Shoal Bay Slouch - Part 5, Almost finished

After popping the apple crisp in the oven and planning what to make for dinner (butternut squash curry), I sat back down and picked up where I left off (part 4).

A few rounds more and it became quite apparent to me that my decrease-marker-positioning math was wrong.

I finished my jogless join rounds

and still had 4 stitches between my end-of-round marker (yellow) and my decrease marker (blue).

My mistake was 4 x 2 for the decreases. Because, of course, when you knit 2 stitches together you don't end up with 0 stitches you end up with 1 stitch. It took me a minute to figure out the right calculations.

Shoal Bay Slouch - Part 4, More knitting

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the post office and dropped off the last 2 boxes for my conference next week and that means my work week is finished and I can knit.

When I set my project aside, I had finished the braided edge, the ribbing and the first few rounds of the main body of the hat. (Part 1, part 2 & part 3 have those details.)

I completed the first repeat of the pattern and then the second repeat and then set it aside for the night. I had come to the point where I needed to plan the crown and decided I should do that in the morning. (I tend to make mistakes when I'm tired.)

Back again after a good nights sleep, I set about planning my crown decreases. I've already figured out that I'll make 8 decreases on each decrease round and I'm planning to make the decreases at the same point in each round. My math is 112 ÷ 8 = 14 stitches between each initial decrease location and 8 stitches remaining (1 between each decrease location) after 13 decrease rounds.

Shoal Bay Slouch - Part 3, Knitting

Oh joy, oh bliss, it's time to cast on and start knitting.

Having done my swatching, blocking (Part 1) and pattern planning (Part 2) earlier this afternoon, I just had to get started with the actual knitting.

I cast-on and did the braid (mentioned in Part 2 with a link to a video). I had an ugly twisted mess at the end of the first purl round, but by the end of the second purl round the twists were gone. I knit an inch of 1x1 rib and considered doing another round of braid, but decided against it.

 I really like this braided edge!

Shoal Bay Slouch - Part 2, Developing the Pattern

Having figured out my yarn and pattern and finished my gauge swatch (Part 1, Preparation), now it was time to plan my pattern. Since this is all math (and no photo opportunities), I thought I'd throw in a couple shots of my knitting environment.

My head is 22-inches around and a couple pattern standards documents I've found recommend anywhere from 1 to 2 inches of negative ease for a close-fitting hat. My idea is a bit of a slouchy hat, but I want the ribbed brim to fit. So, my brim measurement should be 20-21 inches. Using my 1x1 rib gauge of 16 st = 3-inches
     21 ÷ 3 = 7 and 7 x 16 = 112 stitches
     20 ÷ 3 = 6.67 and 6.67 x 16 = 106.7 stitches

I've noticed that many hat patterns use an 8 "gore" decrease in the crown section and 112 divides evenly by 8 to 14 stitches, so I decided to go with 112 stitches.

(I was sitting in the gray chair when I did these calculations. Bill usually sits in the brown one. We're still a few items shy in our home decorating and are using storage boxes as side tables.)

Shoal Bay Slouch - Part 1, Preparation

Now that fall has arrived and since I Still Need a Hat, I decided to peruse my stash. I played with a couple choices and eventually settled on this:

The yarn is somewhat thick-and-thin and has a fine strand in tan that's twisted together with a much thicker variegated strand. I have 4 skeins - 2 with lighter toned variegated yarn and 2 with darker toned variegated yarn - and I have no idea where or when I may have acquired this yarn.

Reading the label, the yarn is called "Montreux", it's 77% wool and 23% acrylic and it's made by Southern Cross Yarns. The skeins are 50 g (81.5 m), recommended needle size is 5.50 mm with a gauge of 16 st = 10 cm. (5.50 mm = US 9. 10 cm ≈ 4 in.)

Since I'm planning to make a hat, I'll need double-pointed needles and 16-in circular needles. Yeah, if I need to, I can make this work with a pair of circulars instead of the DPs and the 16-inch circs, but using 2 circs to knit round isn't my preferred method ... yet. (I've changed my mind on things like this in the past and fully expect to do it again.) I have DPs and 16-inch circs in size 6 (4.25 mm), so that's where I'll start my swatching.

