We're still upset over Steve Irwin's sudden death. I mean heck, if this man who successfully flirted with dangerous beasts unscathed for years can be killed so quickly then the rest of us poor saps seem even more vulnerable. The girls and I enjoyed watching his shows and they are pretty sad. My heart goes out to his wife, children and other friends and family.

I'm 1/2 way through installing vinyl tiles of the adhesive sort. They were very cheap and considering the unevenness (is that a real word?) of our floor there weren't too many options. There is no way in the world that I could wrangle a large roll of flooring and standard tiles are way too heavy. I just hope this crap stays stuck. I've never used them or lived with them before and I have no idea how well they hold up.

I've started installing drywall too. Obviously it was much needed. The fugly panelling wasn't only dated, dark and dreary but poorly installed too. Visions of drunk monkeys with hammers comes to mind. There are large areas with no nails and then other places where the nails are only inches apart. The edges have uneven gaps which were hidden behind awful foam strips. I think these strips are what is used for molding in trailers.

Last night I painted the back of the house where B installed the new siding. It may require a second coat, but only daylight will tell.

I'm sore. I miss knitting. I frogged part of the SKB and decreased above the ribbed section. I also chose to only use the beads on the first row of each lace pattern instead of the 1st and 3rd rows. The beads were distracting from the lace pattern. I hope to work on it again next week.

Cheers all.

Philosophy

Is the phrase "Out of sight out of mind," or "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't." more appropriate for this scene?

I know my DH is cringing since I told him that I'm replacing the laundry room floor while he's away.

Here are some pictures. These will either send him over the edge or ease his mind.

These show the subfloor preparation as well as the tile which will be put in tomorrow or tonight.

Honey, are you still there? Do you still love me?

What I've learned about the Simple Knitted Bodice

Hey everybody, Karen needs our support raising money for the walk against diabetes. And as if feeling good wasn't enough, everyone who donates will be entered into a drawing for some great prizes!


Trying to sell and find a new home and the girls starting a new school year have consumed almost every waking moment. Hence the lack of posting. In the evenings I've been working on my Simple Knitted Bodice for the KAL.

Let me preface the following comments by saying that I LOVE this pattern. I'll definately knit this again, but with a few changes based on what I've learned on this one.

1. I knit loosely and needed to downsize my needles. Apparently so do many others making this sweater. I don't know if this is due to substitution yarns or if there are just many of us loosey goosey's out there.

2. Elann's Peruvian Silk is nice to work with. It's like a slightly softer version of Cascade 220. There is some splitting but I attribute this to the way I hold the yarn rather than a defect in the yarn itself.

3. The smaller size is still rather large for me. If I make one for myself I'll drop down an additional 7 stitches or so for the purl ribbed and lacey areas to make it more form fitting. Hopefully the purl ribbing place around the neckline during finishing will make this wearable without another shirt underneath.




















4. Stringing beads is tedious, but worth it. I was quite liberal with my beads, placing them only 1/2 inch apart.

5. Because my beaded yarn was so densely beaded I am only using this for every other row of the lace (the plain knitted rows). My goal was to create a subtle accent, not something too flashy.

6. When knitting with beads it's easy to become caught up in "placing" the beads exactly where you want them. Although this is probably the proper way to knit with beads it was extremely slow. As a result, I began just sliding them (they do tend to slide and move) to the general stitch and when all is said and done I'll use a crochet hook to coax beads from the inside of the sweater to the outer side.

7. Using a sandwich bag worked great for me to keep my unused yarn from tangling while working on the beaded areas (trial by tangle kind of thing). I hold the sandwich bag to the sweater in progress with a cable stitch holder. Not pretty or professional, but effective for a klutz.

8. The intended recipient of this sweater may receive socks instead. I like it.

9. I really need a haircut.