Once Upon a Time...

DH decided to remodel/insulate the third floor of our house. Actually he paid for it to be done. All plaster was removed, the walls and ceilings were insulated, new windows installed, plasterboard put up and DH was going to finish the job. View 1 shows step #1 of the reconstruction. There are no windows in the far wall yet.

Step #2 shows plaster board and a new window, looking from the doorway with the blue door.

Fast forward 2 1/2 years, with all the items previously stored on this floor, still in our living room and dining room. One daughter lost her job. She has 2 young adult sons. They were hired to help finish the job. Air force Grandson is now in Germany, but Mom and other grandson have been working. The walls, ceiling, and woodwork have been painted in both rooms. Lauan sub floor has been laid in both rooms, and one room is tiled, including the dormer and closet. There may be a light at the end of the tunnel.

A plumber came this week to put a new faucet on the bath tub and add shut offs to the pipes. I'll show photos when more happens in that room.

On the sock knitting front there also was progress. I finished the socks for DH, using contrast yarn for the toes. It takes a lot of yarn to cover his feet. The pattern is called Train to Brighton by Janine Le Cras. I tried to enter them in the Ravelry Solid socks group, but the yarn striped, so they don't qualify. The yarn is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock, a lovely yarn.

The black socks are also finished. They will be a birthday present later this fall. Cookie A designed these for her mother in law and they are called Glynis in her Sock Innovations book. Much as I like black socks, they are a pain to knit without good lighting. The Ravelry SKA group challenge was to knit with black or white or both, no gray.

The white socks are almost finished. Maybe later tonight. They are the Mystery Sock for this month, designed by Adreinne Fong.

The weather is changing

The air is crisper. The days are shorter. I'm in the mood for more cooking of big pots of food.

DD Jan and her young men have been working at our house finishing up a remodeling job. She's out of work at the moment, her younger son is home from the Air force, and her older son is about to go into the Army, so there is lots of young strong muscle available. It is useful to make a large pot of something for lunch; chili, beef stew, or whatever can go in a crock pot.

Today, I was looking through the patternworks catalog and was surprised to see three of my designs on p. 60. They are socks that I designed for Plymouth Yarn Co. Happy Feet yarn. The patterns available for download are: Church Windows, Heart Socks, and Diamond Socks.

Of course I have more socks on the needles. The SKA group theme this month is black, or white, or black and white. I have black socks for a granddaughter with an October birthday. They're knit using a Cookie A. pattern called Glynis. The black yarn takes good light for working patterns. I've been doing a lot of the knitting at my shop. Business has been slow and the light is good.

There is a monthly Mystery Sock designed by Adrienne Fong. Like her previous mystery, this one is beaded, but the beads don't show up in the photo.

If that's not enough, there is the birthday sock for DH. I joined the Ram Club last year and received three sock kits. This is one of them, but I'm using different yarn, hoping to knit the toes in the same color. Sock #1 is on stitch holders until the yarn quantity is determined to be enough. It makes the sock look funny.

My gray sweater is growing slowly, ignoring it and working on small needles with thin yarn does not make for fast progress. The baby sweater will be finished in a few days. It has been reserved for intense TV watching, where more pattern knitting is distracting.

September Knitting

It's Labor Day here in NE Ohio, and I'm being lazy. That implies that much knitting is happening, as well as some TV watching. There will be a cookout with family later.

Much knitting has been finished recently. Small projects get done quickly. There were the Fiesta Feet. I doubted my sanity at times during the knitting, but soldiered on and they're done. Both yarns are Kroy 4 ply sock yarn. They were originally designed with a light colored solid. I had some, but used it for some other socks and couldn't find a comparable substitute.

The leftover from these socks went to DGD Ana for her birthday. There was just over 1 ball of the paintbox color. All but 1 yd went into the socks. No leftovers to worry about there. I used a pattern from a book by Janel Laidman, called the Eclectic Sole. We collect books and patterns and don't use them, especially if you're a designer. This year I'm trying to use some of what is on my shelves.

The tomato hat will be mailed with a hat for big sister Rayven. The base hat is a fruit hat, like the tomato, but I put a rose on top from Nicky Epstein's Embellishment book.

I loved the yarn from the Swiss Cheese Scarf and had a lot leftover. A sweater for me is on the needles. It will have short sleeves and is lacy, which doesn't show here. If I can't finish it in the grey tweed, I have a few choices of matching yarn. Green is my first choice, possibly a lace edging and crochet edge on the neck.

A simple project, now that the hats are done, is a baby sweater for the gift drawer. All the girly sweaters were used up this spring. This is a simple one-piece kimono from dish cloth cotton, left over from my jacket. The pattern is in Mason-Dixon Knitting, which calls for this yarn.

Of course, there are socks! There is the Ravelry SKA Mystery Sock; clue #1, sock #1.

The Ravelry Solid Sock group has chosen brown for this month. I have a Ram Club pattern from last year that is for DH. Yarn substitution was required, because the given yarn didn't have enough yardage. Hopefully this Hazel Knits sock yarn will cover both toes without additions from the scrap drawer. I love the depth of the color and the pattern really pops.

The SKA group also has a color of the month for September. It is white, or black, or black/white. A pair of socks for DGD Luci has been started in black. I'm using a Cookie A pattern from her Sock Innovations book.

Last Wednesday i judged needlework at another fair. This time it was Geauga County, the oldest fair in the state. The building I worked in was rebuilt in 1899 after a fire. Lots of good entries. It's harder to choose the best, but I feel better about it. There were only a few items int he wrong class. Sometimes people don't read, and sometimes they may mix up the tags on entry day.