Best Laid Plans

I did manage to get my first spinning on Esmerelda finished this week

157.5m Navajo plied merino/silk approx fingering weight

But unfortunately I didn't get many of the other things I'd planned done due to illness in the family.   Monday was youngest who lost his breakfast, luckily before school, but then bounced back fairly quickly.   Tuesday everyone was fine so I got a little work done on the dress and also some more knitting and some cleaning.   Wednesday I got hit with what I thought was my version of youngest's bug, but it just turned out to be that time of the month getting to me more than normal; put me out of action for 2 days though.    Then yesterday youngest wasn't well again.  This time he'd lost his bounce, by halfway through the day he had a nasty cough and today once again no bounce and he's coughing and sneezing and running a slight temperature.    I did get to guild, as Dh looked after him which was good, but he's not a well unit and I think I'll be staying home tomorrow to keep an eye on him.  I can't see him going to school on Monday and the school play is on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday so not sure if he'll be up to that even if back at school on Tuesday as it's a late night.

I think tomorrow will be doing hand work while keeping an eye on my wee lad, you feel so helpless when they're sick.

One good thing, I've got started on my Evenstar Shawl, I've had to resort to my least favourite needles to get it going, but circulars result in broken yarn (I'm using a very fine cashmere) so DPN's it is even if I do feel like I'm using an angry hedgehog to knit with.  This is part of a shawl challenge at the guild so will continue alongside other projects and will be a long-term one.

Progress, Finishes and Plans

On the progress front I have done a little sewing on the polonaise.   Not a lot, youngest was off sick on Monday and eldest off today, but at least I've sewn another seam.   Hoping to get the bodice lining turned tomorrow and maybe the front side hem done as well. 
I used the Juki a bit more too, did brilliantly on fake fur which is one heck of a test!   So far definitely happy I bought it.

I've finished one rainbow sock and youngest wants a pair for himself too; might have to try dyeing that myself though as another lot is not in the budget!

Fish Lips Kiss heel on plain vanilla sock; colours are off as it's a night shot; it's a true rainbow.

I've also done my first fine spinning on Esmerelda and I enjoyed it so Grace is now up on Trademe along with my E-spinner and my wooden ball winder.   Although I'd love to keep Grace I need the money to get a couple of accessories for Esme as well as some extras for Violet (my loom).   I particularly want to change Violet over to using Texsolv heddles as the string ones are all different which affects the shed.
Here's my first fine spinning on Esme prior to plying; I'll ply it in the next day or so hopefully.

Anna Harris's merino/silk.  There's 50g here and I'll be Navajo plying it.

 I finished plying the neverending white too, used Esme for that as well and she performed just as well as the E-spinner but with more control

A kilometer of DK here; and that gingernut coloured yarn in the corner?   That's the latest Vintage Purls sock yarn club yarn which will be in my next weaving project on Violet.

Speaking of Violet I've cut my second project off her, still awaiting its bath to finish it off but here it is:

8 placemats using 2/2 twill with various twill patterns on the ends.  All in 8/2 cotton.

A close up of the last one I did, the contrast in some linen/cotton blend.

 I'm pretty happy with how it looks pre-bath, won't know how it finishes off till after my next course date on Tuesday as that's when we go into wet finishing.   I've already decided what's next on the loom, but it has to wait till I finish at least one more thing (the dress hopefully).   When I do though I'll be warping up with the gingernut yarn and using some handspun as a weft.   Planning my first point weave with this as a scarf

handspun on top, gingernut below, I think this will be really pretty; gingernut is not showing at its best in this photo though.

I've got at least 2 more projects yet to start in knitting too, aside from the jersey that's been on the go and some colourwork socks that are also getting old.   I've got 2 shawls to do, one is a test knit for Valerie with lots of beads and the other is a handspun shawl.  I need more time, more money and a lot less RSI interfering with everything!

