Week 2

This week has been busy and I've been a failure at updating every day like I hoped I would. Without further ado, the progress:

House:

Tuesday night I left work early (worked out a deal with my boss to leave early twice a week as long as the hours are covered the other days. No problem there.) and went over to the house. Dad and my brother had taken down all the blinds, ceiling fan blades, and curtains in preparation for the painters to come. Mom and I scrubbed the walls in the kitchen to prep them for painting.

Wednesday I met the painters, and waited for my dad to come over to hang out while they were there. They painted the ceilings throughout the house.

Thursday morning I met the painters again, and they realized that not only did they not have enough paint for the job, they didn't have enough time, either. Apparently the guy who did my estimate works a little too quickly and has done a poor job communicating client needs to their crews lately. I felt bad for the painters, because they didn't have anything to do with it, and they're the ones having to put in possible extra time. That afternoon I left work and went over to the house to start painting the kitchen. The painters were just leaving as I arrived (5 or so). The living room looks amazing (pictures to come), but they'll have to come back on Saturday to finish the bedrooms. Mom and I started painting the kitchen, and my brother brought a couple boxes of dishes and kitchen utensils from the storage unit so we have things to eat on/with when we're over there.

Tonight I hope to get the trim touched up in the craft room, finish the first coat in the kitchen, and start painting the trim in the living room. Tomorrow we'll finish the kitchen, mom and dad or bro and dad will bring some of my furniture and boxes from the storage unit, and we'll hope it doesn't rain on us.

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Tour de Fleece:

Alpaca on 7/5 (one of my first time fiber goals):


Babycake Batt from Loop on 7/6





Progress on Spritely Goods merino on 7/7 (I've done more since, but don't have pictures yet:


It's going well, but I haven't gotten to too many of the first time fibers. I hope to finish the alpaca soon so I can start something else. I really want to try the Jacob and Moorit that I've had forever.

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WIP Wrestlemania

Almost no progress, maybe a couple of rows. I've mostly been spinning at work at lunchtime and a little in the evenings, and the rest of my time is spent at the house. I should cut out my evening spinning and knit then, leaving lunchtime for spinning. That would probably work.

The Weekend

Ok, so I was incorrect in thinking the Tour de Fleece started on July 1. It actually started July 4. So, yeah. Oops. Got it right for WIP Wrestlemania, though. Progress:

House:

Friday I went to the house with mom and dad and we picked paint colors, measured rooms, cleaned the kitchen some, prepped a room for painting, met with a painter for the rest of the house, and started planning this project.

Saturday mom and I painted the craft room while dad primed the red wall in the kitchen and taped off the rest. The painters will be doing every room except the craft room, kitchen, and downstairs tv room area. Plus ceilings, but minus trim. I think that's a fair exchange

Sunday mom and I did trim in the craft room while dad did the molding on the wall under the basement stairs. Then he and mom finished removing switchplate covers and curtains while I touched up the rest of the trim in the craft room. The walls need a couple touch ups, and so will the trim, but I got some better brushes for that, so that will be easy.


WIP Wrestlemania:

I decided not to do the Pembroke vest and went back to doing the Presto Chango sweater instead. I finished the blocks I was working on for the baby blanket, so there are just two more to cast on and a few more rows to do and then I'm done with that. I also pulled out the other blanket so that could be finished and blocked.


Tour de Fleece (for real this time):

Saturday (day 1):



I'm spinning this merino very thin, so it's taking a long time to do. I love it though.

Sunday (day 2):



Meets part of the "new to me fiber" goal. I'd never spun alpaca before this. I like it, even though it gets slippy sometimes.

Day 2

Tour de Fleece:



Started with that, a Baby Batt from Loop on Etsy. Ended with this:



I don't know what the yardage is yet, but it's a pretty tiny skein.


Meets the goal of spinning something I've never spun before: a batt.


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WIP Wrestlemania:

8 more rows on the baby blanket. I think there are 20 or 30 left.

