It's Spring

Remodeling
The kitchen is almost ready for paint! The fact that cupboards have been emptied and refilled my someone other than me, makes for certain challenges. I don't know where anything is! My daughter has done some reorganizing, which makes sense. Some things went in the trash. I was looking for some cider vinegar for a bread recipe today, and it's gone. The bottle was damaged. I used white vinegar instead. The bread is in the machine now.

My dog is thinking about shedding. Her undercoat comes off in clumps and I can't find the rake that I used to use. I'm sure it will turn up, but in the meantime, i bought a new rake and a slicker brush and started the beauty treatments. The rake is great for getting hair out of the slicker brush. She'll get combed at least tw2ice a day for the next few months,or until shedding ceases. Luckily, she likes the attention.

Quilting daughter is in town for a few days. She missed Christmas this year, but there is a family wedding on Saturday. There are also two birthdays that will be celebrated on Friday. Sunday morning is our monthly breakfast at the Gunny Hall, so it will be a busy weekend.

It seems like Spring here. I actually have a few daffodils in the back yard, and have seen crocuses and snow flowers while out with the dog.

Knitting

I have finished another pair of socks recently, and put two sock patterns on Ravelry. The new patte4r has butterflies on the ankles and is called Mama They Tickle. There were too many patterns with "butterfly" or "flutterby" in the name and I thought butterflies on the ankle would tickle. I remembered that out
Botanical Garden had a rainforest exhibit with lots of butterflies, so what a great idea for a photo or two. The butterflies did not cooperate! There weren't as many as I remembered. It was hard to get a photo indoors, because there was no place to put the socks. I went out doors and there were no flowers. I did the best I could, and got some nice pictures. The technique is Mosaic. The darker yarn is left form another pair of socks and I used all but a yard or so, so that's out of my leftover drawer.

I was busy knitting dishcloths. The father of the bride above say me knitting, and mentioned that they used to have knit dishcloths that were well loved, but wore out. I knit a set of three for his wife and all three daughters. That makes 18 dishcloths so far this year, counting the 6 that I sent off in February. Two more daughter want dishcloths, but they'll have to wait. I have one in my purse right now, but haven't worked on it recently. It's emergency knitting.

A very nice birthday

Wednesday was my birthday, the first that I have celebrated alone in my life. By alone, I mean no mother or husband to orchestrate a celebration. DH always remembered, but never did a big celebration, so quiet was to be expected. Actually, this one was more festive than many. I worked all day, then was taken out for dinner. Some of my children decided that I needed to experience Ethiopian cooking. DH was a meat and potatoes guy, but I'm more adventurous. We had a great meal, a meat and veggie sampler, eaten with what someone called rubber bread, tasty rubber bread. I got some phone calls and even had a gift to open. One of my Florida daughters sent me a gorilla tripod for my camera.

I have finished the socks for DGS and will deliver them tomorrow. It is family cookie day and his parents will be there, even if he has to work. The family gets together and does lots of cookies and them divides up the results. The sock pattern is from an old Stahl Socka book. It's fairly simple, but the dark yarn and user brain cramps made for some mistakes and ripping. All is well now!

I have started two more pairs of socks. The blue ones are for me. They fulfill a requirement for the Socktopia group on Ravelry and are my own design. I'll write up the pattern soon. I've called them Techtonic because they look like an earthquake has hit them.

The other pair is for Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravelry and will be a gift. They fulfill both the entrelac technique category and the left over yarn category. I'm using six different yarns left over from other socks.

I have decided to knit dishcloths for Christmas presents  and have finished two of them. No pictures yet.

We have had snow, but today, we actually have a little left on the ground at the end of the day. You almost can see it on the grass. The wool socks, hat, and mittens come in handy. I made new mittens last year and really love them. They replaced a worn out pair and coordinate with my hat and scarf.

Things are better now

The electrician finished his work and everything works as expected, finally. We have a new kitchen ceiling. It still needs priming and painting. Since this picture, it was textured and a new fan was installed over the stove. The texture picture shows the other end of the kitchen.

Worker damage
The man who did the texture work really seems to know what he is doing on ceilings. However, in other things, not so much. In helping install the fan, he stepped on the top of my stove bending the center and damaging the surface. Luckily our contractor could repair the bend. It took him a couple of hours to dis-assemble the stove top, straighten it, and put it together again, hours which were deducted from texture man's pay. It's not a new stove and chances of getting a new top were slim. We're relatively happy with the repair. At least everything still works.

DH and DD have been running tv cable through the walls of all rooms were we will want a tv. this, of course, has resulted in language I didn't want to hear, multiple trips to Radio Shack for supplies, new tools, and finally, success. We will have connections like this in 3 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and basement. We don't have that many tvs, but the thinking is to do it now, before insulating the house.

Ideally, all wires should be in place before we get insulation blown into the walls, making the house snug and cozy for winter. That is why the flurry of activity in electricity and tv cables. The electricity needed doing, the tv cable was more optional. Our neighbor insulated a couple of years ago, and cut his heating bill in half. We cut ours in half by installing new windows, now we'll cut it again. Next year we'll put siding on the house, and stop spending money like a drunken sailor. We expect it to pay for itself in about 5 years.

Knitting
I seem to have missed showing off the latest pairs of birthday socks. For my son-in-law with the large feet, I extended the yarn by adding color to the leg. I still need to write the pattern, but I have the charts for the leg done. The pattern will offer a number of options for the leg portion of the sock. This man really loves my socks, because they fit!

In addition, I knit a pair for DD the remodeler. I know I didn't show them there, because she reads the blog. Because of the yarn colors, I used a simple pattern. It still doesn't show up well in the photos. The "in progress" photo shows the pattern, k2, p2 ribbing offset every 6 rows. Unfortunately, this doesn't show well in the later photos.

This is the daughter who shrunk a couple of things earlier this year. The socks were not supposed to shrink, the wrist warmers were wool, but she forgot. I won't be using that yarn for socks again. All gift socks are now being knit with bullet proof yarn. The brown socks are Patons Kroy 4 ply with Regia contrast. The other socks are Grundl Four Seasons. I seem to need 25% nylon for gift socks. Even the careful people occasionally find socks coming out of their dryer. Maybe my sister will get some fancier yarn. I know she hangs sock to dry, and is a sock knitter.

The tree bark sweater is up to the "armholes" in back, there being no armholes, just a square piece. I slowed down on it because I realized that another birthday looms, and the recipient is back in town. She took off for parts unknown (kids!!) but is now back. The socks would be finished now, but I knit the first foot on leg needles, which were too large. Reknitting commences within minutes. Luckily these are the smallest adult feet in the family. Main color is Patons Kroy 4 ply, contrast is left from above socks. There was more dark color in the variegated yarn than I expected, so not the best contrast. I'll choose better colors and knit another pair before I release the pattern.

I will write patterns for both pairs of socks, but will delay release until I have samples that better show the stitch patterns. This may be the winter for reknitting patterns that have been on hold. I also have a number of them where the original socks were black, again not a good choice for photos.