Trading Spaces

Except there’s no trading, and no quirky designer. I spent all day with Adam’s mom at our new house painting. The bedrooms are pretty much done except for the trim and a bookcase, and “Adam’s room” (aka the garage room) needs another coat tomorrow and some detail work. My nesting instincts that have been forced into hibernation for the last eight months while we lived in other people’s houses are finally free, and I’m in overdrive Tomorrow we finish the painting and start unpacking the kitchen. I’ve also got to stop by my second home (Home Depot) to pick up supplies.

I finished the first Ariann sleeve last night at work, and I’m going to cast on tonight for the second. It won’t be a 2006 FO, but definitely the first one of 2007. I’ve got several projects I want to start out of my new books, but I’m finishing this one first.

No New Year’s plans here – working both New Year’s Eve and Day. Some of Adam’s friends from the work are coming to help us move Tuesday though, so we’ll have a party that night at our NEW HOUSE

Thanks, Mom!

New to my bookshelf: Victorian Lace Today, and Cables Untangled. Fantastic books! I love that Victorian Lace Today talks about the history of lace knitting, the whys and hows. It boggles my mind to think that hundreds of years ago people not only came up with these amazing patterns, but spun their own yarn to knit them. Cables Untangled is a great “how to” book that I think will do a lot to help me understand how and why cables work, and there are some nice patterns as well. Between the two books I have enough projects flagged to keep me busy for a while

I also found something else under the Christmas Tree…a pound of gorgeous soft llama wool! (Is it wool if it comes from a llama? Llama fur then?) It feels very soft and sproingy, and I can’t wait to card and spin some up.

Adam and also got plenty of painting supples, as well as a gift certificate to Home Depot and one to Lowes. The current tenants are out tomorrow, we do the final walkthrough Thursday, and Friday I start painting! We chose some great colors – a warm dark green for the garage den/Adam’s room, a lovely muted blue for the second bedroom/my yarn room, and a reddish wine color for the guest bedroom. Hopefully we can get all this done in a few days, because we’re planning on getting the U-Haul next Tuesday and officially moving in. Yay!!

As soon as I finished the Telemark Sweater (temporarily – I still want to modify it eventually) I needed something new. Its getting nippy here in Florida (sorry, but for here it is) and it’s perfect Cardigan weather. And I need more. So I went to the yarn store last Thursday and bought yarn to make Ariann. I love it. I’m using Cascade 220 a la Cara in an off-white color (to go with everything). I love it. I made it to the armpits at work last night and realized I left my DPNs at home and couldn’t start the sleeves. Today I pulled out my DPNs, and realized that my #7’s are missing. So I have a wrist on my size 6’s. Tomorrow on the way to work I’m totally buying new #7’s. I can always use two pairs, if the others turn up. If this turns out well, I’ll definitely make another (or a few) in some brighter colors. The yarn cost about $40, so its actually (for once) cheaper than buying one at the store. Yay!

Thats all for now. Have to get up bright and early tomorrow to go see the orthodontist (lost a bracket by eating some off-limits food – oops!) and buy more DPNs. And hand cards for my Llama. Life is good

Its a very Merry Christmas this year…

We bought a house today! Its really, truly, actually our house now. I still can’t believe it! The current tenants are moving out on the 27th (next Wednesday) because they have young kids and didn’t want to leave before Christmas. Soooooooo…I get to start painting (aka nesting) next weekend

Staffan – does this mean I’m a grownup now?

Finally, something finished

Too bad this wasn’t a christmas present, because this is some great timing.

I finished the Telemark Sweater, and even sat myself down right away to do the seaming while I still had the momentum. The body came out much bigger than I intended (I wanted it to be fitted, like in the picture online) but I’m pretty happy with the end result. Its very comfy, suprisingly warm, and I can wear a turtleneck underneath (I’m not a fan of wool against my neck). I wonder if I could take in the sides somehow…I’m thinking perhaps a steek, then seam it together? I’m not going to do anything rash, but I’ll keep it in the back of my mind.

And of course, the gratuitous “inside-of-the-sweater” picture:

I like the outside almost as much as the inside.

The gauge problem is my own fault – I based it off my swatch, which (now that I know how to actually knit color work) was way too tight. The neck is small compared to the rest of the sweater – its actually the part that fits me best! But it means I couldn’t give this sweater to anyone who would fit the body of it, because the neck would be way too small. I wasn’t super impressed with the pattern, some of the calculations seemed a little wonky (like the one for the neck – if my gauge had been correct, I wouldn’t have been able to fit my head through the neck opening…or perhaps I just have a big head?). The pattern is based on EZ’s percentage method for building a sweater, which was irritating at first but I really appreciate now.

Things I learned:
A swatch is a good thing. The whole swatch. A good swatch.
Color is fun.
Be patient. And do things right.
SWATCH!

