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.)

I Need a Hat - The Cross Stitch, version 2

In my previous post, I showed the method I've been using for the 1-over-2 left cross from my first "I Need a Hat" post. (I think I'm going to call this hat "Moss & Cross".) It's a cabling-without-a-cable-needle method that is quick and easy, but does involve leaving a stitch "hanging out", completely unsecured while you work 2 other stitches.

The following is an alternate method for cabling-without-a-needle.

Here we are at round 5 again. (The first stitch on the left needle has been slipped in each of the previous 2 rounds.)

Begin by slipping the next 3 stitches from the left needle to the right needle. One ...

Two ...

Three ...

I Need a Hat - The Cross Stitch

In working the "cross" portion of the pattern stitch I'm using for this hat (described in my first "I Need a Hat" post), I've been doing the cross without a cable needle. So, I thought I'd take some photos of the technique I'm using.

Here we are in round 5 of the pattern. (Having worked slip 1, knit 2 in rounds 3 and 4.)

The first stitch on the left needle is the slip stitch - the stitch that will be crossed over the next 2 stitches on the left needle. What I do is drop the slip stitch off the needle, then knit the next 2 stitches, then pick up the dropped stitch and knit it.

Yep, I just leave that first stitch hanging out in front of the work, completely unsecured by a needle. Since it was slipped in the previous 2 rounds, it isn't directly connected to the other stitches in this round and therefore, it's much less likely to work it's way out while you're working the other stitches. It helps that in this pattern, the stitch only has to "hang out" while you work 2 stitches and then it's picked up and all secure again. Finally, the yarn itself is a little "sticky" and that helps as well.

So, here we go.

I usually just slip the stitch off the needle, but if you want to give yourself a bit of extra insurance you can use the right needle to give the stitch a little tug.