I guess it's too late to change my mind?

We have finally decided on that question of whether we should renovate or move to get the kitchen we want.  It took us quite a while to get to this point.  A lot of back and forth on whether we really needed the cost and the upheaval that goes along with a reno.

Over and over I told myself that I could survive with the limited counter space.  Then I would cook something more involved than toast and would swear at the lack of room.  I should say that my style of cooking generally involves making 5 things at once under the theory ... I'm here anyway dirtying dishes and the oven is hot, so let's go.  It is impossible to make 5 things in a kitchen with limited counter space and not swear.  Home cooks in Paris would think my original counter space a luxury, I am sure.  Another reason why we didn't need to renovate.  And so it goes.

Then there were the conversations about whether we should just move.  But our house is the perfect size for the two of us otherwise.  We love our garden.  We have good neighbours.  And if we move, it's not like we'll save money ... the new house would be more expensive and something would have to be renovated, likely the kitchen.  So we finally took the plunge.

I would say that after the rip out started, I questioned our sanity.  Everything had to come down for various reasons.  The insulation came out, primarily because it would have fallen out when the ceiling came down but there was the added benefit of cleaning up the stuff left behind by some racoons that decided that our attic would make a nice refuge a few years ago.  We now have all sorts of racoon prevention devices under the new roof we did after that.  Who knew racoons could chew through shingles and wood?

Back to the reno.  What a difference a week makes.  We now have no interior walls on the main floor.  Drywall is up and it is starting to look like a house again.  I can see it finished in my mind again.  The stress is not over but at least now it is tinged with excitement and not fear.

New yarn store discovery!!!

Yesterday had many frustrating moments.  It started with a trip to the counter people in Mississauga.  I get lost in a paper bag so had the route there all mapped out via the 407, the local toll highway.  The directions to the place and my husband's non verbals were telling me to take the 403, the non toll highway and slightly quicker route.  As I was driving out, after my antenna flew off my car, I decided the traffic was very light so, why not, I'll take the 403.  Little did I know, Dixie, the exit off the 407 I needed, isn't the exit off the 403.  So, after driving about 1/2 hour more than I needed to, I ended up back on the 407 and found the counter place.  Which, despite the hours posted on their website, was closed.   Ugh.  Why can't companies update their websites?  Why didn't I call first like the little voice in my head was telling me?  Why didn't I follow my first plan and put the trip off to next weekend when my husband was available to go and I could knit in the car?  Why didn't I take the 407 in the first place?  At least I would have been there quicker so it would have been marginally less annoying (I think).

Anyway, I had also mapped out a visit to The Stash Fibre Boutique  in Campbellville.  This I found with no problem because I followed my detailed directions and I have been to Campbellville before.  Didn't know how to find Campbellville without looking it up on Google maps, but that is why we have Google maps in the first place.  Because my time at the counter place was much less than budgeted, even with the unfortunate detour, I was in Campbellville an hour before opening.  Ugh again.

Fortunately, Grumblin' Grannies around the corner was open and the Trail Eatery, where we've enjoyed a few after-hike lunches, is in the same plaza.  So with a combo of shopping (I bought two shirts) and a nice tea and yummy blueberry muffin, the hour flew by and I was able to visit The Stash.  A great store.  She specializes in small local dyers and there were many lovely yarns that could have made their way home with me.  I ended up buying some locally made sock yarn for the January sock club, some Madelintosh (obviously not local) to make a scarf and cowl and several accessories that I didn't really need but must have.  This purchasing totally negated the frugal feelings I was having after not going to Lettuce Knit on Thursday at lunch and instead buying a sock book for 30% off at Indigo in the Eaton's Centre.  Here I was buying something that would help me reduce my stash instead of adding to it and not dipping into the kitchen reno budget.  Looking at it another way, if I'd gone to Lettuce Knit and the Stash, things would have been much worse.  So there, justified.  And thanks, The Stash for turning my day around.  I'll be back.  But I really should get some projects done first ...

