New Year, New Projects

Wish I could report that the Nagini socks are finished, but, alas, I have not worked on them since the last post. I started the SpringShawlSurprise KAL and am on row 38 of clue 1. Clue 2 is out and clue 3 will be due soon, so really need to sit down in a quiet, no distraction place and just knit. (Yeah, like that exists around here!) Also OTN..well, currently ripped out and ready to restart...is my 6 inch afghan square for my Ravelry group, Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild. We are making squares based on things from Terry Pratchett's Discworld books and the squares will be assembled into a Pratchgan as a gift to TP. I am doing a lifetimer/hourglass and have already changed the pattern for 4 stitches less per row to get it to the 6 inches. I had knit it thru the center of the hourglass and realized it would be too long. Now I am going thru the chart and finding rows that I can skip and still have it look like its supposed to. Need to lose almost 2 inches of knitting at this point. I think I can do it.

New kitten is such a joy! She has presented me with several balls of yarn this week. She finds them where they are stashed and brings them as a gift to my bed. One of them happened to be the gold from the illusion knitting I was doing, and as I wound the 40+ feet of yarn back on the ball, I saw that she had eaten thru the black contrasting yarn...grrrr. So illusion knitting project has been ripped out. I wasn't extemely happy with the design and was not sure whether to continue. I guess kitten decided for me. I never told you her name, did I? Officially, her name is Ode...Hebrew for 'yet, again, another' as in..another cat in the house. But we have toyed with other names: TSD (Tazmanian she-devil), Pest, Rodent, Vampiress (as she loves to leave teeth marks and draw blood). Mostly she just gets Kit.

DH informs me that he is signing up for another 3 weeks of training with the army which will happen late February or early March. This is in anticipation of earning his E6. Also, summer 'camp' will be longer again this year as they are scheduled to deploy late '08 or early '09.


I am really hoping to buckle down and get a lot of housecleaning
done while he is gone. Aside from regular chores, I am planning on switching the master bedroom and the spare/craft/storage room. This was my 2007 resolution, but it didn't happen. So I guess it's the 08 resolution now. As you can see, there is much work to be done, stripping wallpaper, repainting, sanding and refinishing the floors. (Yes, that really is floral wallpaper from the 50s in there!) The reason for the switch? WALL SPACE! The current master bedroom is slightly bigger, but not one wall of the room is solid wall. There are windows, a fireplace and built in bookshelves, doors and closets. I cannot rearrange in any way and the outlets are in inconvenient places, so we use a lot of extension cords and power bars. Ah, the joys of owning an older home!
The MB will become the spare/craft/computer room and I will still keep my clothes in the closets here.

Also, in the near future, I will be helping DD#2 pack and move into her new home. They are in contract, inspection has been done, loan 'approved' but not final, and just waiting for closing to take place. I am so happy for her. This was the first house they looked at in person and its darn near perfect for them. Price was great, too. She will be leaving a 3 bedroom townhouse with galley kitchen and 1 bath for a 4 bedroom bungalow with 3 full baths and a huge country kitchen! There will even be room for DS-i-l to have a real office for his internet work.
http://www.shawnolson.net/ (shamelessly plugging his site)

Not much else right now. I wil try to be more faithful in my blogging this year...but that's not a promise..lol