And 2 weeks later.....

.....I still have nothing to report....but tomorrow I take pics of my big 5 month project and as of wednsday evening, I'll be on walkabout.....yep, a few days off are in order, so I got the "Crackmobile" outfitted and am getting set to head out, somewhere....anywhere.....but most importantly, a place where there is no cell reception, and as far as the eye can see rolling hills, thick woods, water, and fish. The bear and I spent sunday on the water catching crappies and as of now, wednsday couldn't come fast enough. Check in tomorrow, I'll have pics of one sweet renovation.....As for now, I'm on my way to Restoration Hardware to pick up a few final pieces!

I can feel, for heavens sake.....

.....for tonight, We'll try something new. More pics, less words, and a short story at the end about taking my 13 year old daughter to her first show.(concert for those not in the know ; )
Most of what I have is about this old house, and the beginings of the process to make it ours. So for starters, lets talk carpet. If theres one thing I hate more than feet, it's carpet.. Carpet is just gross, even when it's brand new like ours was when we moved in, carpet just fuels the germaphobe in me and already I've had enough.....so I did something about it....behold......

Yep, here's where it starts! Enough of the wiring, and replumbung of the laundry area in the basement, and fixing of the down spouts and drainage lines, and.....you get the picture. Time to tear shit apart and put it back together. Get to what I do best....Carpentry.....(and drinking)
With all the excitement, Poor Crosby needed a nap, and as I pulled staples, tack strips, and used hot water and white vinegar to scrub off what seemed like half a million little paint spots he just sacked out and snored. as I pulled back more padding, he'd just move a few feet back and sleep some more. (lucky bastard)
The fruit of my labor was this......Who in their right mind would cover this? To each their own I suppose but knowing what lied beneath ate at me all winter and I have swore for months that I'd rip it all out when spring came. The Misses was a huge help with the billion staples from who knows how many re-carpet-ings and in the end got into the swing of things and was re arranging furniture and talking wall colors by the end of the day. Especially in the dining room.



When there wasn't an assload of snow on the ground, it bothered me to no end that there wasn't any mulch in any of the beds...just mud....that the dog just couldn't stay out of....So before plants started emerging, I picked up a big load of bulk mulch with the "Crack Mobile 150" and laid it on thick. Just in time I'd say since there isn't 3 square inches in any of the flower beds without something popping up. This is better than x-mas morning, since we have no Idea whats in any of them! So far tons of lillies, tulips, 6 out of control Peonie groups, cool ground cover, etc....I'll keep those pics flowing as they come up!

Next week, the lawn gets a nice dusting of powdered Com-Till (pulverized mulch mixed with essentially human wast,e sludge from local waste water facilities)(yelgth.......). As gross as it is, I'll get over it for a kick ass lawn devoid of fertilizers or other chemicals, and I won't tell one damn neighbor what I used when they come asking.... "Oh, some shit from 'Blows' in a bag" is all I'm sayin'!

Didn't I say less words? Damn am I shot......On the knitting frontlines is a variation of my beer cozy, designed with a flap to protect my really expensive Bronze Block plane, known only as "the precious"(like golum from lord of the rings, you get the picture) safe in my nail apron. Everyone who knows me, knows not to fucking touch it. This is not a tool for sharing. it you need one, you need to buy one. That's the rule.....

Next up is a Clog experiment...I love my army man green crocks...The kids love theirs....My wife has several pairs, but they are cold in the winter....So why not knit up Fiber trends clog pattern, just without the second sole as a nice warm liner? I think the Lambs pride bulky verigated I used is still too thick, but since I can crank these puppies out in record time, I'll knit some more out of a thinner yarn on smaller needles until I get it right. On the topic of taking your kids to their first show when they are old enough......

We went to CD101.1's annual spring show.....It was a fuckin' blast! 6 bands, 5 bucks and the line up was awesome.... Ashley loved the switches and they put on a long set of 8 songs complete with knocking over mic stands, wrecking guitars, and roadies scrambling to keep up! She was grinning ear to ear all night and even wanted to stay in the crowd on the floor in front of the stage start to finish. They were good, but the Duke spirit was absolutely awesome live, so much that I'm gonna go see them in a few more weeks again with Black rebel motorcycle club.....Looks as though I've found myself a concert buddy for life, and that I'm not a total square of a parent as she spent all night pointing out the ones hovering in the background, trying to keep an eye on where their kids ran off to.....for the most part, it was a great show, and a well behaved older (but drunken) crowd of mid 20's to mid 30's. A perfect night wasn't complete without a pit stop of taco hell for food.

