Lots of pics today...

Today is Sunday, and my computer has been disconnected since Wednesday night. I hooked it up today so that I could do a couple things, and decided to show all ya'all what I've been upto the last few days.

I'll skip over the story about having the third front door lock drilled out since August (and thank my mother for putting up with my near hysteria that night), and move on to the good things that happened this week. I had the sticky switch on my sump pump replaced, and it has been working flawlessly since Monday night. You can all breathe a collective sigh of relief because I'm not going to talk about it anymore; I might actually go back to talking about knitting.

Before I get to the knitting pictures, I have some before and after home improvement pictures. First, we have the the window between the hall and the bathroom. I've never been able to figure out why someone would install a window between the hall and the bathroom...it just seems wrong to me, but it was not for me to judge. My job was to rip out the window.

Here is what the window looked like from the hall.

Here is what the window looked like from the bathroom. Complete idiocy.

And here we have the same views with window removed:

All I can say is wow, but that's not even the best of it:



This is the corner at the turn of the stairs that has been professionally redone. It is a friggin' masterpiece and it's not even finished yet.

I'd like to restate that the guy who remodeled my house about 10 years ago was a complete hack. He pulled out all the original woodwork, installed exterior windows in the interior of the house between rooms that shouldn't have windows, and he ruined every single corner in this house. The contractors expect to be done with the painting on Tuesday and I can't wait. From the entry foyer up the stairs upto and including the 2nd floor hallway will look amazing, and I didn't have to do it myself! Yippee.

And now on to the knitting! Yesterday I finished tucking in all the ends on the scarf I made for my sister, H. The pattern calls for pom poms, and although I made the pom pom version for myself, I don't really see H as someone who would appreciate a scarf with eight pom poms hanging off it. http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=104&d_id=42&lang=us

I love this scarf. This is a Holly scarf: BIG... HONKIN'... CABLES. This will totally go w/ H's eyes, and I hope she likes it. (Hi!)

I wound all my Dream in Color Groovy, I found the Cable and Lace Pullover by Cecily Glowik MacDonald sweater pattern, and plan to (finally) cast it on tonight.

This sweater is an exact duplicate of the one I made for myself in the fall but gave to my sister H, mentioned above. I love the pattern and I love the yarn. It should go pretty quick - I'll put up some pics when I have anything interesting to show.

I'm going to sign off now. I have to disconnect my computer again, cover it and my desk in plastic and move the whole operation away from the wall. Workmen arrive at 7:30 sharp...

Finished Object Alert!

I am up at the crack of dawn. It's 5:20 AM now, but I've been up since 4:09. I have an ultrasound at 7:30, I'm nervous and I can't sleep. I'll probably be sitting at my desk in a coma by 2PM this afternoon. I may or may not write further on this topic if there are interesting developments but for now I'll just say that my thyroid is giving me a pain in the neck.

I finished my cowl, and it is a) really pretty, and b) really huge. It has been unseasonably warm, so I'm not sure when I'll wear it, but I love the way it turned out.

Tonight I'm going to wind my hanks of Dream in Color Groovy and get started on another Cable and Lace Sweater. I'll post pics when I have them.

That's all I have for this morning. I'm going to do a few minutes on the Wii before I get going. More soon.

Saturday = Knit all Day

Yesterday was a great day. D, B and I had made plans to go to IKEA b/c I need to create some semblance of organization in the spare room that is becoming the yarn room. I was hoping to find some shelves or a bookcase, but I came home with neither. I DID grab a couple clear lidded bins, covered boxes, and those containers that are used to house a year or two of periodicals - in my case the last few years of Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting. The items will all go in/on the shelving once I decide what I want. Once I sign off here, I'm headed into that room to do a little work. On the way back from Stoughton we stopped at The Stitch House in Dorchester (Columbia Road exit off Southeast Expressway). I was aware the store was there, but I'd never been there before. It was a very nice store - half is dedicated to sewing (there was a class going on while we were there) and half the store is a yarn shop (where they were running what appeared to be a beginners knitting class). We ran into a woman who we saw two weeks ago up at Yarns in the Farms in Beverly Farms. Knitters live in a parallel universe, I swear. What do we do on the weekends? Go to yarn stores. If there was not a speck of food in this house, I would choose a yarn store over a grocery store 9 times out of 10. The 1 time out of 10 would be for when I'm out of kitty litter.
I had a chance to meet the owner, Annissa, and she was great. They had a sample of Classic Elite's Aspen Capelet in Cleckheaton Gusto 10. http://www.classiceliteyarns.com/popup.php?i=/dadabik/uploads/AspenCapeletLg.jpg I don't go in much for shrugs and capelets, but I LOVE cowls. I was able to restrain myself enough to just buy the pattern book and enough yarn for this one project. In a shocking twist of fate, I went with the turquoise; I just can't help myself. After our trip to The Stitch House, we went back to D's loft where we had pizza and knitted while watching Weeds for the next six hours. It's fair to say that a good time was had by all.
So here is my cowl in progress. The pattern calls for size 17 needles, but I used size 15 b/c it's only going around my neck, not my shoulders. This was an incredibly quick knit, and they they say it's an intermediate pattern, but I'm going to have to cast a vote for easy. I will have this done by the end of today.

