Sunday, January 22, 2006

Ketchup, Catch Up, Catsup

I thought I would take this lull in the house drama to finally sort of catch up on the knitting stuff. Although, I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of my socks that I made, but I guess that will make me keep posting. Ok, so these are not in any particular order. For those of you who find this extremely boring, suck it up.

This is from my mom's 50th birthday party. I made the crown out of wired Christmas ribbon that was on sale at JoAnn Fabrics. It is based on the crepe paper crown from Alterknits. I first tried with crepe paper, but either I have ginormous man hands that crush everything I touch, or those with opposable thumbs are not supposed to knit with crepe paper, because it kept ripping and was extremely frustrating. Knitting with wired ribbon is also frustrating, but you can throw it at things when you get pissed and it doesn't rip.


The pattern is the Opera Scarf that is free on the Blue Sky Alpaca website. I used size 8's and Classic Elite Inca Alpaca. I kept sneezing when I knit this. Surprise, surprise, I sneeze when I wear it too.


Felted cloche from the Pick Up Sticks pattern. Cascade 220. Size 11's. The pattern called for size 10's, and because I knit loose, I should have used 9's, but I was being cheap and used 11's that I already had, and it is too wide and too short because I ran out of yarn and had to decrease the crown early. I am supposed to make one of these for each of my sisters. Um.....yeah. That might take a while. Like until next winter. Sorry.

Marzan watchcap the I made for Steve. Size 7 circulars. Mission Falls 1812 wool (best yarn EVER). The pattern is written for a pin head. Literally. Your head has to be like 7 inches around to wear it as written. This had to be reknit once to make it wider, and then ripped back and reknit to make it deeper. At least it fits now.

Scarf for Kali for a trade. I don't want to give it all away. Classic Elite MarlLa on 15's. I bought a bunch of this. I think this scarf will only take 2 skeins. I might make one for myself because I like it so much.


Sweater from Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits. Manos yarn. Size 8's maybe? This is ok. Not really my favorite. I guess it will be a Sunday Trader Joe's sweater. I thought that it would get more "filled in" when I washed it, but it is still sort of breezy. I need to take a picture of me wearing it to see what other people's opinion is.


Finally, I have pulled out the Green Machine Blanket again to think about getting ready to start knitting on it some more. I am freaking out about money because of the house, and I thought that I should probably finish this because it is $200 woth of yarn that is just sitting in a bag. Plus, it is sort of housewares, so it will be good for the house, right? That is of course until one of our little hairball cats pukes on it. At least it won't show stains.Phew, that was exhausting. Hopefully I have learned my lesson about procrastination, but somehow I don't think so.

Monday, January 16, 2006

Tucson, we have liftoff

They actually accepted our offer. Crazy. I am freaking out about affording it, but really, it is not problem at all. If the inspection goes well Wednesday, then we will close on March 1. We will have to spend some money up front for a fridge and an electric dryer (ours is gas, and it will be cheaper to buy a new dryer than run a gas line), and we want to put in a patio. If anyone knows of a concrete guy in Tucson, let me know! We were going to put in flagstone, but I think it will be better to do a stamped concrete patio that looks like flagstone. We have to find a balance between a job well done and cost. The rest of the landscaping may take a while, as well as furniture for the front room. The good thing is, people at work have offered to let us come to their yards to dig up some plants and take cuttings, so we should at least be able to spice up the front a bit. Please keep your fingers crossed just in case.........

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

OFFER

We put an offer on the definite maybe house, so i guess it is more like amaybe definite house. The wet noodle submitted the bid today, and they need to respond one way or another by 1pm tomorrow. Here are some pictures. Keep your fingers crossed.

Front of the house Front Room

Kitchen. It has been redone, except those are the original cabinets.

Arizona Room. The laundry room is though the doors.
Bedroom #3. This used to be the garage.
The original two other bedrooms are identical and look like this.
Bathroom. Only one. The pink tile will have to go eventually, but at least it is in good shape.
BackYard. WAY too big. This will take some work.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

No Progress

The wet noodle still has not gotten us a list of additional houses. On top of that, I am freaking out about mortgages and interest rates, and crap like that. I feel like no matter what we do we are getting screwed. I guess to put it in Steve's academic terms, we are having congnative dissonance. See? The word "screwed" is so much better. Anyway, I think the plan is, we are going to look at a couple more houses tomorrow, and if all seems lost, we are going to put a bid on the definite maybe house. After, of course, we look at it again and take some pictures, at which time I am sure someone else will put in a bid, and we will be living in my car. Why did I ever want a house? Oh yeah, that's right, I smoke crack.

Monday, January 09, 2006

The Search Begins: Part 1

Ok, so this past weekend, faced with our New Year's resolution and the reality that our lease is up the end of March and they need 60 days notice of us moving out, we sucked it up and got a real estate agent. And then we looked at houses. I think we have seen 7 so far, and only one is a definite maybe. All the houses in our price range suck. It makes me sad that two professional people with no kids and very minimal debt can't afford something that has washer and dryer hookups INSIDE the house. I can't imagine what people are going through who are way less fortunate than us.

The definite maybe is across the street from a small park. It is mostly redone, is on 0.25 acre dirt lot, and has central air too, which believe it or not, is not that common in older homes here. The garage was turned into a 3rd bedroom, which is weird, and there is only one bathroom. However, the W/D is inside, which is enough for me to make me want to buy it. Steve wants to look at a couple more houses this week before we make an offer. Mr. Procrastinator thinks there is loads of time now that the market has slowed. I hope he likes the decorating I will do to our carboard box that we are going to have to live in.

We are scheduled to look at a couple more places on Wednesday. Our relator is nice and knowledgeable, but it is like pulling teeth to get her to give advice, recommend, properties, areas, etc. All the houses we have seen have been our suggestion. Supposedly she is going to get together a llist for us tomorrow. I'm intersted to see what she comes up with.

Thursday, January 05, 2006


HOOK ‘EM HORNS!

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

We're back!

I had typed this whole thing about Christmas, and then Word closed with an error, and I can’t recover it. Here’s the low down…..everyone had colds; the sun sets at noon back home…this turns me into a narcoleptic; went downtown to eat at Roy’s (Awesome. So Awesome. And very gluten-free conscious for Katie) and shop at Nordstrom and Banana Republic (overwhelming), but on separate days; my nephew can say “wow” over, and over, and over again; Katie and I made Mexican food for Christmas dinner instead of the traditional stuff; didn’t knit. That’s about it. I leave you with these….

The boys, Winnie and Reggie. These are my parent’s dogs, a cairn terrier and a schnoodle, both rescues.

Downtown, kitty-corner from Roy’s. I took this to prove I did something other than sit on my ass.

My grandpa wearing my felted cloche. Both he and my step-mom look like Hummel figurines in this hat. Hilarious.