You better lie down cause the angels are watching.....

.....It's way overdue but I'm back with Lots of good stuff so grab a drink and we'll get started!! Everybody loves crap so we'll get started there. I have officially had 3 full scale basement floods in 60 days to deal with and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the previous owners not disclosing that information. just look at the water coming up out of the fireplace. If they thought they would just get away with it, they were wrong, and I've set my "team" in motion to go get in their ass and see what they find. Maybe corn, maybe coin, we'll see. In the meantime, I've got buckets, shovels, Miller high life, a jackhammer, and I gotta say that with such tough menial tasks ahead, all you need is a mediocre attitude cause a good buzz will make up for the rest. nuff said on that one.

So, who knows what NSAIDS are? anybody, anybody? It pretty much encompasses every pain reliever in your madicine cabinet excluding tylenol, maybe....opinions vary and I need to get tested for that. As of yesterday, I found out the hard way that I am allergic to them. Scary stuff but after an IV full of benydryl, some steroid, and a shitload of synthetic adrenaline, I had an awesome buzz and didn't give a shit about the fact that I was purple from the chest up and my blood pressure was soaring, and I couldn't breath, and was basicly going into shock. good times.

Oficially, there are a pair of epi pens in the glove box of the new crackmobile for the next time.

Anyone want to see some knitting? thought so...

I finished a pair of socks out of my own homegro.., I mean hand dyed yarn and absolutely love them.

I was really worried they were a bit too tight, but after a good washing they relaxed quite nicely.

Weeks ago I ordered some yarn from Ohio Valley Natural fibers and have had a great time dyeing it up for a sweater! A top down raglan was in order after sweater fitting disaster struck with the rowan bottom up one. I am just going to dye up random lengths in random colors and knit them in as I run out of the last. The columbia wool bulky I am using is one denst yarn and will make a nice tough swetaer I hope.

It is supposed to be a sloppy fitting roll top and I am glad I cast on too many stitches at the collar so I can knit it to the right fit later. In hindsight I should have used a temporary cast on and went back after it later, but thats how I learn everything, the hard way. so far I've got a mottled army green, and a slate blue/greyish color and the next color will be either burgandy or brown. we'll see. Tonight, I will sit and relax. Tomorrow, I've got 2 yards of mulch to spread and then a basement to attend to so no slacking off this weekend. Get outside for a bit, walk your dog, and get ready for MDSW! if you are going, remember to watch out for all those deal crazed white women. They'll knock you off over the last skein, It happened to micah last year!

Wintery Mix.....

On a day like today, I would find it next to impossible to study all day, but since I hit the books at 8am instead of going to work, I decided to take an hour and wrap up a WIP. Crosby (my GSP)and I had already shoveled once, and warmed up the misses SUV for her 2 hour commute, we decided to go out and hunt up where the squirrels had been in the yard. Even the old dog loves a snow day, but with his short coat, he dosen't last more than 30 minutes before wanting in.

The hat, cost about 150 bucks.....Let me explain- when you figure it's leftovers from the Rowan Yorkshire tweed aran sweater that didn't fit, well, thats it really, and I am still bitter about it. But here it is anyhow:

I had a hard time taking a self Pic that included the crown, but the opposing braids sort of collapse on themselves leaving a neat 2x2 cable along the outer edge, seperated from the next set by 2 purled sts. I'll try to get a better pic later with some help. The plan today, since now we have freezing rain and sleet coming down on top of about 3" of snow, will be to stay indoors. when all is said and done, we're supposed to have 5-7" of crap on the ground. Hope fully, the college will close, but somehow I doubt it. class should be small tonight and an abundant amount of parking spaces.....Stay home, stroke your TI-84+ calculator, and remember that if you don't have 4WD and can't drive to begin with, just stay home..............

--Update--

Campus is CLO-SED!! time for total slackerdom to set in!

What sundays are for.....

.....It's been about a week since I've had a total slacker of a day, so I think I'm due.....

Sunday maornings are now for eating fresh bread for breakfast with black coffee.

Sunday mornings are for Wool clogs and stoking up a good fire

for your German shorthaired Pointer. Yes, I'm still in my P.J.'s.....

Sunday mornings are for casting on thick wooly man

socks out of that stuff you dyed up a week ago.....

It was about 4 degrees this morning here when the dog and I went outside so hunker down, Knit something for yourself, and be a slacker....after fixing the dishwasher AND the garage door yesterday, I'm not going to do S&$@ today....(lord knows what google would have turned up with that word right?...)

