the chair

In the course of moving, I acquired another "new" piece of furniture beyond my couch and footstool. While driving to the house to load up the car, we happened upon a street festooned with the day's trash at the curb to be picked up by the waste management folks. I must admit, I've not been shy about grabbing things from the trash - and it has resulted in me now owning a great microwave, a fairly decent iron, and a cute ironing board among other miscellaneous furnishings all for free. On this particular drive past the trash, I uttered to Mom, who was driving the car, "I think I want that chair." A moment later, I stated emphatically, "I really want that chair. Stop!" She stopped, I jumped out and hauled the chair into the car, and we proceeded with our regularly scheduled moving.

So, might I present the chair (the silver one - I already owned the blue papasan):Now, you may be asking, "So what?" After all, Tuesday is the day I blog about knitting, not ramble on about free stuff. Well, believe it or not, the chair was ONLY ever desired for knitting. It is the base for a knitted cover designed by Veronik Avery and published in Interweave Knits' Fall 2004 edition. The "Sweet and Lowdown Chair" pattern is full of lovely Aran designs, and just looking at the picture in the copy of the magazine that I recently picked up for some large percent off at the Pittsburgh Knit & Bead going out of business sale made me want to make it so I could sit in it and knit happily. Imgaine that - knitting while SITTING on knitting... Aaah.

The trouble is, the chair isn't produced anymore by IKEA. I stored the idea in some long-term memory file in my brain and decided not to pursue it unless I happened upon a cheap chair somewhere. Basically, I abandoned the idea.

But then...there was the exact chair, sitting abandoned in the trash that misty morning!! What is really ridiculous is that I could recognize it in the trash heap... I guess I must have stared at the magazine image a bit longer than I thought I had, emblazoning it in my mind.

And, as it turns out, the chair isn't really trash worthy. It looked like the people were moving out of their house, and I know full well that sometimes it's easier just to throw out the stuff rather than move it or even bring it away to a thrift store. In all, the chair is fully functional (and clean - so if you come to my apartment, don't worry that you're sitting on a nasty trash-chair!) and ready to be the recipient of a fresh cover!!