Blogstalking week Four: Stuff I love and/or hate

This week's task is to name three things I love and three things I hate. That's a lot of picture taking. So I thought I'd be clever and take just three pictures to signify all six items. It almost worked, too, but try as I might, I could find no love in the third picture. My internal need for things to work out "just so" has kept me from posting anything all week. Until now, that is. I am boldly laughing in the face of my obsession with this, and posting my irregular and imperfect loves and loathes.


First up, the easy one. I love my Tivo. I had planned on discussing my hatred of commercials. But then I uploaded my photo and realized something. I apparently hate dusting, too. Actually, I don't hate dusting so much, I just don't get around to it very often. I'm a sub-par housekeeper. I hate that about myself.


Second photo. This is a bit of an easy one, really. I love knitting lace. It feeds my need for instant gratification in a way that making garments just cannot. There is a LOT of knitting, then waiting for the other parts to be knit, then seaming, blabbadee blabbadah before a hank of yarn becomes a sweater. Conversely, with lace, each row is a new part of the pattern. It is constantly changing and growing and blossoming into a piece of art. This particular one is my beginnings of the Luna Moth Shawl from elann.com. The pattern is pretty easy, though, which can lull one into a false sense of security.

Which brings me to hate #2: I hate when I get cocky and neglect to count the number of stitches in each row. I managed to get one extra stitch in row 35, and because I was so sure that I rock at knitting lace, I went ahead and not only knit row 36 on top of it, I put a lifeline in. It wasn't until I started the next pattern row that I realized my error. That's a lot of tinking. Argh.


Third photo. This is the one for which I have no love. I hate my bedroom closet door. I hate this thing with a white hot passion. Why on earth would anyone take down a perfectly good closet door only to replace it with a hollow core sliding door that slips of its track at least once a day. And for reasons unbeknownst to me, it doesn't fit correctly into the lower track, so It swings loose at the floor. The cat enjoys batting at it while I sleep. I used to think that she was trying to push it open to get in there for various and sundry nefarious cat purposes, but I was mistaken. She bats at it so that I will wake up. When I stir, she runs over to me and purrs and rubs her little kitty noggin on my hand. The little shit is waking me up on purpose for midnight tickles. I hate that too.

And don't get me started on the fact that instead of real moulding around the door openings, the previous owners used lumber. Plain old 1x4s. They neither mitred nor sanded it before slapping it up on the wall around the room. Another thing about which I have no love.

There are lots of things in this life I do love, however most of them are not photographable. (is that a word?) Here's a quick list of some off the top of my head (in no particular order, of course). I love that when my daughter put on her hat and scarf this morning, she stated that she was "all bungled up and ready to go." I love that my son calls his favorite fruit "blannas." I love that our home is less than 3 blocks from the girl's school, so we can walk there every morning. I love that my husband is home most evenings, and that he's a really super dad. I love that my parents are both still here with me on this earth. I'd miss them terribly if they weren't so close. I love that we have a roof over our heads and a little money in the bank. I really do love my life, even if I bitch about it a lot.

So there you have it. Some things I love and some things I hate. Pretty close to the assignment. As my dad would say, "close enough for government work."

A rare FO sighting!

Bainbridge scarf
Originally uploaded by NormDeplume720

I finished the Bainbridge Scarf last night. Today, it is a blistering 90 degrees out. Figures, eh? I posted more details on Ravelry. I apologize to anyone not yet in Ravelry. If you want my pattern notes, just reply here and I'll let you know what I did. Of course, with that apology, I've probably just typed more than if I just typed it out here, anyway.


I was going to type more now, but the boy has had a lovely Sunday afternoon meltdown, and I probably need to go relieve the husband from kid duty. It's tough work parenting AND watching football at the same time, you know.

How I get from here to there. And back again

**Please do not judge the quality of this blog by this entry. I wanted to get it in before the new Blogstalking topic comes out tomorrow, and I still have to do laundry, make dinner, finish a birthday present for a party tomorrow, and go to yoga class. This is a C- entry for sure.

I was going to take a picture of my 2000 Hyundai Sonata, complete with child safety seats and the boy's artwork (said artwork being ball point pen on the steering wheel hub). But then I realized that I only drive it about twice a week. The rest of the time it's all Flintstone power. That being said, my feet are much prettier than Fred's, and to keep them pretty, I wear shoes.


By the way, those are my new shoes, by way of Clarks and TJMaxx. Not only are they comfy and cute, they are also made outside of China. That's not easy to find these days. Even the fancy schmancy pricey brands are mostly made there. And none of their websites have statements on their policies on product safety or sweatshops. ("None" might be an overstatement, but I haven't found any. If you have any information on companies that actually disclose this stuff, please let me know. I'm always on the lookout.) In this day and age, that's surprising to me. It also leads me to believe one of two things: either those companies have no specific policies on product safety and labor, or they are hiding something. Either way, I'm being a very picky shopper.

Now this isn't exactly part of the Blogstalking assignment, but I'm also including what the boy gets around in. He's plenty old enough to walk most places with me, but having him strapped in gets us from point a to point b much faster (and safer, too). Since we're usually running late getting out the door to walk the girl to school, I am usually accompanied by this, the Nigel-mobile.


So that's the big story of how we get around. Small-town life has it's advantages, you know.

Purse Guts

Week two of Blogstalking, was to share the contents of my purse. This may have been more scary than the subject from last week. My purse is typically a jumble of spilled snacks, grocery receipts and miscellaneous bric a brac that I try to hide from everyone. It's embarrassing that I cannot even keep something as small as a handbag organized. But having seen some of the other pocketbooks out there, I felt the courage to do it. And here it is:


It doesn't look as bad as I though it would. lucky for me, most of the paper bits had sunk below the big, normal items, looking much better than reality. And here are the entrails of my purse, after having been removed. It's kind of like an autopsy table, although I didn't weigh anything.

Here's the rundown:

+2 nylon reusable shopping bags. I really need more of them. I got one from a local shop, and the other from reusablebags.com
cell phone
+garage door opener
+brush -- I don't use brushes, I'm a short-hair gal. But my daughter is always in need for a good hairbrushing.
+patchouli perfume oil from the Body Shop. I don't actually wear patchouli every day, but this made it into my purse a few weeks ago and I haven't managed to get it back up to my room yet.
+wallet -- I hate this wallet: the dollar-section isn't big enough to hold dollar bills.
+New Kroger discount cards that I have yet to put on my keyring. In my defense, I only got the new ones last weekend.
+pens
+Lip glosses, balms, and lipsticks. My favorite of them are a Mary Kay gloss and a basil and cinnamon lip balm from Dreamseeds. The really sparkly lip gloss actually belongs to my 5-year-old daughter.
+too much change
+a rubber band,
+glass marble
+hair clip
+plastic buffalo
+spider ring
+one key to a car I no longer own
+one peppermint candy
+one peanut
+one dirty Smartie
+tissues
+hand sanitizer
+and a pile of paper: receipts, coupons, shopping lists and candy wrappers. There were more of them in there, but I did clean my purse out recently, and the pile is pretty small right now.

Not Pictured: My keys, which were hanging on the rack by the door, and my sunglasses that were in the stroller, waiting for the next trip to go get the girl from kindergarten.

So, nothing earth shattering. But amusing, nonetheless.

