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Monday, June 23, 2014

Twice in one week

Gotta be a record for me posting, lately.  The Plaidman has his marching orders, to get in touch with some structural repair companies & have them give us estimates on the floor joist repair.  We'll just hold our breath until that's done...or maybe NOT.  But summer is now officially upon us here, and this is the time to get home repairs done  with minimal weather delays.  I don't know if anyone's interested in the process, but I think I'll be documenting it all -- just to show what I survived (if that actually is the outcome; otherwise, it'll show just where the final straw was laid on my back!).  To that end, I want to create another page here.  That would be the fourth page, although there are currently only two: I've promised DiscoDame her own page on my blog, to showcase her jewelry & stitchmarkers.  I'll need to take some more pictures!  She's really been busy since she took a class in jewelry making.  I gave her some strands & other bits that I don't wear much anymore, and she's cannabilizing them for other jewelry.  She's hoping to be able to sell some items; we'll have to set her up a PayPal account & figure out how (& how far!) she'll ship her goods.  So, I'll probably be back here this weekend to get all that set up. 
And I hope to have a Finished Object to show -- a lace scarf that I finished on Saturday.  I still need to wash & block it, but I'll get before & after pics.  Honestly, right now it looks like someone spilled Easter egg dye all over a huge vat of Ramen noodles. 
In other knitting, I finally swatched with the Knitter's Pride Trendz acrylic needles, for the Gramps Cardi.  Guess what?  I got soooo close to the stockinette gauge!  I'm so glad I forked over the $ for the Trendz interchangeable set.  I've already ordered more of the DK yarn from Knit Picks (and it's already been shipped!  yippee!), so I'll make the next larger size with the Trendz, getting a gauge just a smidgen smaller than the pattern calls for.  I'm sure I'll have to swap back & forth between the yarn I got earlier and the new yarn, as KPicks was actually completely out of the Tahitian Pearl colorway -- sure to be different dye lots.  Of course, I always order enough from KPicks to get the free shipping, so there are 6 skeins of the Coastal colorway coming along as well.  Plus some lace weight...for which there is no excuse. 

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Ouch

Well, just disregard that stuff about moving.  We looked at the lengths we'd have to go to to get the tiny house paid off (like gutting my 401K!!), and the possible adverse effect that would have on our assets in general...and decided we'll try for a home equity loan instead.  This will be a longish process, as we first have to get some estimates for the work that must be done, and some for the work that we'd like to get done, and figure out if we can do more than the absolutely necessary.  And as we were discussing this last week, we had another problem arise.  I was sound asleep, 10:30 p.m. Friday, when something struck me on my head.  I woke up screaming and flailing, thinking I was being attacked, until I finally got the lamp on.  The ceiling had fallen on me!  Disco & the Plaidman ran into the bedroom as I was looking up at the very large hole in the ceiling.  It had rained about two days before, and apparenly the flashing on the front edge of the roof came down, allowing water to accumulate overhead.  The top of the bed was wet & covered in plaster.  We scrambled around to get some plastic draped over all, and put some pans under to catch the water still falling.  Of course, The Plaidman & I had to go to a motel for the rest of the night.  Fortunatley, the eggcarton mattress pad kept the mattress itself dry.  It's taken him a couple of days to figure it out, but Plaidman has put a tarp over the roof where the flashing's gone, and even applied some tarp to our ceiling, until we can get a repairman out.  Last night I got to sleep in my own bed again; Disco was thrilled, since I've been bunking in her bed while she slept on the floor.  Her cat was totally confused, "Why is MyMom on the floor?  Why is OtherMom in the bed?".  And oh by the way, I was unharmed, which is the reason The Plaidman is alive today. 

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Don't blink

Or you might miss this very quick post.  I'm still (!!!) working on the Cat's Paw scarf, and it's already going to be about 7' long after blocking.  I haven't returned to swatching the Gramps cardi yet, as I'd really like to turn the scarf into a(n?) FO.  And I'm deep into summer reading.  Got at least two, often three, novels I'm reading at any given time.  I really need to switch to listening to books so I can knit at the same time.
Hint hint to The Plaidman:  CeltChick would like some player to which I can download books from the library!  An Anniversary approaches, ya know.  Actually, what I'd really like is to find a decent condo (1,000 sq ft) in our modest price range, and move out of the crackerbox (about 750 sq ft).  Yep, we need to pull up stakes and roll on down the road.  So, darling spouse, please work on finding our new home.