an old house haiku

my home's workmanship
thy name is surely shoddy
sigh, neverending

I'm waxing poetic today. A rare occasion indeed. When pulling down the old wallpaper in the living room, in preparation to prep the walls for eventual paint, I am finding that the plaster underneath is not sound. It's not falling apart at the moment, but nearly everywhere I push, it gives. (For those not in the know, plaster is supposed to be solid.) I think the keys are intact, but it is delaminating. I wanted to learn to skim coat plaster myself, and give the walls a nice new smooth finish, then paint. I'm now sure it will not be that simple.

I actually have a plaster professional coming out tonight to look at it. I'd rather to do the work myself, but I'm just not up to that scale of job right now. I have a job and a husband and two children who also need my time.

Update on the headband

I finally located the pattern for the headband that I posted about the other day. I still don't have the darned thing finished. It's been crazy around here. But it's getting there. It's hard to made headway when you have all of 10 minutes at a time to commit to the stitchery.

On the other hand, I did complete a couple of Wonder Woman tiaras for my daughter's birthday party tonight. I'm pretty proud of them. There's no pattern to share, because I made them up in my own little noggin. To any purists out there, I know that there is not a second point on them, but 5 year-olds have little heads, and I was afraid the bottom point would not work well in the combo of felt and gold lame'.

Work in Progress

Sadly Mr Dangly still has no legs, but I have managed to knit his second arm to help him through until I can bring myself to finish him. Having only one appendage was just too much of a handicap for him.

Meanwhile, I've got a new work in progress to report. It's a little headband to tie up my not-so-cute hair. In an attempt to change up the hairstyle I've been sporting for several years, I am growing it out for a few months. Once I get to the "I cannot stand it one minute longer!" point I will most likely go see the handy dandy hairstylist and have her cut it in exactly the same shape. But hope springs eternal that I'll be able to break out of my hair rut.

It's a good thing the pattern is simple. I have misplaced the pattern around here somewhere. To be more exact, my 2-year-old scattered my patterns all over my office, and I have not yet found this one. I promise that I will give credit to the pattern's author as soon as I find it. Why oh why did I not remember to bookmark the page??



I'd also like to mention that this yarn is a thrift store special. It is black wool "super fingering" from Red Heart. Do they still make wool yarn? I don't think so. Anyway, I paid $.15 for the whole skein. I'm estimating that this headband will cost about $.07 when it's all said and done. That's a price this bargain hunter can live with, even if the black is not a fun color to knit.