The strangest squirrel encounter ever

I've been putting off writing this entry, as I'm pretty sure that words won't do it justice. But I have to try. The other day, I told the kids to go outside. It was a beautiful day. I didn't feel like sweeping the sidewalk or tidying the yard or picking the tomatoes that will end up rotting in the kitchen (FYI, when one is the only tomato eater in the house, one should not grow 8 plants of 3 different varieties of tomato). I of course brought out needles and yarn and cast on for yet another project.

A few rows into it, I hear Nora say "Hi, little squirrel" in her sweet little voice, echoed by Nigel's voice repeating his sister's words. Hrm. I've never known a live backyard critter to hang out long enough for not one but two children to say 'hello.' I immediately assume that the kids are saying hi to a dead squirrel in our yard. I decide to investigate further. As I walk across the yard, I tell the kids to stay clear of it, because sometimes squirrels bite or scratch, and it would hurt. This warning served mainly to scare the boy up onto the swing, where be started crying, because the beast was still sitting there, staring at him.

Yes, a live squirrel, just sitting there, with a 3-year-old boy treed on a plastic swing.

I picked him up from the swing, one-handed, and set him on the swing on the other end of the set. My knitting was still in my left hand at this point. I'm not one to set down a project in the middle of a row, you know. He was still rather upset about the happenings, but he was feeling more safe.

Nora decided that it would be best to take a trip over to the sandbox a few feet away. She quickly started cooking a sand cake. The squirrel headed off toward her, and before I knew it, he hopped onto her leg and started climbing up her.

As if she were a denim tree!

I ran over, shooed the damned thing off my daughter, who had quickly become hysterical, and swooped her up to the same swing with her brother. The little bushy bastard got the message and loped off toward the hosta bed on the other side of the yard. The kids and I took this reprieve to gather up the 2 baby dolls and 3 backpacks that were outside with us. I picked up Nigel and we started back for the door. Just then, the rogue squirrel hopped back out of the hostas and up to the door.

Nora cowered behind me and said, "Let's go in the other door." It sounded like a great idea, except for the fact that the back door was locked. The only way to get back into the house was directly. past. the squirrel. These are the situations that separate the moms from the boys, so to speak. I looked around, noticed the umbrella that had been left out, and told Nora to pick it up. I gave her explicit instructions:

Do not hit the squirrel with the umbrella, but poke it at him if he starts to run at us.

Nowhere in the parent handbook did it ever mention that I was going to have to explain to a 5-year-old how to protect the family from aggressive rodents, using only her gumption and a red plaid umbrella. Believe me, I looked. It's not in there. Was there an addendum somewhere that I didn't get? I probably should have mailed in the registration postcard, huh?

So we quickly head for the door, umbrella in Nora's hands, Nigel, baby dolls, and Bainbridge scarf in mine, and raced for safety. The *&^%@! tried to run into the house with us! We got in without him, so he sat on the step outside the door and stared at us. For like twenty minutes.

The kids now do a squirrel search before they go play out there. It was the single strangest encounter with any critter in my 35 years on this earth. It even beats the goat at the zoo that bit me in the head when I was 8.

My Blogstalking debut

I've "signed up" to be part of the Blogstalk as created by members of Knittyboard. Each week, participants post about a common theme. This week's theme is "Who Am I". Geez, people, could you have started with a bigger can of worms? I'd rather show you the mold growing in the corner of my basement. But I signed up, so here goes:

I am Robin, a 35-year-old wife and mother of two. I proofread foreclosure notices for extra money. I am mostly a stay-at-home-mom. I like to knit, but knitting is all part of the swirling vortex of housework procrastination and guilt that makes up the lion's share of my life. The result is that I knit less than I like, my house is messier than I like, and I spend too much time on this, my computer.

That pretty much sums me up. The rest of my neuroses are hidden elsewhere in this blog. Except for the really neurotic neuroses: I keep them hidden under my pillow. ;)

I'll post later this week with progress reports on the stairway and my many knitting projects. I also hope to soon write of our recent harrowing experience with the 'friendly' squirrel in the back yard. But for now, I must get the girl ready for school. And refill my coffee.

Soygel versus Soyclean, redux

Over the last couple of years, I've blogged about all sorts of stuff, but no post in this blog gets more traffic than the one I made a year ago, with a review of Soyclean Paint Stripper. It's obvious that a bunch of you are looking for a nontoxic way to remove the ugly paint that previous owners put on your trim and/or furniture. I love that. So far I have tried Soygel and Soyclean, both considerably more expensive than the toxic ones at the big box store, and you don't want to get stuck with a $50 bottle of inert goo. So when I tackled another stripping project this week, I decided to conduct some, ahem, "scientific" tests to help you decide which soy stripper to buy.

Not long ago, my little guy decided that I needed to tackle the ugly wallpaper in the foyer/stairway. He was standing there, waiting to go outside, and ripped a 8"x12" hunk of paper off the wall along the stairway. I was not happy about it, as there is a LOT of wallpaper, which is covering dodgy old wallboard. And it is not a room that I stop to look at very often, thus making it pretty easily ignorable (I know that I might have just invented that word. I'm okay with that). Not to mention that I am still cooking in a really ugly kitchen, which was definitely higher on my "to do" list.

In my irritation at the destruction wrought by the Boy, I started to rip off more paper. In reality, it was my curiosity about what might lurk beneath, but I'll keep up the pretense that I was angry. I realized that there was beadboard under the wallpaper.

Beadboard! Real, live, wood that is not plywood or pressboard!

Later that afternoon, I hastily ripped off the rest of the paper, and started to hack at the plaster. I soon figured out that it was really spackle. Water soluble, premixed joint compound. So I scraped off what I could with a putty knife and tackled the rest with a spray bottle, scrubby pad, and rags. It took a few hours of the course of several days to complete this step.

Then I started to strip away the ugly "antique" colored paint on the beadboard and the several coats of cream-colored paint that had been slopped onto the stringer. Because I am a frugal gal, I opted to use the Soyclean paint stripper in my supply room. I had forgotten how overpowering the orange scent was. it gave me a headache and I had to open the windows and doors and put a fan in the room. It was not pleasant. I realize that my sensitivity to citrus scent is more acute than most, so this might not discourage others. I do not know if the scent is there for a mechanical purpose, or just for grins, but I wish it weren't there.

I waited 45 minutes (the bottle says 10-30 minutes, but I've found out that time is your friend when using natural paint strippers) and began to scrape off the paint. The one coat of antiquing came off pretty easily. The leftover goop was also easy to take care of with a wet towel and/or scrubber pad.

The glossy trim paint was another story. I do not know what kind of paint this is, although I think it was put on between the late 70's and mid-80's. But the Soyclean only made it rubbery, not allowing me to scrape it off. I waited some more time, but it just wouldn't budge. Because the Soyclean is only a thick liquid (think pancake syrup), it's hard to get a nice thick layer on top of the paint. I might have had more success if I were working on a horizontal surface and really piling on the Soyclean.

I ended up wiping off the remaining Soyclean and heading back to my supply room for the tiny bit of Soygel I have left. I put it on the paint, waited an hour, and the paint came right up. Now, I know that my earlier efforts had loosened up the paint, but really, the Soygel is just better. It's really thick (like molasses, but not as sticky), and it is easy to get a nice thick layer of it on the vertical surface. As a bonus, it has no scent. It smells vaguely industrial, but not at all overpowering. No ventilation needed, which was very good, as the weather turned hot that day. So my not-at-all-professional opinion is that Soygel is worth the extra money when working indoors and on vertical surfaces. Soyclean might be just fine outside and in a situation where you dip the wood in the stripper. But I will not use it inside again, most likely.

