Barely Related to Knitting

Two weeks ago, the husband was out of town for work for about five days.  So I decided to paint the living room.  We've lived in this house for nearly seven years now, and have done no painting whatsoever.  It's still entirely beige.  My mother, by contrast, hadn't owned her new house for two weeks before every room was a different, bold color.  Neither the husband nor I are against painting, we just hadn't made it happen.

Last spring, Ace Hardware had a deal where you could get a quart of paint for free.  We found the particular mossy green color I had always had in mind for the living room, and Mom got a can and I got one.  Our living room is a long open space that's really the same room as the dinning room, and is open to the kitchen.  So the plan was to paint  just two walls to set the living room space apart from the rest of it.  We thought two quarts would probably be enough.  I should have asked my dad to pick up a quart, too.

When the same get-a-quart-free deal rolled around this year, Mom and I figured it was time to use the paint from last year.  With the husband out of town for a bit, we had a great opportunity to surprise him.  He had known we were getting the paint last year, but hadn't heard about it since.  So when he left for the airport, I took Lil One to my mother-in-law's, gathered equipment, and got ready.

Here's the before picture, ready to paint, with husband's motorcycle cover doing duty as a couch protector.

(Standing next to the dinning room table to take this picture -- see the chair in the lower right)

Mom and my brother came over Sunday afternoon to help paint.  Turns out that we needed three quarts, which only became apparent after Ace was closed for the day.  Here is Sunday's progress, and the patches we couldn't quite get.

So Monday morning I went back to Ace for one more quart, and that afternoon while kiddo was napping I finished the job.  Painted over those two patches, and gave a second coat to the bits where we had been skimping to try to make the paint be enough.  Here are the after pictures with everything back in place except throw pillows and the pictures on the wall.

(On the left of this picture you can see where the room is open to the kitchen and the door to the garage.)

 

Here's how this is all (barely) related to knitting -- as I put the furniture back I re-arranged a little bit, bringing  in another chair from the sun porch and creating a lovely little knitting corner by the window.  Of course this was also a great opportunity to organize my living room stash.  While it was all spread out in the den during painting, it took nearly half the floor space.

Husband didn't say much about it, and it took a couple of days to get a sense of whether or not he liked it.  He does, he just doesn't care very much about what color the walls are, which is probably part of why it's all still beige.

I love it, and am now plotting about the laundry nook and the half-bath.  Yellow.  Somewhere between sunshine and cornbread.

Yarn Along - Golden Lion Throne

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along again this week.  Check out what everyone is reading and knitting, and join in the fun.

I have recently discovered the Craftlit Podcast by Heather.  I had to go back to the beginning and start listening to everything (I'm "that sort of bear"), so I've just finished listening to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  I am really enjoying this podcast.  Good crafting talk, great literary talk, and books.  It is a bit weird listening to episodes from several years ago.  She made a reference to information she got from a knitters' yahoo group, and I realized these episodes are pre-Ravelry.  What a watershed moment it was for knitters when Ravelry was created!  Hard to imagine what we'd do without it, now.

The project I'm knitting for myself right now is the Golden Lion Throne, a shawl made with both lace and mosaic knitting techniques.  I'm taking a class for this at my LYS, and it's quite nice to have a small group of us working through the pattern together.  I really am loving it.  The rows are very long - four of them in an hour and a half is good progress, and the pattern requires lots of attention.  But I am still enjoying the knitting, and I think the result is going to be wonderful.

I'm at about row 70 of 101.

2013 Washcloths - February Edition

February's washcloth is done already.  The pattern for February 2nd on my pattern-a-day calendar was Snowdrop Lace.  Since we got some snow that day, I decided it would be perfect for a washcloth.  This was made with Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Cotton, in the color CFCT025, which is a silvery grey.  I quite like this lace pattern.  Easy to memorize, simple, looks good.  Two down, fourteen to go.

