when usually it's nothing...

The cabinets were hung near the ceiling with care, and other very exciting news!.....

What a difference a week makes......

I am tickled pink with the way everything is shaping up as of late. Even though I was not the one choosing the materials and stuff for this kitchen I could not be more happy.  I am especially happy with the floor.  This floor, for me, is the, ah, crowning glory, tee hee.

It is nice to see progress being made.  Little baby steps.  I guess once you see cabinets on the walls you get a sense of what is really going on in your house.  I finally get a sense of what it is really going to look like.  It will be great to see how this space functions.

Did I mention how much I love the floor?  We looked high and low for this tile.  We looked at the expensive stuff, and we looked at the REALLY expensive stuff, and guess what?  The tile we liked the best was a cheap tile sold at Lowes.  Who knew?  Who could know?  Well, you know now....I like this tile so much I think I want the same thing in my family room....but I digress......

Now, back to me....I have some really great news!  I have accepted a position as a medical librarian.  I will be running the medical library at Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge, VA.  It will be great to get out of the house and into the world again.  Six months of being a "Desperate Housewife" has been fun, but I want more........don't we all?

Life is grand.  I am thankful every day I wake up, even if that day includes kitchen contractors.
I hope your life is grand too! All for now......

!@#$, @#$%, $%&*!...........

Well, This is what I have been living with for three weeks.....

No real progress.  NO KIDDING!!!!!!!!

Needless to say I am less than thrilled with said progress.

What is a man to do you ask?

Make big nasty phone calls to the owner of the company!

Guess what?  It worked......

I never expected this to happen over night.  I never expected it to be completed in a two weeks.  I did expect to be further along than we are now and evidently so does the owner of the company.  The owner is actually going to be working here all next week.  And I was told to expect all of the drywall hung, floors laid, and cabinets hung.

Nothing like a few well placed telephone calls, delivered in a very firm and professional manner to get the ball rolling.   I am not proud to admit that the previously mentioned telephone conversations were littered with MANY unsavory expletives.  Oh so many expletives......
I can curse like a sailor when the situation arises.  I must say that I do not make it a habit of cursing.  I do find that cursing serves a purpose when it is used, ah, sparingly, and in the right situation.  I have found that when one refrains from peppering their usual discourse with objectionable words said words are much more effective when used.  !@^$#%!

Presently, my wall is being moved and I could not be more happy.  Now I must run to the post office and drop off some dry cleaning.  I think I will treat myself to a Slurpee! Thanks for letting me vent.  All for now.........

April's Christmas Stocking.........

Last Christmas the husband my dearest friend April Asked me to knit his lovely wife a stocking.
I of course said yes.  Well, to make a long story short, his request came a week before Christmas and I was not able to knit it up in time for last years festivities.  I am happy to say that I did complete it in time for this holiday season.

Dear sweet April requested something in an icy blue with white accents.  She requested no Santa heads, Christmas trees, or Reindeer!  So I thought icicles.  Why not?  It kept with the Icy blue theme.  I hope she is happy with the end result.

I knit the entire thing in the round and stranded the icicles.  The yarn was not the best to knit with as I used  Red Heart yarn.  I always use cheap acrylic for Christmas stockings as it stretches for days and will last for several centuries.

No Christmas stocking would be complete without the requisite jingle bells so I added as many as I had on hand.
Hey, Christmas decorations are supposed to be tacky!

I am of the opinion that Christmas and large weddings are supposed to be tacky.  There is no such thing as a "big" tasteful wedding.  This opinion was formed early in my youth after attending many big Polish weddings in Michigan.  When I was growing up it was not uncommon for a wedding reception to be attended by five or six hundred people, replete with a live polka band and a DJ (they took turns).

I also grew up not fifteen miles from Bronners, the worlds largest Christmas store!  Oh this place has to be seen to be believed!  It brings new meaning to the phrase over the top.....I love it.  I visit Bronners every time I visit home.

So this is what I have been knitting the last couple of days.......Waiting.......and waiting......as often I am....for the plumber who is not going to show. 

It ticks me off.  I could have gone into the city on this gloriously cold and sunny day and just walked around and visited a couple of museums or something.

Oh well, life goes on.  In the grand scheme of things this is a drop in the bucket.  I just wish they would call to let me know if they are not going to be working.

What are you going to do? 

So I knit......and knit some more..........

All for now...........                                     

 

 

Mare's Silky-mouse.......

Ahh, what a nice way to spend an afternoon.  I knit Mare's Silky-mouse! It was a blast.

My mousie is not so silky as I knit it in Kureyon instead of the Silk Garden called for in the pattern.  I have some Silk Garden in the stash and will use it next time as the Kureyon was a bit sticky on the bamboo needles.  I also knit very tightly so that may have added to the stickiness.