Through my efforts, I was able to strip nearly all the previous paint off the beadboard, to find that it was obviously unprotected wood for some time, showing much ground-in dirt and staining. I ultimately decided to paint it trim-white and am happy with it. I'll share pictures when I'm done.

I forgot to mention yesterday..

I meant to make a confession in my post yesterday: I have been spending more time surfing on Ravelry that actually knitting. What the use of a great knitting organization website if I have no FO's to organize? If you are already on (in? at?) Ravelry, look me up. If you are not, go get on the waiting list. It's way neato.

Last night I worked on Otis a little. I would have gotten more done, but the Girl wanted to snuggle. And some day (probably sooner than later), she's not going to want to snuggle up on the couch with me ever again. So I couldn't refuse her. And I was tired anyway. I'd really like to get it done soon, though. Cooler weather is a-comin', it is downright chilly in the house this morning.

My boy is now officially three

He was actually three at 4:37 am on Thursday, but the party wasn't until last night, and I've adopted the policy that you cannot get older without candles and a cake. And last night we partook in a Spider Man cupcake cake from Super Floor-Mart. The cupcake I had was mediocre, but the boy was really happy with it. He then went on to get lots of Chinese-made superhero toys. I hope none of them are recalled. We're already trying to locate a zillion hazardous Polly Pocket toys leftover from the girl's birthday. argh.

Quick update

Sorry for the long absence, avid reader. (I didn't bother putting the 's' on there, as I'm not sure I have even one regular reader here, judging from the number of comments I get.) We were on vacation in the Thousand Islands region of New York for a week, then this last week has been filled with unpacking, cleaning, catching up on things, and preparing for the big girl's first day of kindergarten. The getting there was pretty traumatic for both of us, but she was her normal bubbly self by the end of the morning. I'm also very happy that she is only in half-day kindergarten, as I might not have survived waiting the whole 7 hours of the full school day to see how she did.

Knitting wise, really nothing has happened. I am still way behind on the Mystery Stole 3, and probably will not finish it at this point. I was planning on catching up to the current clue during vacation, but between sunsets like this and the bazillion people to have fun chatting with (it was a family reunion, with over 50 talkative types), no knitting was done. Besides, once I saw the wing on the end of the stole after my return, I lost much of my previous love for the "mystery" part of this knitalong. My name is Robin. I can not and will not wear wings. I did work a little on Knitty's Otis during the drive back from NY, but there are no photos of that yet. The drive to NY was filled with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, of course.

There is also a home project in the works right now, involving a beadboard wall that had been spackled and wallpapered by a previous owner. I promise before and after photos just as soon as the "after" has been attained.

Gah! I'm a blog slacker.

I've been missing again, I know. But I have been neither knitting nor working on the house much the last couple of weeks. I hope that once summer winds down I'll find more time for my projects, and their blog.

Meanwhile, I was stung by a bee on Saturday. On my eyebrow, no less. Last night I sliced open my thumb on a food can. I really do believe that I'm becoming accident prone in my 'advanced' age.

My weekend.

Friday, we packed up with Grandma and Grandpa Deplume and our pair of kiddos, and set off for St. Louis. I started knitting Otis from Knitty.com during the drive. After about an hour, I realized that this pattern is rife with "at the same time" type instructions. I had never encountered those before. And I had only skimmed this pattern before I cast on. This resulted in frogging an hour's worth of work. Ugh. Note to self: really read the pattern before starting any project. Duh.

After we got to the hotel we decided we were hungry and wanted to go out to eat. Not to mention, it was our anniversary, and I was NOT going to eat a vending machine turkey sandwich and white zinfandel for my anniversary dinner. The Grandparents decided that they were not willing to leave the hotel at 7PM for dinner, so the four of us set off in search of food. We found Oishi Sushi down the street. It was wonderful. Some Japanese beer, Pad Thai, and spicy tuna rolls made Mr. Deplume and I very happy. It was a lovely anniversary dinner. And the kids loved their rice and soy sauce (I did share my shrimp with them, though. They weren't completely deprived).

Saturday morning, we went to the St. Louis Science Center, where we would visit the Marvel Comics Superheroes exhibit. It was a lot of fun. Not exactly what I would have picked for my main birthday activity, but what's a girl going to do? The kids had a blast, and Mr Deplume did too.

Then we drove to Laclede's landing for lunch, and walked around the riverfront a little while. We then packed back up and were home by 6:3o pm. I promptly poured myself a glass of wine and sat in front of the TV, knitting, the rest of the evening. Not a bad birthday, although I didn't get any cake. On the bright side, I think that without cake, the birthday didn't happen, so I'm not actually 35 yet. ;)


Sunday, we played hooky from church so I could work, then we went to the playground with the kids and a picnic lunch. It was fun, aside form the friction burn I got on my back from attempting a ride down a kids slide. Later, we walked to the high school's football field, and flew a kite. I hadn't flown kites since I was about 19. It was the kids' first time. I think I had more fun than anyone else did. Sunday was a good day.

It is just not my week.

This weekend my computer started freezing up. I'd just be typing away, and suddenly, the old girl just stopped, staring at me. Catatonic. I work from home, using the computer. A working computer is not an optional piece of equipment for me. The first time I thought it was a fluke. The second time, I figured it was a cue to shut down some programs. It kept happening, with increasing frequency. By Sunday, it was scaring me. How am I going to afford a new computer right now? Property taxes are due this week! So I spent too many hours cleaning my registry, searching for spyware, removing old programs, and defragging. So far it seems to have helped. I have my fingers crossed. But just in case, I'm planning on buying a good backup software today.

Yesterday morning, after some nasty storms had rolled though, I found water in my basement. A lot. My poor cats had to slog through basement flood to get to their litter box and food. They were not happy about it. The dirty laundry that was waiting on the floor was soaked. Several boxes of miscellaneous basement-type stuff were wet. What a mess. I took care of the laundry, and let Mr. Deplume deal with the remaining basement water when he got home from work.

Yesterday afternoon, While my daughter was at a friend's house, my son and I started putting away the mountain of clean laundry. I left my room for a moment, only to come back to him playing in a bottle of paint. Black acrylic craft paint. I know that a master bedroom is a stupid place for craft paints, that's where they were waiting for me to find them a new home. The boy had already attempted to play with them in their last "safe" place.

Back to yesterday-- I walk into the bedroom to find him with the lid off, sticking a brush in. Then I walked closer. He had spilled it all. over. the. carpet (the only carpet in my whole house, by the way). Black craft paint is NOT easy to clean up. I dabbed and blotted and scrubbed and cursed and rinsed for about 20 minutes, then laid some damp towels onto it until I could get the carpet cleaner upstairs to try to shampoo.

Then the carpet shampooer was spitting out more water than it could suck up. It is definitely broken. Oh well, now I can get rid of the bulky thing without thinking of all the money I spent on it 4 years ago. Had I mentioned that the shampooer didn't work? I still have three large splotches of back on the sage green carpet.

Last night, I worked on the Mystery Shawl a bit. I'm racing along, and did one wrong decrease. I tinked back, and managed to screw that up. Or maybe I didn't. I tinked and cursed some more and finally got it right. I cannot help but think that I should have ignored that one backwards decrease and saved myself an hour of anguish. I'm now on row 70. I might get this thing finished before retirement, but I do not expect to finish it in August.

