Whew, what a weekend! We finally got around to starting our much needed painting this weekend. I had agonized over color selection for ages back in, like, June. Finally got the paint (Pittsburgh Paint Stone Harbor if anyone cares) and then it was too damn hot to paint. Bizarre as it may seem, now that it's August, we are having gorgeous weather. So before the mood completely passed, we figured we better get to it. Just tackled the laundry room this weekend. It probably took about 20 hrs total. Looks so much better with a fresh, clean coat of paint. The color isn't quite what I had hoped for, but it's growing on me. I had planned to have pictures to post for you, but I was too tired to fuss with pictures. Next weekend. Promise.
Now my every waking (and spare) minute is being consumed by this game and listening to this awesome new radio that customizes your playlist based on the artists you tell it you like. I caught a video from Panic! at The Disco on Friday morning (one of the RARE occasions that MTV was actually showing MUSIC) and have been jonesing on it all weekend. Have also discovered the dangerous (to my wallet) but sweet joys of MusicMatch. Serious music stash enhancement going on here. Anyway, enough chatter. Back to my card game!
The weather was GORGEOUS these last few days. Upper 70's, low 80's, no humidity. Such a change from just a week ago. Unfortunately, I spent the weekend laid out with a killer headache and got almost nothing done. My head feels better now though, so I guess that's all that matters.
I did manage to finish the Licorice Allsorts socks.
I'm still coveting them. But I'm going to be good and send them off to the lucky recipient. They're too short for me anyway. Hope she likes them. Hope they fit! I've never made socks for anyone else before and this being a surprise, I couldn't ask for measurements. Had to ask mom to measure her foot since I think she wears the same size. Now I feel guilty and need to make mom a pair too! But these are a pleasure to knit and I've got lots of yarn left to play with so knitting more won't be an issue.
The cool weather suckered me in last night and I pulled out the long lost Cottage Creations Tunic to knit on. The wool felt foreign after, what, 3 months or so of knitting only cotton! I've still got plenty of cotton knitting to finish...the kitchen rugs (still on rug #1 and no discernible progress to report), more dishrags (currently working on the pattern from the new Creative Knitting magazine), and a machine knit sweater (although that may fall through. The jury is still out on that one. I HATED the first attempt at machine knitting Peaches n Creme. More trial and error is necessary before a verdict is made).
No more garden pictures or lovely vegetable harvest pictures like last year. The dry, hot weather left us with a very poor harvest. The onions were the only thing to do really well. The zucchini and cucumbers did alright for a short while. The peppers are all small. The tomatoes are taking forever to ripen, what few tomatoes we have. Mom and dad and my mother in law had decent luck with their gardens, so we've still been able to enjoy some nice veggies this summer. For now, we are planning next year's garden and researching ways to ensure better results.
As I mentioned last time, the heat has been considerable (the weatherman was also wrong, it didn't really break until Saturday). On Wednesday, our downstairs air conditioner decided it wasn't going to take it any more. It didn't completely die, but it was getting up towards 90 with it running so what's the point? We had some difficulty locating an air conditioner to purchase (apparently we weren't the only ones who didn't enjoy sitting in a pool of sweat all the time). But we lucked out on Friday and ahhhhhh....
Sweet relief. A very nice, energy efficient, temperature controlled, albeit very flippin' heavy air conditioner. The lady at the store made a comment about how heavy the old air conditioners used to be. Obviously, she never tried to lift a new one. Believe me, way heavier than the old one! But it does cool things off quite nicely which is the important thing.
Finished the fixation socks.
Despite the gauge trouble, they look and fit very well. I love 'em. Next pair is on the needles. These are for a gift, though I'm coveting them already.
They are Esprit Licorice Allsorts from Elann with grey slate heel and toes. The heels on the Fixation socks seem like they are going to wear out fast, so I decided to work a garter stitch heel and toss in some wooly nylon for strength. It's the first time I've worked with wooly nylon so we'll see how it works out.
The last bit of big news...
Finished shower! Dad did an amazing job finding a wall panel to match the existing Formica. The style is slightly different, but the colors match perfectly.
Ay-curumba! It's toasty outside. The Weather Bug says our local temp made it up to 99 today, with heat indexes of 110. Whatever, it's hot. This is the little clock/thermometer thing in our spare room...
Yeah, it says 97.3. It sucks. We've still got the a/c running downstairs and its a much more livable 83. Our friendly local weatherman predicts the heat should break on Friday, boy do I hope he's right. Us northern girls can't take the heat!
So to avoid said hot temps, I've been staying at the office over lunch. Watching my absolute new obsession, QNN, and knitting on the Fixation Footies. Does anyone see something amiss here?
How about now?
