Year of Projects: Week 8

     I had a fairly productive week.  On Saturday, once I was done with work, I drove straight back from Rochester.  I usually make a pit stop in Syracuse to get gas and do some grocery shopping at one of the BJs locations.  I didn't need to stop for gas and we didn't really need any groceries, so I drove straight through.  I really like to have that pit-stop.  It's about a 3 hour drive and after working a 12 hour overnight shift, I find I get achy and cramped up near the end of the drive, without a break in the middle of it.  I had a hair appointment on Saturday so I wound up being awake for nearly 24 hours.  I really try to limit how often I do that.  My hair dresser is going on vacation and is booked up most of the time, so I have to take whatever appointments I can get, usually.  It worked out pretty well, though.  My daughter came along and got a quick trim.  School starts back up for us in about two weeks, so now her bangs wont be in her eyes.

    Once I got back up in the wee hours Sunday I knit another dishcloth, even though I said I wasn't going to.  Oops.  I didn't feel like digging around for the yarn for any of the other projects I want to do, especially with everyone else sleeping.  I cranked out another Tricolour Dishcloth in the orange, white and black combo since that wound up being my favorite.  I even got the ends woven in and trimmed right after I finished it.  

    Then I made a loaf of bread with the assistance of my bread machine.  I made a loaf of challah.  I use this recipe: Melanie Cooks.  The dough is made in the machine, then I braid the dough, let it rise and bake it myself.  It's only a little extra work and is super tasty, so its worth the extra effort.  I have been substituting maple syrup for the honey because I don't have honey on hand right now.  I haven't been making challah for very long.  I only recently found some at a local country store and discovered I like it.  We then noticed, while we were watching re-runs of Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, that a lot of restaurants use challah for French toast, so we tried that, and seriously, that was life changing.  I found that recipe and we haven't looked back.  Once my husband got up Sunday morning he made French toast out of the challah right after it came out of the oven.  It was amazing and I didn't get a picture of the bread because we ate it so quickly.

    Sunday while I was baking the challah I did a little painting.  My husband rebuild the stairs leading from the garage into the basement.  This is where the second sump-pump "pit" is located.  He has been completely redoing that sump area as it hasn't been draining correctly since we bought the house.  He tore out the PVC piping, broke through the cement and then completely dug out all the gravel and the sump sleeve thing.  This has been on going for several weeks now.  He found a whole other sump sleeve that was just buried instead of being removed when they re-located the sump at some point.  That was where most of the water was getting trapped and not draining into the sump pit to begin with.  The PVC that had been there was almost completely plugged from all the crud that seeps in.  There was a whole laundry list of things wrong with this sump pit.  The original stairs had only been painted on the top, so they were rotten in several areas, hence building a whole new set.  I got to paint the risers.  My husband still has some tweaking to do with the stairs.  He wants to put half of them on hinges, so he can get under them easily.  The sump is underneath the stairs and the only way to access it is to remove the staircase.  Water is now draining properly into the sump area and the sump is able to pump it through the drainage piping across the basement to the other sump, that one pumps it outside.  Our house, we have learned, was built in a swamp.  The basement has been quite a project so far, but its getting there.  I wish I would have thought to take pictures of everything he's been doing.  I was at work when this sump pump blew up and this whole ordeal started a few weeks ago.

    Back to fun crafting.  Monday or possibly Tuesday, my days off blend into each-other, I finally started a project that's actually on my list.

   I still need to weave in the ends on the first mitt, but I made a pair of Drops of Spring Mitts.  I used Malabrigo Rios in Piedras, Glitter and Sunset.  I wanted more of a fade look instead of the bright obvious contrast the original pattern shows.  I used my new Hiya Sharps DPNs.  I was a little afraid the sharps may split the yarn, but they don't.  I really like the sharper tips.  I need to upgrade a few of my other older DPN sets.  I'll be getting more Hiya Sharps for sure.  I also used a set of DPNs I got from Great Aunt Pearl.  My gauge was a little looser on the first mitt, so it looks like that one turned out a bit longer.  I'm going to wet block these, and use my new mitten blockers, to see if I can get these to even out a little.  Also, I know from experience that Rios grows.  That'll be good since I thought these were a tad short in the palm area.  I'm going to make another pair of these, mostly because I have a bunch of Rios leftovers, but also because I want to do a more contrasting color set.  I have some Indiecita and Solis that I want to break up with something.  I'm leaning toward Whales Road, but I also have Vaa and English Rose.  I have a bunch of other worsted weight scraps too, I wouldn't have to stick to just Rios.  I have a feeling I may be making several pairs of these, just to check out some color options.  I've also thought about making un-matching pairs by just doing one of whatever color combo I like and then making even amounts of them, so I can mix and match.  I have a hat pattern in my queue that uses this colorwork pattern and I even have yarn earmarked for that pattern.  I want to knit that soon and use the leftovers with this pattern to make matching mitts.  The hat pattern takes four colors so I may add a repeat to use all four colors for the mitts.  So many possibilities.  I think that was about it for craftiness this week.  

Until later.  Happy crafting!

-Q