Convalescing

A week ago today I had surgery on my back. It was a long time coming and I am already so happy that I had it done. A monster ruptured disk had been running my life for the last nine months.

(it should be pretty obvious in the picture what is NOT supposed to be there)




I do have to say that being at home for a week now has opened my eyes to a few things:

1. Daytime TV is horrible
2. I can improve my sewing techniques by watching PBS
3. The baby should learn to take longer naps
4. One doesn't really need a shower everyday if one doesn't get up off the couch all day
5. I miss the office in my own sick way


Anywho...I plan to get back to work next week...but I promise to take it easy (to everyone who has been nagging me).

Bub's new toy

So one of our cats - Typhoon - has this "bond" with the baby. She is the dumber of the two kitties. The older one - Tsunami - is a wee bit smarter and actually times her feeding bathroom breaks to the baby's nap times.

Anywho, enjoy the clip.

Giggles

Happy Mudder's Day

I know I'm a week late on this, but here is how my first Mother's Day went. ha, ha!!!

My first trip to the Zoo was...

...a little scary at first - where did that dead whale come from?? - , and




...beary interesting, and


...a great way to work up an apatite, and



... exhausting, and


... better with a friend, and




... extremely educational, and


... a really interesting dinner theater concept, and


.... a five-star comedy gorilla comedy routine


... for the birds, and


... really, I said "for the birds already," and


a chance to get a souvenir!

Building walls

The insulation is all in and we have sheetrock on the north and south wall. Now for the mudding. And sanding. And mudding. And sanding. Etc.


I have a couple of coats of mud on the south wall...in places. I'll need at least another coat on those spots and quite a few on all the wonky corners in the room. Hopefully I don't goober up the walls too bad. There are only a couple of spots in the previous remodel where I wish I had given the walls one more coat. Also, I'm not too concerned about how smooth I get the ceiling. We are going to hang textured wallpaper on the horizontal portion of the ceiling. The wallpaper looks like old tin ceiling tiles.


Why do I bother asking him to smile for a picture????


I have the first coat of mud up on the north wall. It is nice to get the old , original wall covered back up and stop the influx of blown insulation from wafting in from the attic.


I would have loved to have gotten all the sheet-rocking done this weekend, but it didn't play out. We'll see how much we can piece in during the work week.

Its like it always was there or something...

I can't tell you how rockin'-awesome our contractor was - if anyone in the greater Wichita area is thinking about a remodel job, you should totally look into Heartland Home Improvements. Not only was the job wonderful (due to our wonky old house, everything was stick-built with a lot of cut and fit), but the clean up job - Holy Cats! It is like no one was here, only better. It was like Mr. Clean was here. Okay, I'll stop raving.


Here is what we have so far. Now Pat and I will start working on the sheetrock, closets, and fun stuff like painting and building cool built-in shelf thingys. Trust me, it'll turn out okay! I mean - look how well the office turned out a couple of years ago and it is still standing!

We'll keep you posted as we slog through the mudding. (Wish we had sweet, sweet Josh - our carpenter. Dude does a mean mud-job!)

Its looking like a house!

Recap from a soggy week

The week started out with a bang...well lots and lots of little ones......


But the crew kept plugging on:

It is taking shape

Rain is forecast for the rest of the week. The crew focused on the roof sheeting while the weather was still nice.That roof is scary-steep!!!! I'm so impressed that they are able to match the style of dormer on the windows.
He, he, he - it looks like the house is wearing a bib. I think I've been hanging around the baby too long.

Remodel Continues...

Here are some pics of the progress!!!!

Remodel Begins

We are off on the journey of adding on a new bedroom to our old house. We went to a contractor for this one as it is a big job to get it framed out. Our contractor is Heartland Home Improvement and their customer service is spectacular! They were one of a fraction of companies that were willing to work on the cut and fit of an old house.

Here is the "before" of the single story that was added on in the 1950's.


As of tonight, they have the old roof off and the new floor on - it was A LOT of piece work.


I'm so excited for the extra space!!

Celtic Braid Sock

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Originally uploaded by WATERCenter

I mistakenly knit the Cobblestone Pullover sweater for my hubby last holiday. Duh. He only wears t-shirts and is always hot. Sweet man though - he refuses to let me pass it on to anyone else because it is "special."

So, in an effort to force more hand-knits on the man, I am making him socks. One down, one to go. This is the "Celtic Braid Socks" pattern designed by Lynda Gemmell. I am knitting it in Sisu superwash merino yarn in a dark olive color. Both the pattern and the yarn were purchased at Twist.

He better wear 'em!

A Beautiful Quilt

After the NAI conference last fall, I pledged to make my grad school friend, Liz, a pair of socks. She, in turn, said she would send something made by hand back to me.

OMG.

Let me just start by saying that to me knitting is fairly simple and although a pair of socks may have between 21,000 and 25,000 stitches in them, I really don't think about that. I actually had to stop and break out a calculator to estimate that stitch number for this blog entry. Other types of hand made items - especially those connected to sewing - boggle my mind.

