B is for…

Beentsy! 

What else could it be?  Okay, how about Beentsy in a basket?

Just so everyone knows, she has lost a lot of weight since this picture.  She no longer fills an entire Ikea laundry basket.  Turns out, she had a thyroid problem.   Who knew?

Picture intensive post

This post is for when you don’t really feel like paying attention or bothering to read all those pesky words that other blogs are always full of. This post is about visual stimulus and almost finished spaces. Let’s begin.

The fibre space is almost done:

(Click to see notes)

Need to sew new cushion covers, the burgundy is not liking the Olive Garden colours.

Loving this space so much. It’s so quiet. I can’t even hear the tv and that makes me unbelievably happy.

This past Sunday I couldn’t make it to the Terminal City Yarn Wranglers meet up due to this:

There was plenty of shoveling, let me tell you. Then last night and most of today it did this:

Because there simply wasn’t enough snow (10 inches) on Sunday, we needed another 8 inches or so today. I am so over shoveling as a form of winter exercise.

Then, this arrived in the mail:

Rocking Sock Club 2008 – January – Dragon Dance colourway and a very pretty pattern called Serendipity by Adrienne Fong. Wonderful reds to banish the wintertime blues. There, how’s that for eye candy?

Hey, I finished some stuff!

Even during all the crazy-crazy lately I’ve still managed to get a bit o’ knitting done.  First up, and I finished these about a week and a half ago are my spinning footies:

Whenever I’d spin on the wheel I’d have such wicked cold feet.  Plus, I didn’t want to wear my shoe type slippers because I was afraid they would scratch the foot pedals of Izzy.  Solution was obviously some felted footwear.  This pattern is from the Knit One Felt Too book and is the Checkerboard Slippers (ravelry link), minus the checkerboards, because I was too lazy.  They are very comfy and soft and now I have lovely warm feet when I’m spinning.  Win win situation.

I also made a nice little alpaca scarf for a co-worker who has been having a bit of a rough time lately:

It is so soft and the yarn was from the stash so it’s all good.  I used about a skein and a half of this alpaca(Sorry, another ravelry link.  I couldn’t find another link to this yarn.)  She loved the scarf, by the way.  Good thing too, it’s been cold here lately and we’re supposed to get smacked with snow for the next four days.  I used Stephanie’s One Row Handspun Scarf pattern.  Excellent item for transit knitting.  If I ever actually knit any of my handspun, instead of just making more and more of it, I just might make one for me!

The Beentsy Fibre Domain is coming along.  We’ve put on the second coats of all the main colours and done the first coats of the trim colour.  We also bought the new carpet and baseboards today so we should be able to get it almost finished tomorrow.  I can’t wait!  I totally want it done in time for me to spin wool and watch the All Star game tomorrow.  I’m cool like that!    Hey, there’s cool beverages in the fridge and chips in the cupboard.  Y’all should come over!  Bring your knitting.

Okay, I’m off to spin and practice what I learned in class on Wednesday for an hour or two before I head back downstairs to do the second coat on the trim.  It’s going to be so pretty.

The reno continues

When I got home from work today look what my baby had done for me in the Golden Needles colourway:

Needless to say all photos are with flash because it gets dark at like 4:30 around here lately!  I’ll try and get some natural light shots this weekend.

How pretty is that?  First coat – done.  Then we did the first coat for Padre Island (seriously, who names these colours?  ‘Cause I want that job!):

I’m gobsmacked by how much the room changes with each little thing that is done.

As a reference, here is what the room looked like in April 07 before it got destroyed:

I mean it’s fine, not great but fine.  Oh, the big screen you see on the wall, hubby built a digital projector and we watched very large movies in that room at very large volumes.  Lord of the Rings?  Spectacular!  Sean Bean, life size in your basement.  You do the math!  Anyway, seriously, not the point. 

Okay, I gotta go and practice my spinning.  We had homework last Wednesday and I haven’t touched it because I’ve done nothing but work on this room for the last week.  Must do homework!

Oh, and thank you so much for your condolences and for sharing your own personal horrors of having people take over your home and life.  I’m amazed that this happens to so many of us.  There should be some kind of support group!  Oh wait, I guess there is, and we’re it.  You guys are great and Lavender, there will be no loom!  Cut that out you merciless enabler you!  My fingers are in my ears and I’m chanting “I will not weave, I will not weave, I will not weave.”

Wicked busy

So, we had this person* living with us last year for about 8 months.  When they finally left (after a rather strong urging from us) we found that we had to completely gut and redo our basement bedroom because it was stained and the smell was unbelievable.  We gutted it out and washed every surface of the room every day for the last week.  Finally on Friday we decided that the stench was gone and we could actually get on with fixing the room.

We found this very cool flooring called Dricore.  Let it sit in the basement for 24 hours to acclimatize and this morning we got to work.  It was really good to work with and in about two and a half hours we had this:

We had also bought this special anti-microbial, anti-fungal, anti-everything primer paint (don’t even ask what went on in this room, you simply do not want to know), and primed all the walls this afternoon.  And then it looked like this:

Sorry those last two photos are kind of blechy, all the furniture is piled in the middle of the room and I had to photograph around it.