The day was finally over. I went to bed.

This morning. The boy walked into the kitchen, and within 30 seconds, did something unknown with a can of RC Cola, causing it to explode. The cola shot into his eyes and hair, causing him to stand there and scream. There was also sugary carbonated spray on him and his clothes, of course, and my floor, cabinets, counters, dishwasher and oven. The diameter of the spray was over 10 feet, and splattered well over 6 feet up, to the top of my cabinets. That boy has talent, I tell ya.

This week sure has been exciting, but I think I prefer the boring life, thank you very much.

I love my thrift store.

I love vintage stuff. Unfortunately, there isn't enough room in my home for every old thing I find lovely or interesting. But books I can find a place for. It started out with some old crochet pattern books my mother got at an auction for next-to-nothing (meybe even nothing, I never really asked). I ended up selling a few of them, as I cannot crochet, nor will I probably ever learn. But those books were so fun, that I started looking in the craft book section at my local charity shop.

Most of the time, the only books there are 1980's instructions on how to crochet collars onto hand-painted sweatshirts. There are usually a few afghan books too. And macrame. But this time there were knitting books. With flair. And they leaped into my basket.

Vintage knit pattern books
Originally uploaded by robinmommy21

First three I found were quite nice. I might actually make something from one or more of these.

Vintage Doll clothes patterns
Originally uploaded by robinmommy21

Next up were these lovelies, titled "Mary's Dollies". I'm not into dolls or their clothes, but maybe someday I'll pass them along to someone who will use them.

Mod knit pattern booklet
Originally uploaded by robinmommy21

And then I found this beauty. Columbia Minerva Leaflet No. 2510, "The Super-Sonics," promises handknits that will "fly off your fingers with supersonic speed." It was originally 25 cents. How much did I pay for it? 25 cents. I felt it wrong to quibble about money on such a wonderful find. The clothes. The hair. The gauge. I'm relatively sure that I'll never knit any of these. Maybe I'll frame this and hang it on my knitting studio's wall. (No, I don't actually have a knitting studio. But a girl can dream, right?)

Detail of mod knit dresses
Originally uploaded by robinmommy21

"The Portobello," the dress on the right, has a stitch gauge of 6 stitches to 5 inches on sz 50 needles. I tried to come up with something witty to write about that, but all I can seem to manage is to chuckle and shake my head at it. And that doesn't translate to the written word so well.

MS3 Update

MS3 Clue 1 chart a
Originally uploaded by robinmommy21

I've completed chart A. I was hoping to be further along by now, but it's been a nutty week. So I'm behind on the stole already. Oh well. I knew that keeping up would be a challenge. I'd love to spend the afternoon catching up, but there's laundry to be done. ick.

oops.

Remember the bag I was working on for a couple of weeks? I was so proud of having only used $2 of yarn to make it. I love thrift stores. Well, I finished it. It still was not exactly pretty, but it was destined to mainly be a project bag so I got over it. I had knit a test swatch when I began, to make sure everything would felt together, so I was confident in this, my first project including felting. I was so excited to plop it in the washer and a few hours later, have a new bag.


I threw it inside an old pillowcase and into the washing machine it went. My favorite old blue jeans and my fancy new bag. After the washer stopped, I went to retrieve it.

shit.

This is what has become of the pillowcase. I knew its contents had met a horrible fate.



And here is the bag. Poor girl. She probably never knew what hit her.



For a $2 bag, it will still be functional. She needs to have a few more wash cycles before she is fully fulled. But I don't think she gets to leave the house. She definitely is going to live out her days hung on the back of the office door. Poor thing.

Here is my test swatch for the Mystery Stole, knit with US5 needles. I'm happy with it. I'm so anxious to start. I cannot wait for Friday. I need to get the house extra clean before then, because I'll spend too many hours knitting, lol.

Hier ist mein Test swatch für die Mystery Stole 3, stricken mit den 3,75 Millimeter Rundstricknadeln. Ich bin begierig nach den Stolen anzufangen.

Wenn meine Deutsche unrichtig ist, sagen Sie mir bitte. Ich mag lernen.

Hallo, meine deutschen Freunde

Es gibt viele deutsche Strickerinnen in der MS3 Gruppe. Im Anschluß an ihre Leitung werde ich versuchen, irgendetwas über den "knitalong" auf Deutsch ebenso anzuschlagen. Mein Deutsch ist nicht besonders gut. Es ist eine lange Zeit seit Universitätsklassen gewesen.

Ich muß zugeben, dass ich einen Internetübersetzer für diesen Posten verwendete.

Post title TBA

I have begun the swatch for the Mystery Shawl 3 knitalong. I'm ridiculously excited about ti all. I have yet to complete a large lace project, and I feel like the 'game' of this one will carry me through to the end. I really want a fancy knitted shawl to show off to every one. I can imagine the conversation...
Impressed Person: Wow, what a gorgeous wrap!
Me: Yeah, I knitted it.
IP: By hand?!?
Me: Yep. With yarn, a pair of sticks and some perseverance**
IP: Wow! You are so talented! I wish I could be as fabulous as you!


But enough about my crazy inner dialogue, back to the yarn and sticks. I'm using Knitpicks Bare merino laceweight. I wound the first hank yesterday. I was a little scared of winding 880 yards of lace yarn by hand, without the aid of a swift or ballwinder. As far as I could tell from things I had read on the internet, it is impossible to wind that much yarn by hand. Time and time again I had read that a swift is a must for any yarn winding, and a ballwinder is a must for laceweight. To those people, I say pbbbtttptptp.

I've come to realize that I'm a Luddite. (Not about my computer, mind you. They can pry my keyboard from my cold dead hands.) But about fiber arts? I eschew the technology. And I'm a miser. So I do things the old fashioned way most of the time. There's just no fun for me if I don't do it the hard way.

Again, I digress. My coffee is getting cold and I need to eat breakfast. Back to the specifics: I used the back of my office chair in lieu of a swift, A 3/4" cylindrical wooden block from my kids' toy drawer in lieu of a nostepinne, and wound the giant ball while watching Barbie Fairytopia: the Magic of the Rainbow with my girl. Totally do-able. I'll probably invest in a swift someday, and the wooden block didn't feel great in my hand. Those beautiful hand-turned nostepinnes (also spelled nøstepinde or nystepinne) are calling my name. The plastic ball winders just lack flair.



** Sorry for completely ignoring the pattern designer in this imaginary conversation that will never happen. I promise that will I give proper credit in any and all actual convos.

What a failure.

I attempted to donate blood this afternoon. I'm not new to blood donation, I've given well over a gallon at this point. And this drive is held at a very good place to donate. It is in the main club room of a retirement home, and they have sandwiches, and drink choices, and cookies. Lots of them. MUCH better than the paltry generic snack selection and stale coffee at the Red Cross Headquarters. It's truly a class act there.

But today didn't go so well. First, the phlebotomist (blood taker) remarks about how hard it will be to get my vein. Not what a gal wants to hear. She does all the prerequisite steps, the vein marking, double checking that I am still who I was thirty seconds ago, double-swabbing with iodine-laden q-tips, etc. The she opens up the needle and pokes clean through to my elbow. Sorry, I exaggerated. But she did have troubles getting the blood flow to start. So she called a guy over. I remember this guy from before. He had no troubles last time he worked on my arm. But today, he wiggled and prodded without success.

