When Isn't It a Busy Week

I was going to name this post "Busy Week", but then it occurred to me that this week was like every other, crammed full of things to do and never enough time for knitting.  This wasn't a bad week, though.  The weekend started with Special Olympics.

On the last weekend of each June, the State of Ohio Special Olympics Summer Games are held in Columbus.  My brother, Joe, comes up every year to compete in the bowling tournament.  I try to get over to the Opening Ceremony on Friday evening to see him and then go to watch him bowl on either Saturday or Sunday, whichever day his event is scheduled.  This year the Opening Ceremony was cancelled on Friday due to inclement weather.   Sunday morning was the men's bowling tournament.  Joe enjoyed the tournament like he always does, but his game was a little off this year.  He got a 4th place ribbon.  I'm still very proud of him and, even with an off day, he could out-bowl me.

When I got home I joined Ed in the basement to start laying the flooring.  The first few rows were difficult since it is a floating floor.  The board weren't anchored and moved as we tried to connect them.  Once we got a couple rows in things moved along quickly until we hit obstacles like the post in this picture.  I taught Ed how to use one of my quilting squares to help measure for cuts.  This was our progress at the end of Monday.

Tuesday evening was more of the same.  Wednesday I put my craft stuff back in place.  I'm trying to sort through things a little as I do it.  Ed worked more by himself on Thursday because I had plans to go out.  We are now over half complete.  The hard part now is moving the stuff around to clear the floor.

This was the last week of my annual contract with the State of Ohio.  I'm getting a renewal but the paperwork will take a few weeks to complete.  The department has asked me to work At Risk while things move through the bureaucratic channels.  It occurred to me that I've been working in the tallest building in Columbus for over a year and had never gone up to the observation area on the top floor.  This is the view looking west.  Not bad!

In my last post I showed three skeins of La Jolla I am going to use to make Paris By Day.  While I was posting about them, I starting having doubts about the solid beige skein.  Last Friday on my way home from work I decided to stop by the LYS and see if they still had a skein of the colorway Tuxedo.  If they didn't have any left, I knew a place online where I could order it.  As luck would have it I was able to snatch the last skein.  It makes me so much happier than the beige.  

Don't get me wrong, the beige is a lovely skein of yarn.  It just wasn't right for that pattern.  I'll think of something to do with it that will make it shine.

As mentioned earlier, I had plans to go out last night.  It was my monthly euchre club night.  Since we are so close to the 4th of July, I decided to make a patriotic pie.  I got inspiration from this recipe, using blueberries and black raspberries for the star section and strawberries and red raspberries for the striped section.  I had to switch things up a little.  I didn't have enough corn starch so I used flour.  I was in a bit of a hurry, so I used store bought dough.  Instead of putting it in a pie pan, I used my tart pan.  In spite of the substitutions it turned out lovely and delicious.  I have one piece left.  Maybe I'll share it with Ed later.  

Or maybe not.

Chaos!

Between work and home, life has been utter chaos.

Like April, May was a very rainy month.  In the evening of May 22, we discovered our sump pump failed.  My husband discovered it when he went to the basement to get something and stepped in 4 inches of water at the base of the stairs.  The insurance company was called and they sent out a water remediation company.  Two guys spent the entire day hulling water-logged stuff thrown in big plastic garbage bags up to the garage.  I had to sort through the bags and inventory everything.  They also pulled up all of the carpet (the basement was finished).  Afterwards, they removed the baseboards, drilled holes every 4 inches around the perimeter and then set up 20 fans and 4 dehumidifiers to dry out the basement.  Four days later the basement was declared dry and mold free. Since then almost every moment at home is spent doing something to deal with the chaos:  preparing the insurance claim, throwing out damaged and/or water-logged items, repairing holes in the drywall made by the remediation company, shopping for flooring to replace the carpet.  Ed is currently fixing the holes.  Once he finishes that step I will paint over the holes.  We decided on a vinyl laminate for the floor instead of carpeting. That will go down after the walls are repaired.

Work has also been in a state of chaos.  A project I am working on isn't going well.  I've been putting in long hours and coming home exhausted.

