Friday, December 31, 2010

We have wallpaper

The remodeling continues. DD JC and I have been wallpapering the bathroom this week. It was renovated 5-6 years ago and left with unfinished wallboard. She has been mudding and sanding, then priming for a couple of weeks. She works 3 days a week most weeks and 4-5 hours a day on this job. This is the same daughter who helped finish the 3rd floor, where my yarn room resides. She and her son also smashed the old laundry tubs, so a new one could be installed.

Because the little wood shelf divides one wall, the bottom of the room has different paper. We still need to add a border below the line of the shelf and at the ceiling. It will be cut from the stripe paper. There is lots of paper cut to a reasonable length, since I managed to miscut one section twice, by starting the repeat at the wrong spot. The shelf section doesn't need a border, but the rest of the room does, so it will all be bordered. The ceiling almost escaped getting a border, but there is a 1/2" gap at one section, so a border there too.

Later in the day - we are finished with the wallpaper. We have borders top and bottom, cut from the stripe paper. Borders are much easier to do that sheets of paper. After lunch, and the Home Depot run for caulk. The tub surround will be recaulked.

I bought a new wastebasket and bowl brush because the fish set I have doesn't go with the new room. I probably will make the new shower curtain. I use a fabric liner, so that will serve until we get the new curtain. A wallpaper sample will go to the store with me for color matching. I also need to replace the rug, x2, so I can wash one. At least the towels go with the new colors.Towel rods go up later today. One was up, but got knocked down in the sanding/mudding stage. The room is not done, but it looks better every day. This was one of the rooms that had not been fixed up since we bought the house. The plumbing/fixture part was done because of leaks.

Knitting News
I finished the Legacy socks. I'm not sure if I will write the pattern. The leg looks baggy at the ankle. They will be a January birthday gift.

Another pair of socks is on the needles
for a February birthday. The pattern is Drip Candles from the XRX book Think Outside the Sox. This is another leftovers pair. The pattern calls for 3 colors, but the prototype was done with 8. Colors are used 2 at a time, changing every 8 rows. It's a fair isle pattern with alternating stitches, no long floats, so not only is it easy to do, mistakes don't show.

Remember that stack of flannel? I have one more pair of pants to sew. They are cut out, so I have only about 1/2 hour of work left. Gift giving is Sunday. While my shop has been closed, I have continued the dry cleaner work. Every day I do the alterations and work on flannel pants. Total time in shop about 1 hour.

One pair of comfy pants was made and mailed before the photo. Two more pairs are going out today. Three pairs will be given on Sunday. It's been a relaxing holiday season with the gift part delayed so long. I've put in plenty of work on the house, so going back to the shop will be easier on the body.

Only one more thing on my vacation to do list, make Lasagna. It's one of DH's favorite dishes and hard to do when working. Of course, the left overs will go in the freezer with the stuffed peppers, stuffed cabbage, and many soups.

We had an easy soup today, Gift in a Jar Potato Soup. I made a kit yesterday, filling the jar with instant mashed potatoes, powdered creamer and a few other things. Today I made 8 cups of boiling water and poured in the mix. Five minutes or less and it's ready to eat. I may have to use that as a gift again this year. We all have days when it's nice to have an instant meal on the shelf, or in the freezer in my case. Just remember to get it out in time for thawing.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

My yarn room is still a mess

I keep finding more yarn. I'm off work until Jan. 3, so I should be able to make more progress. This room is part of out third floor, which has been in an uproar for about 2 1/2 years. It's along story! I've cleaned up the table by the window with the swift and ball winder on it, but it doesn't show in the photo. Many of the plastic drawers have space, but everything needs an inventory card so I can find it again.

Much of the extra yarn was in the house, but not in the inventories before the remodeling mess. Everything was so hard to access that no inventory updating was done. The computer spread sheet was kept up to date, but not the index cards with the yarn snippets. The cardboard boxes hold cone yarn. I need to clear the floor, so I can bring in one more table and two more knitting machines. The table you can see will hold one machine, which is hiding in the dormer.

I still need to bring sock yarn upstairs, after I install the knitting machine on that wooden table. There are shelves in the dormer which will hold the sock yarn boxes. Sock yarn does not have inventory cards, but it has always been kept together in one area of the house. (maybe someday).

Here are my latest socks. They are my own design, to be made available soon. The impetus was a SKA challenge to use left over sock yarn. The base yarn is Plymouth Happy Feet left from 3 skeins I originally had. I made a pair of fair isle socks for the yarn company called Rows of Hearts. I had 60 gm left over, not enough for a pair of socks by itself. The blue is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Jeans color and the brown/gray is the same yarn in Mineshaft color.