I can sew, however I do it as fast as possible and get away from the sewing machine as quick as I can. Weird, huh?

So when I got home last night there was a package from NY from Ms. Liz. I really have no words. This quilt was done by hand...by hand....pieced, everything. My hubby and I kept turning it over and over looking at the patterning in the stitches - the quilting was sewn in the shapes of snails, ladybugs, dragonflies, caterpillars, etc.

We posed the little bubbi on the quilt for the blog pic but I'm afraid he doesn't get to use it until he gets over his barfing stage and can use a blanket in bed. Sorry little guy. I just refuse to toss this in the wash. (you can see the cute little flannel quilt that Jess and the god-kids made underneath - that one is "wash n' go" blankie right now)

After I put the baby to bed, I laid the quilt over the banister upstairs. I just sat there and stared at it. All the blocks of material, all the stitching, the colors. I am so in awe of what people can create.

The socks go global

IMG_2602
Originally uploaded by WATERCenter

Holy cats. I never would have guessed that my humble pair of garter-rib socks would go global. Sweet sweet Liz - a classmate of mine - has given the socks their own blog. I cannot tell you how freakin' cool that is.

http://sockandsock.blogspot.com

Homework Avoidance Tactics

I have not improved as a student - at least not in my behavior. I still look for other things to do besides doing my homework. Anything. Stuff I wouldn't do otherwise. Here are some examples of what I have done over the last few weeks before buckling down to do my readings for class: switching out which plates are displayed on the hutch (granted, the ones that were up were Christmas plates, but still), removing the cat hair from all the couches using lots of tape rolls, and this week, reorganizing my yarn stash.


























It had to be done.




















The acrylics were with the sock yarn. Mohair was mingling with cashmere. Who knows what might have resulted! The hubby was pretty disgusted with the size of my stash but anymore he knows better know than to comment - it doesn't help anything. The baby hung out in his johnny-jump-up and was okay with the process until I took away the storage bag he was chewing on. He was pretty pissed after that (see picture).

BFF's

We have been trying to get the two little bubbas together each week - they are such a hoot when they are playing - I swear they learn stuff from each other. Just two weeks apart, we have decided that these two should be "BFF's" - nothing like an arranged friendship.

A sock adventure

I knit a pair of very simple garter-rib socks out of Magic Stripes yarn for a dear classmate - Liz Thompson. Liz lives in NY, and even though we are in class only on-line, we have connected. It was a blast to meet her last fall during the NAI conference. It was there I decided that she needed a pair of socks. I do not give socks lightly - I have only given away three pairs now - one to my Grammie, one to my mother-in-law, and now a pair to Liz. Socks are getting easier to knit though so my generosity will expand, I'm sure.

When I got to work this morning, this little story was in my in my email in-box:

Thanks for sending us to New York - Liz is lots of fun. Today we got to go out of the house for the first time! Liz took us to the movies to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We saw a movie called 27 Dresses. Actually, we only heard it - but it sounded really good! We got a chance to look around (see picture) but then we went back into the shoes. We were glad though, because that theater was really cold! Liz said that James Marsden was "dreamy" and worth going to the picture for that reason alone.

Before we went to the movies Liz's mother inspected us and seemed very impressed. After the movie we went back to her house and got to come back out of the shoes. Liz's Mom kept admiring us from where she sat and occasionally asked Liz questions about how you made us - it seems Liz is a quilter, not a knitter, so she could only answer based on what the knitters at work said about us when we first arrived.

That's all for now. We'll write again after Liz takes us on our next adventure!

Socks for Veronik Pattern

sock 003
Originally uploaded by WATERCenter

This beautiful sock pattern came out of the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts issue. The yarn I'm using is the J. Knits Superwash Me sock yarn that I purchased at my LYS Twist.

One sock down, one to go.

I never have too much trouble with the "second sock syndrome" - I'm always too excited to wear the pair of socks - which is hard to do if you only have one done. I know, I know, I could do "two at once," but I end up getting to tangled up with the two balls of yarn. I'll just keep plugging alone, one at a time.

Wheels make the wool go 'round

So my friend Jessica and I took a spinning class last fall. Not one of those exercise-y spinning classes (have you seen me lately?), but a yarn spinning class. Can I say it was just wonderful?! Anyway, this led Jess and I on a quest for wheels of our own. We have two things happening now.

First, I bought a pattern on a "no lathe Saxony style wheel" and gave it to a woodworking friend with the promise of a knitterly payback.

Second, I called my dad in New Zealand (land of wool and wheels) and got him looking on TradeMe for used Ashford wheels.

Success!

Both avenues are paying off. It looks like Jess and I will have custom crafted wheels from our friend as well as a traditional wheel from NZ.

This multiple wheel situation (which is f'ing awesome) has led my hubby to ask...."How many wheels do you NEED.?" Good question. I say many. I mean, how many video game consoles does HE need? Anyway, I have already mentally rearranged my dining room to accommodate the wheels. Expect to hear more on the wheels as the year goes on.