Saturday, July 7, 2007

And that is why we knit for other people...

I gave B the scarf for J's birthday. She was in tears reading the note, and again when she opened it up. Well, I had hoped it would touch her, but I didn't mean to upset her! There were hugs all around and later she sent me a Hallmark e-card in appreciation. Later, there was some glitch and Hallmark sent the message 7 times. She was apologizing and I told her I would save them for the gift recipients who don't appreciate the effort. Interesting coincidence, her nail polish color that day was a PERFECT match for the scarf...

I've been alternating between two projects since then.

<= I finished the gusset for the Brea bag, decreased from 16 to 12 stitches, folded the edges around, and started the i-cord for strap. The cord is 120 rows, boring, but it goes fast, good for commute knitting. Once the three cords are done, I will loosely braid them together and then kitchener to opposite side of gusset. I'm quite proud of myself for not starting something new. It's a little disingenuous since I *have* started maybe 10 new things since the first of the year, but every little bit helps. I have a button, clasp, pendant thing that will go with this PERFECTLY. I found it by accident and it has the same shape as the lotus petal, is primarily pearlescent white with a little bit of black and orange in it!!

Morning Glory => I am about 25 rows into the 58 rows total. I did an Excel spreadsheet (I love numbers) and figured out that I have about 20% of the knitting done. There will be over 600 stitches by the time it's done. I love the way this is working out. After all the struggling with learning the chart on Dogs Paw, I'm delighted to see this is making sense sooner. I added two repeats to chart to account for general boobage, but I think it will be a "one size fits most" if I decide to not keep it. DD saw the pix and pronounced it worthy of the old "You Knit What" webpage, so clearly it is not for her.

Yesterday, we took another look, with the realtor, of what might be our new home. The house has been on the market for several months, price has been reduced 10%. House is being sold as-is, but the few items needing attention are not massive. We may make an offer contingent on the house inspection. But how can you not love a house with 3 separate walls of stuff like this:

There are DOZENS of shallow drawers for placemats, etc. It almost looks like they were set up for architectural drawings. God bless my DH - he brought a skein of yarn to check it in the shallow drawers (they are about 4 inches high, lots of nooks and crannies to store stuff).



A couple of non-negotiables that are probably keeping this house on the market are: NO back yard (not a problem for me - lawn mowing is SO over) and it's located on a busy street with the city bus stopping 30 yards west of the front door. The street noise is pretty well muted by the windows and would be even more so if we replaced them with double panes. The kitchen is small, but soon it will be just the two of us, and cooking is not a pastime or hobby with me; it's a necessary evil. My current kitchen is HUGE but poorly designed so having everything closer works for me. There's even a built-in spice rack behind those cupboard doors at the far end, and they are probably 4 inches deep.

So, we're thinking about it and thinking about getting prequalified. There are not loads of buyers lining up for this house, so we've had some time, but I think we need to get moving on it Monday.

Finally, an old friend, my former BFF where we lived before, was in town and we got together and we had a grand old time. Things had sort of cooled off between us over the last couple of years. We just had the BEST time today! She comes from a small town that is not LYS-enabled (watch out for "enable" - it comes into play later) and so we hit three of my favorite LYSs - Naked Sheep (having their 2nd anniversary sale this weekend!), Mabel's (where Mom met us for yarn and a sip and a nosh =>) and Yarn Garden. I told her this was so much more shopping than I was used to, I'd have to have a cigarette afterwards.

In typical fashion, J netted out with only *2* skeins of yarn, but enabled me to do much worse, or is it better? Pix tomorrow when I've recovered.

So now, if I'm a good girl, I'll keep working on those two existing "current" projects and not start something with the new goodies, eh? Film at 11.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on the DH getting it like that--cool! And on getting to enjoy the time with your old friend. And best of luck on the decision on the house; it looks like it would be a beautiful one.