Weaving again

Today I started at the Guild, while Thomas and the boys explored the area around The Tannery.    I managed to get my final bobbin of the neverending white spun so tomorrow I'll ply it on Esmerelda.   All going well I'll then be putting Grace and E-spinner up for sale.

Last night I got some seam trimming done on the 18th century dress and a little knitting done.

This afternoon though I got the first of 6 placemats woven:

At this point I had about 1" left to go; have since done that and added a bread with another colour so I can see where this one ends and another starts.

This is the right side; will still be a few days before I get the rest done and cut this off the loom.

My socks are looking good, not sure on the fit yet, but this is my first Fish Lips Kiss Heel

Rainbow socks!

Changing Dreams - a ramble

I was just thinking about dreams, what we wish for and how that changes as we change.

When I was young I wished for fame and fortune; eventually I realised that I didn't want fame, just fortune.   I'd still like fortune, but have extended it from fortune in money to also include fortune in family and health.    When I was 18 I wanted a Toyota Supra and a mansion.   Now, I want a family hatchback with good storage, excellent fuel economy, reliable and with a high wheel base.    I actually want the house we have now with some extras.   Double glazing, solar hot water and power, a decent fire and a heat pump, a shed for the bikes and another to store yarn/fibre out of the studio and a vege garden that doesn't get away on me.

Then I wanted a top of the line sewing machine that could do everything except wash the dishes, now I want a machine that does a great straight stitch and a darned good buttonhole.    I have what I want now on that one too, it's TOL for a basic computerised machine and it doesn't do embroidery, just some fancy stitches and an alphabet.

I want good health for my family, a cleaner so I can spend more time making stuff and the money to not have to work.    I don't want to be a billionaire anymore; maybe a millionaire, enough to do the above and for us both to stop work and be able to spend more time as a family, enough to be able to help out family and friends and the guild.

Dreams change and I think as we get older for most of us they become better.

In the meantime I'll do what I can to spend time crafting to keep me happy, to spend time with my family to keep us all happy and to do as little housework as I can get away with!

I did some crafting today, not for me though, school asked me to make snake hoods for the school play; here's what I came up with:

These took a fair bit of the week, one day to find the fabric, one to sort the pattern (I used part of an Ottobre pattern), another to prewash and cut out the fabric and today was sewing them all together and using eldest to test that they weren't too big/small.

Tonight I am going to spin and maybe knit as well.   I will trim the seams on the gown so I can turn the bodice the right way out so it's ready for sleeves.

My New Toys

I now have my new sewing machine - a Juki HZL-F600; I've only done a wee bit with it so far.   Tested it on stretch fabric, some straight stitching on my eighteenth century dress, a test buttonhole etc and I'm happy with ease of use and stitch quality.   I'll do a proper review once she and I have had a chance to get properly acquainted.    I do like her size and weight though, she's got a good solid feel to her and she comes with a great hard case which many machines now don't and a good range of feet too.  
I've had to take some time out to test my old Elna SE Air Electronic and list her on Trademe.   She has a name; Ellie.   Once the Juki and I have had some time together she'll get a name too; most of my tools do.  Some come with them of course like Grace my spinning wheel, but Ellie, Bernie (my Bernina) and Bonnie (my dress form) have all earned theirs.

Without further ado, here she is:

Also joining the family is Rose who comes with her name, but may get renamed if she wants that; we'll see.  Once again I've not had time to do much with her yet, had a wee go and I know that it'll take a bit for us to get used to eachother.   She didn't come with an orifice hook so I'll have to sort something out for that; can't steal Grace's as hers will probably be finding a new home as I don't have room for 2 wheels.   She's beautiful though and I love my custom design on her.

Just finished assembling her.

My lovely morepork; I actually drew this myself from a photo; really happy with him.

There's certainly no lack of things to spin on her; picked up my processed fibre today.   I really need another 24 hours in each day I think, and a cleaner cos that's what I spent half of today doing was cleaning the dining/kitchen area.   I still need to finish the neverending white on Grace and then ply it on Rose to see how that goes.   If it goes well then I'll be selling the E-spinner (with Woollee Winder); fingers crossed as I need the money and space from that.

