Three years in the making

(Warning: No knitting content. If you don't want to see slightly blurry remodeling photos, then just skip this post...)

I've been putting off this post for a good long while, but finally I'm getting around to showing you what room I remodeled before DS's room.

It was a long time coming on the road to finishing our living room. We spent one Christmas with boxes of wood flooring as a coffee table and another one with only subflooring.

In the good days (before all that), this is what the room looked like. (Apparently I didn't take any photos of the room by itself, so here's a couple with some people. You can ignore them, if you wish.)

I had a typical 80s living room--all country blue and mauve. (DD#1's senior prom pic). I had cross stitched the picture behind her head and crocheted the afghan on the couch. (I had years of crocheting obsession before I switched over to knitting.)




The walls were a slight blue and the woodwork was all a country blue. (DH and DD#2).



I'm just showing you this you so can see one of the pics we're saving for blackmailing DS#2 later. Yes, he really was sleeping like that.



Last winter, DS came home, looked at the state of the floor (or lack thereof), and decided to get me moving by helping out. The helping out really turned into doing it mostly himself, and he did a really great job.

This is the beginning, before we hammered the first nail.




Here's the hallway. Not much room for maneuvering, is there?




Before we did the floor, I painted the walls a creamy beige. The woodwork was painted a color called "baby bear" that sounds really cute but turns out a bit too pink. I lived with it for several months, but then finally decided to repaint it in a chocolate brown which was a MUCH better choice.

You can see in this picture the stairs and light switch are the lighter color and the door is the darker one.



I bought sticky-back tile and redid the foyer floor.



Here are the finished stairs. (Ignore the dirt. And the dog scratchings on the door that I already have to repaint.)



Then, DS left me and I had to finish the quarter round molding by myself. All these little pieces had to be cut and the corners mitered (I like mitering much better in knitting than in wood).





We finished the floor by the end of February, enjoyed it for a couple of months, then DS#1 came back home and DS#2's stuff moved into the living room while we painted his room. Over the weekend we finally cleaned it out again and I rushed to take pictures before it gets messed up again.

You've seen pieces of the floor and the rug, but here it is all together (with a new slipcover and the beginnings of a new afghan.)












My kids have been warned: We ARE NOT starting any new projects.

AND I MEAN IT!

Where things get rather messy

I have two projects going on at home, and let's just say....

they're rather messy.

The first are the I-cord gloves from nonaKnits.

Here are thumbs.



Here are the other eight fingers, skewered on a dpn. They're in order and the same type (i.e. the pinkies) are pinned together in hopes I don't forget what's what.



Here are all 10 fingers, ready for the joining.



But I'm nervous, so I've been putting it off. What if the fingers aren't the right length? Or what if they're all right but one humongously long index finger? What if I really want each tip to start with red, rather than the haphazard way they were done?

In-between knitting fingers, I've also finally started my Curve of Pursuit afghan. I've been wanting to do this pattern for a couple of years, and finally decided to make one to go in my living room.




Picking up the stiches around the square gave me fits, though, and I had to do it several times until it was passable. I'm using 3 size 3 circular needles, but soon will need to buy a 4th pair.





Look at all those ends to weave in! This will definitely be my least favorite part of the project!

On and on and on

I had about 4 days of being a good blogger, and then slid back to my slacker ways....

Anyway, DS#2's room is officially finished, and he moved back in last Weds.



The woodwork and dresser are both bright blue, but the yellow and green colors show up correctly. He's been really liking it, and has even been doing his homework there.

Now, if only we would take care of the "leftovers" in the living room. You know, the things that you don't know what to do with and it takes too much brain power to figure it out. So, they just sit there taking up room and collecting dust.

My take-with-me knitting has been the ribbing for my Mirepoix vest. The ribbing that goes on and on and on and on....



The stitch marker shows how much I knitted during an hour's game.

On and on and on....

DD#2 was wondering if it'll fit me. I assured her that it would as the ribbing is very stretchy.

Except.... now she's put the seed of doubt into my brain and it won't leave. Soon, I'll have to try it on.

It needs to fit me, though, since to do major changes will effect the bodice, which will be in fair isle and I'M NOT AT ALL NERVOUS ABOUT THAT, ESPECIALLY SINCE I HAVE TO STEEK IT AT THE END AND THERE'S NO DO-OVERS.

In the meantime, I'll just knit.

On and on and on.

September roundup

Wow, September, where did you go?


