I'm taking a break from painting my dining room.
After all of the classes I've taken and books I've read on 'how to have a happy husband', I'm throwing it all (or at least the stuff that says his thoughts about how things should look and be around here are twice as important as mine are) OUT - and painting it PINK!. "They" seem to like to tell you to make sure everything the little woman does passes approval of the big guy. All of that accumulation of info brought me to a place where I didn't give myself permission to do what I would like around the house.
The past couple of years have resulted in two renewed bathrooms and some other things that have given "Whatever YOU (meaning me) want!" a very new meaning to me.
I like it.
I have to get back to the Pepto - I mean pink - painting. The ceiling and woodwork are white so it isn't ALL pink. :)
ps. He really doesn't care; in fact, he likes it. After I convinced him to wear a pink button-down shirt --- and he disovered that he liked it and even wore them to work, I shouldn't have been at all concerned.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Knitting
A few days ago I finally pulled some knitting out that has been aging for a long time. I brought a sweater to work on the last time I went to New York to visit my husband's family. I didn't consider the quality of yarn, though. Although I had most of the body of the sweater done that summer, it wasn't going to be what I had planned. I bought some inexpensive Orlon - an acrylic yarn that was not the soft stuff we have now. It would be fine for a summer sweater, though. It is navy blue and I loved the color. I just gave up on it.
I didn't want to start over or throw it away, since I had spent so much time on it. I have looked at many navy blue sweaters in the past 20 plus years but always think that I 'have' one, if I could just finish it.
Recently, I decided that I need to finish some things. I haven't had a whole lot of energy so since I've been sitting, I needed to do something. I finished a pair of socks I had started last year. Of course the second one was much easier than the first. I had to rip out the toe-area on that first sock because of some miss-measuring. Now I have wiggle-room.
Next, I got out the yarn my youngest daughter wanted me to make into as scarf. I had made her one for her birthday that, in theory, would have been fun. I had seen a demo where the teacher laid out some dissoluble stabilizer, then sprayed it with a temporary adhesive. After this she layered yarns, threads and other fibers on this then topped it with another layer of stabilizer. This was then connected with row upon row of stitching - lots of rows both lengthwise and crosswise.
When I thought my effort was sufficiently 'woven', I rinsed the whole thing to remove the stabilizer and produce what should have been a lovely, soft and drapable scarf.
It was a sticky mess so I soaked it overnight. I put things in the water that were supposed to dissolve stubborn stabilizers... several times. At one point I pulled it out into shape, a chore in itself since it was still sticking to itself, hung it on a couple of plastic hangers and hung that out in a tree on one of the warmer days we had this summer. Stiff, stiff, stiff.
I continued for a couple of days to try to make this stuff behave. Thinking of how lovely it would be to get a beautiful scarf only to find that it was stiff, prickly and sticky, I kept trying. I finally decided that it would have to do because it was her birthday. Instead of softly draping, it was more like barbed netting. I tried to wrap it to compensate for what was inside but I was not successful. She graciously took it home after she tried to 'drape' it around her neck. We have since talked about it and I would still like to try washing it out some more - or make another one.
After this I realized that I needed to knit the scarf she originally wanted. It didn't take too long on size 15 needles and it is finished and she has it.
Finally, I restarted the sweater. I only needed to knit a couple more rows then knit the ribbing for the bottom of the body of the sweater. I forgot to change to a smaller sized needle for the ribbing, but I think it will be alright the way it is. I could rip it out....
I am almost finished with the first sleeve. I have a couple inches more to knit and then the ribbing. The second sleeve 'should' be much quicker. The pattern calls for using double-pointed needles (dpn), but the ones I own are aluminum and the stitches tended to slip off of it and cause a lot of re-working. I finally bought a small - 12" I think - circular needle which is small enough to do the entire sleeve. I will still have to use dpn for the cuff area but I have a set of bamboo dpn that behave much better. They are also a set of 5 instead of the 4 I was using. Five seems to be much easier to handle.
I haven't finished a sweater since I made a vest for my DH many years before this. It had a simple pattern to it that should have been attractive but, since we were in the poor-starving-student phase of our lives I didn't buy nice enough yarn so it was not really noticeable. I hope I have thoroughly learned my lesson here. I would love to do some fair isle and for all of the work that entails, it deserves to be made of nice stuff.
I didn't want to start over or throw it away, since I had spent so much time on it. I have looked at many navy blue sweaters in the past 20 plus years but always think that I 'have' one, if I could just finish it.
Recently, I decided that I need to finish some things. I haven't had a whole lot of energy so since I've been sitting, I needed to do something. I finished a pair of socks I had started last year. Of course the second one was much easier than the first. I had to rip out the toe-area on that first sock because of some miss-measuring. Now I have wiggle-room.
Next, I got out the yarn my youngest daughter wanted me to make into as scarf. I had made her one for her birthday that, in theory, would have been fun. I had seen a demo where the teacher laid out some dissoluble stabilizer, then sprayed it with a temporary adhesive. After this she layered yarns, threads and other fibers on this then topped it with another layer of stabilizer. This was then connected with row upon row of stitching - lots of rows both lengthwise and crosswise.
When I thought my effort was sufficiently 'woven', I rinsed the whole thing to remove the stabilizer and produce what should have been a lovely, soft and drapable scarf.
It was a sticky mess so I soaked it overnight. I put things in the water that were supposed to dissolve stubborn stabilizers... several times. At one point I pulled it out into shape, a chore in itself since it was still sticking to itself, hung it on a couple of plastic hangers and hung that out in a tree on one of the warmer days we had this summer. Stiff, stiff, stiff.
I continued for a couple of days to try to make this stuff behave. Thinking of how lovely it would be to get a beautiful scarf only to find that it was stiff, prickly and sticky, I kept trying. I finally decided that it would have to do because it was her birthday. Instead of softly draping, it was more like barbed netting. I tried to wrap it to compensate for what was inside but I was not successful. She graciously took it home after she tried to 'drape' it around her neck. We have since talked about it and I would still like to try washing it out some more - or make another one.
After this I realized that I needed to knit the scarf she originally wanted. It didn't take too long on size 15 needles and it is finished and she has it.
Finally, I restarted the sweater. I only needed to knit a couple more rows then knit the ribbing for the bottom of the body of the sweater. I forgot to change to a smaller sized needle for the ribbing, but I think it will be alright the way it is. I could rip it out....
I am almost finished with the first sleeve. I have a couple inches more to knit and then the ribbing. The second sleeve 'should' be much quicker. The pattern calls for using double-pointed needles (dpn), but the ones I own are aluminum and the stitches tended to slip off of it and cause a lot of re-working. I finally bought a small - 12" I think - circular needle which is small enough to do the entire sleeve. I will still have to use dpn for the cuff area but I have a set of bamboo dpn that behave much better. They are also a set of 5 instead of the 4 I was using. Five seems to be much easier to handle.
I haven't finished a sweater since I made a vest for my DH many years before this. It had a simple pattern to it that should have been attractive but, since we were in the poor-starving-student phase of our lives I didn't buy nice enough yarn so it was not really noticeable. I hope I have thoroughly learned my lesson here. I would love to do some fair isle and for all of the work that entails, it deserves to be made of nice stuff.
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