This time, though, no such luck. So they called over the team leader. Her magic worked. Things started to go as planned. I was happy. In case you are wondering, having three people fiddling with a needle in your arm-- not terribly fun. But much less painful than the "Cavitron" the dental hygienist attacked me with last week. With things moving along normally now, I went back to reading my book. A few minutes later, the other team leader approached, thinking things had stalled. He was right. He fixed it (without pain, BTW). I was considering kissing him.

But, alas, it was all for naught. Because of the trauma to the vein, it clotted up prematurely, and they were only able to get 3/4 of a pint. Which means that no sick and or bleeding person will get the benefit of my travails. Instead, it will potentially be given to a company for testing of new blood equipment. I guess it's better than being incinerated.

But my arm hurts. It isn't bruised, though. And it took a lot of time away from my real priority for the evening: winding my new yarn for the Mystery Stole 3 knitalong. I really really want to start the swatch.

Aw look, it's her very first meme

My friend Jo over at Lifewithheathens tagged me with this meme. I've never been tagged before. I know these things are rather lame, but it's still nice to be included. Problem is, I'm not sure I can come up with all the random facts that this one requires. I'll try though.

The rules to play: Players start with 8 random facts about themselves. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

1. I usually hate my hair cut. It seems like no matter what I do, I'm bored with it. My hairdresser (and the one before her) is not to blame-- this is all me. Typically I end up cutting and cutting until I have severely short hair. I'm trying to change that.

2. I'm cheap. But then, anyone who knows me already knows that. I'm hoping that this will translate into me being a financially comfortable senior citizen, but I'll probably still be too miserly to enjoy any wealth that I accumulate.

3. I (and my family) go to church, but I usually disagree with most of what they say. I'm not a very convinced Christian.

4. I prefer plain yogurt with a little honey to the flavored stuff. It's just too darned sweet.

5. I've been knitting a year, and have conquered a bunch of different techniques, but have only finished a handful of projects. Contrary to my expectations, I have become a "process knitter". I really thought I wanted to knit for the sake of producing things. Turns out, I just like the challenge.

6. Also regarding knitting, I shop for yarn a lot. But I don't buy much. See random fact #2 above.

7. I like living in a small town. My 19-year-old self would not believe this about me.

8. This has been really very hard for me. I'm not convinced that I'm very interesting. I'm funny in person, though. Too bad I don't have more IRL friends to entertain.

Whew! That part is over. Now to tag some folks. Unfortunately, most of the people I'd consider have done this very one in the very recent past.

Jennifer seems to be meme free thus far. And I owe it to her, because she and her talk about her love of running even had me running for fun in my dream last night. And that is just. not. acceptable.

Also, Ms. Becky gets tagged, because her blog needs some attention.

I'm still here.

Still knitting, too. Not sure why I haven't posted lately. I'm working on the Luna Moth Shawl from elann.com (I really love free patterns-- who doesn't?)in a vintage fingering weight wool. The color is called "geranium red" but it looks more like dark pink. I like the pink in theory and it is fun to knit with, but I am not sure that my ruddy complexion could handle it. I might end up frogging it and re-knitting the pattern in a more neutral yarn. I hate to waste several hours of work, but then again, I'd hate to knit the whole thing up and then never wear it, either.

Meanwhile, I have signed up to start the Mystery Stole 3 over at Pink Lemon Twist. I bought the pattern for Leda's Dream Stole (Mystery Stole 1) a while back, and swatched for it, but the yarn I used, while beautiful, was too fine. I could use it double-stranded, but then I don't have enough. I'll knit it someday. But for now, I have my hands full. The Mystery Knitalong officially starts the 29th of June. My yarn should be arriving any day now. I wonder if the mailman knows I'm stalking him.

I won't get any knitting in today, I fear. My two-year-old guy has learned how to open every child-proof drawer and cabinet in the house. I need to find new hiding places for the sharpies and scissors and gum. It's going to be a massive undertaking, I fear. I know some of you will be clucking your tongues at this, knowing that I should just teach him to keep his little hands off my stuff. In theory, that would work. It worked for my daughter. I know how the books tell you how to do this parenting thing.

My son has not read those books.

The Sacred and the Profane

Yeah, that's an overstatement, but I've got two pictures to post today, and one is very pretty. The other-- no so much. I'll start with the good one.

This spring, I bought a bunch of bare root plants. I'm actually up to about 50% "promising" with them. I bought 4 astilbe crowns, and planted them this spring, before a nasty nasty cold snap that killed off their new little shoots. Now 3 of the four have finally re-sprouted, although yesterday I saw that one has gone missing. I don't know whether to blame kids or rabbits. I also bought a raspberry bush, which certainly seems to be as dead as a doornail.

I also bought a bare root rose. At out last house, there were three beautiful rose bushes there when we moved in (two dark red and one yellow). Two of the three bushes survived throughout the 7 years we lived there, we lost the yellow one a year after we moved in. I tried planting a few more, but tragedy usually befell them. Once, My toddler daughter fell right onto one, breaking it off at the graft.

But I got courageous this spring and bought one at Menards, a yellow Grandiflora named 'Gold Medal'. I figured it was worth a try here at the new home. I stuck it in the ground (also before that cold snap) and it actually took off! And now I have a single bloom on it. I'm so excited to have a new rose actually living to this point. I have taken way too many pictures of it, as there's a chance that I'll kill it before next spring.

Now to the considerably less pretty. I decided to use up all the wool that I've bought at my local thrift store this year, in a bag to be felted. I'm using a free pattern called the Felted "No Rules" Bag: I love anything without rules. So far, my total yarn cost is $2.05, but the trade off is that there is no pretty in this bag at all. It started out looking like a Green Bay Packers theme, but I did get that under control. No offense to the boys at Lambeau Field, but I'd rather not scream "Packers Fan" at the farmers' market all summer. I suppose if I had spent a wee trifle more time planning it out, it wouldn't be so ugly, but that's all water under the bridge now. I figure it will be a conversation piece. Maybe I'll give it a name like "Ode to Frugality" or "The Go to Hell Bag", so it seems like it was all on purpose. I firmly believe that in this life, you can get away with nearly anything, so long as you act like you know what you are doing.

I'm sorry I've been absent

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, life takes over. But I've been knitting again the last few days, and hope to show off a finished object again in the very near future.

Meanwhile, I had a visitor in my back yard yesterday who was so kind as to stay long enough for me to run in and get my camera. Have I mentioned that I love having a 12x optical zoom on my camera? There's no way my old 4x zoom could have taken this picture.

I know I only have a handful of readers, but are any of you owl experts who can tell me what kind it is? And can I tell from the picture whether my new friend is a boy or a girl? I've not ever seen an owl outside of a nature preserve or zoo, so this is all foreign to me.

My blog as a graph

Look at this. It's my blog, in graph form. I'm lost as to how they do it, but it sure is pretty. You can get one of your own here.

Thrift Store Score!

Lately, my local thrift store's yarn section has been comprised of 3 partial skeins of unidentified acrylic yarn and a handful of bent and/or rusty knitting neeedles. But since I was out for a walk with the kids, I decided to pop in just to see what they had. And who-wee was I glad I did. Someone has recently donated a huge lot of yarn and needles. I bought a bunch, but there are still probably 30 skeins of fingering weight "baby" yarn. Part of me wants to go get that, too, because it's a bargain, you know.
Here's what I got:
11 skeins (80 yds each) of Lily Rug Yarn in Wine.
11 skeins (80 yds each) of Lily Rug Yarn in Cream
1 skein of Lion Brand Wool-Ease, in Forest Green Heather
1 skein of "vintage" Brunswick wool yarn, in olive (they call it "Med Lime" but I've never seen a lime that color)
7 US1 DPNs
3 US2 DPNs
2 US3 DPNs
2 US4 DPNs
1 6" stitch holder



My grand total? $9.12 I love a bargain. Now I just need to find a place for all that yarn. The only thing smaller than my stash is my storage area.