I'd say I'm having a bit of a gauge incident. My gauge has tightened up considerably on sock #2. Could be sock one is a little stretched from trying it on. It is cotton after all and sometimes needs a dunk in water to bring it back in line. But still. It's looking a good bit bigger than it's infant partner. Good news is, Fixation has a good dose of elastic in it and sock #2, although it appears to be smaller, fits and looks fine on my foot. I am eternally grateful for this since I have no desire to rip it and reknit it when I'm this far along. That and I've got the Elann version of this yarn (called Esprit) on order. Enough to make 3 or 4 pairs I think. At this moment, my knitting life is firmly centered on little knitting...socks and washcloths. I've got some big knitting socked away for fall and winter, but this should keep my occupied through the next few too hot for knitting in your lap months.
After years (and years) of slogging away in dial-up land, we've taken the big leap to HIGH SPEED INTERNET! Woo hoo. I can't even begin to tell you how excited and happy I am. I can now get this radio , and watch this quilt station, and even wait till the last few seconds and have a chance at winning here. Life is good.As I mentioned before, today mom and I went to Quilt Odyssey in Hershey. Once again, a great show. The antique quilts this year were fantastic. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photos of most of the quilts this year. I did see one pattern I simply must knit. It's a traditional pattern called Tumblers. You can see a pattern for it here. I'm a scrap quilter through and through, so this is a perfect quilt for me.
I was didn't find much to tempt me at the vendor mall, here's a look at my loot for the day...
Fat quarters in vintage prints. Knitting magazines (the publisher of Knit Style had a stand with all the different craft magazines they publish). Another Jim Shore cat to add to my collection. Yardage from a cute little shop in Annville called Hershey's Quilt Shop (sorry, no webpage). And too my surprise, my Knit Picks order was waiting for me when I got home. They Main Line yarn feels really nice. I'm going to machine knit a sweater with it once my craft room isn't 1000 degrees. The Options needle looks terrific. The cable is so slim and flexible. Right out of the packet it uncurled and stayed staight. And the lovely ticking surrounding it all is the inside of a very nice basket to hold my yarn cones while I knit my rug. Right now they are in a rather inelegant cardboard box. This should be much more attractive and sturdy. I even came home with money left over. Yes, life is good.
Our shower sprung a leak recently. Don't know exactly when, since the leak is inside the wall, but it made its presence known on Monday. I looked up after finishing the dinner dishes and noticed a rather large bubble in the ceiling. It didn't take long to figure out it was coming from the bathroom overhead. Stuart stood guard over the bucket the whole time it dripped.
Here's what our bathroom wall looks like now.
Thankfully my dad is a very skilled handyman and should be able to fix the leak and the gaping hole required to get to the leak. The biggest downside to the whole thing is the mildew smell from the inside of the wall being wet. The extremely hot muggy weather this week has only compounded the problem. However, we are very lucky to have access to the inside of that wall through a closet. Just enough room to stick a little fan in there and dry it out. I've been reaching my arm in as far as I can to spray Lysol too. These things combined seem to be taking care of the problem.
Knitting continues on more dishrags...
the kitchen rug (very little progress here)...
and the Fixation footie
I ended up ripping the whole thing out last Sunday after discovering it was just too big. My first attempt was knit exactly for my foot size, this time I'm trying about an inch negative ease. Appears to fit much better this way. Yesterday I decide to try switching to Magic Loop instead of the dpns. It seemed no matter how tightly I pulled the first stitch at the start of each needle, I was still getting ladders. The last sock I made (or should say am making since it's only half done) was on two circs. I like this method, but found the extra needle flopping around to be annoying. Magic Loop seems the perfect solution. No ladders, the work seems faster than dpns because you don't have to switch needles so often, no dropped needles, no floppy needle tips. I'm using a 40" Inox US 3. The cable seems just a bit long and I'm going to try one of the new KnitPick circs in 32" length. They are having a big 40% off sale on selected yarns so I ordered enough Main Line to make a sweater and the needle. According to the site, needles are delaying shipping by about 2 weeks, but everyone is raving about them so I figured it would be worth the wait.
This Friday mom and I are off to Quilt Odyssey in Hershey. It's always a great show and a fun day. If you're a quilter and in the area, be sure to check it out.
Stopped by the local quilt store this morning while out shopping with mom. While she looked at the fabrics, I ducked upstairs and discovered they now carry what looks like the FULL line of Sugar 'n Cream yarns! I picked all the colors I was looking for plus a couple extra. Alas, I can't sit out and knit today as we are having company over soon and I have to prepare for the cookout. But tomorrow...
This will be my spot and these will be my entertainments.
For anyone interested, a look at how the kitchen rug is starting out. I went with Teal, Ecru and Shaded Denim on size 11 needles. It's about 55-60 stitches in plain garter stitch. May do the next one in log cabin, but decided to keep the first simple.
Gotta dash for now. More soon.
My totally sweet new sewing cabinet. Stayed up until midnight last Friday putting it together. I've been wanting one forever. Ever since I bought my own machine some 15 years ago and traded in the hand-me-down Kenmore in it's cabinet, I've had to sew with my machine on a table. This one is fully adjustable. You can completely lower the machine into the cabinet for storage, raise it full up for free arm sewing, and my favorite, flush with the table for unrestricted, straight on sewing (also awesome for free motion quilting!)
Like I said...sweet!