I still love it. Yay sweater

Home again

I’m back in Florida safe and sound. Good flight, no luggage problems…I think this is my first trip since college where I haven’t had some kind of problem with my flight, or my luggage, or the weather. Yay!

It was a great visit home – nice and relaxed. It was really nice to see my family and friends again, and get a taste of the snow and cold (a quick taste).

Now back to the grind! I think my yarn came in, so its about time to finish my sweater.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me! Its the big 2-5, and coming right on top of buying a house, for once I actually feel somewhere close to my age. Except for the braces…those make me feel 12. Oh well.

The fam is coming tonight at 7…then some beers with old friends at Noonan’s. Good times

On the road again…

This post brought to you from the lovely Tampa International Airport, Concourse A. I’m waiting for my flight to Rochester, and I LOVE that they have free WiFi here! It almost makes it worth paying through the nose for parking, lunch, and a drink. No problems so far, security went very smoothly and my braces did NOT set off the metal detector (I had a dream last night that they did, and they accused me of being a terrorist and wiring explosives to my teeth…not good). For once I didn’t have to go through the air puffer thing, every time I use it I set it off.

Off to a winter wonderland…for 3 1/2 days at least. Now THIS will be Christmas!

Oh yeah….T-2 days until my birthday! A quarter of a century

Yes, I still knit.

While I’ve been sick, I’ve been churning out the knitting. Remember the Telemark Ski Sweater? I think I last posted about this while I still lived in the old apartment at least two months ago…I’ll let the pictures do the talking about how far I’ve come:

The body is done, its just waiting for the steeks.

Here’s a sleeve, just three rows from being done. Why am I not done, you ask?

Because this is how much black yarn I have left. I didn’t realize until well into the body that the instructions say to measure the gauge by the swatch (yes I actually swatched for once), but the swatch is the ribbing. Oops. The body, which is stockinette stitch, is definitely bigger than the ribbing (which is k2p2). So even though I planned ahead and bought enough yarn for the medium size, I’m out of yarn a sleeve and three rows (and seaming) shy. Luckily, although the sweater is bigger than I planned I don’t think it’ll be TOO big. Just enough for a turtleneck underneath (I hope I hope I hope).

I also read recently about someone who had a problem with the colors bleeding from her Telemark yarn…she was using the red yarn, and said it was bleeding just knitting with it – she didn’t even get to washing it. This makes me a little nervous to wash my black and white sweater! Mom – in case I forget to ask, is there anything I can do while washing to prevent it from bleeding? I think I’ll cry if I ruin the sweater after all this.

So here I go to order more yarn…and to search through the stash in hopes that maybe a ball of black yarn escaped me. I still have three balls of white yarn left (and more than enough left in the current ball to finish the second sleeve). Hmmm….

You know what buying one or two skeins from Knit Picks means…I have to order $40 for the free shipping! There’s a wrap I’ve had my eye on…

Wow!

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!

And we close on December 22nd – thats in three weeks!

Holy cow, this is all happening so fast

Now that it’s official, here are some pictures of our NEW HOUSE

Master Bedroom

Dining room area opening into living room to the left (see picture below) – this is the view from the front door

Living Room

Kitchen (the countertop isn’t as ugly in person as it looks here)…the kitchen has enough room for a table and there’s a sliding door to the left out to the backyard.

Second Bedroom (AKA my YARN room!)

Third Bedroom, will be the guest room probably…sliding door out to backyard

Den/extra room, Adam will probably use this for his office and for his police supplies. The current owners made this room from the back half of the garage, the front half of the garage is a workroom/storage area that opens from the outside with the regular garage door.

I love this house…We’re still waiting to see if the current owners will vacate when we close on the 22nd or if they will want to rent for a month or two until they find a place. Stay tuned! I’ll print pictures to bring up to Rochester next week.

….we got a HOUSE!

Crossing Our Fingers

We put in an offer this afternoon…now we have our fingers crossed and are waiting to hear back! Just look how good my car looks parked in the driveway I’ll let you know when we know more.

Other than that…still sick. I’ve been running a fever for two days now, which is unusual (I haven’t had a fever since college). The good news is that my sore throat is gone…the bad news is that it feels like it’s moving up into my sinuses (which means at least three weeks of yucky sinus-ness since I can’t take decongestants). Since I already have my fingers crossed, I’ll cross the toes for a quick recovery so I’ll be healthy for my trip to NY next week.

Yes – I’m going home this week! I’ll be in on Wednesday afternoon, and I’m going home Saturday morning. It’ll be a little taste of winter and the holidays. Can’t wait

I’m making good use of my time home sick, and I’m almost done with the body of the Telemark sweater. Pictures later when I finish! I’m going to need to order more yarn, I’m on my last ball of black yarn and I haven’t even started the sleeves. I have plenty of white yarn though (four balls still)…wonder if they miscounted my order? Oh well. There’s a chunky cabled wrap on knitpicks that I want to make, so I should be able to order enough for free shipping.