This just reminded me that there is a new version of Emma on Masterpiece Classic tonight.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/ The last two versions were both done in '95 or '96 - one starred Kate Beckinsale and one starred Gwenyth Paltrow. The Beckinsale version kicked the crap out of the Paltrow version. (I'm all about Jane Austen, but I can't even watch it. Paltrow, Ewan McGregor, Jeremy Northam, Toni Collette. Sucked.) Tonight's version stars Johnny Lee Miller as Knightly. He played Edmund Bertram in the '99 version of Mansfield Park. He seems a little young for Knightly, but let's see how he does.

I finished painting my dark green bedroom, and now need to find a new room mate to live there. The color doesn't photograph perfectly, but you get the idea. Taupe/Sage Green.

I have to shoot a quick thanks out to my sister H and my friend HG. Each of them sent me something in the mail this week, and I LOVE to get presents in the mail. Thanks a lot, you guys! The other item I received in the mail this week was my ticket to see Henry Rollins March 17th. I bought my ticket Dec 1st about five minutes after they were pre-released to the "fan club". He's at the Somerville Theater and I'm in the third row. Psyched. Unfortunately, I'm being sent to a conference in Chicago that starts at 8AM, March 18th which will prevent me from going to the concert. Not psyched. It's just wrong.

I'll post the cowl later today when I get it finished. I need to get a move on...

MLK and a Snow Day!

I just finished painting the formerly forest green bedroom, and while painting I was formulating today's blog entry.
I was going to mention that it has been sort of freezing rain since last night so my sump was nearly full this morning. I've figured out that I can engage the primary pump by wacking the float with a mop handle, so that was the first activity of the morning. It was too much water for my basement sink to handle, so it overflowed. Additionally, yesterday's final attempt to install the new front door lockset was a failure, which caused me to have a complete meltdown. There are tools and lock parts from one end of my foyer to the other. I was also going to talk about how maybe my 20 year anti-marriage stance might deserve a re-think. Right about now I'm thinking polygamy might not be such a bad idea. One husband could stand next to the sump pump with mop in hand, one could see that the car is properly maintained (yes, I went out at 7:30 today in completely shitty weather b/c I had an appt to have my oil changed), one could do all the painting, and one could fix every other random thing around here - the next of which will probably break in 15 minutes or so.

But I'm not going to talk about any of those things. Nope. My day just took a remarkable turn! My friend J (yes, all my friend's names seem to start with J) just called to see if I wanted to catch a movie at Kendall at 1:45. How psyched am I? When I saw his name on my phone, I nearly jumped up and down. Thank god. Someone to save me from this house (although it will probably float down the street while I'm at the movies).

I can't find the pattern to make another cable and lace sweater (for another friend, J), so I'm going to cast on something for myself to keep my hands busy in the meantime. From Knitting Pure and Simple, it is the Weekend Neck Down Pullover. http://www.elann.com/productdisp.asp?NAME=Knitting%20Pure%20and%20Simple%20Leaflet%200224%20-%20Weekend%20Neck%20Down%20Pullover&productype=4 (They're out of Truckee, California, which is the next town over from Lake Tahoe where my sister lives. Hey H - have some snow!)

Gotta scram. Now that I have plans and all, I can finally take off my paint clothes. Yay! Bye for now...

Knitting Updates and Random Thoughts...

