Sunday, March 22, 2009

A Scary Start to My Weekend, and Taking Stock of Projects

I'm still nervous and won't leave the house empty for a while. As Pat was getting ready to leave for work Friday, we smelled something burning. We has an electrical fire in the basement. Luckily he got to the circuit box before actual flames came out of the box. The insulation is all melted from the wires and flames were eminent when he got to the box. Thank God he hadn't left for work yet. He disconnected the faulty wires and circuit, spending the better portion of the evening and all weekend rewiring the hot water tank. Everything is safe now, but, we still want to have an electrician come in to double check it. This was the weekend of my Ocean State Knitting and Crochet Guild's retreat. I was going to go for the day today, but, decided not to due to other commitments at this time. Now, I'm glad I decided this since I wouldn't have been able to go.

I decided to take stock of all my UFOs, on needles, hooks, and bobbins.

My Sonata still has the "Inquiry" fiber for CJKopec's Spin A Long "Put Your Twist On It". And my Minstrel still has the Merino on it for a sweater. I need to get the Inquiry done so I can get back to the Coopworth for my other sweater. When these three fibers are done, I need to finish my "Bahhhrahhccuda" color fiber from DkKnits and knit up some socks. I'm going to be the last one done with them, but, that's o.k. Of course that lateness doesn't compare to the wool singles and alpaca singles I spun last May and never plied together. They are definitely on the to do list next. And, then there is the other "Pie Toss" braid of roving from Spunky I need to spin and Navajo so I can make socks with that as well. The only other fiber needing attention is the last little bit of Rambouillet I was spinning as lace weight. I took a "break" from it since I had spent almost 4 months spinning with this 8 ounces of fiber. The last 2 ounces are calling me.

I'm also working on a sock, using a technique I had learned from Sarah. The whole sock is worked on a 12 inch circular needle, except for the heel flap and gusset. Once you get that part in, you go back to the circular to finish the foot. It's coming out nice and I like not having to fiddle with needles or loops. It was a bit of a learning curve to work with the small circs at first. Now, it's mindless. I'm just knitting a plain vanilla sock in some variegated yarn. The cuff was worked on size 2 and the rest of the sock on size 1. I want to be able to turn the cuff over the sock when they are worn.

I also pulled out some of the rows on the Dragon Scale Shawl to re-knit for the third time. Let's hope the third time is the charm and I can call this a FO instead of a WIP soon.

There are a couple of scarves I started in the bin as well as a lonely Butterfly Sock waiting for it's mate. That's it. Not as bad as I thought. I did frog a couple of projects along the way. The bin is next to the loom so I can just grab a project and work on it while sitting in the living room with the t.v. or computer on.

Oh, and the 5 bins of fleece I had in my craft room are now living in the cedar closet in the basement. I was surprised to find the closet was much smaller than I remembered. You can still step into it, but, it's not as deep as I thought. I also put some comforters and bedding in there as well. At least I'm finally getting to use it for it's intended use.

O.K. I'm off to cook some chicken for tomorrow. Once it's in the oven, I can work on the sock or shawl some more......

1 comment:

Donna said...

Electrical fires are scarey. We were supposed to go out for the day a few years back and I smelled a funny odor in the basement. My in-laws kept telling me it was nothing (they were in a hurry to get to the casino!). We kept looking around and sure enough there was a fire starting near the sump pump. I am so glad we were persistent in looking. God knows what would have happened if we had left.