All in all this is an excellent pattern, well written,  and a fun and quick knit. The braided cable down the little mouse back is to die for! I love cables....I needed something fun today as the contractors did not show up for work.....AGAIN......needless to say, I made a couple of calls and am waiting a response.  Fun Fun Fun!  Microwave Thanksgiving dinner anyone?  Yum Yum!

I continue to knit Hugh but did not touch it all weekend.  I have a big stretch of alone time over the holiday and all I plan on doing is sitting in front of the fire with my animals, my knitting, and a bunch of as yet unwatched DVDs.  Hmmm  I think I will pick up the new Harry Potter as well...All for now...........

Kitchen Chaos........

The kitchen is toast, so to speak, pun intended.  We are having our kitchen gutted this week with subsequent remodel to follow.  The first time I saw this kitchen I almost cried.  It was that bad. Period.

You should see the other half.......

Words can not describe the hideousness of the....well...everything.  The floors were nasty peel and stick tiles stuck on some kind of wood one step above cardboard.  Said cardboard was stapled to one layer of vinyl flooring.  The vinyl was glued to a layer of Forest green linoleum tiles.  These green tiles were covering a yellow and white checkerboard pattern of linoleum tiles. 

The walls were covered by a nasty type of paneling that can only be described as having a pattern like grandmothers curtains.....A faux brocade green tile paneling, it was magnificent in it's hideousness.  The counters were a lovely white flecked Formica, tinged yellow with age.
The cabinets were solid wood and custom made.......IN 1950!.......oh yes, the contractors assured me they were solid.  Poor guys.

Demolition began on Monday.  Everything was ripped out.  See below........

this is what I was left with on Tuesday.  A nice new sub-floor........I had questions.......Aren't you going to close off this doorway and open this wall BEFORE you lay the tile......didn't the contract call for a total gut to the studs........AHEM.........it did.....wonder that! 

Then the contractors did not show for work on Wednesday!  Who knew?  Who could know?  I was waiting patiently all day...........Waiting, as often I am............NOTHING.............no call......so, I went to the Library,  I needed to be near my people.  Not that I know them, or that they know me.  I have spent the better part of the last fifteen years of my life and career in libraries and I needed to get out of the @#$%ing house!

Well,  This morning, Thursday,  one of the guys arrived at 7:00 am,  and asked me if we were all on the same page.  I said "HUH?".......Evidently the guys raised questions with the project manager and they were informed that this was supposed to be a GUT TO THE STUDS! .....NO KIDDING..... I told them before that was what was in the contract.  They didn't listen, or they listened enough to ask the PM more about the job.  Well, everything took care of itself and I did not have to call anyone and complain.  So this is what I have going on as I type.

A nice kitchen gut to the studs, just like we ordered.  All is well that ends well i guess.
The picture is not blurry, that is just plaster dust hanging in the air, of which I am allergic.
Claritin, Sudafed, anyone?

I almost laughed in the guys face when he told me the cabinets would be hung by Friday, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I just had to add that as sometimes my own laughter is just not enough.
Right..........Total gut and drywall hung, ceramic floor laid, cabinets hung, new plumbing, new electrical in three days.......I wasn't born yesterday, even if I do look it! ;)

So, I will be having Chinese takeout for Thanksgiving dinner, or maybe a Swanson frozen dinner...but I digress.....

I will say one thing bout the contractors.  These guys work hard.  They don't even stop for a lunch break.  From 7:00am till they leave it is contant activity.  They work hard for their money and they deserve every penny of it.

Through all of this I have been listening to Uma, my cat MEOWING CONSTANTLY from the confines of HER bedroom.  Life goes on in Virginia. I am a third of the way done on knitting the front of Hugh. All for now..........

The Back of Hugh.......

I completed the back of Hugh a couple of days ago.  I cast on for the front and am just a couple of pattern repeats into the front.  I am still loving this sweater....... The kitchen gets gutted tomorrow.  I know it will be a BIG mess....and frustrating......but worth the agony.... I don't know how much time I will have to knit while supervising all the chaos in the house this week.  I will post before and after photos.  Wish me luck.  All for now........

A bunch of Peace Fleece.........

I ordered some yarn from Peace Fleece Last Tuesday and it arrived Friday!  Fast service, faster than they usually are.  I was excited none the less.

So there you have it, the whole haul. Thirty five skeins of the stuff.  I will be busy for the next month or so.  There is nothing like moving to a different part of the country with a colder climate than you have been used to for the past twenty years or so to get you to knit sweaters.  And sweaters it will be. On the left side of the picture are ten skeins of Grass Roots, in the middle are ten skeins of Ancient Fern ,  On the right are ten skeins of Tundra, and the bag holds a kit and pattern for the Simple Pie Vest in Siberian Midnight.

