supposed to arrive Friday between 9-1. So I did my morning check of the IVAR shelving (no stock) and waited. Around 12:30 I checked the website and.... now the box was "being prepared for delivery Saturday 9-3". 

Can't say I was best pleased.  While we didn't have anywhere in particular we needed to be Saturday morning, I frequently am out running errands and doing other weekend things and now getting to be pinned at home for six hours wasn't the plan. But okay, it's being put on a truck and it'll be here Saturday. 

Saturday, now a full week after the first delivery, and the truck finally arrived around 2. I ran downstairs to receive the box; I figured I could handle one box of table legs. 

Only to find my delivery dudes carrying three boxes.  (No shelves in stock -- I had checked) 

Someone had gotten something glitched and they were trying to re-deliver the entire table. They believed they needed to give me *three boxes* whereas I only wished to receive *Box 3*.

It was a bit of a discussion, but after a few minutes they agreed to hand me Box 3, I gave them my customer report code for the Table / Missing Box portion of the order gone wrong, and they headed off to their next delivery.  I came inside and once again called IKEA Customer Support for Call 4. 

I've gotten quite good at calling now, I know the number pad to get through to a person about a delivery, and I know the department specifically I need to ask for as the first person usually cannot solve the issues I'm having (not their problem, just part of the triage). And truly, I'm *impressed* by the people working those lines. I never wait more than a couple of minutes and when they put me on hold, they'll check back if it's taking more than a few minutes to give me any updates.  

The person for Call 4 had a deep Appalachian accent and was *highly* amused that they'd sent three boxes. But did I have all the table boxes I needed to have? I did? Great, that was the most important part. I agreed. For today, that was the most important part and I just wanted to make sure my delivery guys weren't penalized. Nope, they'd updated the files and we were good to go.  

Oh, and I asked if they could look into the shelves for me.

Shelves were now going to be delivered on Thursday, July 14. And that was again, 200 shelves, and -- I learned this time with "Medium Probability." What did that mean?  That is how likely it is that things will actually arrive but it should mean that the shelves are here somewhere in the United States.  Truck drivers are apparently the limiting commodity in question. 

So it was time to wait again.  Meanwhile, the Philosopher had started scoping out routers.  

Adventures in Shelving - Part 1 of Several

There's been not much on the knitting front to share but I do have an ongoing multi part story.... buckle up. This one is going to take a while. 

So, while the Philosopher and I bought and moved into the Chateau a year ago, a lingering challenge has been our books. Between us, we moved nearly 50 boxes of books, much to the chagrin and confusion of our delightful and efficient movers. Why were there so many? they asked. Oh... oh you're both university people.  Also we're both avid book worms and it's not like we haven't continued to buy books or bring them home from two different libraries. 

But we finally decided on Initial Shelving Plan for the Living Room 1, which involved a lot of time on IKEA's planning pages and significant debates as the merits of painting the inside backs of Billy bookcases or would that just been too heavy.  We ultimately landed on Ivar shelving -- which is pine but has independent uprights and shelves -- and did much measuring and planning. 

Now, IKEA has been having supply chain issues and we knew this but the shelves pretty quickly came into stock after I put an alert on them and so I placed the order. Additionally, we were getting a table so there was

1) Table -- in multiple boxes

2) 4 96" uprights

3) 27 shelves

At least, that was delivery plan. I ordered on Tuesday for Saturday delivery.  And then late that Friday I got an email:

"The shelves you ordered are mostly unavailable. We'll refund you."  Ummm, what? I checked and *25* of the 27 shelves we'd ordered were no longer coming.  And, because of when the email came in and that I wasn't aggressively reading my email well after end of normal business hours on a Friday -- there's not much I can do.

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and I called IKEA's customer support. It must be noted that every single person I've spoken to at customer support has been unfailingly polite and as helpful as they can be -- but they cannot make shelves magically appear.  I was surprised and not particularly pleased to learn that IKEA just *cancels* things -- not back order, not we'll ship them as soon as they arrive -- no, instead it's just "here's your money back, toodles!" But we chatted (Call 1) and saw that another 200 shelves should arrive to my local store by the following Wednesday and while that wasn't ideal, it was fine. It'd been a year right? I could wait a few more days.  

The truck arrived a few hours later, the nice young men carried the boxes up the three flights up stairs, I checked through the unnavigable manifest and saw "uprights, table, cross beams, and two shelves."  Ooookay, good to go and they left. 

Philosopher comes and we get the boxes inside, settle things around, and we realize that the table is supposed to be in 3 boxes. 

I only have two boxes. Box 3 has the legs -- kind of a problem. 

And so it was time for Call 2 to customer support. 

Customer support promised I'd get a phone call back either from the warehouse or from the local store within 24 hours and so we went on about our weekend. Unfortunately we had blocked the weekend during which we'd hoped to make some significant progress on shelf staining and now there were no shelves, but here we were.

Sunday evening I called IKEA again because no call had been returned. Now on Call 3 the very helpful agent spent five minutes going "okay, and then here, and then okay, and here and...no, change that" on her end and assured me that I would be receiving Box 3 of the Table on Friday morning between 9-1.  Fortunately, I was going to be home that morning to receive it. She also checked the shelving delivery and said that theoretically shelves should still be in on Wednesday. 

And so, reader, we waited...