Good neighbors, and bad neighbors

Had one of those surprising productive weekends. Bit violent, though.

My former neighbors, who got evicted last September, had apparently messed up their house so bad (ergo, why they got evicted), that when they left the owner of the house had to gut the inside and rebuild it from the floor up. Turned out to be a shame for me and my neighbors who live in the surrounding houses, because the flock of insects that fled the house being literally torn apart converged upon ours. My neighborhood is single-family houses, but it’s an older area so the houses are all close together. I have to tell you, nothing makes you feel more disgusting than cockroaches in your home, even if you know it’s not your fault. I’ve since gotten rid of them but as I was looking in a drawer in my living room, I saw evidence of where they used to be and flew into a cleaning rage. A pure, explosive, cleaning-out-entire-drawers, getting rid of things I probably should have kept, tossing out things that I really should have donated but needed it out of my house right now dammit cleaning spree. The dog hid from me, the house lifted off the foundation due to the weight it lost (not really, that would be horrifically expensive), and I felt much better at the end of it.

Which brings me to my other point, because this blog is not my diary. I recently ordered some Neighborhood Studio Sock yarn from Neighborhood Fiber Co. Back when I was in college in DC I would go to Knit Happens, which is sadly closed now, where they would stock local spinners and dyers and I would buy the most vibrantly colored, tightly spun sock yarn. That yarn has been in the back of my mind for years (but not the socks I knit from it, because that was back when I had no idea about gauge so my socks were all given away to a friend of mine with much larger feet), and recently I saw a list of minority-owned fiber businesses floating around on the internet and I saw that I could order directly from Neighborhood Fiber Co. myself. I jumped on the chance, and brought back some good memories of college. Now, several years after I graduated, I can knit socks that fit, so these beauties are mine! I’m not a soapbox girl, but if you’re looking for a way to support your neighbors especially at a time like now, you can hardly do better than some stunning sock yarn. And remember, sock yarn doesn’t count as stash.