;)
- April 27, 2012
- tags: cuff, percival, plucky knitter
The yard work wasn’t nearly as disturbing as the painting (nor did it go on for weeks and weeks). But I’d set a precedent with the cuffs and the painters last time, so I wanted to continue it.
I started this little cuff on Monday (since that’s when I thought the yard folks were coming) and worked on it on and off while they were here on Tuesday. I finished it up Wednesday. Yesterday was blocking and button hunting (I’m not sure this is the right button, but it works for now). Today, I show it off.
It’s cute and quick, almost more of a fashion statement than something to keep you warm.
The yarn is by Plucky Knitter, some of the stuff I brought home from Sock Summit. The whole cuff took all of 35 yards and about 3 hours of knitting. I should have the next one banged out soon. They’re a bit addictive.
Think I could make 2 or 3 in different colors and different widths and wear them all together? Could they be the grown up version of jelly bracelets (please tell me I’m not the only one here old enough to have worn jelly bracelets as a kid…I had zillions of the things), or would that be a terrible idea?
If they’ve caught your fancy and you want to make your own, the pattern is up for testing over on ravelry. The green ones from the other day are up too. Swing by and volunteer.
;)
- April 25, 2012
- tags: chez violence
I’m now officially a fan of the ‘hire a professional’ approach to lawn care. I am not brave enough to show you any ‘before’ shots. It’s too embarrassing. Just imagine the worst yard on your block. It was worse than that. Far, far worse. Instead of bringing shame on my household, I’ll show you some ‘during’ shots.
It all started with a backhoe. It carried on with the backhoe for quite some time. It was oddly fascinating to watch. Alas, they would not let me drive it.
After all the old stuff was gone, there as a long period of dirt raking. Then there was some new dirt added in and another long period of raking. This was done with a degree of precision and concentration I found baffling, but impressive. Next came a shiny new sidewalk between our driveway and our front steps. The old sidewalk was cracked and broken (and thus so jagged as to be downright treacherous). The new one isn’t poured concrete, but instead some sort of field stone. Much prettier, and much less prone to twist an ankle. I foresee a future sock photo here somewhere down the line. Once that was in, plants began to appear.
Then more plants. Then more plants. Then a few more just for good measure. Then mulch.
Then, and most amusing by far, the grass gun fired up. 15 very noisy, smelly minutes later, the soon-to-be-grassy part of the yard was covered in a thick coating of mint-green grass paste.
We’re tasked with dutifully watering it (and all the other plants) for the next month or so. If we can manage to pull that off, the front yard should cease to be a mortifying weed patch and should, instead, be something much more presentable. All this in a day. We didn’t manage even half this in the seven years we’ve lived here. Professionals are definitely the way to go. Now, for the next month or so, all of you are encouraged to remind me to water the lawn. Let’s see if we can at least manage to not kill what we’ve just bought.
;)
- April 24, 2012
- tags: chez violence
So that Thursday thing turned out to be a lie. It’s the weather’s fault, not the lawn company’s. It’s April, it’s Cleveland, the weather is fickle under the best of circumstances. But, yesterday’s predicted rain didn’t show up, the forecast for today was good, and Thursday got declared likely to be rainy. So the guys are here today. Much as predicted, it is a bit noisy. It’s also unreasonably engrossing to watch. It’s kind of amazing what two guys with bulldozers can do. They’re much faster than I’d be out there with a shovel. There’s hope for this place yet.
Edited to add: See, big shiny machines! (I took the picture while leaning out my office window, so please pardon the less than stellar photowork.)
- April 23, 2012
- tags: chez violence
The nice men from the lawn place will be here any minute (hence my unusual state of being awake, upright, clean, and dressed at such an early hour). They came a week or so ago and killed off all the stuff that was destined to go away. Today they rip out the corpses, put in shiny new plants, and spray weird proto-grass paste (which we must dutifully water). They think they can do it all in one day. Should be fun. It will likely also be noisy, but I think it will be worth it. Of course the last time folks descended on my house and made terrible noises, this happened. Today’s adventure should be done in a day or two though, not a week and a half, so I likely won’t have time to get to the productive stage of insanity.
Edited to Add: Or, maybe not so much. About 20 minutes after I posted this, the phone rang. Apparently the weather’s wrong today (too cold, and it’s going to rain). This isn’t conducive to working outside. So it’s looking like Thursday is the day. I’ll try to be patient. I’ll fail, but I’ll try.
- April 20, 2012
- tags: book the third, mini book
So, um, I accidentally sort of wrote another book. Well most of another book.
I don’t mean Book the Third. Book the Third is (or rather will be) a full on proper book. The big kind. The kind that takes a year to put together and involves enlisting the help of photographers and stylists and models and editors and print coordinators and distributors and yarn companies and librarians and likely a competent bartender towards the end there.
This is more of a mini book. Something quite a bit heftier than an individual pattern, but not nearly the all-consuming undertaking of a big book. I don’t exactly have the word for it. Baby book isn’t right (and has too many other connotations), booklet sounds too puny, book sounds a bit too grand. For now I’m thinking of it as a mini book.
It sounds a bit crazy to do this right now, but it’s actually more or less perfect for how my world works at the moment. I know I’ve complained here before (what, me, complain…but I’m the soul of stoicism) that it feels like I don’t have time to actually knit when I’m in the middle of writing one of the big books. I’ve also spent a fair amount of time moaning about the timeline of the big books (Knitter’s Curiosity Cabinet was done in March when the ebook came out, but no one sees the paper version till June). I’m not the patient type, I don’t like all that waiting around for months.
So I’m doing a mini book. It solves both of those problems. It’s a slightly smaller scale production, which means the timeline will move much faster (no waiting weeks on photographs or layout, no waiting months on a massive print job). I’ll also be knitting the samples myself, so I’ll have something on the needles as Book the Third comes together (thereby lessening the chances I’ll go completely off the deep end).
As for the the patterns themselves, they’ll likely be seven of them. Six of the patterns are already written (hence the ‘um I accidentally wrote a book’ bit at the top of the post). Five of them are already knit or mostly knit. Testing is underway right now (this is where I take a moment to reassure you that even though this is happening on an accelerated timeline, the patterns will all still be tested and edited, I want this to be fast, not insane). The layout is mostly done. There are a few more things to do, and I’m sure I’ll tell you way more about this than you want to hear over the next few months, but I’d say look for this one to be out around August.