I will be happily knitting my Peace Fleece for a while to come.   I did cast on for "Hugh" from the Rowan book A Season's Tale yesterday afternoon with the Ancient Fern.  More on that later this week. I can not tell you how much I like this stuff.  It is a bit firm to knit with but the knitted fabric totally transforms after a warm bath, almost as if it were another yarn.  I think the warm bath helps the mohair content "bloom"!

I noticed TypePad has changed yet again.  I never read their updates or e-mails but TypePad is so intuitive and easy to use I never really have to use their help to figure out how to use new features. 
Are there any other TypePad knit bloggers out there who also like the new layout and blogging / posting features as much as I do?  I especially like the edit html tab next to the compose post tab.  I also noticed this morning that a photo shows up in the compose post window as opposed to just the html code. 

It is the little surprises that make for a good Sunday afternoon.  All for now........

He's Come Undone........

Let me introduce you to James.....

Yes, James has come undone. I was just not happy with this sweater. The knitted fabric on the body was much more stiff than the fabric on the arms. The arm fabirc draped much more due to the inclusion of the non Kureyon yarn. I suppose I could have just knitted the arms in a different contrast yarn but the love for this sweater was just not there. I do love working with Kureyon though. I think this sweater would be nice done in Silk Garden as I think it would have more drape to the knitted fabric. I did learn how to seam a sweater. This was the first adult sweater I have knit flat, in pieces. I feel liberated.

I have been swatching for "Hugh" from the Rowan book A Season's Tale. Here are my swatches done in Peace Fleece in the color Ancient Fern. I have a huge order from Peace Fleece on the way.

I love working with Peace Fleece and the knitted fabric is heaven after a nice warm bath.
All for now........

James.......

I have been Knitting James from the latest Jane Ellison book. I really like these patterns and will probably knit something else from this book. James caught my eye when the book was first published. I had a bag of Kueyon #55 and thought it would lend itself to this pattern. I like the subdued tones in Kyreyon #55. I am not a light bue or pink kind of guy but it looks great in this sweater.

I did not follow the pattern to the letter. I changed the entire pattern. James is supposed to be slouchy and drop shouldered. My James is going to be fitted, but not tight. I think the sweater in Silk Garden would be better slouchy as the knitted fabric of SG might have a bit more drape. It wil be neat to see how James looks and feels after a nice soapy bath!

I decided to do the sleeves in the round from the top down as I want them to fit perfectly, or as close to perfect as possible. I made the sweater much more fitted than was called for in the pattern. The sleeves are a bit more fitted as well. I decided on rolled edges instead of the garter stitch edges called for in the book. I will do rolled edges on the sleeves. I seamed the shoulders with a three needle bind off and I crocheted the side seams. I aded the rolled bottom edge after seaming and went down a needle size to pull in the bottom of the sweater a bit. I am happy with the results at this point in the process.
It is a fun, simple, mindless knit. More later. All for now......

More DC fun and a little knitting......

I had a wonderful time with some dear friends this past week. Saturday evening was spent with a former colleague and mentor from my days in Orlando, FL. We had a great visit playing catch-up and chatting about old times. I wish we could see more of each other, perhaps in the future. Monday evening brought some more friends to DC. My dear friends April and Chip. April and I lived together for years in Macon, GA. A and C were celebrating their third wedding anniversary this week and they are still going strong!

We ran around DC like little kids and had a blast. This was the fist time Chip had ever seen DC and I know he had a good time. We visited all the memorials and a few of the museums. Here is a picture of part of the WWII Memorial. This memorial takes my breath away.

One of the neatest things we saw this week was Julia Child's kitchen installed in the Smithsonian.

I just loved that lady. She was so funny without even trying. I remember watching her when I was a lttle kid. This kitchen brought back memories.

I took LOTS of pictures and the next one is my favorite from this weeks excursions. This is the Lincoln Memorial viewed from the WWII Memorial.

We had a neat visit to the Jefferson Memorial as well. The three of us were the only people there.

Now for a little knitting content. April brought a skein of Berroco Hip-Hop yarn and I made this hat from this free pattern on the Berroco site.

April requested a little "Tweedy Flower" For her lapel and I came up with this...

I used a leaf pattern from some book I had in my collection and the Flower pattern from this Gorgeous Creation!

April Loved the result and I think it will look great on her lapel.

I am alone for the remainder of this week so i was up very late last night and cast on for "James" from the Jane Ellison Noro book 2. I was up untill three am knitting... the bag of Kureyon I bought before I left Macon, GA is as soft as soft can be. It is musch softer than some other balls of Kureyon I have bought in the past. I am not complaining mind you. Has anyone else had this experience with Kureyon? So, I knit James full steam ahead, albeit with a few modifications from the original pattern. More on the modifications later.
It has been a full week. All for now......