I played with a few pattern stitches, but soon decided to let the yarn be the focus. I tried a welt stitch in the darker yarn - to give it a bit of texture ...

Summer Heatwave - Lopez Style

It started on Friday with a forecast high of 78°. Before that, I don't think we'd broken 70°. OK, I'm sure that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it sure doesn't seem like we've spent much time in the 70s this summer. In fact, a couple weeks ago, I actually lit a fire in the wood stove. That's the only heat source we use in the big room (aka the "nave") and it was 65° when I got up that morning. I was cold, it was rainy and the forecast was for more of the same with a high of 60° - so I wasn't going to get any help from the sun.

I haven't built a fire since then, but we haven't had any really hot days either. We'd been told by the previous owners (Mike & Jen) that the place really never got hot inside. I thought I'd monitor what happened during out little Lopez heat wave.

Here we are on Friday morning at about 7:30 am with a nave temperature of 65°. (Yep, that's right, with absolutely no air-conditioning the inside temperature on the morning of August 3rd was 65°.)

The (Mostly) Complete Loft

The bedroom furniture has arrived!!

In our entire adult lives, neither Bill nor I have had real bedroom furniture. We decided it was time. So, we sold off the old stuff and for about a month, slept on a mattress was on the floor and kept our clothes in plastic bins.

But no more! Now, the view up the stairs looks like this.

So Where Is Old Grace Church?

Humphrey Head or, to be more precise, Lower Humphrey Head.

Here's a map of Lopez Island, with Humphrey Head circled.

The Rest of the House

While the kitchen was wonderful ("Kitchen Tour"), the rest of the house was a move-in-mess, to one degree or another.

The stairs in the back corner of the kitchen go up to the sleeping loft.

Kitchen Tour

By mid-April, Bill and I were sleeping and eating at the new house and going back to the old house to work on getting it ready to hand off to the new owner. While we are living with moving mess in the rest of the house (to one degree or another), the kitchen is pristine. This was Bill's plan all along. He wanted a "sanctuary" from the rest of the mess: a room that was complete and beautiful where he could escape from the moving chaos.

To me, this is the essence of that sanctuary.

Kitchen Update - Part 5 (The End)

[Last of the re-dated Kitchen Update posts.]

After tearing out half the kitchen, opening the wall and moving electrical and plumbing, putting the wall back together and painting (see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, aka "How Painting is Like Knitting"), it was finally time to build the washer/dryer closet.

I only have a couple "in progress" photos. Here, Bill's built the top and the side and I've started preparing to paint.

How Painting is Like Knitting (aka Kitchen Update - Part 4)

[Another re-dated post that was originally written in June.]

House painting that is. You might think it's a bit of a stretch, but it occurred to me a couple months ago while I was doing some painting at our new house.

As mentioned in my previous Kitchen Update posts (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), the new house didn't have a spot for our washer/dryer and we decided to create one. Bill tore out about half the kitchen, made plumbing and electrical changes and put the wall back together. Right about then, it was time for Bill to go to BC with his buddy Craig and move Craig's new boat down from BC to Lopez.

And it was time for me to paint.

Before you actually paint, you need to lay down drop cloths ...

tape off/cover anything at risk for getting paint on it ...

Kitchen Update - Part 3

[Another re-dated post that was originally written in June.]

Having considered and rejected plan "A" (see "Kitchen Update - Part 1") and figured out plan "B" (see "Kitchen Update - Part 2"), Bill dove in to the work.

He moved water lines, installed and connected the sewer line and moved electrical.

Here (above) are the water lines, extending towards the location
for the new washer/dryer closet (to the left outside of this photo)
and the electrical outlet that will be used for the new under-counter freezer.

Wow! Is It March Already?

[In this midst of a bunch of re-dated posts, this one is accurately dated. Bill was spending most days at the new house working on the Kitchen Update and I was spending most days at the old house.]

I can't believe it's been 3 months since my last post!! Winter is my busy season, but this is ridiculous. Of course, the fact that I haven't been blogging, doesn't mean that I haven't been knitting. (Hey, even during the busy season you still have to wait in ferry lines and ride in/on ferries/cars/airplanes/trains.) But, I'm back at it now. I'll probably do a few post-dated posts, matched up to when I actually did the knitting,

However ... today is a post about what I've come to learn is a typical Lopez winter/spring day.

