pointysticks.net

Fact: It doesn’t matter if I’m handling carving knives or knitting needles there’s always the risk of serious bloodshed (mine.) I cut my right hand index finger yesterday, right next to the finger nail,  but close enough to the pad to make typing uncomfortable.

It’s okay. The Gods of Craftopia demand sacrifices, right?

At least I’m left handed.

Somehow I went from an end result hobbyist to a process driven driven one, which I think has improved not only my temperament but has greatly increased my ability to handle frustration. I’m not sure exactly when this transformation happened, but I’m glad it did.

Also improving my outlook on life is that we now have signed off on the house and the move is scheduled for the end of October. This is a huge relief as the idea of renovating this house has literally caused me to have nightmares. I’m serious, I dreamed that the floor in the bathroom collapsed and I couldn’t fix it because I was afraid of being electrocuted by ungrounded wires coming out of the toilet waving at me, and there were all these wingless flies. Okay, I’ll admit that does sound more funny than scary, but it was my dream and a pithy description can’t communicate the horrors that my brain can produce to amuse itself.

Oh, and I have a profound phobia of dangerous things coming out of toilets. I’m not talking about the normal horrors of things coming out of the toilet when it backs up. I’m talking about horrible things coming out of the toilet; things like large scaly hands tipped with razor sharp claws,  small man eating sewer demons, and plague bearing crazed aquatic wharf rats. Now I can add live malicious intelligent groping electrical wires.

In my mind these things are far more likely to come out of toilets when it’s late at night. Usually just after dreaming that horrible toilet terrors will happen, this makes my coffee habit seem like a very bad idea sometimes.

I love it when things work out perfectly– while cleaning out my little corner of the shop to make more room for doll carving I found this old box that once contained turning tools.

It turned out to be just right for holding my new gouges, carving knife, exact-o handles, extra blades, gauge, strop block and compound.

I love it when stash solutions present themselves  before I even know I need them. It looks so well thought out.

my drying solution-- a wire basket and bamboo skewers

What I haven’t thought out well was a way to deal with hanging pieces as the lacquer dries. The solution I came up with is workable, but not exactly satisfactory.

I bought this wire basket at the dollar store a few years ago, since my former desk top basket (a wicker nest number) was appropriated by one of my offspring to hold plastic groceries. My plan was to offer an exchange which makes sense to the adult mind; a little grocery basket to hold little plastic groceries. As you can see, negotiations for the safe return of my original basket failed and I resorted to keeping the little grocery basket.

Up until this morning, this basket held an assortment of junkmail and the small balls of yarn left over from knitting projects. I added a few bamboo skewers and voila! Drying rack.