A Contest At Knitnana

My very good friend, Sallee, has a new contest over on her blog Knitnana. This last weekend, she added a new goodie to her line of Nana Sadie Rose bags & needle holders. Gladys is designed to hold interchangeable needle sets like KnitPicks Options or the Boye NeedleMaster sets. What's the contest, you ask? It's voting on which type of closing you think the needle case should have - a ribbon tie, a button tab, or an elastic loop and button. A little over a month ago (see the Feb 7th post) I received my Grand Mera & Posy bags, and an Oressa double pointed needle holder. I love them!! And I can testify to the meticulous workmanship of Sallee's masterpieces. So click on the link up there and voice your opinion. The contest's prize is a Gladys all your own. Be sure to look at all the other bags she sells while you're there.

In other news, we are in the middle of the move to the new house. It's going slowly as there's no rush, but cats, computers, cookware, yarn, needles & books are over here now and as we discover that we're missing something, we drive the two blocks to the old house and grab it. I'm in the middle of deciding how to use all my new cupboard & pantry space. The spices were moved yesterday - yes, I have lots of spices as we like Thai, Indian, Mexican, & Lebanese dishes - and are now "filed" in the bottom pull out shelves next to the stove. They're even in vaguely alphabetical order with labels on the top so I can see what I have at a glance. This is going to be so much nicer than having to rummage through a cabinet shelf in search of the Five Spice powder for stir-fry. {g}..

As you might imagine, with all this going on, I haven't had much time for knitting. Sock #2 is about where I left it a couple weeks ago. I did whip up four plain hats last week between Monday & Thursday to go with scarves one of our K4 members, Frances, had crocheted and knit a black garter stitch scarf over the weekend. My biggest project at the moment is the sweater that I'm designing for my grandson. These photos are from a week ago, but I now have the fair isle pattern on the yoke complete and am just about ready to start the back yoke.




The yarn is Bernat's Super Saver worsted weight on 10½ needles. The body is knit in the round up to the armholes and then back & forth for the yokes. The Norwegian Star pattern is from Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting Book. It's another "design as I go" original so things may change as I go along, but right now I'm planning on a boat neck with 3-needle bind-offs for the shoulders, then picking up the sleeves on 16" circulars and using a small fair isle pattern at the top while I work down to the cuffs in the round. Grand-daughter's sweater arrived in California last week and she tells me that she's already worn it to school, kung-fu class & Girl Scouts. I think it made a hit!

Happy New Year!

This is what greeted us New Year's Morning...






That's a yard stick stuck into the snow on the deck about 18" from the sliding door and, yes, that's the 14" mark that's almost covered by the snow! It looks like a winter wonderland out there, but I don't think I'm going to go traipsing around outside any time soon because my boots are only 12" tall {g}..


We spent New Year's Eve with friends and then stayed the night rather than risking the roads with all the cars that didn't have Designated Drivers. It was a wonderful time with lots of friendship, conversation & food including champagne & Olde Lang Syne at midnight.

So here we are, the first day of 2008. Hopefully it will be a better year than 2007 which along with 2003 have to count as the worst years of my life what with losing my parents.

I'm looking forward to more charity knitting after a short break while I'm going to knit a few things for me and my family. The Grand-kids have requested new sweaters and I have the measurement I need to get started. I started a new pair of Fuzzy Feet for DH, but I think before I go much farther, I'm going to knit a swatch with the one strand of wool & one of acrylic that I'm using to see if it will felt as well as the wool & recycled silk mouse I made for the cats. I'm hoping that it will felt & that the acrylic will help the slippers wear better. I'm working on the leg of the blue sock #1 using a simple lace pattern before I switch to ribbing so the finished sock won't fall down. The next week or so will be spent picking out appliances for the new kitchen at the other house. The counter tops are in but I forgot to take the camera over so no new photos - will try to remedy that during this next few days.

