I caved

On June 6, I finally started a sweater called Cables After Whiskey designed by Lucy Neatby. I had swatched previously, using a smaller needle that I thought was appropriate for the yarn. Knit, knit, knit. After about 7" I measured the width of the sweater. Not good. It was smaller than needed. This sweater has a lot of cables. Cables pull in. The swatch did not have so many cables. Rip, rip, rip.

Last week I recalculated how many stitches I needed for the desired width. I thought I had many more stitches than the pattern, but I had missed the drastic increase in stitch count after the ribbing. My ribbing is closer to the width of the body. Again, I knit about 7". I decided to check yarn quantity. I'm making my sweater a little smaller, since oversize is what I am, not what I want in a sweater. The pattern calls for 1000 gm of yarn, I have 750 gm! Rip, rip, rip.

Version #3 - I'm using the needle size recommended in the pattern. I'm liking the fabric I'm making. Size medium calls for 800 gm of yarn, but I'm shortening the sweater by 7". Again, I'm making a loose lower ribbing, casting on 1 stitch less than required for the body. This will make a nice seam in the ribbing. I added the last stitch just before the body. I should have a nice loose sport weight sweater in my size.

Remodeling
We have new lights in the kitchen! We need a new ceiling before the fan light goes up (where the hanging light is). We still have some knob and tube wiring, mostly in overhead lights. It will be carrying much less of a load now, and all the outlets are grounded except one. The contractor has been called for an estimate on the ceiling. This is not a job we want to do in house. A number of outlets on the first floor are not connected, but will be on the next electrician visit. We'll also get smoke detectors wired into our hallway. We'll need to put battery operated ones in the bedrooms. Too much work to wire them in.

We also got the basement stairs painted with the first coat of paint. Progress is being made!

Remodel week 2

We are still living with many rooms looking like this. Everything has been moved to the center of the room and all baseboards have been removed. Things are looking up, because there are new outlets on this floor and almost all outlets are grounded. The one that is not is in the center hall and the wires run between sets of stairs.

The old outlets come through the baseboards and the new ones are above them, but the wires run through the wall studs.

I made a Home Depot run this morning to return all the little things that were piling up unused, broken, not needed. $119.00 worth. I was able to get the last of the light bulbs needed for the kitchen and a couple of other things. When I got home, I had to go back and get some pieces needed to hang the can lights in the kitchen. We're now down to $71.00 on the card.

The kitchen looked like this at lunch time. Every flat surface is covered, to say nothing of debris on the floor, the ladder in front of the stove etc. Lunch came from Wendy's and was eaten on the back porch table.

I can't even wash clothes, because the washer is next to the breaker boxes and is being used as a table ( the top is flat when closed and has circuit breakers and tool on it). I still need to vacuum ceiling debris out of the tub, so I don't ruin the pump. It took a few days to find and recover DH's small shop vac for the job. That is now sitting next to the washer. There are some advantages to having a lot of clothes, but the underwear supply is running low. I'll vacuum when the electrician leaves.

Did I show you what I made last week? It's a harem outfit for a 1 yr old baby. Grandma paid for it. It must be a first grandchild to make all that fuss. They had a big party in their back yard. I could see the tent and some of the decorations on my morning dog walk.

Knitting is progressing, of course. One project is a birthday gift for someone who reads this blog, so no pictures of that one. I don't have a good picture yet anyway, so my Ravelry project page is blank. That doesn't happen very often. I'll be taking project and camera outside shortly.

My other project is a sweater for me. I haven't done a pullover in quite a while. The pattern is by Lucy Neatby, called Cables After Whiskey. It comes with 3 pages of random numbers. All cables are 4 x 4. For certain numbers, you cable to the front. For others, you cable to the back. Some numbers are ignored, and some mean to knit 4 stitches. I've found that it is important to keep the columns of 4 stitches lined up. Other than that, mistakes don't matter. I've started calling it my Tree Bark sweater.

August means count fairs. I judged knitting etc. at one fair Sunday. The other judging is at the end of the month, since the fair runs over Labor Day weekend.

Resurfacing from the mess

It's still going on, but temporarily, I have full computer access. We now have a wireless LAN, so i can use my laptop anywhere in the house, but my passwords are stored on the desktop. Ravelry doesn't work right on the laptop, through Internet Explorer. The desktop uses Firefox, so I've been frustrated with no desktop. I mainly use the laptop at work, where I don't need the internet, so that's a temporary problem.

We're getting our wiring updated, which required ceiling removal in the basement and the kitchen. Both ceilings were damaged already. Plumbing leaks etc.

The kitchen is a little dark with only 2 light bulbs, but we're coping.

The basement was well lighted, but will be less so for now. Hanging wires have disappeared, leaving 3 1st floor outlets unpowered. The main room has 5 new lights, including one at the base of the stairs. We missed that one when it went away for a couple of days. We also have new outlets on all the walls where there were none before.

The utility room had 2 small florescent fixtures and a couple of other bulbs. Now the laundry area is quite bright and the dark corners are lit. Part of the old lighting had to work around 2 large boilers original to the house. We now have one small one, so more empty space.

The electrician will be back next week to update the 1st and 2nd floors.

Meanwhile, I've been knitting. I've finished the truck sweater for WB, but the family is on vacation. I watched the Tour de France bicycle race for 3 weeks. Fascinating! At the end of the race, the sweater looked like this, body finished sleeves started, still in need of neck and front ribbing.

This is the finished back, with trucks going in both directions. On the front, they all go to the center. I lengthened the body because WB has a long torso, and lengthened the sleeves, because it adds to the wearing life. The pattern is one by Ann Norling.

I did finish the Milestone socks for his Dad in time for the party, a 50th birthday bash. They won't be worn until winter.

I'm working on socks for big foot now, with a delivery date of about 8/17 in Florida. He really appreciates the socks and wears them to death, so more are always welcome. This time I used colorwork to stretch the yarn to fit the feet. I have a couple of yards left from sock #1. Size 14 wide feet use more than 100 gm of sock yarn!