I pulled out two other projects I plan to work on. One just needs finishing (weaving in ends, blocking) and the other has been languishing for almost 2 years now.


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House:

Measured rooms today so I can do furniture layout before I buy anything or move anything in. Mom cleaned the kitchen and dad taped off the craft room so we can paint tomorrow. Met with one of the two painters who were supposed to come today to give estimates. Very nice guy. The other never showed. I got the estimate from the first place, was surprised at how affordable it was, and booked them to come out Wednesday to start painting. They'll be doing ceilings throughout, the two upstairs bedrooms, stairways, entry way, and living room. Awesome. That means we can paint the kitchen next weekend while dad and brother get a truck and move things in from the storage unit.

Day 1

WIP Wrestling projects:

Baby blanket 1 - finish knitting
Baby blanket 2 - weave in ends and block
Pembroke baby vest
second glove for Chris
Scarf for me
Laceweight Clapotis

Today's progress:
7 rows of baby blanket 1


Tour de Fleece goals:

spin fibers I've never tried before

- cashmere/silk
- alpaca
- angora/silk
- bamboo

Today's progress:
Nothing


I blame coming home late from work tonight for my lack of progress. I'm aiming for better tomorrow.

July

The month of July will be a busy one for me. I bought a house (closed today!) so I'll be painting, cleaning, packing, and moving. I also decided that wasn't enough and signed up for the Tour de Fleece and the WIP Wrestlemania on Ravelry, on team LSG in both cases. I have a few works in progress to finish and some new fibers I want to try, so those are my goals.

I'm going to try to keep updates on those three things throughout the month so this blog gets used more.

Spinning Wheel!

Spinning Wheel!, originally uploaded by LaurenKnits.

That is a spinning wheel. It is now mine.

Someone on one of the Ravelry boards was asking about places she could go to sell her wheel that didn't involve shipping. I piped up to ask how much she wanted for it, as I've wanted a wheel pretty much ever since I started spinning last year. I expected her to give some huge price and that would be the end of it.

Except not. Her asking price was extremely reasonable. So I called mom and asked if it would be possible to make a wheel a combined Christmas/birthday present and she agreed. And since the seller was local, I was able to pick it up after work today.

I've never spun on a wheel, so I have some learning to do, but I'm very excited.

The only bad part? I'll probably have to put it in storage soon because there really isn't room in the house for it. The only way I can see keeping it in the house is by boxing up some of the stuff from my room so it's out of the way, and then putting it in there. We'll see.

Trying to come up with witty titles about being busy

I don't want to talk about being busy at work. Until I get some help, I will remain busy. I'm thankful to have good job security right now, so I'm trying to keep the complaining to a minimum. So instead, I'm going to post pictures of things I've been working on lately:

4 0z of merino from Freckle Face Fibers on etsy. I'm not over the moon about it and may give it away. It was fun to spin, though.

Spinning in process. 4-ish ounces of merino. I'm working on pre-drafting better and so far I'm getting a pretty consistent single. And the color is spreading nicely throughout the single, too, so I think it'll be really pretty when it's done. I'll probably navajo ply it.

Baby blanket for C. I need to send this to her soon. Log Cabin pattern in Knit Picks shine sport in a bunch of colors.

I'm really proud of this one. 4 oz of merino from Spritely Goods. The colorway is called Olive Grove. I love it. spun on a 1-oz Golding and navajo plied. I need to figure out what to do with it.

I've been working on a lot of baby stuff lately. I'm almost finished a pair of booties (just need seaming and buttons) and I'm most of the way through another blanket. I've got a couple more projects planned, so I'm keeping occupied.


I think I'll be ready to buy a house soon. It's scary and exciting all in one. It'll be nice to get out of my parents' house and on my own again. I saw one online today that I really liked, but would probably be out of my price range. I guess once I get pre-approved for a mortgage, I can start seriously looking at locations.