I started with a Barbara Walker pattern from her second Treasury, called Paving Stones. (I just called that treasury the "sockend" one). I'm calling the pattern Legacy. It reminded me of engraved paving stones seen in many places. It's alsdo a legacy from socks past. This pair will be given as a January birthday present.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

It's almost Christmas

Luckily, I won't celebrate with family until a week later. Out of town presents are mailed, except for the one that the post office couldn't find to pick up. I've rescheduled and will call the post office early in the morning to complain.

The second pair of mittens is finished. No more Christmas knitting. I do have some sewing to do. Saturday was an 18th birthday party and I asked my DIL for gift ideas. She wants jammy pants. I had forgotten about that idea. Sunday saw me at the fabric store buying flannel for most of the rest of the giftees. Some young men are getting $$. This is the pile that I still need to sew up. One pair is finished and I should get a couple more done tomorrow. They take about 1 hour each.

I finished the Advent socks. they are knit from Knit Picks yarn. I'll see how they wear. They sure are soft and the yarn is not expensive. Even at noon, we don't have much sun these days. The detail shows if you embiggen the picture. The foot has decreases on the top and increases on the sole. the heel is very interesting too. I may make these socks again.

I finally started the December sock challenge. I chose the left overs option, designing my own socks. Unlike my previous left overs socks, these are very subtle. I should be able to finish the leg with the colors shown. I planned for the foot to be plain. These are for a January birthday, so I have plenty of time.

Friday, December 17, 2010

"Tis the knit before Christmas

The Advent socks are almost finished. I caught up yesterday, just in time for the last clue. They looked like this at the end of clue #1. The yarn is stuffed inside the leg. I gave up on two at a time after the heel. There was decreasing on the top of the foot and increasing on the bottom and it was too much trouble to move stitches. I had enough circulars to use two for each sock. I have really enjoyed the Advent calendar connected with the socks. Today's video was a Muppet clip about the Ghost of Christmas present, in German and English. I don't think you can lip read Muppets, so it worked very well in both languages. The voice sounded the same, singing the song.

Part of Christmas will be mittens for grandkids. In the process of organizing the third floor, I found a pair of mittens that I had test knit. They are purple with a pink design, perfect for a 6 yr old girl. Her older brother will get these mittens. Younger brother will get mittens with snow men on them. I have 1 1/2 mittens knit, so I'll probably embroider the snowmen tomorrow. All the mittens are worsted weight wool, my favorite mitten fiber.

Tonight we're going to hear Apollo's Fire play Handel's Messiah. That's my birthday present for this year. We've heard them before, and they are one of my customers.

Monday, December 6, 2010

I feel so dumb!

In the last post, I talked about a missing hank of yarn, that I had spent a good part of 2 weeks looking for. IT DOESN'T EXIST! Today, I checked my yarn inventory, and it isn't listed. It looked very much like the yarn I just finished knitting socks from, except it was a different brand. It doesn't exist in my house.

The socks look like this! This yarn is Hand Maiden Casbah Sock, knit mostly on US #1/2.5mm needles. The pattern is a mystery pattern by Lisa Stichweh.

The next socks are started, by Stephanie van der Linden. These are advent socks, with the pattern being available in pieces, only on the weekends. I'm trying to knit them two at a time, being one of the techniques that I have not tried yet.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Advent Week #1

Well, I'm back at work, for better or worse. some days are really interesting, and some days I mostly baby sit the shop. I get more knitting done when babysitting. The wedding/cotillion dress is finished. I just had the hem to do. I did some pieces for a KISS tribute band that is redoing their costumes. I did a lot of boring hems. Saturday was a babysitting day. There were only 2 sales, resulting in me needing to sew on about 20 buttons.

The black socks are finished. I still need to do the pattern. The red mystery socks are almost finished. No new pictures at this point. Next up in the knitting queue are mittens for two of the smaller grandkids, and another mystery sock. Stephanie van der Linden had an Advent calender up on Ravelry. In addition to a u-tube video for each day, she started a mystery sock pattern on the first weekend of Advent. I had the perfect red yarn, which qualified under two categories in the Solid Socks group. It doesn't want to be those socks! It is hiding! I have been looking for about 2 weeks, and I cant find it. I got it out of storage, but didn't wind it into a ball. The socks will be knit from another red yarn.

Remodeling is moving slowly. Walls have been mudded and sanded again. The bathroom may be ready for priming. Today our son and one of his daughters came to plumb the new basement sink. Pipes for the washer were shortened. Pipes for the new faucet were shortened. It only took one trip to Home Depot for the new faucet with feed from the top. We have heat return pipes lower on the wall, seen just below the edge of the sink. Yes, the wall is still ugly. I've requested fixing and paint, but I'm not the one doing the work.