FO’s, and one of them is knitted…

The last bit of the bathroom is done (installing the end pieces on the counter), the trim is painted, everything’s cleaned up. The plumber had to access the shower pipes, which meant removing the radiator cover and the sheetrock panels in the hall outside the bathroom. The radiator became a small project for me.

Before on the left (the grate is just leaning there, but you get the idea). Though I’d removed the shelf to bleed the radiator, I’d never removed the grate. A lot of paint to scrape. And on the right, mostly down to the metal or the first coat of paint and ready to spray.

And now, bright and shiny. I even painted part of the wall to the right… when the grate came off, there was a large unpainted area.

You can see if you look (because the base color is fresh and bright white versus the old antique/linen/whatever white came with the house), but it’ll do.

The hall was painted over 10 years ago, and surprisingly the blue wash was still in a yogurt container in the basement, and even more surprisingly, it was still good… just needed a bit of water. I found a lot of fuzzy stuff growing in other containers… and a lot of gelatinous muck that once was paint. I know what we’ll be bringing to the next home hazardous waste day…

Vanille

Lots of mods to pattern, waist shaping, more fitted arms. What I hope to different in the next sweater: figure out the raglan length so the armhole isn’t so deep… makes the sleeve baggy and oddly fitting at the top. But it’s comfortable, and like the blue paint, it’ll do.

Got a haircut too!

what was I thinking?

I got seeds for Sweet Annie at the Common Ground Fair last year… the stuff smelled so wonderful. Um, I was there with our “invasive plants” display… this thing can be invasive? I hadn’t heard that for Maine, but I think I need to get it out of the garden!

rain!

I was rather excited that Earl brought us some rain.

shhh… that’s the flash making the liquid water look white and solid…

new project started

Newport cardigan, out of the Phaeolus dyed wool!

Color first, no?

Look at the surprise this week at work…

This was a “rescue” and after a year or so it has flowered. Must like the window it sits in… but on the day it flowered, I put it right in the middle of my office so I could see it from my desk! The reproductive parts look so interesting!

Just behind my monitors is this somewhat phallic plant, I always forget what it is called…

And in front of my monitors I have a little help…

actual knitting

Vanille (ravelry link)

That second photo is wicked fuzzy… sorry! I am almost done w/ the body, and then on to the sleeves.

mushroom madness continues

Look what DH brought home from a day in the woods…

Two more big Phaeolus! I might over-dye the yarn I did the other day. He made some comment that I should dry them so they don’t mold, and to not dissuade him from getting me more, I’ve chopped it up and spread it out on a cookie sheet that I put in my car.

I have some ideas about collecting enough of this and that mushroom and doing a real experiment.

But before that I am thinking to overdye some grey wool with koolaid for Norma’s red scarf project… pics when I have them.

Skype!

I skyped this morning with a young woman in Australia. What a blast! She’s from Barcelona and misses speaking in Spanish, and I want to practice because I forget so much. It worked really well (once I figured out how to get my microphone switched to the webcam)… some Spanish, some English, some Spanglish. I found her in Ravelry, in a Spanish speaking knitter’s group. We’ll do it again, maybe next weekend.

O-M-G, Flickr has changed things since I last posted, and well, after 2 glasses of wine, it was a shock!

Went to a mushroom foray with DH today and I found some interesting fungus! Most exciting for me was the dyer’s polypore that I spotted and collected (…oooh! just added shroomworks blog to my reader!). Sadly I heard today that the weight of fungus to wool is about five (dried fungus) to one (wool). Better keep saving the stuff… (…gack, flickr changes…)

Butt F’n uguly, eh? But it will make for some lovely wool!

Here’s everything that was collected today (fuzzy photo, sorry…)

We were at Fieldstone Gardens in Vassalboro… What a great place!

For dinner, we had an omelet with some black trumpets DH collected yesterday,

black trumpets

We had these last year on pizza… they were pretty good in the omelet, but the anosmia/phantosmia thing has affected my taste somewhat.

other stuff…

Last Sunday we went for a very quick kayak on the river. I think the fish were making fun of me… I’d hear a splash, but never saw anything much. DH says he saw a sturgeon… harumph! At least I saw some last year!

recent knitting

a headband…

details in ravelry

Working on Vanille, for me… pics soon.

And I got some spanish tapes/cds from the library!

Just finished a quick project, for the soon to come baby of the woman who used to have my job. She always makes me think of sunshine, and she’s in Arizona…

There’s a few details on my Ravelry project page.

Four of us went to Portland last weekend (a bit of spinning fiber may have followed me home). And we had a great lunch at Silly’s. Fun place and a great wrap (O-M-G, so much bacon…). They even have an outside “garden” dining area, which is where we sat.

While I was in Portland (in DH’s mom-mobile), DH used my car. He lost the keys while out for a couple hours with the dogs looking for fungi. He went back and looked for two hours. And then we went back the next day and looked for another two hours. No luck (I have my own set, and we still have the “valet” key)… So, if you come across some Subaru keys in the woods behind the airport in Augusta, let me know! I doubt anybody ventures into the places he was… hilly, ravines, no trails, up and down… I was exhausted!

We had “help”

Wet Gracie from the creek… Zuzu, who has since gotten a trim.

So last week we had this “quick” meeting to discuss the FY 12-13 budget for info tech stuff. It lasted three hours. We have another tomorrow. Nobody will be able to speak unless they display their appropriate Three Hour Tour Meeting persona.

And yes, I’m Gilligan…

Uh-OH!?

Michael Kors’ Boxy Cardigan (ravelry project link)

At first I thought Uh-oh, but the schematic shows the front shorter than the back. Weird, yes, but the sleeves are also odd. So I’m doing the left sleeve next, before doing the right front side.

HUH??

Who knew that knitting was different than linking and looping?

Unless it means the edging (this is a recent goodwill find),

Yet another pair of Maine Morning Mitts!

Alpaca with a Twist, Mojito in the Fall into Me color. Finally, two or more years after getting this at Ravelry from David at his Red Maple booth… the yarn becomes something. I love love love this pattern, and this yarn is so super soft and squooshy! More pictures on my Ravelry project page.

soft!

Mom brought me two more second-hand cashmere sweaters, so they all went into the washer and then into the dryer!

They shrank a bit, but not much. And they did full nicely! There is certainly more than enough now for a robe… now to do something about making it!