This morning I took a look at our weather forecast. It's been raining a lot and this morning was yukky and I wanted to see just how long it would be until we got some sunshine. Here's what I saw:

Egads!! Another week of this!!!

Kitchen Update - Part 2

[Another re-dated post. Originally written in June.]

Having determined that plan "A" wasn't going to work (see "Kitchen Update - Part 1"), we set to work on plan "B".

An option we had previous considered was moving the refrigerator and putting the washer & dryer in it's place.

This option involved building a cabinet/closet to enclose the washer/dryer. That seemed like a bigger project than plan "A". However, now that plan "A" was out, we reconsidered.

Of course replacing the fridge with the washer/dryer meant finding a new home for the fridge. The only easy option was the coat closet directly across the room from the fridge and using the coat closet space for something else was already on the table. (We had previously agreed that the front doors would be our main entrance which meant we didn't need a coat closet in our kitchen/dining room next to the "back" door.) In fact, we considered changing the coat closet into a washer/dryer closet and this likely would have been our first choice but for the amount of plumbing work it would have required.

However, we weren't sure if the fridge would really "fit" in this spot. Since a new home for the fridge was critical to plan "B", Bill took off the closet door and the framing around the closet and slid the fridge across the room. It looked GREAT! I don't have photos from back when he did this, but here's how it looks now.

Kitchen Update - Part 1

[First in a series of Kitchen Update posts. All written in June and re-dated to be closer to when they occurred.]

My "New House" post shows photos of the house as it looked when we decided to buy it. We really liked what the previous owners - Mike & Jen - had done to the place. (If not, we wouldn't have bought since neither of us had much enthusiasm for taking on a big remodel project.)

However, the new house didn't have a laundry room or laundry closet. In fact, it didn't have a washer & dryer anywhere at all. It did have plumbing for an under-counter combination unit to go in the kitchen (replacing the cabinet 2 to the right of the stove in this photo).

As the laundress in our household, I made a management decision and told Bill this just wouldn't work for me. (I like our current, fairly new, washer & dryer quite a lot plus my past experience with the combination units was not impressive.)

Before It Was "Old" Grace Church

Bill and I are the third post-church owners of "Old Grace Church". First, was Mark and then Mike & Jen. We were curious about what the place had looked like back when it was still a church and Bill had run across some of Mark's photos online. So, Bill went about tracking Mark down (successfully) and asked Mark if he had any photos he would be willing to share. Sure enough, he did. So here are a few shots of what the place looked like when it was still Grace Church.

[I think it was May or June when Mark sent these photos to Bill, but putting this post right after the New House posts, seemed like the right order to me.]

Here's an outside shot. You can see the "Grace Church" sign hanging alongside the front door. The parking lot was on the "south" side, between the church and the road. You can just make out the stained glass windows which were moved over to the new church.

Snow at the New House

It snowed the other day and Bill went over to our new house and took photos.

New House

[I've decided to re-date a number of posts to put them closer in time to when they happened, when I took the photos and/or when I thought about posting. I wrote this one in May, but since we closed on December 31, I've dated this one in January.]

OK, the main reason why I've been so delinquent in my posts is that Bill and I bought a new house. We closed at the end of last year, made a small change in the kitchen and completely moved over from the old house in April. Here are a few shots of the new place. These are from the real estate listing, so it's what the place looked like before we moved in.

Our new house is actually an old church. Bill describes it as a church with an efficiency apartment attached. The section under the larger roof is one big room. (The "nave" when it was a church.) The section under the smaller roof (on the right side of this photo) is the "efficiency apartment".

I Still Need a Hat

Back in December, I was working on a hat - for myself - and wrote several posts about it (starting out and working the cross stitch without a cable needle version 1 and version 2). Also back in December - while I was putting the finishing touches on the hat - Bill & I traveled to Augusta, Georgia to visit my parents and my sister Jeanne.

Jeanne thought the hat was cute and I thought the hat looked good on her. Here she is sitting on my parent's front porch wearing the prototype Moss and Cross Hat.

As noted in my initial "I Need a Hat" post, the hat is knit from the top down. (I hadn't figured out exactly what I wanted to do, so I started at the top and figured I'd try it on as I knit.)