Several people commented on my Facebook link to the post about January's washcloth, letting me know where in my area I could get Sugar 'n Cream yarn.  I found out about a JoAnn's Fabrics & Crafts I didn't know was nearby, and have already been to stock up on dishcloth cotton and buttons for Baby Surprise Jackets.  Thanks, commentors!

I finished the husband's gloves last Sunday, but since he's been wearing them to work everyday this week, my first chance to get a daylight picture of them will be this weekend.

Tomorrow I'll be starting a class at my LYS to knit the Golden Lion Throne Shawl (the blue and cranberry colored shawl in the pictures on the Ravelry pattern page is the one knit by an employee at my LYS).  I'm really looking forward to it.  Fancy knitting for myself!

Yarn Along

Back to participating in Ginny's Yarn Along this week.

"What to Expect the First Year" is another of the books I've been reading bit by bit over the last year. Not my favorite baby info book, but very helpful. I didn't really read "What to Expect When You're Expecting" very much, but I did read this one thoroughly.

These socks have been my traveling socks since January, and I just finished them on Labor Day weekend. They've ridden around with me, mostly in the diaper bag, growing by a round here, an inch there. Now, with hardly any concentrated effort, I have a new pair of socks for me! The pattern is the Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula by Amy Swenson from the Summer 2006 edition of Knitty. I did a 2x2 ribbing for the entire leg, switching to a 1x1 ribbing for a one-inch cuff. I believe I have enough left to make a hat for my Lil One.

I think now I'm all caught up on finished objects. Good thing I cast on something new at Knit Night this week!

First Shawl

With part of my Christmas gifts of Lambikin's Hideaway gift cards I recently took a class to make a lace shawl.

The class was taught by Mindy and used her first pattern, the Holden Shawlette (available for free on Ravelry). The class was very popular and the store is offering another session in March, as well as another class featuring a beaded shawl (details at the Lambikin's site linked above).

I used a skein of Juliana Fingering yarn (70% alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere), which was dyed by Mindy -- her yarns are at Ewe3 over on Etsy. I think the popularity of the shawl classes and of Lambikin's Saturday Sock Club has greatly depleted her available stock, but I know more will be on the way. I used the Violet Vale colorway, which is three different shades of one color of purple. I love everything about this yarn, and one skein was more than enough -- I probably could have done another repeat of the lace pattern.

This pattern is a great introduction to lace knitting and to triangle top-down shawls. The stockinette portion isn't so big that you get discouraged or bored, and the lace is simple but beautiful. There are really only two rows per repeat where you really need to concentrate closely. I could handle baby-interruptions on all other rows. The picot bind-off takes a really long time, but is totally worth it.
Here's a shot of the shawl pre-blocking:

During its soak in the tub:

And while it was pinned out:

It's another new FO that I seem to wear every time I leave the house. I think I may have caught the Shawl Bug.

First Finished Object of 2011

Well that didn't take very long at all. My first finished object for the year is a Star-Crossed Slouchy Beret (ravelry link) for myself.

I used Malabrigo Yarn Merino Worsted in the Purple Mystery color. I bought this skein early last year, and had been saving it for a time when I could make myself something for a treat. I think right after Christmas and a year of baby knitting qualifies! I only used about half the skein, so I'm trying to decide whether to make another hat or some matching fingerless mitts. I'll probably make the mitts.

This was a super fast project. I cast on on Wednesday, January 5th and finished on Saturday the 8th. I really enjoyed working with this yarn; it's a fluffy single. I also really like the pattern and love the finished hat. I haven't left the house without it since it finished blocking. On the recommendation of Alisha, who has made at least five of these hats, I went down a needle size and used #9 (5.5mm) for the ribbing and #10.5 (6.5mm) for the body of the hat. I'm quite glad I did because I like the fabric better this way, but I would have liked to have a slightly larger pie plate to use for blocking it -- just to give it a little extra slouch.

You can see the cables a little better in this picture, but not the colors (there aren't many good picture-taking opportunities in January, I'm afraid).

This was a great start to a new year of knitting!