A word of advice...

If you are thinking about buying one of those outdoor tent-canopy dealios that every store has out now, do not buy the inexpensive one from Super "Floor"-Mart. My sister bought one on clearance last fall, when the price had dropped from $100 to $25. Today, in preparation for a garage sale this week, she decided to break it out. What better way to host a sale, then under a canopy, in the shade, drinking iced tea.

However, when we went to put the thing together, the wind caught the canopy, pulling the center pin (the one that holds the entire contraption together) completely out of its socket. Since neither she nor I had a soldering iron handy, I used wire ties to get it mostly back together. We took the canopy back off the frame to avoid future damage,. and might try it again later, on a day with no wind. I hope it works by Thursday, when the sale is set to begin. Sitting in the hot sun, trying to sell used baby clothes and old magazines is NOT my idea of a day well-spent.

In other areas, I've gotten nothing done. The office remains 3/4 painted, half of the impatiens I bought last week remain in their little plastic temporary housing, and I still have not attempted to swatch the Leda's Dream Stole. The dishes aren't done. The garden is not tilled.

But at least the blog is updated, and that's the important thing, right?

A happy accident, or something more sinister??

A while back I made a shrug. Just a simple rectangle in a drop stitch pattern to cover my shoulders when I get chilly in the summer. No big whoop. At first, I made it too small, so I pulled out the cuff and added a couple more inches. Then I plopped it here on my desk to wait for me to bother weaving in the ends. Some time later, I stuck it in the bag that hangs on the back of my office door. The bag has become a holding place for all the bits and pieces that need finishing.

This afternoon, I decided that I ought to finish up said shrug, since it is sometimes chilly in here and I wear a lot of tank tops. But alas, this shrug was just not meant to be.

Somehow a hole got in it. Now I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the perpetrator is one of my offspring. I'm pretty sure my cats are too lazy to bother. If I had loved the thing, I'd be sad. But after trying it on today, it turns out I didn't like it so much.

Adventures in lace and ebay yarn.

I bought this merino lace yarn from Yarn Treehouse on ebay. It is beautiful. But it is so very very fine. At 880 yards per 50g ball, it falls somewhere between 'cobweb' and 'gossamer' on the weight chart. I started swatching with it last night, and it's like knitting with a spider webs. I think I'll try the swatch again tonight with it doubled up. It was actually not as hard to knit something so small as I expected (my previous lace-type knitting has been done with fingering and sport weight yarns), but I'd need much better lighting. Knitting by the light of a little table lamp and the television just doesn't work with this stuff. I'll post pictures when I have something large enough to photograph.

Happy Zone 5a Average Last Frost Date!

No worries about a frost today. It's going to be 85 degrees! I planted a few beans this weekend. I dug out the space by hand, and even built my own tepee. Those better be some good beans, as that was very hard work. They are Chinese Red Noodle beans that a friend sent me. She also sent me some Principe Borghese tomato and Jelly Melon cucumber seeds, but those seedlings aren't ready to be planted outside yet. (I finally looked up pictures of the cucumbers-- they are really scary-looking fruits!). I am so very ready for fresh vegetables: one of the worst things about living in the Midwest is the lack of real tomatoes eleven months of the year.

In the new little plot I created last week, the raspberry bush seems to be dead. I don't know why I even attempt bare-root plants. I have about a 10% success rate with them. I need to go ahead and learn my lesson: it is worth the extra money to buy regular plants. I planted some lettuce and spinach in the same plot. I have a couple dozen little lettuce seedlings out there, but no sign of the spinach. I know you are all on the edge of your seats, waiting for news of my spinach; I promise to keep everyone posted.

In knitting news, I have not picked up needles in three days. (I know!) I plan on making a rectangular lace shawl next, but won't have the yarn for another week at least. I hope it is as pretty in person as it looked online. We don't have a whole lot in the way of local yarn shops here, so I am learning the "joys" of internet yarn shopping. One of those joys is not knowing if the seller's photo accurately shows the color of the yarn. Oh, the drama!

And now for a joke. My mother sends me jokes in her regular emails, and I admit to not reading the long ones. But this one was short, funny, and knit-related. So here it is:

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER! "

"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"

What is going on here?

First, it was the horrible burned thumb and fingers. Then the other thumb got slammed in a door. Then I reached into the dishwasher and bruised thumb took a fork up under the fingernail. (I really understand why torturers used to do the thing with the bamboo under the nails. yeeowch!) The other day, while trying to reach a water bottle on the top cupboard shelf, I managed to fling the other cupboard door open onto my cheekbone, leaving a cheek bruise. (luckily it is more pain than visible bruise, so no one has called the domestic abuse line on my behalf yet).

Then last night, my son decided to hop into my lap just as I was sitting down. His head and my nose made contact. The crack sound was sickening. DH heard it from across the room. Yes, my 2.5 year old broke my nose. I felt like Marcia Brady, with my hand over my nose, doubled over in pain. There is a huge red spot on the bridge of my nose and some swelling. Thankfully, the break is pretty minor and my eyes aren't blackened, but the usually dark circles are a little darker than usual today. And it farking hurts. I took some tylenol, but it didn't help even a little. every time I try to blow my nose (which is a lot during allergy season), or scratch an itch, or even bend down, it hurts. And the pain is referred to my forehead and teeth.

What the hell is wrong with me? Why is it that nearly every day some harm befalls my body? is the Universe pissed at me? What did I ever do to deserve all this??????



And to add insult to injury, we later watched Celebrity Fit Club, on which Maureen McCormick is a participant. And they showed the "Ow my nose!" clip. DH laughed out loud. At least I don't look as bad as she did after her football incident.

An FO and a new bed

I've finished the little scarf that I started a few weeks ago. I made it long enough to tie at the back of my head instead of being just a headband. In fact, if push came to shove, I could use it as a belt. I might have gotten a little carried away. It's made from Omega Sinfonia cotton from Hobby Lobby. Since my previous cotton knitting experiences were all with dishcloth cotton, this sport weight mercerized cotton was really nice. But I do wish it were a little narrower.


In outdoor news, I created a new flower bed yesterday. This had previously been a weedy patch of weeds, with weeds growing all over it. But now, after a whole bunch of time getting my fingers dirty, it is home to a new raspberry bush, and some spinach and lettuce. I 'm thinking about extending it along the fence and putting in a bunch of asparagus and rhubarb. I still need to figure out how to edge it. I don't like those little plastic flower bed edge thingys, but I need to do something to keep the weeds (and my husband's lawnmower) out of there. My poor trillium were decapitated last weekend in a horrible lawnmower accident. I'm still not over it.

Some giant yew bushes to the left of the picture will be removed in the next few weeks, thus allowing much more sunlight to the area. That is going to be a humongous task. But the bushes are huge, and serve no purpose except to steal valuable sunny real estate in my mostly shady property.

Fong f- fong fong fong!