Then it was back to Home Depot and we chose our paint colours.  These photos are pretty close for colour, blurry but close:

We were hungry while we were at Home Depot, at least that’s why I think we picked colours like the ones you find at Olive Garden!  The Golden needles will be the main colour, all plain walls and above the chair rail on those two walls.  The Padre Island (terra cotta) will be on the bottom of the two walls with the chair rail.  The Mojave will be the trim colour for the chair rail and for the closet doors.  Nice, right?  I’m pretty happy with it.  Once all the painting is done there will be new carpet and ta da, I get a den/fibre room/reading room/studio.  How sweet is that?

It sure is a lot of work though and I certainly won’t say that I’m thrilled with the amount of money we’ve had to spend in the last week fixing this mess but at least the end is in sight.  The best thing is that we were able to get rid of the stink.  About Tuesday or Wednesday I was starting to think we’d never get rid of it.  We used 5 different things on that room to knock that smell down.  It was unbelievable.  If you want the list email me or comment and I can tell you what we used and how effective each one seemed to be.

Oh, and the person* who did this to us and our home?  Yeah, they bolted and haven’t been heard from since.  No “I’m sorry”, no offer to pay for the damage, no nothing.  This was someone we took into our home and helped out when no one else would.  Lesson learned on that score.  As hubby says, No More Strays!  We always get the mentally broken ones.

Oh well, I’m just glad they are gone and I never have to see or hear from them again.  Plus, I get a studio for my yarn and spinning wheel.  Oh, and a place to watch hockey games of course!  Go Canucks Go. 

Y’all have a great night now.  And tomorrow, think of me and my poor sad back as I’m painting my little heart out!  LOL.

Oh!  Wait, I almost forgot.  During a tea break today I went here and made this:

How cute is that?  Of course I had to be wearing a knitted cap.  I only wish she had knitted mittens and socks.*Note*  I use the term person very loosely as most “persons” are actually housetrained and don’t leave the kind of mess that we found in our house from this “person”.  Let’s just say that my dogs are far better housetrained than this individual is.

Traffic cone koi

So, there is a this huge fountain/water feature thing near where I get the train for work.  Sometimes it freezes and when it does some safety conscious person puts tiny traffic cones all around the edge.  Some sort of warning to stay off the ice, I’m assuming.  Inevitably, some extra bright individual throws all the cones onto the ice.  Nature takes over and the the ice melts and the cones sink.  When it gets cold again and the pond freezes over it looks like this:

and this:

See?   I just think of koi every time I see them.  But special koi that only live in my dodgy neighbourhood!  I won’t even tell you the things I’ve seen going on in this fountain in the summer. *shudder*

We now return you to your regularly scheduled life

There has been some huge emotional upheaval at the House of Beentsy this past weekend.  I can’t really speak specifically about the level of mental illness and nastiness that was thrust upon us on Friday night let me just tell you that I have a whole new respect for how amazingly small my own mental issues and foibles are.  I also have learned a valuable life lesson that people lie.  Great huge whoppers, right to your face.  I’m so gullible.  It’s amazing to me.

In other news…

Yep, it’s a new land speed record.  Both sleeves are done and the entire sweater is united and the decreasing has commenced.  I am so happy with how this knit is going.  I just love it.  I can’t wait to wear it.  Also, I’m starting to think about what kind of neck I want and I’m sort of convinced that a rolled hem like the bottom and the sleeve cuffs is exactly what I’m looking for here.

I’ve also been having startitis all over the place.  There’s the beginnings of an alpaca scarf for a friend at work who’s going through a tough time, baby hats for a hospital up in Nunavat where apparently babies are going home without and that is much too cold of a place for that to happen, and I’m fighting the urge to cast on another pair of socks.  I’m so all over the place and it’s really kind of fun.  I did say this would be the year of more and so far it surely is!

In the vein of  Year of More I’ve also started taking the stairs at work and not the elevator.  I went up and down from the 6th floor to the 8th floor like five times today.  Felt good.

Oh, and the Terminal City Knitters (ravelry link) went on a field trip to Homecraft Importers and Country Beads.  Loved Homecraft Importers.  The ladies working were so nice and helpful.  One might actually say they were enablers.  Okay, flat out, they were enabling.  Phrases such as “Have you touched this?  Oh you must touch this!” and “Oh, and did you see this one over herer?  It’s really very nice!”.  I got my Noro fix all jazzed up.  Noro Silver Thaw colour 13.  Swoon!  Can you say mitts?  I knew you could.  I also picked up a couple of balls of Nashua  Creative Focus Worsted.  Very nice single ply wool.  Oh, and there was a some pretty sock yarn that might have jumped into my hands.  But anyway…the Year of More!!!!!!!