When I signed off my last post, I included a photo of my fave LYS's front door. Of course Jill recognized her door, and I realize that I should mention last weekend's field trip to Yarns in the Farms (FitF) with my friends D and B. D had a gift certificate and YitF (Beverly Farms - worth the trip) was having a sale last weekend so we decided to make a trip up. I generally don't need a reason to make the trip, but I'm like Pavlov's dog when I hear the words "yarn" and "sale" in the same sentence...I can't help myself. Seriously. I think I need a twelve step program. I haven't talked too much about it, but I'm having some work done on the house next month, so I really didn't want or need to buy anything. We poked around for a while and I was doing really well NOT buying anything. I picked up some yarn...put it back...browsed the books...didn't need any...and then I saw this bag:

Someone by the name of "finn" made it and it's gorgeous. The woman is a tailor, and the workman -ship is amazing. The patterns in the fabric are matched on all the seams, the edges are all finished in this beautiful piping and the inside of the bag has all kinds of pockets for needles, tools and other miscellaneous notions. A medium sized project would fit in the bag quite nicely. Apparently Jill and Carolyn ordered them custom for the store, so I won't see myself coming and going. Since it is my blog, I get to make recommendations and here comes my first one ever: Call Jill at the store and get yourself one of these bags. http://www.yarnsinthefarms.com/

So I buy the bag and my friends D and B stumble on some Briggs Little Atlantic wool at a really good price. B got some in a medium green, D got some in a medium/demin blue, and I grabbed some in burgundy:

I think I'm going to make an afghan with it, but I might make a sweater. There's no way to know. Let's just say that I bought enough to make something.

I finished the Darkside Cowl last night. I'm very pleased with the way it looks and I would make this again. Cowls make awesome gifts.

I need to do some chores. I haven't felt very well for a few days, but I'm getting back to my old self. I hear a paint can calling my name... Thanks for stopping by.

Just a Quick Post...

I'm not really feeling well, and I think I have a fever, but it's been a couple days and I wanted to get my thoughts down before I forgot them.

I'm nearly done with the Darkside Cowl, which is a gift for my friend, J. This is a really pretty cowl, and it's very easy so it knits up in no time.

It appears as though I've pulled or strained my right hamstring overdoing the Wii. Loser.

Thankfully, the special election to fill Kennedy's vacant Senate seat is only five days away. Election ads are cruel and unusual punishment. They shouldn't be allowed.

It's really hard for me to blather on with my usual irreverent sarcasm given the catastrophe in Haiti, so I'm going to wrap this up and go watch the news. It's so awful.

No Alarm Clock Needed at my House

I am up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday...again. First time check? 5:36 AM. I have a lot to accomplish today, so that's probably part of it. It is 6:30, and I've already done a bunch of things around here. The first thing I did was check the basement. Last night I ran down there for something and saw this: 2' of water in my sump that doesn't belong there. Now you might think this is a bad thing, but I'm producing a direct to DVD feature called "Sumps Behaving Badly".

(Kidding. I'm not a film maker, just a com- mentator.) It's the second time in as many weeks that this has happened. My primary pump at the bottom of the contraption isn't functioning properly so the secondary pump is doing all the work. My loyal readers who have been following my blog since the beginning may recall the installation of this feat of engineering. I was incredibly excited, and was convinced that once the back up pump was installed I wouldn't have to worry about it again. THAT is the first joke of the day. Without mentioning the name of the firm, I will say that the plumber who installed this did not call me back two weeks ago when I started having problems, so he is no longer my plumber. I'm not going to beg the guy to come to my house, but I will take my checkbook and go elsewhere. We all have the power to vote with our feet...

It's 7AM, and the paint store opens at 8:00. I've decided on a taupe-y sage color for the green room, and my stretch goal is to have the painting finished before I go to bed tomorrow night. Remember the original color?

This is what the room looks like now... All primed. I have to say that I'll be glad when it's done. My former room mate, G's parents are coming today to get the stuff she didn't take when she moved out, so I can hopefully find a new room mate for Feb 1.

Are all y'all waiting for the Wii update? You'll have to wait until the end. I'm going to talk about knitting for a sec. Not as funny, I know, but this is supposed to be a knitting blog. After all the knitting I did for the holidays, I was completely burnt out. I just couldn't get motivated to knit anything, and I finally had the time to knit whatever I wanted. The two sweaters I'm doing are challenging enough that I have to pay attention, and I just can't seem to face them. My friend B has been banging out cowls and shawls, and suggested that I work on something small for some immediate gratification. I decided on the Darkside Cowl by Sarah Fama in Manos del Uruguay silk blend. http://nibblingalong.typepad.com/darkside%20cowl.pdf It is a quick project but a really pretty pattern requiring only moderate concentration. Something perfect to ease back into the habit. My friends D, B and I are headed up to Yarns in the Farms (Beverly Farms, MA) today for a field trip. I have contractors coming to fix my upstairs hallway in February, so I'm not allowed to buy anything. More on the big project (it's going to take them a week - I literally gasped when he said it) in a future post.

