little bit of crazy leaking out

Think my husband will notice this sitting in the living room?  Me, either.

I headed out this morning with Anne to go and take a look at the wheel. 

Okay, it wasn’t that smooth.  I headed to the bank to hit the ATM and the armored car was there, 10 minutes the guys with the guns said.  So I parked and went inside with Bubba in tow, got the cash and headed off again.  About half way to Anne’s I realized I had left the instructions to her house sitting on the table at home.  Turned around, got the instructions and we were off again.  When we finally arrived and inspected the wheel Anne gave it her seal of approval.

The wheel does need some love.  It is an older Ashford Traditional and came with a lazy kate and seven bobbins. The wood is quite dry and needs to be oiled as do the works.  It is missing the break band tension knob (see arrow in photo below) so I’ll be heading off to Home Depot to see if a peg can be found to fit.  The flyer only has one ratio, but at this point I think one is more than enough and, in the far distant future, a new flyer with more ratios can always be purchased.

If you don’t hear from me in the next few days it’s because I’m oiling my wheel.

It might be possible that I am dragging a spinning friend with me to go and look at this in the morning, and I might possibly be bringing it home to live at my house if it gets the “Good Anne Seal of Approval”.

Some of you may remember last summer when I made Hubby the hat.  He disliked the hat.  He couldn’t say exactly why he disliked the hat, just didn’t like it.  Okay, fine, no more knitting for you, Hubby.

For this last holiday season I made socks for several of the male gift recipients, Hubby was made to model them for the blog and he kept asking when I was going to make any for him.  Never.  A few weeks ago I was working on a scarf which was based on some I had seen Amy knititng.  

Pattern: none - 18sts 1×1 rib alternating yarns every two rows
Yarn: Noro Kureyon - 147 & 157 (one new, one from stash)

Hubby loves this scarf.  Loves the way the colors change.  Loves how loud it is. Loves. The. Scarf.

“So you’d like a hat like this?”

“Oh, yeah!”

“Okay . . . sure.”

i don’t think I will ever understand this man.  This is the same guy, who while we were furniture shopping, didn’t like certain pieces because they were . . . “to shapey”.  WTF?

I went to my LYS and picked up two more skeins of Noro, one was the brightest one I could find and the other more subdued.  I cast on Thursday night and finished it on Saturday.   He loves it.  I think it is the loudest, most horrible hat I have ever seen. Okay, maybe not EVER, but close.

pattern:  Ann Norling #55 - Head Huggers
yarn:  Noro Kureyon
cast on:  January 25th   cast off:  January 27th
notes:  Oh, I lined it with some Pashmina it picked up on clearance New Years Day at the LYS. 

(post started before the onset of the plague) 

Another finished hat . . .

pattern:  Avalanche Hat Pattern (pdf)
yarn:  Lamb’s Pride Bulky (85% Wool 15% Mohair) from stash
cast on/off:  Jan 11th
notes:  I knit the pattern as written, but with the thinner yarn and smaller gauge the resulting hat is more of an infant size.

I think I’m done with hats for a while.  I started the Tomten a while ago and need to get it finished, just needs the buttonband.

Friday I took Bubba to McD’s so he could play, we’ve had so many snow days that he’s started getting cabin fever.  While he played I cast on for a pair of mitten for Bug.  She has been asking for a pair with cuffs that go upto the elbows, “so that the snow doesn’t get in.”  Luckily she’s only 7 and this means she has short arms.  The first mitten only has the thumb to be finished, nothing fancy, just basic mittens with long cuffs. 

When last I posted I was happily knitting away on hats for Dulaan, whacking together shelves and de-cluttering closets. Oh, how quickly things change.

Saturday was Bug’s 7^th b’day party, I went out in the morning to pick up some party favors and the cake. While I was out I developed a little cough, nothing big, no problem, just a little cough. We had Bug’s party at the bowling alley, and let me just say, it was a big hit with the 6-7yo crowd. For a portion of the party they turned out the lights, had a light show and cranked up the tunes. One of the girls told me that this was the “best place ever”. It was also a hoot watching some of the other moms dancing to YMCA. After the party we came home to decompress, eat more cake, feed the kids and put them to bed. By this time I started to feel really rough and I went to bed early.

