Deconstruction

 

Where it started.

Where it ended.

We got as far as putting in some of the new studs but we called it a day after just a couple. It was too nice outside not to take Pup for a walk before it got dark. There's always tomorrow. 

And.........someone asked me about the advent sweaters I had posted about the other day and here they are from Arne and Carlos.  They will be a KAL that starts in December so I wanted my WIPs basket cleared by then. I thought I had a shot at it until the wall came tumbling down and I see how much work all this is going to take. Oh, well...there's always next year. 

Wild and Woolly

 

We didn't get a darn thing done on the kitchen again yesterday but we did get a grocery pick up and I did finish Festive Doodle. I love it. I tried it on and it fits perfectly. It could be a bit longer. I'm not one for the new cropped sweater trend but I will forgive this one because it looks amazing. I'm already thinking about another one in a different color but that's for the future. 

Right now I want to clear everything out of the WIP baskets so I can get started on my little advent sweaters and that means I have to finish Dog Star. The yarn is here so I've got no excuse. I've just got the neck ribbing to do.

It came in this order of Knit Picks goodies. For some reason I ordered two skeins of Static in the same colorway. I'm not sure how I did it but I can probably make use of it somewhere. I also threw in some more WOTA in superwash for maybe another Dog Star if I am so inclined come January. 

That's all the woolly news but how about some wild? This is my bathroom. They are calling for it to get really cold this weekend so I am washing my way through my knit wear to make sure it's not dusty. I've learned the hard way to make sure everything gets a bath before I wear it for the first time. For me this is the sneezin' season. Wool and dust are a terrible combination.  

Wednesday WIPs:The Frog Pond Edition

 

About two weeks from Daughter's bridal shower back in 2011 I noticed a boo boo in the middle of the shawl I had made for her. I could have pretended I didn't see it but I did so after an appropriate mourning period I ripped it back and spent day and night re-knitting it to have it done on time. 

I was deep into Lillehammer in 2009 when I realized I had left out a whole chart repeat way up top. After I could breathe again it was rip, rip, rip and with colorwork it's never fun. 

Not that long ago I frogged a finished Soldotna and re-knit the whole thing in order to improve the fit and the neckline. 

Why am I going down this not so nice memory lane? Because when The Mister woke up yesterday morning all bent out of shape about ripping out the wall I knew just how he felt. He wasn't ready. Sometimes your work has to go in time out for a while before you can drag it off to the frog pond and I get that. I also had one horrible headache so instead of ripping out the wall he spent the day raking leaves and I spent the day laying on the couch in the dark listening to audiobooks.

The good news is that my solution for over the stove problem arrived and I love it. I need to give a big thanks to the commenter that suggested it.  It's an industrial looking stainless back splash with a decidedly Ikea vibe that will make that area look much better once we get the will to tear it out and start again. It may be a while but you gotta do what you gotta do when the time is right. We've all been there. 

Tiny Needle Tuesday: The Calm Before the Storm

 

I stitched a little dog holding a balloon and several new branches this week on the toy tree. From here on out I am making it up as I go along because all the things in that part of the tree from the pattern are too babyish. 

As for the kitchen, this is how we spent the day yesterday. We had to knock down and pack up the rest of the cabinets that were still on the floor in the kitchen. I had planned on using them for storage during the rest of the remodel and never did so they were just in the way. Now we've got some floor space to work when we tear out that wall-which should be today. 

In between kitchen work we've been trying to keep up with the leaves. Fall might have been late but it's here now with a vengeance. It's like a snowstorm of leaves out there and we've been raking and mowing like crazy without making much of a difference. It is pretty. I don't think I've ever seen this much color all at one time. Late falls are worth the wait.  

The Long Haul

 

For those of you still interested in the kitchen....we are going to rip out that wall where the counter doesn't meet the tile. Seeing that we are heading into year 3 of the Great Kitchen Debacle we thought we might as well at least try to get it right. We spent most of the day rearranging the former construction mess so we could have room to work and tomorrow we will clean up all the old debris we drug outside. On Tuesday we'll rip it all out to the studs and start again. Sigh. We WILL NOT be re-tiling over the stove. We don't have the talent so I've got some things on the way that hopefully will work on that part of the naughty wall. For the rest of the day I finished up the Christmas cards and.........

.....made piles of princesses to get a jump start on all those shower invitations. I'll probably be pretty tired at night after the demolition starts so it's best I get these things done asap. 

It's a darn good thing I won't be needing this baby quilt finished any time soon. It may take a lot longer than I had hoped. 

More Venting

 

The tile redo went pretty well.................we thought. 

We thought everything looked fine and dandy the day before but when we turned on the vent hood light it looked like two drunk people tiled that wall. What on earth? We couldn't have done a worse job if we had tried. 

 

After several hours of online research I figured some things out. 

*First, subway tile is the devil. Unless you have a perfectly straight and level wall it will have tons of lippage. That's the word that means the tiles won't be flush with each other. The wall behind the stove is bowed and we knew it and thought we could fix it with the mastic. Nope. 

*Second, we picked the wrong grout size. You will always have tons of noticeable lippage with only a 1/16 spacer. Of course that's the one I picked. 

*Then I picked the wrong layout. You can't do a 50/50 layout if you've got any wall wobble since tile are thicker in the middle. I was supposed to do a 30/70 which I can't even imagine trying to figure out. 

*AND FINALLY, you ALWAYS have to install your overhead lighting BEFORE you tile so you don't get the nasty surprise we got. What to do, what to do.....? We should tear it all out and redo the drywall like we did in the bathroom but right now we've got even more problems to figure out....

We also noticed that our fancy new quartz counter top doesn't meet the tile on that same naughty wall. It's a half inch away. Now that's an ugly mess. How did we not see that?  A half inch caulk line will look pretty awful in the food prep area. I'm going to have to put pencil trim right on top of the other tile and I hate it but it's either that or rip it all out too. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. We seem to be going from bad to worse with no end in sight.

In the meantime this is how we are living. My microwave is sitting on my buffet which are both in the only clear corner of the living room. That's it for meals. It's been brutal so we are not in the mood for ripping anything out at the moment. It's been a tense few days around here. 

AND....to make things even worse. I played yarn chicken with Dog Star and LOST. All I have is the neck ribbing left and now I have to wait for some more yarn which you know won't match. 

It's always something. 

Looking Forward

 

Here's the last photo of the memory quilt. I gave it a wash and a dry and it seems to have survived. It actually fluffed up nicely considering a lot of it was material I would never use in a quilt. 

I folded up the remnants of that material and packed it back into the container it came in and added the crocheted afghans that my sister finished. I'll stuff the quilt onto the top and hand it over to Dad's lady friend's daughter as soon as I get in touch with her. 

Now that it's all behind me I can turn my attention to other things like a blankie for the soon to be expected Grand. 

I'm making another Disappearing Nine Square and now I've got a lot of big blocks to make. At least I'm looking forward with this project. Looking back with the memory quilt was a lot of wear and tear on the heart.