WIP Wednesday

Not much knitting here at chez Gothknits. I've manged to put several rounds on Little Dude's sweater and it's up to about 6 inches now.

Mostly my days have been filled with changing diapers, emptying buckets, spraying everything with Lysol, doing laundry, second guessing whether or not to give water, or Pedialyte or food, changing sheets and towels and pajamas and movies and generally trying to calm them without getting the plague myself. I think I was successful in that last goal. I'm still wary and not eating anything I wouldn't want coming back up. This was Little Miss's first true stomach bug and it hit her hard. She was having issues with letting things just come up and go into the bucket and I think her stubborness helped prolong it. Not my Little Dude...he's old pro at this game. At one point he quietly got off my lap, walk over to an available bucket, stuck his head in and let go. My poor babies....and Little Miss had a round of teething on top of it. Last night was a scream fest from her. But I think minus the teething, my minions are back to themselves. I saw the true Little Dude for the first time in days last night before bed. My husband is still recovering but I think he's over the worst of it now.

I'm just waiting to see if it gets me. In the meantime my body has said: 'Since I'm fighting off this big bad dragon, I'm just gonna let this little guy through'. The little guy being another UTI. Man I hate these things...but I hate puking more.

Through this whole thing I've decided that Lysol needs to make house bombs, just like the flea bombs. Get everyone out and set those puppies off. When you come back it's sanitized and you can go back to normal.

In the midst of all this my parents came to visit and we made sausage and had a garage sale. Needless to say I'm on the verge of insanity. But we made 10 lbs of sweet Italian sausage, 10 lbs of breakfast sausage, and $80. My garage looks fairly neat at the moment. We've two piles out there: one for donation and one for Craigslist/fall garage sale.

So much of the work in progress has been in the house. Furniture has been rearranged and the kitchen functions much better now. Though we're still going the wrong direction to throw out trash and get silverware. I'm continuing to empty out cupboards and drawers and everything. I think I may have found new dishes. Playing nurse for the sick ward has set me back a few days in my painting schedule. I'd had hope to have our room done by now. Not so much. That is what I am trying to prep for at the moment, between bathroom breaks and spraying things people have touched.

Hopefully more progress (and pictures) tomorrow. Back to it.

WIP Wednesday

Really there are only two things in progress at the moment:

1. tag sale prep
2. sausage making prep (which is all but done now)

 Oh yeah, and one more thing.
     3. Going crazy.

See you in a few more days once the whirl wind is done, and hopefully where my freezer will be fuller, my house and garage emptier and my bank account wealthier.


I leave you with this moment of cute to distract you.

WIP Wednesday

And it is another Wednesday. The storms last week were rather harsh and brought some very oppressive heat with them. Heat + MS = bad things. The heat wiped out pretty hard. Saturday I ended up with heat rash of all things. I've not had that since my summer of living in West Virginia where our AC was killed by a rather intense year of cicadas. That was in 1999 (Brood V if you follow those things) and it was pretty insane. This is another story and shall be told another time...(which is the most repeated and annoying line in the novel The Neverending Story.)

Anywho Works In Progress

Dude and Little Dude's Shirts- I measured both of them and figured out what sizes to cut out. I never cut down my multi-size patterns. I just mark the size I need on the fabric. I was actually shamed by Little Dude into working on this. The fabric was sitting in a basket waiting to be ironed and cut, when he saw it and asked why I wasn't working on it. I replied that it was something that I needed some alone time to do. So he asked if he could go play in his room by himself. Point taken I cut out both shirts and LD's hat. Isn't that fabric fun.

Little Dude's sweater- I worked out the needle issue and got cast on and knitted away. I ended up turning the hem on Saturday, whilst the husband and I watched The Hobbit. I even managed to impress him with how cool that whole process is. It took the whole damn movie to do it, but I was busy watching dwarves, elves and hobbits. Now there is 11 inches of stockinette stitch to do. These are the moments when I wish I could knit in my sleep.

