Spring Cleaning

I'm on a 'use it or lose it' vacation this week. So I decided to do a little spring cleaning. The problem with this idea is though the calendar says 'Spring', the weather is still 'Winter'. It's still too chilly to wash and store the down comforters or take down the curtain at the top of the stairs but I am tidying and cleaning nooks and crannies (Goodwill is getting a visit from me tomorrow!) I also started ripping off more of the hall wallpaper, but it's very very slow going: I think I'm going to have to rent a steamer. If that doesn't work, I'm going to graffiti over it. (Ok, not really...but I'm tempted.)

Some good news: we now have access to the new room. It's still in need of moulding, electricity, and flooring but we have light instead of a view of green garbage bags. Now to settle on a paint color...

And I resisted the siren song of the sock scarf to finish the third pair of Breast Cancer Comfort socks. Project specs: 2 skeins of Plymouth Happy Feet in colorway #4, a rich multidimensional red.

I have a little problem

Anyone who has read this blog for a while knows I'm not a multi-WIP person. 2 projects are usually my modus operandi: a small take-along project, and a larger, stay at home project. I'm merrily knitting along my red socks and Danish shawl when a thought occurred to me. "I should see if I have enough sock yarn remnants to knit a scarf". There, my friends, was my error. Out came the sock yarn drawer, little walnut-sized (and some orange-sized) leftovers were tossed into a basket, and I cast on. And immediately stopped knitting on anything else.

It's hypnotic I tell you. Between watching the color changes and the contents of the basket dwindle down, I don't want to do anything else.

This might not have been a good idea...

Here comes the sun!

What a glorious weekend in my neck of Vermit! Sure, it was cold but the sun was promising spring right around the corner. I even saw some muskrats making forays out into the open. Izzy has been basking in the new window, and the cluster flies have been emerging (I know...ewww..but hey, spring's coming!)

To celebrate, I crafted a Dumpling Bag from Interweave Knits Fall 2008. Since I am using glass rings, I opted for just one instead of the two the pattern calls for - I didn't want to take the chance on breakage. The knot can be easily undone if I want to open the bag all the way. I do have to felt it some more: when I used the bag earlier this week, my dpns poked through a bit.

A current WIP is my version of the Danish tieback shawl. I'm using Plymouth Encore in several different colors. KYarns is hosting a charity knit project using Encore, so all my leftover bits will not go to waste.

And for my travel project, I started a 3rd pair of socks for the Breast Cancer Center in Plymouth's Happy Feet. This pic doesn't do the red justice: it's very rich with lots of variations. In other news, the window is drywalled and the other (old exterior) window has been pulled out. So on the CatMan's side of the bed, we are looking at a wall of green trash bags stretched over the hole leading into the new space. The first night with this new arrangement, we realized the cats had emerged from their hiding places (the workmen don't believe we really have 6 cats - they've only seen 2) , pried a corner of the plastic back, and had gone exploring in the new space. Not wanting to lose a cat down between the walls or into a nook that hadn't been closed up yet, we took it upon ourselves to do a little preventive construction much to the disappointment of the intrepid cat explorers. Hopefully, their disappointment will be short-lived and we'll be able to use the space by the end of this month!