Monthly Archives: January 2009

Finally a Sweater Update

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Sweater in progress

I procrastinated taking pictures today and missed the light, it’s getting cloudy and a little dark so this didn’t come out good, but you get the idea.  I finished the first sleeve a couple nights ago and started the second last night.  I ended up kind of winging the first sleeve, I knew I wanted it to taper towards the bottom by an inch or so, so I decreased two stitches each row every eighteen (or so, I think I missed a couple) rows until it was the length I wanted and then did three rows of garter and cast off.  The sleeve fits just how I wanted, the width is great and it is just long enough that I can pull my hands up in the cuffs to stay warm (since I never have a pair of mittens or gloves when I need them).  I think I’ll be pretty happy with the sweater when it’s done.

During the day, when I’ve had some free time, I’ve been spinning again on the yarn for my mom’s scarf.  I’m about done with the third bobbin of singles and then I’ll finally be able to start plying.  I’m really enjoying the fiber, it’s a local Ramboillet/Llama mix and it’s buttery soft, a little fuzzy, and full of VM, which is my only complaint.  I’ve had to put a towel on my lap when I spin to catch all the grass and hay that falls out of it but the VM is worth all the trouble, the yarn is going to be so soft.  I just hope the scarf turns out good.

More Bedroom

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Bed

The bedroom reno is still going on.  I’m really close to getting all my stuff moved back in and organized, most of what I have left is bags of wool, I seriously had no idea how big my wool stash is, it’s not huge but I really need to find some space for it.  I need to think of something that isn’t either throw it all in the closet or stack it in boxes in the middle of my floor.  Anyway, I washed my new quilt and bed skirt and put them on the bed yesterday.  Until I saw the quilt on my bed I wasn’t sure how much I would like it but I love it.  I love the colors next to the copper walls, it’s so bright and warm and happy.  I have an old white metal head board that I had planned on using but it’s wider than my bed frame and there’s no way to attach them.  I’ll figure something else out later.

Desk

My dad built and installed my desk and shelves this weekend and I’ve been filling them up all week.  I’ve actually gotten rid of about four huge Rubbermaid containers of old stuff that I don’t use and I have a big stack of books and CDs that I’ll be either selling or trading soon.  The de-cluttering is going really well.  One of the things I really want to take out of the room is that big old computer.  I bought this thing in 2001 and it’s been a great machine and served me well but it’s way past it’s prime.  I would like to get a new one, something smaller, something that actually works, something like an HP Touchsmart all in one but it would take years for me to save up that much money.  I’d be happy with something a little smaller than this giant.

Books

So far the only books I’ve unpacked are my craft books, arranged by size, and my first edition Harry Potter and Stephen King novels.  I have a box of magazines that will be next to them but I’m going to buy some of the magazine boxes to store them.

Tomorrow I should have an actual knitting post.  I got distracted today, by my now repaired spinning wheel, and forgot to take any pictures, but I’ll get them later.  I’m off to watch some TV, switching between Lost and Countdown now but getting ready for the big Lost premier tonight.  So excited!

This post brought to you by the letter P

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Brushed copper paint

P is for Paint which is what I’ve been doing since Friday night.  Painting my room has turned in to a much bigger ordeal than I had hoped it would be.  The base coat (this is Valspar EE2013B- Tawny Buff) went on great and I really like the color and almost just kept it like this.  My mom talked me in to doing a brushed copper wall, this is it, where my new desk will be.  The color is off here, it’s more warm and, well, coppery.  Once I started I really liked the copper so I did the whole room.  The paint technique isn’t hard (you just roll on the glaze and drag a wallpaper brush in arches through the glaze) but it’s time consuming.  I’ve worked on it a couple hours every day and just finished it today.  The trim is being painted white and I’m not sure I like it but I’m not painting it again, I’ll get used to it.  The baseboards got messed up last night, we put a second coat of white paint on them and as the paint was drying it bubbled up and peeled off.  We tried sanding them down but it really didn’t help and we just couldn’t get any paint to stick so I had to buy new molding (I got it pre-painted!) and we’ll put that up tonight.  Then we have to do the desk and shelves and I’ll be ready to start moving back in.  I can’t wait.

My spinning wheel broke!

P is also for poo, which is a milder version of what I said when this happened.  That’s my spinning wheel and that little boken metal piece is what attaches the treadles to the wheel.  I was spinning Friday night and the piece just fell apart.  Luckily my dad just happens to have a ton of scrap metal so he can fix it but there just hasn’t been time to do it.  So I haven’t been spinning and that sucks because I am really close to finishing the singles that will be the yarn for my mom’s scarf.

P is for progress, or lack thereof.  I havent’ had time to knit and I can’t spin so the only thing that is progressing is my room (at least that’s something).  I’ve been taking a couple hours every night before I go to bed to work on my KnitPicks project and to daydream about what I want to make next (I’m thinking the Harvest Cardigan from Color Style) or something else from my ever-growing Ravelry queue, all I know is that I want to make a sweater, or, maybe, a pair of socks, or a shawl, or a nice lacey scarf.  You know how this goes, there’s no time to make anything so I want to make everything.  I’ll just have to decide soon.

Empty

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Bedroom Update

My poor room is looking really empty.  I’m dreading moving all the furniture out and painting tomorrow but I’m excited to see how it’s going to look, that’s a paint chip on the closet so you can see the color I’m going for.  I’ve been cleaning and working all week and now the cleaning is done and my work project is as done as I can get it (I’m waiting on some more yarn).

As busy as I’ve been I keep wanting to cast on something, anything, but all my yarn and books and needles are packed away right now and I can’t get to them.  This isn’t a bad thing, it keeps me focused on all the cleaning I need to do and it keeps me working but I have the itch.  I need lace.  I feel this need to cast on something with holes and big complicated charts.

But I have to finish my room first, this is my number one priority now.  I need to get this done and get back to normal I’m going crazy living out of boxes.  After painting, which is going to take a while and be tedious, my dad and I are going to build a very complicated sounding shelf/desk system that my mom (the HDTV addict) came up with.  This is what I’m most excited about, I so need a new desk and some storage.  There’s even going to be room for my sewing machine which is awesome.  And I’ll be able to have my books out instead of in boxes in the garage.  I’ll be able to organize things and keep them clean and that’s what drives me crazy about my room now (and how it was before I cleaned it out), everything just had to sit out in the open or get shoved in the closet, there’s no storage space here.  I’m looking forward to this.  The painting is another story but I’m not even going to think about until tomorrow.

A Long Time Coming

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Rug

The only thing I don’t like about test knitting for KnitPicks is that I have to wait so long to show what I’ve made.  I still have a couple projects that have been in the catalog that I keep forgetting to add to Ravelry and I need to think of a way to add them while I work on them, like a place holder.  So, here’s my latest, from the newest catalog, this is Kiki Mariko from Mason-Dixon Knitting: Outside the Lines.  I’m not going to do my typical long FO post, I’m still sick and too tired to mess with it, you can see a much better picture of the rug and all the details at the page on KnitPicks.com and the details are on my Ravelry, too.  I do have to say that this is my favorite project that I’ve done for work so far.  I really liked making it and I love the finished product.  I’m going to put a wood floor in my room and I’m thinking about making a similar rug (different colors, maybe a different pattern) for it.

I’m so hooked on Poladroid right now.  It’s a little program that sits on your desktop and it makes your pictures look just like old Polaroids.  They made a windows version available today so I’ve been playing with it this afternoon.  It makes me want to order some film for my old Polariod off Ebay but it’s so expensive.  I may do it anyway.