In between all this I helped my favorite LYS get ready for a special Manos event.  The first evening that I helped, I copied patterns.  The rest of the evenings were spent hanking and tagging hundreds of skeins of yarn.  Those of us who were there started playing a guessing game regarding the colorway names.  There are some very interesting names!

There hasn't been too much time for knitting.  I have made a little progress on Superbulky Grandpa and Drachenfels. 

The yoke is finished on SBG.  It is beginning to look like a real jacket.

Drachenfels is not quite to the home stretch.  I'm finished with Color A and am in the section of alternating ridges of Colors B and C.  It is almost mindless garter stitch knitting, perfect for in front of the television, but I haven't had much TV time lately.  I've noticed that once I sit down, I start falling asleep.

I do need to get these two projects finished because the stash is growing.

At the Manos event, I bought two skeins of Manos Marina.  These two pretty skeins will eventually become Quinoa.

These purchases weren't the only ones made lately.  My friend and I also stopped by another LYS's event for Baah! yarn.  There I bought three skeins of La Jolla to make Paris By Day.  

The weekend before, she and I stopped by the Mid Ohio Fiber Festival.  Two skeins of recycled cashmere lace weight, a bag of English angora fiber and a yarn bundle in a beautiful green jumped into my bag.

So, you see, I have plenty to keep my busy.  Now all I need is the time and energy to devote to it.

Superbulky Grandpa

While I was posting my last blog entry, my husband was on the phone booking a cruise for our anniversary.  Later this year we will celebrate 28 years of marriage by taking a cruise from NYC up through New England, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.  I hope the fall colors are out and we get to see the Aurora Borealis.  Thinking about the weather that we might encounter on the cruise, I decided I needed to make a special sweater for the trip.  Superbulky Grandpa had recently popped up in Ravelry so I gave it a look.  It seemed perfect for what I wanted, something to throw over a top and add a scarf if necessary.

Later in the day I went out to run some errands and stopped in the store to buy some yarn.  That evening I knit a gauge swatch.  The curious thing about the pattern is that it lists two different gauges.  Based upon the finished bust measurements, I should make the XL, but since my gauge matched the tighter gauge I decided I needed to do a little math to see if it would work out.  According to my calculations I decided I needed to knit the XXL.   Since this is a top down sweater, I figure I won't have long until I know if this was the right decision or not.

While I was out running errands that day, I also stopped into my favorite LYS.  The shop owner asked me if I would like a temporary part-time job to help her get ready for a special event she is having in June.  Of course I said "Yes!"  I have been helping her and her staff hank and tag hundreds of skeins of Manos.  Not surprisingly, I have loved every minute of my time there.  It is yarn heaven!!

May Didn't Get the Memo

April showers bring May flowers.

Yeah!  Right!  Sure!  When the showers don't stop at the end of April, they bring cold, damp, dreary May.  That's how the weather has been the first week of May in Ohio.  I am being a bit dramatic.  I do have flowers.  But I'm not sure if they will survive.  The weatherman mentioned the possibility of frost tonight.  And I may have jumped the gun and planted my tomatoes and peppers outside already.  Keeping my fingers crossed that they all make it through the night.

The dreary weather has been perfect for getting some sewing done, along with the fact that Blake is now home for the summer and has been borrowing my car quite a bit.  Last Saturday I worked on a few quilting projects.

First, I made the April and May blocks for my groups' Block of the Month.   The patterns come in two sizes, crib and twin, so I decided that I'd do one of each.  The April block is a four-patch and the May is a modified nine-patch.

The crib size quilt is going to be made out of pastels.

The twin size is going to be made out of bold colors.

After those were complete, I pulled out the pieces for Blake's quilt, which I never finished.  I now have the top complete and have to decide about the quilting.  I can't decide if I want to do it myself or contract it out.  My hesitation with doing it myself is because I seem to always have trouble with yarn tension.  I want the quilting to be stippling, but I have never mastered that technique.

He heads back to school in August.  I'll give myself this month of May to think about what I want to do.  Maybe I'll muster up some courage.