More destruction and rebuilding

While I was appreciating the carpet removal, the remodeling gods were planning new challenges.

The carpet was hardly picked up off the curb, when DD started removing pine paneling next to the basement stairs. She was so quick at wood removal that the contractor decided to take out the steps that day. End of the day, we had no access to the basement, where the computers are, as well as part of my rabbit pattern. DD wrote a blog post with photos. I was at work!

The next day was devoted to building a new set of stairs. I worked all morning, deadlines to meet on Friday. She has a blog post about this day too! "How to replace stairs in three easy steps." She now has a few new skills and has decided that her basement stairs don't need replacing right now. The new stairs are much more sturdy than the originals, which lasted 90 years.

This week's knitting challenge is the guild toy competition. Did I say that I'm knitting a rabbit?
I got to the point where I needed the pattern for the inner ears and the pattern was still out of reach. I had scheduled overalls knitting for Saturday and assembly for Sunday. The straps for the overalls were not finished until Sunday afternoon, but assembly went quickly. All I needed was a quick trip to work for the two buttons on the straps.

I won first prize in the guild competition in the completely knitted toy category. We also had categories for bought toy, knitted clothes and a new category for other charity knitting. Usually I end up with an honorable mention. This is the first time I have won.

Next deadline is Saturday of this week, when I need a pair of socks for someone turning 50. I hope DSIL likes black socks. That's the color for Solid socks this month. I've designed these, but kept the pattern simple, black is hard to work in pattern. At this point, one sock is finished and work progresses on the leg of the second.

DGS William is also celebrating his birthday this weekend, but there is no way I'll be able to get his gift done. Discussion with his Mom resulted in a two family get together after the sweater is done. I have a pattern for a cardigan with trucks on it. I've put together the yarn kit, and read and reread the pattern. I might start the ribbing tonight. We watch tv in the bedroom before bed, and the light is not as good up there for patterned sock knitting in black yarn.

Green Socks finished and gifted

I seem to have gotten myself into a period of deadline knitting this month. Lack of planning ahead, I guess. The green socks are finished and have been given. They were completed with 24 hrs to spare. The pattern is written and up on Ravelry. With an easy stitch pattern it went quickly. An unpatterned foot helps with speed also.

I named them Turtle toes, not terrible original, but the yarn color was Turtle multi. There is some interesting pooling going on in the one sock, but it will be inside a shoe, so the two feet don't have to match.

I've started the next challenge, another pair of man's socks to be given on July 16. Again, a simple pattern, but the black yarn complicates things a little. I had the yarn and black is one of the choices for the Ravelry Solid Socks group. This month' there are 3 choices, black, white, or gray. Next time I buy sock yarn, I need to remember that gift socks will be machine washed and dried. Better to avoid accidents in the manufacture.

The bunny has more parts, but no photo yet. I want to knit all the pieces before stuffing, so that I can weigh them and subtract that weight from my spreadsheet. I need the rabbit by the 11th for our guild meeting. All other knitting projects are on hold, except for these two.

On the remodeling front, DD continues to tear apart out house in the name of progress. An electrician should be coming in the next week to rewire the rest of our house. that's two floors and the basement. One outlet per room is really not enough these days, although when the house was built in 1921, I'm sure that it was plenty. Various workarounds have been used throughout the years, but this time a professional has been called and will bring us up to current code. This requires pulling the baseboards, so he can channel the new wires behind them. We have a stack of numbered baseboards, and the pile will get bigger as more rooms are involved.

Today she pulled up the last of the carpet on the second floor. We have hardwood floors underneath, although they need refinishing. That is not on our to do list for now. We moved furniture, disassembled the bed, made a mess, and got it cleaned up. Carpet was tossed off our upstairs back porch before being hauled to the curb for garbage pickup tomorrow morning. I continue to be surprised at the things we have saved over the years. Not that we saved them, but the fact that there is so much that we don't remember having. It gets easier and easier to purge.