The Summer of Meh

I do not think I can cobble together a list of the books I've read since my last book related post, even if you held a gun to my head.  I suppose I could figure out what I've read on the nook, and recall a couple of library books I've read.  I will get to that later. . . .

Work on the house continues at our usual pace-- a day or two of sturm und drang and paint and arguing followed by a week of slack.  Well, if working and doing laundry and cooking and all the other administrone can be called slack.  The new windows are done, the garage door is repainted, the trim is nearly painted.  Wall painting continues and feels as if it will continue forever.

I've gotten in some knitting.  It was my intention to finish a blanket for lovely baby Jacinth and a shawl for lovely Aunt Bonnie prior to the end of the first week of August.  That will not be happening.  Well, perhaps one of them.

The shawl is being knitted in a vaguely crescent shape.  I have a 14 row repeat that consists of one row of YO K2 TOG, 3 rows of stockinette, 3 rows of stockinette where there are 11 evenly spaced KFB increases on the 2 knit rows, and then 7 more rows of stockinette.  The Paton Lace has delightful long color changes, but as the crescent has increased, the stripes were getting narrow.  Thus,  I shall manipulate in part of a second skein in order to balance it out a bit.  Once I finish this repeat I'm on, I shall do a row of K1 YO to double all the stitches and have a nice ruffly bottom until I run out of purple yarn.  I hope it softens a bit with washing as well.  I'm getting a bit of a dry spot on my tensioning finger. The yarn being 80% acrylic is going to require a steam block.    I haven't done that before and my ironing board died a quiet death.  I opened the closet one day and it was in the closet in 2 pieces.  The welded spot have given up the ghost.  I can't remember the last time I used the ironing board for anything other than blocking knitting.  I'm a slattern. 

My blanket body is finished.  I've picked up and knitted along the border and I THOUGHT I had increased to the correct number of stitches for feather and fan.  The joke is on me.  My plan was feather and fan along the straight-aways and increasing feather and fan at the corners.  Maddeningly enough, someone decided to move my stitch dictionary from the sofa to the floor.  The floor right by the litter box.  I shall be requiring a new copy of Vogue Stitchionary Volume 5.  Diablo even had the nerve to walk around yelling at me in that abrasive cat fashion.  I may chuck it in and do a simple lattice border.  

Hamlet Knits

You remember Hamlet, right? Over-thinker, underachiever. In the world of deciding what to knit or how to design my knits I am TOTALLY Hamlet. I have a thing for knitting baby blankets. Sadly, I cannot keep up with the rate at which my friends appear to be breeding. I am considering a pi shawl sort of blanket, but I want to start it from the outside and go in. How screwed would I be if I ran out of yarn? Completely and totally. I am also considering a different shape, where the decreases are made in 4 pairs, so that I make a giant square. Perhaps something stripey, where I'd have options for more colors is the way to go on this one. Or perhaps just start with an obscene amount of yarn and a receipt to take it back. I'm not clear on what is an obscene amount though. . . 69 ounces? snicker. My previous pinwheels have consisted of 750 grams of bulky and 22(ish) ounces. Perhaps some nice yarn overs and slipped stitches would stretch it out a bit. I suppose I should start swatching.

I am also pondering the creation of a knitting app for the droid to track the stitches in my stitch dictionaries and others. I would love to be able to query for different stitches based on the number of stitches or rows in them. . . .ah, database design. So many potential pitfalls. I swear I am not using this idea as an excuse to buy more of Barbara Walker's stitch dictionaries. I am fully admitting I just like them.

In This F-cking Old House News: we are still chipping away at the house. Whoever buys this place will be crazypants lucky. I've gone to see inside 3 comps for open houses in this neighborhood. So far, we have the best smelling basement. Our house has also been weather-proofed better than the others I've seen. Also: I have masonry paint stuck to my hair and under my nails and I think I may be 5% drywall dust by weight.

Today on PBS

On a new episode of This Fucking Old House, our homeowners frame walls and hang drywall as they finish their basement. For extra excitement, they've called in the father in law-- Mister Fucking Perfect. Not only is he the president of the Fucking Perfect Club, he is the founder. And he has a pickup.

I really think people would watch a reality show of Jason and I fixing this house. First of all, we are 100 times more anal than any contractor, secondly nothing is plumb, straight or level in a 60 yr old house, so a project like our basement provides enough footage for a whole season.

We've been churning on the house like crazy, in the hope we will get it listed by July. We know what we want to get and we know what other houses are like in our neighborhood (crappy). Our hope is that by making a room in the basement and getting everything painted, polished and decluttered prospective buyers will find ours the easy choice.

Today while the dudes are in the basement, I intend to work on laundry (like every day) and paint the porch and foundation. CURB APPEAL, BITCHES!