1. The first thing I finished in Sept. was the Easy Lace Shrug for DD#2. It's been worn 3-4 times now, so I'll consider it a hit. (She might just be being nice, but that goes beyond the requisite 1-2 times. I'll go with she actually likes it.) (Sorry for the bad sentence structure. Apparently I need a refresher course. Again.)


2-5. Pink socks. 4 pairs to be exact. One for me and three for Mittens for Akkol.

Two boxes were mailed. One to Mittens for Akkol with 9 pairs of socks and one to CIC with 6 hat and mitten sets and 6 hats.

Wait! Is that it?

Time to finish some UFOs.

Room update

We've continuing to make daily progress on DS#1's room. (We--meaning the DSs but not me. However, I praise their work. And occasionally complain about their socks.)


There is now a second color. Lemon-lime, anyone?



DS#1 was wondering what was the importance of this picture, but didn't feel like moving and so he makes it onto the blog.

This is the next step. The tape is on the walls, and I actually helped. (There are two green walls and two yellow ones.)



DS#2 was taking a nap. He almost never does, so I guess we're wearing him out.

Red and black

If you happened to be reading Cookie A's blog from the last couple of days, you might've seen
this-- a summary of Cookie's weekend in So. Maryland. I'm not in any of the group photos, but YOU CAN SEE A PIC OF MY SOCKS!

Give me a moment....

Okay, I'm recovered....

....only to find that I loaded my pictures in reverse order.


Okay, hang on....

...done, and here we go.


The beginning of school started with such a blur that I never made mention of it. One (of the many) reasons is that DD#2 made the high school field hockey team (yea!) that practices 5 times of week (boo!). Her nights are usually a 2.5 hour practice, shower, supper, homework, fall exhausted into bed.

Games have started, and here she is knocking over running past an opponent. (Check out the spectators behind DD's head; I believe one is the fallen girl's mom. Not too happy, do you think?)



(As a side note, that's not really a side note but a very main note: Her winning team's score was 2-0 and she got both goals!)

The main reason I'm showing you this photo, besides the obvious bragging, is that you can see me in the stands. I'm wearing dark purple and I'm knitting a bright pink Lucy bag. Actually, I might be Kitchnering the straps together. Not very easy to do at a sports game, but possible.

As you can see, the school colors are red and black.



Remember my specially dyed sock yarn from last spring? This is what it's for. I plan on making socks and gloves for me to cheer on my kids as they participate on different sports teams. (Assuming they're on sports teams. And so far, it's true.)

I wound up the yarn that made an interesting plaid effect--just like DD's skirt.




It kept going as I kept winding.







DD just walked by and wondered if I had enough pics of the yarn.

Nope, I need one more.



There. Now I have enough.

Next, on to knitting.

A bit scary

I'm still very excited over yesterday's adventure, but have calmed down enough to type in lower case. And, I just want to add that I live out in no-wheres-ville, so the fact that Cookie came to within a half hour of my house was extra exciting. Usually it would be a 1.5-2 hour trek to a big city (like when I went to the Yarn Harlot's book signing).

Anyway, while I was out having fun, my boys were at home working hard. They were busy painting DS#2's bedroom. (Yes, while I was gone and NOT supervising. A bit scary and all.)

We're converting over DD#1's bedroom for DS#2. DD#1's been off at college/summer job for 3 years now while DS has been at home without a room of his own. (Too many pesky older siblings around.) It was time for him to have his own room. For real and not just temporary.

Here's a picture of the room before. (Not that I remembered to take one before they started so I had to look back through all the old pics. Apparently we don't have any of just the room, so I had to crop out the girl in curlers in this pic.)




Check out the BRIGHT royal blue walls and black woodwork. If you look closely, on the woodwork are words written with glow-in-the-dark paint.

If you think this is a good idea, THINK AGAIN!!! IT'S HORRIBLE TO TAKE OFF!!! You have to pick at it and pick at it and then it comes off with the paint and then you have to sand it to make it smooth. Uggh. (She really enoyed it, though for her high school years.)

As I was saying, it was time to move on , so the DSs started painting.

After the woodwork sanding, they primed the walls and painted the ceiling.




(Wow, what an exciting picture!!!)

Then, the first color of paint went on (Yes, I said first. But not last.)



Bright enough for you? Can anyone see it from the road?

I let him choose his colors, just like DD did, but what's wrong with picking a nice, soft, light blue? Nope, not for him.

I've also discovered something a bit disturbing.

Why are there THREE PAIRS of socks by the doorway?

"They're painting socks, mom, so we don't get our feet covered with paint."