At Country Beads I got beads to make Ice Queen.  I had picked up the Silken Kydd from Elann and needed beads.  I’m feeling some performance anxiety about this one because Lavender had knit FIVE of them.  Just mull that over.  Five of them.  In like, a month.  She is my fibre hero.  When I grow up I want to be just like her.  But no weaving!  I don’t care what she says, I’m not going to weave.   Although, if you look at her post today you might wooed by the siren song of the loom.  Pretty eh?

But wait, there’s more!  I also joined a spinning and weaving guild and signed up for more spinning lessons that start this Wednesday.  I tell you, I am a woman on fire!  2008 – The Year of More!

Now you folks go knit something pretty.  I’ll be checking your blogs later. 

A is for Abbie

As you can see from the sidebar on the right I’ve joined the ABC-along 2008.  Kinda cool.

For those of you who don’t know the story, Abbie came to live with us in April of 2006. I say came to live with us because we didn’t go and get her, she literally just showed up. My big ol’ German Shepherd was crying at the gate and this tiny scabby little dog just ran down the driveway to her, through the gate, and started bossing everyone around. She was so thin (only weighed 5 pounds, she’s 14 now and the vets says it’s the perfect weight for her), was missing all the fur from her ribs to her tail, and had no ID. We couldn’t find her rightful home and I couldn’t face sending her to the SPCA. We called them and gave her description but no one ever called or went there looking for a wee scabby dog. We called her Wee Scabby Dog for weeks thinking we wouldn’t be keeping her. Then when it became obvious she was staying we just changed it to Abbie, or when she’s being a poo head, Scabby Abbie.

Unfortunately, she loved flip flops, or as we used to call them before it meant underwear, thongs. She loved them so much she went through nine pairs of them. She crawled up shelves to get them if they were out of reach, there was not stopping her.

Drove me crazy. Then she would look at you like this:

and there was nothing you could do about it.

2008, still all about the more

Things have been busy around here at the house of beentsy.  There’s been spinning:

NZ crossbreed, 150 grams, approx 188 yards.  I have 2 pounds of this stuff and I thought (first mistake), that I might spin it all up and knit a sweater.  Keeping in mind I’ve had my wheel for about one month and there are still shall we say…issues with my spinning.  Granted a want a very primitive weekend walking the dog comfy sweater so it won’t matter too too much if it’s a bit wonkly.  I guess.  We shall see, yeah?

Then there’s this.  I joined the EZ EPS group over on Ravelry.  Everyone is knitting a nice sweater for the new year.  Excellent idea thought I.  Fished the stash, found 5 big skeins of  Manukau Wools Sierra Lana 10 ply.  Nice sheepy sort of colour.  Lovely.  Dug out a ball of Elann HW for the facing on the turned up hem.  Ta da!

Okay, gauge swatch.  Want to be ready when the knitalong starts.  5 mm needles, a bunch o’ stitches, rows of red, rows of sheepy colour.  Sweet, gauge is good.

Hmmm, that went really well.  I’d love to cast on but the knit along doesn’t start for a week (this was back near Christmas).  I’ll just cast on and do up the pretty red facing for the hem.  Nothing major, right?  Oh, it’s lovely and it’s going so well.  I’ll just switch to the main sheepy colour and knit a row to see the contrast.  Very nice!  Well, I’m this far, let’s just knit up to the provisional cast on and knit the pretty red together with the sheepy colour.  Then we’ll stop.  I swear!  No really, I will.  Oh, that is nice, isn’t it?

Bam, next thing I knew I was here:

Body is finished and I’m halfway through a sleeve.  Oops.  All this before the knitalong even started.  Shoot.

Oh well.  Poor impulse control.  Must work on that.

I’m also working on another pair of Tidepool socks.  This time in Shelridge Farms soft touch.  Pretty marine blue sort of colour and so soft.  Couldn’t get a decent pici.  The light around here is so dim and grey lately that picture taking has been reduced to a stealth process.  I’ll try to get a pici this weekend.

I do love this pattern though.  So nice and the texture reminds me of  henley waffle weave shirts.  Really nice.  I’m going to do the Zimmermann afterthought heel too.  That way I can just knit along like a fool on the train in the morning and on breaks at work and not have to worry about heel flaps and such.  It’s just easier for transit knitting.  I have some handpainted Shellridge farms with some similar colours in it that I think I’ll use for the heels and toes.  Again, no pici, just use your imagination.    Snort.

I also signed up for spinning and dyeing classes that start on Jan 16.  Can’t wait!  They had a really interesting course for knitting gloves/mittens/wristlets too but that will have to wait until spring or fall.  I want to concentrate on improving my spinning now.

We also finally ordered our sofas.  They’ll be here in 8 – 12 weeks.  So nice!  We’re going looking at flooring later today and hopefully we can have a living room that doesn’t look like a tip by the time the couches arrive.

Finally, hubby was playing with the camera and bothering me the other day.  Here you see my little corner of the internet:

This is where you can find me most days.  You know, if you were looking for me.  Snicker.