Tomorrow I need to spend some time with both these ladies.   18th century gown needs a little seaming on the skirt and to have the lining applied to the bodice, so the Juki will get a play with that.   I need to do some basic worsted spinning on Rose to see how that goes; my test run was with carded alpaca and I did long draw which went well, but I normally spin worsted so that's my next test and if it goes well she'll come to the guild on Saturday to meet all my friends.

I've done a few more rows on my rainbow socks and decided I'm going to use the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern on it to test it out.    Need to get back onto the loom and if I do sell the things I'm hoping to then she'll be getting new heddles as I have decided I don't like string heddles very much.   Texsolv would be better, but only if I've got some money.
There will be no more yarn or fabric or fibre, I have tonnes and I need to start creating space by using what I have.   I may even consider reducing some stash, this is however a thought I need to work on as it's not something I find it easy to do.

Unexpected Knitting

Tonight I haven't slept; instead I spent several hours in our emergency department getting something checked out.   Luckily all is well, and instead of sleep I got to listen to a lot of very unwell people and I got to knit a rainbow.

I had done about 2 rows on the ribbing when I left; now over halfway down the foot!

There were a couple of people who were very interested; probably a change for the doctors and nurses to the usual books and cellphones.    It also meant I didn't ask how long the wait would be, I just waited and knit instead.

Today was originally going to be spent working and sewing etc, but I think I'm just going to vege and look forward to an early night instead.   And no doubt later this week there will be a bill from the ambulance service to add to the taxi I took home, but I don't begrudge it.   I do feel they need more taxi's though; took a good 30 minutes for them to arrive from when I called and from what I saw on TV3 a little while back it's not due to them being too busy, but due to there being less taxi's on the roads since the earthquakes.    I suspect a lot stopped due to the horrible roads and the continuous bills to fix the cars after driving on them.

Ready to Go!

12" of 8-10 cotton warped up to make 6 table mats.   I'll be using the same colour for most of the weft and a mix of pink and brown for a 2" band on each end of each mat.   On Tuesday I'll be winding my weft onto the bobbins ready to go and hopefully also checking my tie up before getting started on the actual weaving.

I've also finished Thomas's socks

The colour is much richer in real life and they fit T better than they do me

We've been busy here, getting prices for retro-fitting double glazing.   We don't have the pricing yet, but depending on how much depends on whether we're going for the whole house or just the lounge and bedrooms; either way we won't be doing the conservatory; that'll just stay cold in winter I think.   I knew this house was cold in winter, but the new studio rooms on the garage have made it more obvious just how bad the house is.   The walls and roof are insulated, but the windows are really big so we lose a huge amount of heat out of them despite having thermal curtains.   We're only looking at real glass options, no nylon or DIY as although they're cheaper they're also more prone to failing.

Now it's time for me to unpick some seams on the eighteenth century dress to get it ready to re-fit and test on my new machine in the next couple of days.   I'm also going to wind a ball of yarn for my next shawl and do some ironing (oh joy).    Then I can do some spinning of more white and work on my 2 year old jersey for spring (Breakwater is the pattern)

A Week Off Work

I really need this, getting horribly stale and having it affect my RSI as well which is not helping.
Today was the first day and I spent part of it putting stuff away in my studio, getting my measurements sorted to warp up the loom on Tuesday and spinning which doesn't tend to affect the RSI if I'm sensible as it's a different action from hand sewing.

I've got a reasonable amount of spinning done in the Tour de Fleece; not as much as some, but 2 skeins completed and a bobbin spun for the next skein

Left is the Heavenly Wools Dragon's Breath in merino.  This is fractally spun in a 2-ply and will be a Drop Leaf Shawlette once I've got a couple of other items off the needles.  Approx 850m

 The second skein is a 3-ply in white and pastel blue and pink corriedale of unknown origin; the corriedale is an educated guess.   I got 447m for the first skein.