I remember very little about Sunday. I woke up alternately freezing and burning up. Between shots of Nyquil I slept. The fever made we sweat like a menopausal elephant, I lost 5lbs, no lie.

Bug is sick now, too. Hubby stayed home on Monday to take care of us and now he’s sick and missed work Tuesday, but figures if he misses work tomorrow his boss will be all over his ass, sick or not. Today was a snow day for the kids and who knows if they will be in school tomorrow or not, depends on how icy it is. Either way I’m sure they will be staying home, sick.

It seems I have been sick since Thanksgiving, and I have. Just before Thanksgiving I went into our Dr’s office to get Bubba’s vaccination records so he could start Pre-school and two days later I got sick. Thursday I took Bug into the Dr’s office for her toe and Saturday I got sick. Coincidence? I think not!

Today I am feeling better, except for my knee (I’m not exactly sure what I did to it, but it hurts like a mother, but do I want to go back to the plague factory?), so now I get to take care of the sick kiddos and pick up the pieces from when I was sick.

Woohoo, good times!

A week or so ago I was knitting with Amy and the conversation turned to home.  She had bought a condo and decorated it and loved how it felt like home.  My house, not so much. 

I went to the libray and picked up a few books, do you see a theme?

Hubby and I bought our house almost seven years ago, the house is small (1085sqft) but we have a large lot (½ acre) with the idea that you can always add onto the house, but you can’t add onto the lot. We spent all our money on the house and had very little nothing left to decorate it. Having been together for almost 18 years and living together (married or not) for most of that time, we rented apartments, houses, we even lived with my parents for a period of time while we were finishing school and house hunting. Our decorating style could be called . . . oh, hell, who am I kidding, what style? We have several hand-me-down pieces, and a collection of items that just don’t really go together. We also have two young children and the idea of buying new furniture makes me nervous; hand prints, spills, bodily fluids *shudder*, but I am tired of feeling like a renter in my own home. 

This spring/summer I going to construct some built-in bookshelves, a whole wall of them.  I’m painting and putting up some real art on the walls.  We are getting new curtains, the ones we have currently are horrible.  A slipcover for the loveseat and a cushion for the wicker chair.  

I have been on a cleaning and organizing kick this last week. For the last couple of years I have been yapping on about how deep our coat closet is and how we should put shelves in the back of the closet for our DVD/VHS collection. Well, I finally pulled my head out, took some measurements and headed off to the Big Box Home Improvement Center.  I had the wood cut (actually didn’t have to wait forever), came home, moved the hanging bar forward and whacked this together. (mouseover)

The next day I completely cleaned out the closet in Hubby’s and my bedroom.   Hubby is a clothes horse, and there is a lot he doesn’t wear.  There is now a large bag of clothes for the thrift shop, a couple of things to sell on e-bay and a whole lot of stuff that is just being thrown away.  I need to get some plastic shoe boxes for my side of the closet but aside from that it is completely cleaned out. 

The next thing to tackle is the under bed.  I want to get some underbed boxes and store my yarn there.  Right now the stash is in a large steamer trunk sitting in the hallway.  It’s in the way, but there is nowhere else to put the trunk, I want to empty it and get rid of it, it’s just too big for this little house. 

The biggest thing I need to do is just de-clutter.  We have boxes in the garage that have not be opened since we moved in . . . almost seven years ago!  Holey Carp!

Here is how much I knit while waiting for the NP to look at Bug’s toe this morning.  Toe will be ok, just have to soak it 3x a day for a week.  Hat will be another one for the Dulaan Project.

This is what I knit up last night.  Yes, that is snow in the background.

pattern:  Basic hat from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd with design inspiration from The Avalanche Hat Pattern (pdf) and a Flower Pom Pom
yarn:  Lamb’s Pride Bulky Limeade (from stash) and Classic Elite Paint Box (left over from the Einstein Coat)

This is what I knit over the weekend.

pattern:  Avalanche Hat Pattern (pdf)
yarn:  bottom two: Avalanche yarn (100% alpaca)
top two: Plymouth Yukon (35% mohair 35% wool 30% acrylic) from stash

Oh, and this one too.  I’ll have to save this picture for when he is teenager and wants to start dating.

pattern:  Avalanche Hat Pattern (pdf) and a Flower Pom Pom 
yarn:  Blizzard (65% Alpaca 35% Acrylic) from stash