I just knit a fong, a 'socklet' with a thong strap, to facilitate wearing flip flops without injury. I learned of this pattern on Knitty's Message board, and knew immediately that my skinny, flip-flop-averse feet needed a pair. So I got to work. Since I've yet to knit a pair of socks (although it's on my to-do list), I have no stash of sock yarn. I'd heard a rumor that Lion Brand Microspun might work, so I tried it. (Anything to save a trip to the yarn store with two kids in tow, right?) I made a few tweaks to the pattern (some suggested in the original pattern's comments, and a few of my own), and even figured out kitchener stitch. Here is how I did it:

* I cast on 42 stitches in Microspun, size 3 needles. (I know that 42 is not the right number for a pattern containing k2p2 rib, but there was beer involved during this knitting session.) 42 is still too big, however, so I'll re-make them with 38 stitches (my feet really are that skinny!).
* I used k2p2 rib on this, but in my remake, I'll probably go with k1p1, mostly for aesthetic reasons.
* I used reverse stockinette for the little thong part, and really like that. I got the idea from the comments section on the original pattern.

I have only made one so far, though; it's a little big, so I'll make a smaller pair. But the idea translates to a real, usable product, and I'll be able to purchase thong sandals for this summer without the fear of them flying off my feet when I dare to walk a pace quicker than "chain gang shuffle." Here's my bony foot and its need for a fresh pedicure.



P.S. I now have that horrible Cisqo song stuck in my head.

Fear me, thrift store sweaters!

I'm on an unraveling rampage. Really, I'm too cheap to buy really great yarn. The idea of spending a hundred buckaroos on one garment's worth of yarn just boggles my mind. But for just a couple of bucks and a whole bunch of time and work, I can have heaps of good wool at my disposal. I have started with a men's XL sweater. It's a pretty heathered dark green.

The yarn seems to be completely untwisted when I frog it, which makes it fairly weak. I hope it is all worth it. According to my (rather inexact calculations, I have about 300 yards from just the left sleeve.

I'll probably go find a scale after I frog the whole thing to really figure out how much I have here. This had better be worth it. It's sorta a lot of work.

****
In other news, I really need to get better at photographing this stuff. It's maddening to have a hundred pictures of project that don't end up resembling the real thing. I've vowed to get better at it. And to create a picture-taking space on my front porch. It has windows on three sides and gets great morning sun. So expect upcoming yarn pr0n from me.

But don't hold your breath for it. I'm a horrible procrastinator.

The Song of the Lace Siren

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a lace person. I have never been a lace person. Nor have I even been a fan of pink. Or ruffles. Or overly feminine clothing. So why have I become obsessed with knitted lace? And dream of making something like the Pacific Northwest Shawl or Scheherazade?

I spend too much time browsing the internet, looking at the beautiful shawls women have made for themselves, wondering if I could possibly master the art of knitting laceweight yarn in a huge complicated pattern. And could I master knitting from a chart? In my first attempts at chart-reading, I kept getting confused and knitting random rows backward. Have I mentioned that my fingers have a tendency to knit willy nilly, not paying attention to pattern or number of rows? (I'm working on that, though).

Whatever the reason, I keep imagining myself with a huge beautiful shawl wrapped around me, looking horribly elegant in spite of my my t-shirt and jeans. I don't know, but it is a strong pull. I just need to practice a little more before I go tackling the Peacock Feathers Shawl.

In the meantime, I'm practicing on sport weight yarn and a small pattern. This is the Kendal insertion, and I plan to make it long enough to tie back my ever-longer hair. It's not perfect, but it is progress.



P.S. I also need to learn the art of photographing lace. I promise to get good at that soon, too.

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.

A few pictures

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make fingerless mitts. I've posted about it, but never got around to showing off the finished product. I'm still in need of a better pattern, though. I have oddly skinny hands, and the pattern as written was just not right for me. I am wearing these all the time, even though they are too short to keep my wrists warm. I tried to take pictures of me wearing them, but I have yet to master the art of photographing my own hands.


Then I started making a Mr. Dangly monkey for my daughter. The pattern calls for it to be knitted flat, then seamed, but I hate seaming. And I am bad at it. So I broke out the teeny DPN's and some Caron Simply Soft yarn, and went to town. I wanted it to be washable, thus the acrylic yarn. This stuff splits like there's no tomorrow. It is soft, but NOT enjoyable to work with. So Mr. Dangly remains a one-armed, legless deaf monkey. Poor little guy.

While avoiding the aforementioned critter, my friend Becky showed me the current object of her affection, the Lady Eleanor stole. Of course I got all obsessed over it as well. With the leftover yarn from the mitts project, I decided to try my hand at entrelac. It is seriously addictive. I love things that are easy, but look impressive. Yes, my life (and hobbies) are all smoke and mirrors.

I've managed a few rows of the entrelac, so I think I'm ready to tackle a real project. I'll probably go with something a little smaller (and something that doesn't sing out for such expensive yarn-- I'm cheap like that). I'm leaning towards the Danica scarf from Knitty. We'll see what happens.

That's all for now. Forthcoming is the story of the Great Homebrewing Debacle of '07. Let's just say that Duct Tape really can fix anything.

Hey look-- I'm spamming on my blog!

1920's Coats O.N.T. Designs crochet pattern books for sale. These are great books that my mother bought at an estate auction. They are so cool that I am loathe to get rid of them. But I cannot crochet, so they have no purpose here. Except to make me tense that my kids will decide to color them. or tear them page from beautiful antique page. eek!

I am sending a portion of all of these sales to Doctors Without Borders, as part of my commitment to Knitters Without Borders. Unfortunately, I have to manually donate the sales of most of these books, due to ebay/missionfish minimums. Y'all will have to trust me that at least 20% of everything fiber-arts related will be sent off to charity.

In addition, I have a bunch of old embroidery transfers that I need to sell, and my mother informs me that she has a collection of tatting books, also destined for ebay. Those will also benefit Doctors Without Borders, too.

I think I'm ready to start a new house project.

After several months and the holidays, I'm finally ready to start on a new house project. I don't know which one yet, but I have lots from which to choose. I'd really like to do the living room next, but it's a ginormous job, including skim-coating the current plaster, then wallpapering or painting. Floor also needs to be redone. Previous owners decided to glue down construction-grade plywood, paint it to look something like red linoleum, and call it a floor. I guess it is a floor, as I can walk on it, and it keeps the furniture out of the crawlspace below. But it is very very not pretty.

Or I can work on my office. The walls are currently white, formerly covered in dark blue wallpaper. The walls and trim need to be painted. I bought paint for this room (oops paint, of course) over a year ago, and it is sitting in the basement, waiting patiently.

I have the stairs to do as well. I ripped out the hideous carpet, but they look heinous now. They need the remaining finish stripped off, then re-painted and shellacked. As much as I would love to tackle that next, it's a open-window-season sort of dealio. Shellac is seriously stinky until it dries. If I want to be loopy, I'll drink heavily. Inhaling denatured alcohol fumes just isn't my bag.

The upstairs bathroom is also on the list, but no one sees it but me, so it's low-priority. It's a really small room, though, so it might not take too much to finish. The kitchen is a project still too large for me fathom. So it waits until summer at least.

So that's it for now. Just wanted to update y'all on my thought process. I hope to update soon with new progress pics.

I've been busy.