You'd have thought....

.....I had the wonka golden ticket at how excited I was when I saw KnitXcore's post about the bread, and seriously, I was on a mission after that! Without any messing around, Here's the result:






"A" and I turned out 2 loaves. The white one was...phenomanal,(and almost gone) The dark one was made with Teff flour, and it was like a rock, but had an interesting flavor. After some more google strokin', I found out that Teff flour should only be substituted in a ration of 25% of the total flour amount, so that's where we hosed that one. but the recipe was correct, Even a 6 year old can bake bread as good as sullivan's bakery in Hells kitchen, NYC. For any more info, Check out Robbie's blog, he had an awesome post all about it, including the recipie and a video of the owner of the bakery making a few loaves. I'm a regular lurker there. As a final thought, There are 2 more loaves rising in the cupboard for tomorrow night! one with white all purpose flour. The other, 75% organic whole wheat/25% organic teff flour....(I don't give up easily)






Off the needles (yes, I said off) The Noro 1x1 scarf is done, but somebody obsconded with it already so pics will have to wait. A pair of knucks for B finally got knocked off, so without further words:


Tahki "Shannon" is a really fun yarn, and I scored a few balls at my lys a few weeks back with the intent on making a scarf for her, but she was right, it made great knucks. this was my 4th pair, and they are fun to knit, I just hate closing up the holes between the fingers. It's just a pain. I even got busy with the dyes yesterday with some reynolds "Candide" that I scored from my friend Mary's stash reduction sale last week. It's 100% virgin wool 2 ply that is a cream strand, tan strand plied together (I could have just said rag wool I suppose) and it took dye really well. These pics don't do it justice so I'll take some more in the day light if we ever get any around here before june.
The ball on the right, 197 yards, prochem dyes in 3 c0lors and one from country classic. The ball on the left was a half drunk, way-too-late-to start this experiment but what the hell.......I took the left over country classic mahogany (which I added too much yellow too, and it ended up looking exactly like the pro chem mocha brown I was using, ) and added it to a pot of simmering water, and tossed a 1/3 skein (I had made up for heels and toes) right in in the twisted skein form! I simmered about 2 minutes and cut the heat off, and continued to swish it around in the pot for another half hour while I had a few more drinks (a few) and by 2 am I had one beautiful rusty orange skein with dark yellow hints. the best part, was no tangles when I wound it. The party didn't stop there though....(no, it didn't) I left it in the pot until the next morning, hung it next to the de humidifier in the basement, and this evening, I've got my new boot sock yarn! that was an adventure for sure. Sundays are for fuzzy heads, late breakfasts, and long showers, The latter 2 were much more enjoyable I assure you. I finally got my Ravelry invite saturday, and signed up as Mattomite so don't leave me friendless!
have a good week, and watch out for old man winter, he gave us some flurries here tonight.

Time flies.....

.....and around this old house, seems to fly some more...

I met Yarmando for some friday morning knitting, and a liquid lunch, but was teased by a few sassy ladies of the knitwitters group at the merc about not blogging anymore, so here I am. I have been busy at work, busy around the house, and frogging nearly 75% of the projects I've been knitting that I just was bored with. On the Job, I've been on a whole house remodel (with clients crammed into 2 bedrooms till I'm done(they are saints to say the least)) complete with hydrolic foundation lifting:

Good times there since it was in a crawl space and I'm nearly 6'6"....

Yarn related, after all the frogging I caved in to the striped noro scarf craze, but without color:

I got hooked when I saw Brooklyn Tweed's version but had a hard time dealing with all the saturated colors, so I started knitting it out of Noro silk garden chunky in the #4 color. about a foot into it with one ball only, I frogged and started striping. I think the trick to using one color only is to find balls that begin and end in different colors Which has worked perfectly without any color overlapping (which I was afraid of). I wont bore you with the gory details of fixing our c.1935 home, but Yesterday I wrapped up a major plumbing fix caused by 3 lbs of carrot peels (that is a no-no) going down the dispose-all which required sawing out the old galvanized pipe in the basement and a power drain snake with 35 feet of snake, which did the trick. (thank god) ((that would have been the most expensive x-mas dinner yet)) The fireplace damper which was stuck for 20 years in the basement, has been unstuck, and after a professional inspection (not done by me) I have a working brick fireplace in the rec- room! thursday, I got a pick up load of wood, and I gotta tell ya, it's just nice to build a fire and knit for once. Now, on to the dishwasher water line......