the yarn lounge!

yay! i'm in the yarn lounge's weekly finished objects post! (it doesn't take much to make me happy :)

Weekend Fun

The last couple of weekends have been really busy! Last weekend was National Knit in Public Day at the Yarn Lounge. Anne and I were there for the entire day Saturday which was awesome. Here are some of the remains of all the food we consumed:
While at TYL, I bought several skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca dyed cotton (periwinkle 634) and started knitting the Blue Sky Fitted Tank. This is about to be frogged, however, as it doesn't even come across my chest. I have NEVER been successful knitting cotton for anything other than washcloths...*Sigh*

That same weekend, the hubby and I headed to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for Father's Day. It was a BEAUTIFUL day!
This weekend was also pretty busy. The hubby and I made our annual trek to the Richmond Vegetarian Festival! Since we moved to Richmond 4 years ago this summer, we always make it to this food extravaganza to pig out on Thai, Indian and African vegetarian cuisine. Yum!

Yesterday I drove to Anne's to the end of school party that she hosted for the Luals, a family she tutors from Sudan. Can I just say that Anne is my hero! She's a total saint!

I also started on a new sweater yesterday. I was so bummed about the idea of frogging the cotton sweater that I decided to hold off and just start on a winter sweater instead. I am in awe of Pamela Wynne at flintknits.com who successfully took Elizabeth Zimmerman's February baby sweater and turned it into an adult classic! Pamela, your math rocks! I am knitting this sweater with O-Wool Classic (color: 41112, a very tomato like color that isn't conveyed in this photo) that the hubby bought me last Christmas. Although I'm loving this yarn, I'm quite certain I'll need to visit someplace like Iceland to wear this garment! - It's super thick and cozy.
And...last but not least, Bloo has a new chaise lounge - he has yet to be able to get himself up from this spot - We are required to bring his food to him now.


(notice that the side room is not finished yet - *sigh again* I'd rather knit than paint!)

I couldn't help it

...the yarn screamed out at me and said, 'buy me, buy me!' I don't neeeed more yarn you see, but Sunshine Yarns released a bunch of new colors Tuesday. I couldn't resist the Avocado sun silk! Check Sunshine out - Dani has some beautiful colors! Credits for the photo go to Sunshine Yarns.

I should have been a farmer

Since last year when I turned 36 (oh dear!), I've noticed that I'm becoming more like a farmer each day. For example, I recently started a new routine of going to bed at 8:30-9pm and waking up in the wee hours of the morning at 5:30am. I daydream only of knitting, gardening and cooking. And, my new hobby is to "talk shop" with all the garden club ladies at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens when I'm volunteering (I'm the youngest volunteer by at least 20 years). Maybe all of this has something to do with the fact that my biological clock is trying to tell me that if I did have a baby, these are hours I can expect to be awake or asleep. Or, maybe I'm "nesting." I'm not sure. All I know is that I think I may have missed my calling as a farm lady. I suppose there's still time...


Anyone who is accustomed to waking up before 7am can attest that one can get quite a bit of work done this early. Take last Sunday morning for example. I got up at 6am, made a pot of French-pressed (verb?) Cafe Bustelo and headed out to our very weedy vegetable garden in 90 degree heat (yes, even at 6:30am it was close to 90!). By 8am, I had weeded the garden, picked some produce (sweet peas are my new favorite vegetable! none of the peas are making it indoors as they are consumed right out in the garden!) and put down 5 bags of mulch! Check out the enclosed photos of our tomatoes and corn yummies that will soon be ready to pick and eat!

Aside from gardening, I am also getting a bunch of knitting done in these early hours. My current projects are secret special gifts so I can't share everything with you (thus the reason why this photo is hopefully obscure). However, I can share that I LOVE the yarn I'm using for these little gifts. I've pulled things from my stash and also added some Malabrigo to the mix. Why did I wait so long to use this glorious yarn?!


Yarns currently being used:
1 - Misty Alpaca Chunky in snowy white
2 -Manos Del Uruguay, Handspun Semi Solids in baby blue (I'm also making this secret special gift with a hint of GGH Soft Kid in a coordinating color)
3 - Malabrigo Merino Worsted Kettle Dyed Solids in Pagoda
4 - Malabrigo Merino Worsted Kettle Dyed Solids in Vermillion

These secret items are turning out to be really pretty, and I'm hoping my Richmond girls will be happy!

MSW Stash Take One

Typically when I buy something new I use it immediately. My friends and family have often teased me about purchasing new shoes and either wearing them out of the store or putting them on in the car when I leave the store! I had to learn a little more patience when I started knitting and acquiring stash. As there are only so many hours in the day to knit, yarn is required to sit on the shelf a little bit longer than a new pair of shoes. That said, I just can't take my mind off of the loot I purchased at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. It's just begging me to do something with it! I figured that by posting about it I was at least acknowledging its existence :)

Stash Take One:


Early in the day at the MSW I found the tent for Brooks Farm from Lancaster, TX. They were strategically located between the alpacas and llamas and since I was headed that way, I made a stop. Brooks Farm carries some amazing yarns in a wide variety of gorgeous, rich colors. I purchased 2 different yarns from them. Solo is a wonderfully soft sport weight 100% wool with good yardage at 400 yds/skein. I'm thinking about a cabled sweater...although I only bought 1200 yards so I'm not sure I'll have enough.

Primero is a beautiful 100% Kid Mohair yarn with fantastic yardage at 500 yds/skein. I'm so eager to knit this up into a shawl -I just need to decide on a pattern!

Renovation

We (I) really didn't expect to spend THIS much money on our little Richmond home. Isn't that what everyone says when they buy an old house? At some point in the life of the house someone decided to enclose the porch. They did a shoddy job and put small, really cheap windows in the room. You can see the small windows in this old snowy pix:


I decided I wanted full length windows without really thinking how much this would cost. Once Herr helper showed up last Tuesday and began taking down the walls, I knew we were in for a treat! (BTW, Herr helper charges by the hour!). Below are pix of the room after 3 days (still unfinished). It's looking really nice from the outside, don't you think?



Now the hubby is going to finish up the inside. He worked all day yesterday in the sweltering heat to put beadboard on the walls. He figured that buying a nail gun/air compressor and doing it himself will be much cheaper than Herr helper. After working for 8 hours yesterday, he finished the beadboard and is now ready to do trim. I'll post a final photo once we're done (2 weeks maybe?)

So what have I learned about house renovations from this fun, very expensive project?

1 - Don't watch HGTV...EVER!
Maybe all of you out there know about this, but I did not. HGTV is evil. While watching it, you get all sorts of ideas about home repairs. And guess what? You will never finish those projects in a weekend unless you have about 20 people working behind the scenes.

2 - I love hate Lowes and the Home Depot.
What did our parents do for home repairs? Home Depot or Lowes didn't exist when I was growing up. These places give folks a false sense of security about fixing things.

3 - Old house repairs take twice as long and cost twice as much as those done on newer homes.
I *love* my 80 year old house; however, I have never been able to estimate project costs for this house. Every project has cost at least double what it cost in our 1990s house in NC.

4 - Breathe, relax and learn to live with construction
I have learned to live with a bit of construction. Projects in this house always take longer than I initially anticipate. I've also had to learn to just walk away from some of these projects after a few hours. When we first moved into the house, I would spend my entire weekend fixing things. I've learned now to just take a break, breathe, pick up my knitting and have a glass of wine :)

Happy Sunday!