In the last weeks, I've managed to make a bunch more dishcloths (I really needed some. My drawer was looking pretty bare), a roll-brim hat that makes me look bald (although it is really cute on my daughter) and started on a pair of fingerless mitts. I'm participating in a rather informal KAL on Sewingmamas.com. I started them on New Year's eve, but after knitting up about half of the first one, it was obviously way too big for my puny wrists and hands. So I frogged it and started over with sz 5 needles. I think they will fit this time. I really love the yarn I'm using. I'm not a fan of variegated yarns as a rule, but Paton's Merino in "majesty" is really pretty. I tried taking a picture today, but with three needles, two markers and a stitch holder in there, it just looked like a blob of yarn. I hope to get a good picture of a finished mitt in the next few days.

Update on stuff

First, I finished the December Dishcloth Knit-a-long. I think it's pretty cute, albeit difficult to photograph. It's a rocking horse in case you cannot see. I still need to weave in the ends. It's been waiting for me for 3 days now. I even procrastinate on the little stuff!


After I finished that, I decided to give DPNs a shot. So I cast on a few stitches, and it worked! As a mostly solitary knitter who has learned from Knittinghelp.com and books, I'm pretty proud of myself. So I'm showing the fruits of my experimental labor to you.

I eventually practised decreasing on it, until it looked like the receptacle end of a condom. oops. My 4-year-old said it looks like a bell. We're going to go with that. yeah-- a bell.

I started a hat last night. Not enough progress to show yet. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to show that off. It took me hours to find a hat pattern I liked that was within my skill set. There are a dizzying number of patterns on the internet. yeesh!

I cannot bring myself to scrub stuff with it.

I finished my first dishcloth. I'm happy with my first foray into the world of useful knitting. I have come to the conclusion, however, that I really don't like variegated yarn. I always thought I didn't like it, but now I know so. Maybe something more subtle would be better. But I digress.

Back to the issue at hand. I have grown an odd connection to my creation, and cannot bring myself to stick it in the dish towel drawer. I'm sure I'll get over that eventually, but for now, I just keep moving it from counter to table and then back again, keeping it from getting dirty. I'm such a dork sometimes.


Anyway, I've started on a new cloth with a star pattern in the middle. I'm hoping it will be Christmassey and and pretty enough to give as a gift.

Um, I think I might be addicted

During my hiatus from major home projects, I've decided to start knitting. I started to learn last winter, but never really got the hang of it. I tried it again a few weeks ago, and now I'm rather obsessed. I have always fancied myself a seamstress, but with two kids and a sewing room in the basement (the kids are on the main floor, tee hee), I never get anything sewn. Knitting is much more portable, and easier to start and stop in ten-minute intervals. A necessity in this household.

I started my first dishcloth yesterday. It will have the Om symbol in it, provided I follow the pattern properly. I'm making it out of Walmart cotton yarn, but it probably should probably be made of natural colored organic cotton. I'll work on that for the next time. You can find the pattern here if you are feeling the need for more connection with the Universe whilst scrubbing the dinner dishes.

Taking a break

I'm absolutely burned out on house stuff right now. So I'm taking a break from big projects until after Christmas. Now if I could just get to cleaning the house and hanging stuff on the walls, we'd be all set.

I'm itching to see what this place looks like with holiday decorations on it. We didn't decorate last year, because we had just moved in, and all the boxes were sucking up my holiday spirit. But this year? watch out. I plan on putting every decoration I own out, and then buying new stuff just for this house. Funny thing is, I'm not really into the holiday of Christmas. But stringing lights and greens in the house for the winter make me all giddy inside. If I didn't have 2 kids and 2 cats, I'd put up 2 trees, each decorated with a different theme. Maybe one Christmas and one Yule. But I'm not sure how I'm going to keep the one from being destroyed, so the dream will have to wait a few years.

The waiting game for decorationing is killing me right now. (I'd look crazy if I started now, and I am trying to keep my nuttiness from public view.) But in less than 2 weeks, be prepared for pictures. I have a 1gb memory card for my camera, and I'm not afraid to use it!

The Floor is done!!!

I was beginning to feel like we'd never be able to set aside a weekend to sand and shellac the family room floor. But I whined to my husband enough that we managed to clear our schedules and rent the sanders to work on it. Refinishing is not fun. But it is so very nice to move the furniture back into a room after so long. I might not have felt that same elation if we had gone from project conception to completion in 3 days. (Okay, I might be rationalizing a little here. I'm pretty good with the rationalizations-- I like to stay with my strengths).

Here's the floor before we started the sanding. I had stripped most of the old carpet adhesive off the floor prior to this weekend, as I really didn't want anyone breathing 20-yr-old adhesive dust. I'm glad I did that step. Even so, it was a giant mess. Our shop vac got a real workout. Thank the heavens for 3 mil. plastic and tape. At least I was able to spare the rest of the house from the dust by sealing off the doorways.


This is my husband, doing the first pass with the sander. We started with a 45-degree angle, as the boards were cupped in spots. Not too bad, though, considering the floor spent its first few years as a porch (we think). It was clear, however that there was never any varnish on this floor. No one gots pictures of me working the edge sander or the belt sander ot the sanding block-on-a-pole, but I did lots of sanding too. We were both thoroughly sore after all that.


After all the sanding was done, there were still several dark spots and stains. I assume those were courtesy of the pets who have called this place home over the years. I tried bleaching one of the spots, but it was pretty obvious that the stains weren't going to go without a hell of a fight. So we decided to call them "provenance" and leave them. The room will be filled with furniture anyway -- so we'll just plop things on top of the worst spots. I like to cheat like that.


And here is the "after" shot. We covered it with 2 coats of 2-lb. cut of amber shellac, then a third coat of 3-lb. clear. I am in love with the color that the shellac gave the pine.


Why shellac you ask? Well, I didn't want to use polyurethane--it's too toxic, and I also wanted something renewable. So, inspired by This Old Crackhouse and Life in the Prairie Box, I decided to give it a whirl. I'm rather in love with it. I hope it is durable enough for our family. It's a pretty "rustic" floor, so absolute perfection isn't really expected (or needed, either).

I learned lots of things about floors and floor machines and shellac through this process. I'll try to get to those lessons very soon. Right now, I need to go move everything backinto the room. Our reupholstered furniture is coming home on Thursday, so I have lots to do to be ready.

Next step, window treatments

I finally finished the wallpaper in the dining room, but now am stuck for curtain ideas. The window seat will be recovered with a coordinating fabric in the very near future.
It's a South-facing window, so I probably need some way to block sunlight in the afternoons, but in general I prefer to let the light stream in as much as possible. I am not a fan of miniblinds (is anyone actually fond of them, I wonder), but they do seem to be the most readily available these days. I love the look of the bamboo matchstick blinds, but in my experience they still let a lot of eye-blinding light through on super-sunny winter afternoons. I'm toying with the idea of a valance and cafe curtains, but maybe full-length sheers might be nice too. Too many options, and I'm horribly picky. If you are reading this and have an idea, please let me hear it!

My name is Robin, and I am addicted to

mistinted paint. I just love that table piled with cans of "oops" paint that employees screwed up, or that customers did not want. I have a basement full of it. Sure I have projects lined up for almost all of it, but who know when I'll get to any of those.

But I can really justify yesterday's score. I found a gallon of exterior house and trim paint that is almost exactly my planned color for my front door. For $5, I coudn't not buy it, right? It's a good thing that I was still carrying around that batch of paint chips in my purse, huh? (My messy purse is a topic for another time and blog.) I might not got to the door until spring, but I am ready for the task when the mood strikes me.