For everyone who reads this, I hope this next year brings you Health, Happiness & enough Money to keep the wolf from the door. {{{{HUGS}}}}

Progress Report - Heavy With Photos

Let's start out with the pantry that was. It's a 2' wide & 3' deep area that's situated over the basement stairwell resulting in a "floor" that's on a 45° angle. The shelves that were in it were ClosetMaid fastened to the back wall with the front edges about 18" in and the items in the back the full 3' - in other words, an almost impossible reach to get something in the back. In addition, the brackets for the shelves weren't fastened into studs so the shelves were slightly cockeyed, kept in place only because there wasn't room from side to side for them to fall.


This is the new pantry - four pull out shelves, 19" wide that come the full 3' out with a little room on the door side for small cans like mushrooms & tomato sauce.


Another view showing how everything is accessible. What a difference!


Once the old cabinets were torn out and the walls patched and painted, the kitchen looked like this.


Another view looking toward the refrigerator. We patched and painted the areas that weren't going to be covered by the new cabinets. You can see where the old cabinets had been *glued* to the wall without backs or even sides if there was a wall that could take their place.


The new cupboards in the process of being installed. The space on the left is for a new stove - no more cooktops & built in ovens & microwaves!! The space on the right in the corner is for the dishwasher.


This is the peninsula that's replacing the island making the kitchen a "U" instead of a "L". There are two pull out shelves in each of the cabinets and those drawers are big! Not only counter space but storage space!! The cabinets are quarter-sawn oak, my favorite wood as it was used in the Mission Oak furniture that I collect.


This is the area where we had a miscommunication with the gentleman who designed the kitchen for us. He left space for a 36" wide, 72" high refrigerator and the one we have isn't that big. The previous cabinets were larger in this area and I'm going to have to patch and paint a bit more of the wall.


On Friday the countertops will be installed and we still need to go shopping for a stove, microwave & dishwasher plus a new kitchen faucet.

While the men were installing all of this, I was down in the basement doing more sorting, storing & tossing. My quilting corner is just about clear and it's getting more organized down there all the time. Today, we picked up a number of 6 quart see-through boxes to store things that don't require a full tote. Slowly but surely, we're getting there..

Ever Wonder?

Ever wonder what 101 hat & scarf sets would look like? Wonder no more....


Last night, I packed up the sets our K4 group has been making for the shelter for homeless vets in Detroit so they'd be ready to deliver this weekend. Each of four bags contains twenty sets and the fifth one has twenty-one sets.

This entire week, we've been having a craft sale at the Senior Center with not only our K4 group, but also the Ceramics, China Painting & Quilting groups participating. Our knitting group sold over $400 worth of hats, scarves, afghans, shawls and baby items. That money will go to buy more yarn for next year's projects. In addition, we donated fourteen sets, two caps & a pair of mittens to the Head Start tree at the center and we're still trying to find a charity to present with a tote and a half of afghans & lap robes. It was fun being at the center all week, meeting folks that come for activities on days I'm not normally there, chatting, knitting & drinking coffee.

On the personal front, we're still getting ready for the move to the other house. The storage shelves are done in the basement.


All those totes on the second shelf are full of yarn - the stuff I sorted back in November. The larger totes on the floor have dishes in them. We're also starting to move our books. These book shelves are on the back of the shelves on the left of the photo above. Eventually, my quilting area will be in the area to the left. The basement is unfinished so far, but we may doing something about that down the road.


After a lot of thought, we decided to remodel the kitchen before moving. The original just wouldn't adapt to two people using it at the same time. DH & I enjoy cooking, but this "L" shaped layout wasn't going to work so this is the kitchen that was.






The cupboards look nice, but they really weren't. None of the base cabinets had shelves, doors were hung lopsided, drawer fronts tended to come loose and edges were rough enough to scrape if you brushed against them. Right now, the only things that look the same are the refrigerator and the window. The walls are in the process of being patched and painted and new cabinets are on order, due to be installed between Xmas & New Year's. Stay tuned.