This is the first bobbin of the second skein; hoping I get a similar amount and I have no idea what I'm going to make with it at this point.

I've got some knitting done, past the heel turn of the second Scott Base sock which is for Dh; hoping to get that finished before the end of the month as part of a KAL hosted by Sarah Ronchetti (the designer) and also as part of the Ravelwealth Games.    Dh will be glad to get it too, it'll be another pair suitable to wear to work

I love this colourway now, it's the third attempt to find it a pattern it likes and this time it's been successful!

Next I need to finish the colourwork mitts from Vintage Purls' latest sock club, then a jersey that's been on the needles for a while before I can cast on the shawl and possibly a sock for me; Pirate Danger is calling my name and I've already wound the yarn for it.   My ball winder needed to be tested and videoed now that the drive band has been replaced; unfortunately it's not playing nice now so have sent a link to the video to the makers of the winder in the hopes they can diagnose the problem.   I've got a new one now, but would like to be able to sell the old one as a working concern.

I'm also really close to ordering my new sewing machine; 1st day of August I'll be paying for it and getting it sent down; it's on trial but going by reviews I'm expecting to love it!    If all works out I'll do a review myself.   I'm getting the Juki HZL-F600 Exceed down from Auckland.

Don't have a date for the new spinning wheel yet, once it arrives all going well I'll be selling my current one as I don't have space for both, and possibly the E-spinner as well.  I'll need the money from that to get a couple of things for my loom and some more accesssories for the sewing machine and the spinning wheel!      Unfortunately although I'd saved enough for the wheel and machine I don't have enough for the extra's till I sell those.

Tour de Fleece and Kitty Cats

I'm going to start off with the kitty cat mention.   A few weeks ago I finally decided to change our kitty's diet.   Star is overweight, both have dandruff and Ray always seemed to want to sleep.   I'd done some research and the fact that the kibble we had them on was partly made from grains which are not something any cat in the wild would eat, and the fact that the food has been cooked also concerned me as many of the good things in fresh meat are destroyed by cooking and it can make digestion harder for cats.    It took about 2 weeks for the girls to be prepared to eat fresh meat, but they now seem mostly ok with it and the only kibble in the house now is the emergency earthquake feed.
Things I've noticed as a result of this is that both girls have a lot more energy; they've been behaving like kittens again (my lounge suite is not impressed), this includes Ray who I now rarely find asleep on a bed somewhere.    Also both of them have much softer fur; the dandruff is still there at the moment, but I think there's less of it.
The only real problem is remembering to thaw food for them each day, can't nuke it to thaw it as that partially cooks it, but if you have cats you know patience is not their strong suit.

Ray kitty says "I like this new food"

My cotton yarn for weaving arrived today, so I can start thinking about warping up again, am thinking about waiting a little longer though as I'm doing another weaving course over the next few months so might warp up for that once the first class has been done later this month.    
I will have plenty to choose from now, Fran the lady who gave me the loom has now given me most of her yarn as she has shifted to tapestry weaving and no longer has any need for the fine weaving yarns she had taking up space.   I need to put some more shelves up and then I can go through what she's given me and see if it'll work for the project I want to do for my course.   I'm thinking curtains for the studio.

In spinning news I've been starting on the Tour de Fleece and have spun 100g of Merino from Heavenly Wools in the colourway Dragon's Breath.   This is being spun in the fractal method; I've done the stripped down bump already and am just starting on the bump I'm spinning from end to end.

It's even prettier in real life.

No knitting, the spinning and school holidays have taken over my knitting time; plus I've been helping Dh build stuff in the garage too.

The First, But Not The Last

Cowl that is.  Still needs blocking, but it's10.24pm so that can wait.   Instead here is the appalling selfie taken in our lounge with the cellphone

Colour isn't right, it's more green and brighter; my top is actually peacock blue, not navy to give some idea of just how off it is.