So check me out... I've been working on my Wii fitness routine for nearly two weeks now. I think I screwed up my weight loss goal because last night it told me that my weight had gone down slightly, and if I wanted to make my goal I was going to have to gain 3 1/2 pounds. For the life of me, I cannot figure out where my goal resides so I can change it. Why are kids so good at this stuff? You should see my nephew work his Wii. I'm Wii challenged, but maybe that's the point.

So I'm off to the paint store. To be continued...

Thoughts on Wii Fit...What about the knitting??

Seriously? Wii Fit is a total crack up. Everyday I sign on and take my body test, after which my Wii tells me I'm over weight and my Wii "fit age" is at least 10 years older than my actual age. Sigh. Now tell me something I don't know.

This is my alter ego here in the blue standing next to this month's calendar. As you can see, I've been exercising every day. The 19th has a little flag on it b/c I have a weight loss goal of 4 lbs set for that day. (My real goal should be to lose about ten times that by Monday, February 1st b/c I have my annual physical at 9AM. THAT should be a fun day.)

So I signed on just to get a couple quick photos, and here's tonight's message. Have I noticed my stomach getting firm? I don't even know how to answer that...no? At least it said good evening. Usually after the balance tests I get messages like, "standing on one foot really isn't your strong suit, is it?" or "peripheral vision really isn't your cup of tea, is it?" Sheesh. If I wanted to be insulted every day, I think I'd get remarried.

Anyway, If I can burn an extra 150-200 calories each day and keep my heart rate up while doing it, I think I'll make some progress. Unfortunately it won't be in time for my physical...

Tomorrow is knitting night. I don't think I've even picked up my knitting since last week's knitting night. My hands and wrists are still bugging me, but I'm done sanding the bedroom I've been working on so hopefully they'll improve. I'm ready to cast on another Cable and Lace Pullover by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, but I can't find the pattern, so I'll keep going on the Shredder Pullover by Jennifer Hagen I re-started last week. When I have anything worth photographing, I'll put up the images. I'm off to bed. Thanks for stopping by!

The last time I posted was the last time I was knitting...

Chores. I'm up to my arse in chores. Yesterday I went out to shovel and the snow was about 3-4" but light and fluffy. Today I went out to a much colder environment, and drifts of about a foot. My neighbors across the street don't have any drifts b/c their snow is sitting in my driveway, plus the snow is heavier today. The town requires us to keep our sidewalks clear, so at a minimum I have to do the sidewalk everytime I go out. I stayed out about 45 minutes and did most of the driveway (knowing I'll have to go out again later) and cleared the heavy stuff that the plows throw. I had just finished the plow barricade when 3 plows came up the street and threw new snow at the end of my driveway where I had just cleared. I'll just paraphase and say screw it...I immediately returned to the house.

I've spent a lot of my spare time recently getting ready to paint one of my bedrooms. The

patching is done and I've moved onto priming. Once I sign off here, I'm going to finish the

coat of primer. One of the walls is done, and the room already looks so much brighter it's not even funny. The power sander has really hurt my hands and forearms. I have carpal tunnel, and my hands are so weak right now that I can barely type. I haven't been able to knit for about a week, which is a total bummer, but now that I'm done with the sanding, a couple days in my wrist braces ought to fix me right up. I have two sweaters cooking, so I need to pick up the needles again pronto.

I made a knitting resolution: My goal this year is to knit down some of the stash. I have a king's ransom tied up in yarn, so I need to take it easy on the procurement for the time being. The primary reason is that I need to do a couple things to my house (the contractors have already been here - I'm waiting on estimates), so all Holly spending must cease. My other resolution is to get into better shape by integrating more exercise into my routine. After much thought, I decided that Wii fitness plus was the best solution for me. I really love it, except for the fact that it tells me I'm overweight every day. I figure if I keep plugging away, it will eventually shut up. I'll keep y'all posted on that front.

I hear a paint can calling my name...bye for now.