No Peeking! Exclamation points galore!

Guess what's finally off the needles? Go ahead, guess.

I'll give you some hints. It's beeeuuuttttiifullllll! It has beads! It's going to a wedding! It's currently very wet, prior to blocking!

But no peeking! Ok, just a little peek:

Real photo shoot pics will arrive on Monday! Have a great weekend!

Blocking Rods

I'm so close! Only 15 rows to go on the Wedding Stole and then blocking. Yeah!

I went to Home Depot today and bought 4, 1/8" x 36" brass rods today to use as blocking wires/rods. Should work perfectly on this stole. I also grabbed some galvanized picture hanging wire to use for blocking on stuff that requires something more flexible. We'll see how that does. All of this was way cheaper than buying a blocking wire kit online. I love hardware stores! But they do look at me funny when I tell them what I want their stuff for. Happens every time.

The Youngest starts pre-pre-pre K next week and he needs a backpack. So guess what we bought today and he won't take off now? Wore it all through the Home Depot trip. Sometimes you just have to pick your battles, ya know?

Last Evening

An event from last night:

Me: (peeling wall paper) "Oh look, the Youngest wants to help, how cute."
Youngest: (peeling wall paper) "Help!" (then runs away and comes back.)
Me: "What are you eating?"
Youngest: "Cheese"
Me: "What cheese?"
Youngest: (peeling wall paper) "Cheese" (then runs away)
Me: (panicking) "What cheese?" (Chases him down)
Youngest: "Yummy!"

Me: EWWWWW!!!!!

Caught the disgusting 2 year old eating soggy, 20 years dirty wall paper off the wall.

I just about threw up.

Can someone come up with a brilliant invention that makes children skip the 2nd year altogether? Please?

Brain Cell Challenged

I must be brain cell challenged. There's something in my little pea brain that crops up every once in a blue moon and says "You don't have enough stuff to do, you better take on a really big freakin' project."

Let's see, I've already got these on my plate now:

1. Wedding Shawl
2. Baby Sweater
3. The Youngest starting pre-pre-pre K
4. The Youngest (in general)
5. My best friend coming over tomorrow
6. Desperately needing to clean house (I'm definitely not the premiere house frau)
7. Guests coming over on Labor Day
8. Children's consignment Sale coming up mucho quick and need to get clothes ready to sell.
9. Wedding to attend on Sept. 6th
10. etc. etc. etc.

Yeah, I've got tons of time on my hands. So what did I start last night?

Getting rid of a 5 year old nightmare in the kitchen. No not one of the kids, remember they're two and seven (although that's not a bad idea), but this:

Hideous, frickin' WALLPAPER from hell!

Notice the three layers? The bottom layer was never primed and is stuck fast to the sheetrock. I won't be removing it, just priming and painting it. But I started steaming and peeling last night and this is where I stopped. I have since peeled a bit more.

Take a closer look.

The top level: Everyone over the age of 70 that has come into my kitchen has loved this one. Yes, it's colorful. But EWWWW! I once hung a Christmas wreath against it and it blended in. Nothing can be hung against this wall paper. It's like kitchen camouflage with a nasty 80's color scheme of colonial blue, seafoam green and a smidge of pinks and browns.

The Second Level: Polka Dotty but more bearable than the top layer.


Third Level: Leftover 70's paper. The house was built in 1980, but I guess they didn't feel like putting in brand spanking new 80's paper when they could get leftover 70's stuff from the oops bin at the local Wall Papers 'r Us.


I have a huge kitchen, but this is the biggest wall of the stuff. It's not going to be a quick project. I'm making Christmas the deadline for it, but if it isn't complete by then, who cares? It'll get done sometime. There's no way we could ever sell the house with wallpaper like this anyway. Yuck!

Swatching For Sanity

Most people (including myself) do swatches only out of basic necessity. I never thought I would see the day that I did a swatch to save my sanity. I've looked at lace and looked at lace and looked at more lace this weekend, until I really needed a serious break. But. Since there is a big deadline looming on the lacework, I could only take a small break, thus, the swatch.

I'm swatching for this tank top: W, by Kristi Porter. For the yarn, I decided to try Debbie Mumm Traditions. I've heard horror stories about this yarn. It is a core spun yarn with black as the core fiber. I'm not sure about the core fiber, it could be cotton.

So here's my review of this yarn so far. There are many complaints out there about the outside of the yarn bunching up and exposing the core fiber. I haven't seen it yet. This could be a complaint of tight knitters. I was very careful to keep a loose but comfy tension while I was knitting.



I do think though, that this will pill very easily. If you enlarge the above pic, you can see a bunch of fuzzies showing up already.

Look at the pic below. Aren't the colors fabulous?

It has long color runs similar to Noro, but it's waaaayyyy softer to the touch. So far I like it. I'm going to throw the swatch in the washer just for fun. The yarn is 75% acrylic, 23% wool and 2% "other fiber". I got gauge and now I want to experiment wit it some more. So, now, it's off to the washer and dryer. I'll report on it after it's done.

I'm also going to measure how long the color runs are and also the length of the transitions are between the runs. I would like to make a lizard ridge blanket, but I hate the feel of Noro. I want to spin my own Noro-esque yarns for the afghan. My problem is (and why I haven't done it yet), a certain little monkey stole my tape measure, or, as he calls it, the "push-it" (for the little button on the side that makes it draw up.) I'm going to have to turn the house upside down to find the "push-it".

Which monkey you ask? The monkey with the red blanket below. Look what they did to the couch cover, pillows and living room.

Monkey see, Monkey do.