It's from my handspun Fibre2Go on a base of 50% merino, 30% alpaca and 20% silk in the colourway Mediterranean.   I still have some left, but was running out of crappy beads (ranged in height from 0.5mm to 2mm, holes varied in size and the colour on the inside of the hole came off as I put the beads on), also my hands are complaining, mainly due to the fight to get some of the beads one.

This is closer to the colour and you can see the beads clearly; the real colour is more vibrant though.

It's sitting on my current reading material "Madam Will You Talk" by Mary Stewart; I'm currently resurrecting some of my old books and re-reading them.

I will definitely make another cowl, I've got some merino there that's aching to be one, but it's worsted weight and will not be beaded!    I do want to cast on my jersey too, but thinking the cowl might be more use right now when I'm feeling the cold and already have a good selection of jerseys to choose from.

On the weaving side nothing is happening yet, I've been trying to source the Cottolin I need for the next project without any luck at all.   The NZ supplier is overseas for another month, the Aussie one's website won't let me order (tried 3 browsers on this PC and 1 on Dh's PC)  and I even tried a Swedish website, but they were out of stock!   In the end I've ordered 8/2 cotton from Webs and will use that when it arrives.   I'll order Cottolin once Agnes is back in NZ.

Spinning has been temporarily on hold, I wanted to finish the cowl first, hoping to do some on Saturday though.   I did drop off a heap of fibre to be processed today though; will have to wait a couple of months, but that's no hardship with my stash!

I Am Now a Weaver!

My first ever woven project, straight off the loom!

I don't know all the lingo properly yet, but the yarn is DK set at 8 EPI, or at any rate, the reed is 8 slots per inch done in plain weave.   The ends are a knotted fringe.  I definitely want to do more!

I also finished and sent off the hot water bottle covers

All wool with lace embellishment.   I kept the one on the left as it uses some of the lace from my wedding dress and has sentimental value.

 I might have had some recent yarny purchases, they all have a reason though, so here goes.

John Q Earthwise sock yarn from the Knitworld sale; I love this stuff!

Earthwise in grey, especially for socks for Dh that he will be able to wear to work

More Earthwise in my favourite ever colour!   This is for me

This was sold as "grey", it's more of a slate blue and is a heavy laceweight merino/angora with a smooth spin.   This was my only true impulse purchase

Vintage Purls in purple, bought to make a Nightingale cardigan adapted from a sock pattern; the original one I saw was done by Jettshin on Ravelry and is stunning.   My contrast will be a lagoon blue.

I sent in a photo for a facebook yarn gradient thing and my photo was picked!   This is a worsted weight and will be a quick cowl fairly soon I think.

This is for a weaving project from Anne Field's book

and so is this one

One of my favouite sock yarns, this is Casbah by Handmaiden

more Casbah in the Sangria colourway.

Hopefully that's it for a bit on the yarn front, it's now time to use some yarn and some fabric.   I need to get some sewing done; my next weaving project if I go by Anne's book uses Cottolin and I'm not sure if I've got any of that and I can't afford any right now (see above for the reason why).   I've got something in a bag, fingers crossed it might be that.   If not I'll come up with something to make, maybe I might try making something in yardage or a table runner.

Finally Finished!

It took a while, but I've finally finished my Riverrun socks for Dh and they look really good, it's a pity his feet are so much bigger than mine really.

Ravelled here

I'll now take Dh's Scott Base socks for my travel project and I'll soon cast on a cowl with the handspun I blogged about a few posts back.   It'll beaded with lace stitches and the pattern is Abstract leaves Cowl.  In the teal it'll look amazing.   If it turns out how I imagine I'll put it in for the guild's display later this year.