Painted the columns- This is a project that I will elaborate on in my painting blog shortly but I needed to show here. I have a pet peeve about bad painted marble, and I was lacking in projects in my final few weeks of work. So this:    

 Became this:

Garden- Despite having a lovely and large yard, I have not been able to create my much longed for vegetable garden. I just don't have the sun. Our neighborhood is named Timber Village for a reason. With all the lovely trees that shade our house and keep it cool in the summer, (and keep us knee deep in leaves every fall) I have not one spot in my yard that gets full sun. Not a single one. Community Garden to the rescue. For a mere $30 I was able to secure a spot in the community garden this year. For that price I get a 20' x 32' area to cultivate from the time they till it until early November. Unfortunately between surprising late cold weather and the fact that our lives were very hectic this spring, we got a late start on it. Last month we went and checked it out, put up fencing, and started some weeding. We picked up some plants this weekend but I didn't make it to the actual garden until yesterday....where I found the weeds to be thick and about 8" tall. It being my first day out of work I went to it. I managed to weed half the plot by hand. The husband came over on his lunch break, shoveled the paths and planting areas, and we got what we had into the ground. I went back again today to keep weeding. I have been diligent, knowing my issues with the sun. I had a snack and plenty of water. I wore a hat and applied sunscreen before I left the house to drop off the kids. (Daycare is right around the corner from the gardens). And this is what I ended up with today...      

                       Yep. I've got a trampstamp sunburn. And it burns like hellfire. The really annoying thing is that I applied sunscreen to that area. We are expecting rain on Friday and Saturday, so I'll be back there again tomorrow hopefully getting the majority of our remaining planting done. And maybe this time I'll remember the camera.


My Double Heelix socks are sitting in corner at the moment whilst I figure what bind-off I want to do. I made a few attempts at the interlocking bind off suggested but wasn't having much luck. This woman has great ideas but I don't know if it's my brain or what....her descriptions and illustrations don't help me at all. I can elaborate more on that when I finish my project and review the pattern. I found some YouTube videos but they either illustrate doing it in stockinette or in 1x1 rib. The sock is in 2x2. And I'm sure I'd get it if I could just see someone do it in 2x2. I'd do Jeny's Surprising Stretchy Bind Off, but frankly I don't like the ruffly look it creates. Especially on socks whose colors are inspired by the Incredible Hulk. I'm considering the Tubular Bind Off; I just need to spend a little more time with YouTube. Alone. Just me, the socks and the laptop.

That's about it...the other few projects haven't been touched since last week. But I did have to show this bit of fabulousness. Whilst weeding today I received a rather cryptic text from my best friend.

Name the source of this line: I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.

Geek that I am, I immediately recognize and and reply that it is from Harry Potter and makes the Marauder's Map work. I think nothing more of it until I get to our knit knite and she hands me this:

And it matches hers perfectly.



 There is a reason we are best friends.

Well, that is all for now, and I am off. And yes, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good. Cheers.

WIP Wednesday

I need to type fast because we are having a humdinger of a thunder/lighting storm outside. Normally, I'd be out watching it but this is my only time today to post.

I've got several projects on the go and summer unemployment on the horizon, so I though a weekly check-in would shame me into getting things done. So here we go

1. Double Heelix Socks- I finally got to try this baby on and I think the cuff is long enough. Now I just need to bind off and seam the toe. I suck at Kitchner stitch so I need to spend some time and find a good video. Oh and do the second sock.
   
2. At knitting tonight I cast on Boys Can Wear Pink sweater, and then realized I needed a shorter cable, which I didn't have with me. 
   
3.  Because it is in Little Miss's Batgirl tunic. I should probably finish this soon.
   
4. Dude and Little Dude shirts- I've got the pattern pieces ironed and cut out. The fabric has been washed and is waiting to be ironed and cut.  
5. Boy Scout quilt- I'm a good chunk of the way through the quilting. We see my FIL at the end of June and I'm hoping to get this done before we go. I need to cut the binding, which means I need to find time when the minions are not around. It's probably best to keep them away from the rotary cutter. 

There it is. I better go before this storm does bad things.