science is fun useful!*

so i have this lovely silver tea service that was my grandmother's, which i've been meaning to polish since high school (which, if we're generous, was 10 years ago...)



and i've decided that i'm finally going to get it done, but hate polishing stuff, and it's super yuk to be around, so i took to google to see if there was a way to make my own (non-toxic-y) silver polish, and google did me one better...i can make my own silver DIP! so i don't even have to polish, i can just soak. which is exactly my speed. tested it on a small scale with my bracelet last night, and it seemed to work relatively well, so i'm going to go big tonight...

so, it totally worked, right before my eyes, score! the coffee pot still needs some work, but i think that this is good enough for now. better than a half-assed attempt, but not quite full assed. also, as i was doing some (very slight, let's be honest) buffing, i thought "this would have been the better part of some poor woman's job back in the day" and that made me VERY happy that it wasn't even slightly part of my job description.




*while the watching it un-oxidize before my eyes was kind of fun, this was also work, so more useful than fun. although i do recognize that science is, in fact, fun...just not in this instance.

update, but no pictures

SO, swatched, and am almost bang-on for gauge, and i am casting on sleeve stitches tonight. and this malabrigo lace with the slightly-oversized needles makes such a lovely loft of fabric, the cardigan (if it fits, of course, i don’t want to tempt the knitting gods) is going to be freaking GORGEOUS. srsly. i’ve also been encouraged by my lys (not having the needles i wanted, but having lovely staff) to try the magic loop method. the girl was adorable. she was like “youtube videos. you’ll learn it in two seconds and save a bundle on needles!”, so that’s good. but in looking it up, i actually came across this traveling loop method, which the girl says she “unvented”, which i think is adorable, and seems more my speed than two loops and stress. so i’m going to give it a whirl with my LURVELY chiaogoo needles (which, btw, i will be buying exclusively from now on. not only is the cable the nicest i’ve used (including addi and hiyahiya), but it’s RED! you can’t get better than that) tonight! :)

in other news, i may have added every single knitting pattern ever to my ravelry queue, and i’ve cast on for a baktus scarf in recycled sari silk yarn, which is gorgeous. despite the misgivings of one of the knitting crew at work (she did one similar and said that it made a scarf that’s annoyingly heavy), i’m going to keep plugging away on it, because, dammit, i’ve already started! plus, i’m honestly not sure what else this sari silk yarn would be nice for if not a scarf. so a scarf it is!

finally, sad news: i’m going to have to spend all weekend packing up my laundry room/crafting space/spare-spare room. and it’s all going to have to go somewhere else in the house. it’s a basement space, and we’ve got mold. :( so yeah. all the yarn, the fabric, the sewing machine, the spare couch…all has to find a new home somewhere else in the house. and no access to the sewing machine for a few weeks. thankfully christmas crafting has come and gone, and all the babies are (currently) accounted for with gifts. and mister man? he hates clutter more than anything else EVAR. it’s going to be a super awful couple of weeks of crap crammed all over the place and me maybe having no dressing room, and so him being woken up when i get up to go to work so that i can get dressed. the only upside: we rent, so we don’t have to pay for any of the cleanup ourselves. oh, and the guys said that they could work around the washer and dryer so that we could leave them in the laundry room. because really, i was NOT impressed with the idea of having to move them our of the basement and having to find somewhere else to put them in the slightest.

still no pictures!

i'm so boring lately. no, really, i am. almost all the crafting i've been doing has been gift-related, which necessitates a lack of blogging pictures. :( but never fear, tonight i sew, and that can definitely have pictures. i've got the baby quilt and the three preemie quilts basted, and lots of bias tape to bind with all ready to go. the holdup: i have to wind bobbins again. bleh! and, i've also got some blocks to make for my bee, so that should keep me out of trouble tonight. and, i've got LOTS of time to craft, since i have to be up until at least 1 to pick up mister man and his mummers from the airport. not ideal timing, but i'll take any chance i can to get more crafting done, really. and, tomorrow is gloriously all mine for crafting, minus a bit of time to be spent putting snow tires on the car, with the (hopefully!) gracious help of my brother. :)