Before I can start that though I have some hot water bottle covers to make from some pink wool blanketing for the Hottie Project and some lace from stash.   I'll get started on that in the next few days, probably after Ian's birthday party.   Tomorrow I might get some pinning done, but that'll be it I suspect.  I have to go out and get some gel snakes and a Cadbury Flake to make the snake cake he asked for and probably do some more baking and of course clean the bathroom area.

I'm also working on a sketch for the spinning wheel I want to order; I want either a Kea or a Morepork on it, but the Kea I like isn't mine, and I'm not comfortable with stealing someone elses work,  so I'm trying to do a Morepork from a photo using a sketch program and Paint.    My drawing skills are getting a workout, even with the computer generated sketch I'm working from.

Re-upholstering

Todays job was originally to warp, but my helpful friend wasn't available so instead I decided to re-upholster my sewing room chair.    It's an office chair, but the old upholstery was starting to shred so it was time to redo the whole thing.

I forgot to take a photo of the whole chair, but this is the back of it to give you an idea of the "before" look.

As you can see it's a fairly non-descript sage green.

And the reveal after 3 hours of hard work

Not quiet perfect, but a huge improvement!

I couldn't get the bottom of the chair off completely, so had to work around that, but despite that I think I did a really good job and I will do it again for the boy's chair too.  Not in this fabric though, not enough left and I think something that won't show the dirt is called for.

The fabric is cotton canvas from Wholeport, I also used a Stanley staplegun to secure the fabric before trimming and reassembling the chair.   I figure it probably saved me a good $100 as it meant I didn't have to buy a new chair and it also kept this one out of landfill; win/win.

Squee!

The reason for the squee is that we now own our garage!   We paid the final payment this week and now have the remotes for the door.   There might have been a little playing going on with that.

I've also got a little spinning and knitting done.    Dh's socks are now up the toe for the first one and I finished the gorgeous teal coloured merino blend and am back to spinning my corriedale.   Had hoped to start warping the loom too, but had to make some more pegs for it first and put it on the wall.   Another shelf went up too.    I've also done the tie up on the loom for the first time; that wasn't easy as most instructions have the loom with a different set up.  My lams are on one level, not two and not in the same order; once I'd worked that out though it went more smoothly.   Some information from Doe Arnott was also a great help and I used her plan for the tie up.   Should get the warp done this week.

My loom tie up

Thomas's first sock; looking good!

And finally, the lovely merino blend yarn; this is going to be a cowl

Moving In.

There has not been a lot of crafting, but I have managed to finish spinning my Fibre2Go on a base of 50% merino, 30% alpaca and 20% silk in the colourway Mediterranean.   It's Navajo plied and is still on the bobbin for now.

The cell doesn't like taking bobbin photos.

I've now got past the heel on Dh's first sock of the pair

Obviously this photo is from before the heel turn

I've transferred lots of stuff into the wardrobe; it's pretty chocka to as high as I can safely stack it.   I'll have to get some more boxes as some of mine are too big to fit and I'll need to put a shelf up too which I'll probably store my fleeces on.   I also have stuff on the shelf I put up above the loom; mostly coned yarn so far and there's more to put up there.

The new storage unit is full, but it's so pretty!   Downside is the sun hits it, so going to have to make curtains for the window there.

I have a lot of yarn; this is just the skeined stuff.

I'm going to have to redo the Ravelry info, at the moment I have no idea where most stuff is, but that'll come after I've made the curtains (mum is providing fabric from their lounge curtain offcuts.   I have to pick up a track, but that shouldn't be too bad if I go to The Warehouse.   Was going to go for a blind, but they're expensive for ready made and with the size of the window I think we'd have to go custom which we can't afford.   Still got stuff to go away in the new room and some stuff in the house to move out and then of course the house cupboards will need a tidy too.

Hmm, I'm not getting a good feeling about finding time to craft, especially when you add in working and needing to keep up with the normal housework.

Oh, and by the way, I wrote a piece for our guild blog about the case making clothes moth, I think it's pretty good, but would love feedback.

No Time!