"Do you need to put on a new pair of socks every time you paint???? How about putting on the same pair so you only ruin two socks and not a multitude?"

They've been adequately yelled at, so I think that's covered.

Yep, it's a little bit scary.

I DID SOMETHING NEW TODAY!!!!

GUESS WHAT I DID TODAY!!!!!!!????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm still so excited that it has to be all CAPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! )

I TOOK A KNITTING CLASS!!!!!!!

I've been knitting since 4th grade and I've never taken an actual knitting class.

AND GUESS WHO WAS THE TEACHER????

CAN YOU GUESS?????

Here's a good clue. Recognize this sock?






Or maybe this one?





Did you guess that it was Cookie A?



AND SHE WAS THIS CLOSE TO ME!!! I WAS SITTING IN THE FRONT ROW!!! SEE THE RED FOLDER WITH MY NAME IN THE CORNER????? (not that you can read it, but it's there). I WAS SITTING RIGHT HERE!!! AND WHEN WE WERE KNITTING SHE WAS TALKING TO US!!!! (Not that I was really talking back, too star struck, but she was making the effort anyway.)

And this table held all sorts of socks that she's designed, THAT WE GOT TO TOUCH AND PASS AROUND!!!!



(Note to self: must look up the Mingus pattern--it's beautiful, even if it is filled with twisted ribs. I might need to knit it anyway.)


I wore my Katrina Rib sweater and my Hedera socks, both of which she noticed, and my Hedera took a photo op with the original Hedera!



Cookie was giving classes on the Island for a weekend retreat for a Virginia group. We could sign up for any or all classes, so I just took the afternoon class called, "Traveling stitches". (Busy weekend and all that. Plus, I don't know if I could stand any more excitement!) It was a fun 3 hour class, and here's my swatch.



Cables traveling this way and lace panels traveling that way. (And a dropped stitch traveling down thataway.)(But that's okay 'cause it was time to move on to the next thing.)(It was only kind of okay--I really felt the need to fix it, but it really is only a swatch, so I resisted.)

And here she is signing Joanne's book (who couldn't attend, but her book had the afternoon free.)




She signed mine too, then I came back to the real world, went grocery shopping, cooked supper, and did dishes.

BUT IT SURE WAS AN EXCITING DAY!!!!!

Mailed today

Finished another pair of pink socks. (32 sts, faux cable rib, a lavender Cascade 220 held with a sock yarn.)




These were added to my Mittens_4_Akkol stash and 9 pairs were mailed out today.



You can see that I concentrated on rust(not red) and pink ones.

Also, I mailed out the CIC box today for the hat/mitten challenge.



There are 6 hat and mitten sets, 3 hats, and 3 more hats that match the mittens that Marie made.

Another box was also mailed, containing a birthday present for DD#1--where has the time gone?

More pink socks

Tired of pink socks yet? I'm not. (Not quite, anyway).

Here's another pair, and this time they're for me.

They're little stretch sockies using one skein of Patons stretch pink plus a bit of blue for the toes. I had 4-6 rows of yarn left over, so if I had smaller feet I might've been able to just use one skein.



Knitted on size 2 dpns, 64 sts, plain vanilla pattern.

Lots of pink

I've been knitting more socks for charity. Specifically, I wanted to make another pair for Mittens_4_Akkol before they were done with the sock challenge. (And they're a fast bunch of knitters, so I had to hurry.)

In addition, I decided to use up this ball of yarn.




For a large pair, I mixed it with some Patons crazy stripes.



And this is how they turned out!



They're done toe up using the Coriolis sock pattern with 2 strands of sock yarn using size 5 dpns. They're large on my feet, and measure to 27 cm (the size I was aiming for!) (My bookmark--and yes I do have one--doesn't turn up the pattern. It's by Cat Bordhi and was on the DIY show Knitty Gritty.)

They're definitely fraternal, rather than identical.



Here you can see a better view of the Coriolis swirling around the sock. That's where the increases are for the gusset, and then are a decorative element up the leg.



There was yarn leftover, so next I paired it with a Patons black sock yarn. (Note to self: Buy more black sock yarn, it's very useful.)



And look how pretty these turned out:




Magic "32" pattern on size 5 dpns. These measure 17 cm and will also go to Akkol.

Some of the Patons stripes was leftover, so I'm working on another pair, this time pairing it with a Cascade 220.



So far "they" (meaning: I hope there will be a second one) look like this:



Lots of pinks make lots of socks.