I may have to rethink that year-long trip across North America

We're doing a bit of a reno at our house which has required us to pack up a floor of stuff and move it out of the way.  As we are doing this, we had to determine what we will need access to for the next couple of months and what we can live without.  The number of things I need access to is quite startling.  Too much to fit into even a bus-sized motor home for the trip fantasy mentioned in the title.

I guess some of it comes from being a crafty person.  I need a good supply of knitting projects and several quilting ideas readily at hand.  I need certain dishes to cook with and can't possibly pack away too many clothes.  I always have the belief that if I can complete even half of the projects that I have stash matched against, I will become a minimalist.  Ha!

Just in time!

This quilt has been in progress since the summer.  So it really shouldn't be a just in time for Christmas thing.  Why the long time to completion?  It just wasn't a project that kept me motivated for some reason.  I absolutely love the colours and the finished product but had to force myself to keep going.  I think it has something to do with the amount of piecing involved to get to final construction.  The pattern, from Kaffe Fasset's Country Garden Quilts, I mostly followed.  And the stripy fabric on the right is his too.

This quilt is for my dad who asked me to make a bed-sized quilt for him.  I found fabric selection to be difficult for this.  There were surprisingly few fabrics on the conservative side that were geared to men.  My local quilt shop had a few but only two or three that appealed to me.  I found a few at Bee Modern Fabrics at Niagara-on-the-Lake, a few in my stash and a few from the previously mentioned LQS Quilter's Garden Patch.

I had some trouble getting the corners perfect but when I took it in to Quilter's Garden Patch to find the border fabric, the girl working there told me to not to spend anymore time trying to fix them.  It was good advice.  Firstly because I never would have finished if I had stopped to take out all of the corners. Secondly, all put together and quilted, these issues are a lot less noticeable.

In the end, I really like this and hope my dad does too.

Well that's cool

Another example of my not noticing the obvious ... I was bouncing around Ravelry and noticed their tutorials.  I clicked on the one related to library and discovered something I should have realized on my own.  I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that I didn't realize it on my own but am so excited by this find, I just needed to talk about it somewhere.  My husband was mildly interested but obviously didn't understand the benefits of this time saving feature of the site.

Here goes ... I discovered that if I load all of my books and pamphlets into the library, I can search from the patterns I own online instead of flipping through the real books on the shelves.  I don't know why I didn't realize this before.  I knew you could look up books and see the patterns, just didn't think of the connection to the library.  How liberating.  In fact, I found a sock pattern for men in 5 seconds instead of giving up after an hour.  The only downside of this feature - I quickly realized that I have a boatload of books and in reducing stash need to use some of these fantastic patterns to justify the purchases.

I wonder what else I don't know about ...

Finally finished a project

 So it need 2 pictures.  These were a nice easy knit.  Too bad the knitter was a bit of an idiot.  I started the first sock, missing the cuff instructions in the pattern.  I though, ok, I'll just do a third pattern repeat instead to make them longer.  Then (after turning the heel) realized that I was going through yarn like water, weighed the remaining ball and forecast a serious yarn shortage.  So, I figured, since I'm frogging, might as well go all the way to the beginning.

From then on, it was smooth sailing except for some tense moments at the end where I once again knew that yarn was in short supply.  I dropped one row from the foot and made it to the end with about 2 inches of yarn to spare.  Phew!

The pattern is Jack of Diamonds from this season's holiday Interweave Knits.  While I likely would have made them anyway at some point, I was motivated by the Sock Yarn Anonymous group on Ravelry.  Rachel Coopey, the designer, just happened to be one of their challenge designers for the month.  So it was meant to be.

Yarn is Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20, picked up at Stix & Stones in North Bay.  A very nice, soft, smooth yarn.

Vinyl Tap

I just wanted to write a short note on a radio show that my friend Kristen told me about ages ago that I've lately remembered to listen to.  It is Randy Bachman's Vinal Tap and it airs on CBC Radio 2 on Sunday nights at 6.  I think it is on CBC Radio 1 on Saturday nights.  I've only caught a few shows but he covers a theme every week.  This week it was songs that broke the rules.  Think Bohemian Rhapsody, Come On Eileen and the Canadian Railroad Trilogy.  They didn't fit the three minute constant time pop song.   A really interesting show with some music I've heard before and some I haven't.