Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Three hours

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Your hippos and bears are adorable!! ...though the hippo is my very favorite! And, wise to make the move away from sweaters and into something less time intensive for gifts for the kiddos in your life!! And, I totally affirm Lauren in making you do your own grafting... You go girl!

Look, actual knitting content:
I rotated the photo on my computer before uploading, but apparently something got messed up in the transfer/saving/whatever...but you get the idea that the heels of these two socks do not match. I noticed that a couple of the stripes are not the same number of rows from one sock to the next, and so even though I *counted* rows on the second sock to make it identical to the first sock, I'm going to rip back and add two additional rows before once again starting the heel...so, technically the second sock will be slightly longer than the first sock (which bugs me) but not as much as mis-matched heels is going to bug me. Do you think it is a conspiracy among the sock yarn manufacturers to throw in a "short" stripe every now and then just to play with a perfectionist's sanity?

I finished my "Birdie Sling," and I love carrying it around town:
The only issue, really, is that it's so big that I keep throwing stuff in there to take with me, and it just gets heavier and heavier... It *is* nice to take with me when I go shopping -- it's big and easy to throw new yarns and fabrics into it :-) It was handy when I purchased the materials for another bag (the Sweet Harmony Tote, which is another Amy Butler pattern, a little bit more involved than the Birdie Sling, except mine is going to be the jumbo size not shown in this picture):
In fact, I cut out all of the pieces this morning, and it took me three hours:
There are 57 pieces, by the time you take into account all of the (three) types of interfacing/stabilizers required... The next block of time is going to be spent fusing a lot of this stuff together...

And finally, if I was a person who bought lottery tickets, then today would be the right day to purchase one. Here is our dehumidifier, which doesn't:

I tried all of the trouble-shooting items listed in the back of the users manual (stupid things, like is it plugged in?, and do you have it turned on?), and though the fan runs (quite loudly, I might add), there was no water coming through the hose to the drain. So, I removed the hose to verify that there would be no accumulation in the water reservoir, either, and nope -- dry as a bone. So, I called the company, and it was purchased one year ago today, so today is the very *last* day of the one-year warranty (*phew*), and once approved (in 48 to 72 hours :-) we will be authorized to go to the place we purchased it and exchange it for a new model. Our basement is toxic to dehumidifiers; after this one is replaced, it will be the fifth one we've had down there in about as many years, and I think we've only paid for two of them... They can build a better mousetrap, but can they make a dehumidifier that can last more than one season?

So, time to have lunch and then maybe start working around the house a little bit... I've been spending all of my home cleaning/organizing time sewing, so I don't have much to show for my time off in terms of homemaking... Perhaps this afternoon...maybe...ugh.

I hope this finds you (all) having a great day!
Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)


1 comment:

Lauren said...

About the sock photo, I've noticed that if a photo is a very large size, blogger likes to change the orientation! I'd try shrinking the photo down to a smaller size and then re-uploading it with the orientation you'd like! Good luck!

P.S. Your bags are SO CUTE! I wish I could sew... I love that fabric for your 2nd bag, it looks brown with spots? Nice!