I've not had time for blogging, or for knitting or sewing either.   I've done the mending pile and I have managed some knitting on T's sock, but not much and I haven't taken a photo yet either.

Instead I've finished painting the rooms, with T's help.    Sorted the kids winter clothes and my winter clothes, shifted furniture around, cleared out the storage unit and handed in the key.   Had some sod back into my car at Mitre 10; he said it was his fault (and it was, he didn't look and backed out very fast) and then told his insurance company a whole other story (lied) and because there were no witnesses we're stuck with paying another excess to get the car fixed.   His car got a small scuff on its bumper, mine lost the back light.

Today I got some more storage solutions for my room; 2 MDF shelves that I need to paint and the supports for them, as well as a cube storage unit which will be for my yarn (some of my yarn).    Once the wardrobe guy turns up things will get better in that room, but I think even then I won't be able to fit everything in straight away.    G will have to share his room with some of my stuff for a bit.

Eventually I'll have to make a blind for the window in there too, but not quite yet.    I still need to swap out the curtains in our dining room for the ones I was given, same thing in G's room which will then free up the original curtains for repurposing into blinds.

I've listed a bunch of things on Trademe, no yarn though.   It's stuff like trampoline nets (which we won't use), a pair of mohair rugs (that we also don't use as we have carpet), carseats, a gate and soon some shoes, a movie, xbox game etc.   There may also be a wooden umbrella swift to go on too; never use it as I prefer my skein holder instead.

Hopefully I'll have something to show you all next week.   Ooh, and I'm going to try doing my nails with Gel polish; bought the starter kit this morning, I'm sick of normal nail polish that chips or smudges before it's even a day old.  Apparently gel is much more robust.

ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) Day.

Tomorrow morning my eldest son and his dad will be getting up early to go the ANZAC parade with the Scouts.   They will remember those who fought to keep us free of tyranny and those who gave their lives for our futures so many years ago.

Everything his closed here for the first half of the day except the essentials like hospitals and probably petrol stations.   Some will complain, but we won't be among them; this is too important we must not forget the sacrifice made for us, no matter how many years go by.

Let us remember and honour those who lost their lives, both at Gallipoli in WWI and in subsequent wars.

Getting There

The garage is getting closer.  I've done the first coat of ceiling paint today and hopefully tomorrow will be the second coat of that and the first coat of the wall colour.   We've cleared out the deck and playhut so all that stuff is now in the garage.    Half of it will have to be thrown out due to damage from the weather though.   Nothing we can do about that.

In other news our dryer went and reached the end of its lifespan; I suspect it came uncomfortably close to igniting as it sounded awful and was hot on the front.   It's now out in the garage and we now have a new one.  I'd have preferred to get the old one fixed, but 3 years ago we were told that spare parts are no longer made for it so I knew there wasn't much point.   The new one is an Electrolux and is much higher star rating (6 stars vs 0 stars).   It wasn't cheap, but I needed a condensor dryer and you pay extra for that; definitely worth it.   I have to recommend Luke at Harvey Norman Tower Junction, very helpful and friendly.

It takes longer than the old one and has way more options than I'm used to (ours had hot or cold and a timer), pity about the budget, but can't be helped; we need a dryer in winter, especially if the wet weather keeps coming.

In knitting news I've finished my hat, all bar dyeing it.

Dipper Hat

It's so squooshy and soft!  

I've also started my next project which is a pair of socks for Dh.

Riverrun Socks

I've knit this pattern before and Dh liked it, so doing it again in a slightly tougher yarn this time.  Last time he got some lovely mcn (merino/cashmere/nylon) yarn, but he blew through the soles and this time I want them to last so he's got some tight twist merino/nylon by Wandering Cat Yarns instead.   I love the colourway, it's subdued enough to wear to work, but the little hint of green gives it interest.

No work done on my polonaise dress yet, it's something I need to be able to devote a chunk of time to and I just haven't had that recently.