Basement Remodel - And How it Effects Knitting

We decided that after 5 1/2 years of living in our new house we wanted to make the basement more like a part of the house instead of like King Tut's tomb. For these 5+ years, we have had boxes upon boxes (literally) everywhere in the dungeon and my husband wouldn't install shelving for un-boxing things until we had dry wall up. And we couldn't really get dry wall up without unboxing boxes. argh! So we decided to get serious and move boxes and STUFF around and around to try and keep ahead of our worker, keeping his path cleared out - and the walls reachable. And in all this "moving boxes" activity, I am creating a b-i-g garage sale pile which also has to be moved around. So you should see the mess now. Oh, wait, no you shouldn't.

Winter up here is a good time to get a basement work finished, both for us and for our worker. That leaves warm weather for his outdoor jobs and ours. But, it does cut into knitting time. I have to spend more evenings moving boxes. Granted, my husband has been doing the bulk of the lifting and moving. But there is plenty of work to go around.

I mentioned in a past post that I, like every other knitter and crocheter that I know, have a measurable yarn stash. (What I didn't mention in that post is that my nice photos and cabinet did not show a large portion of my stash that is kept in a spare bedroom closet for "soon-to-be Works In Progress." Very soon, I'm sure.)

But the cupboard that I had to move to the basement for lack of any decent space for it upstairs has become my yarn cupboard, for now. And for now, when I need to check for some yarn, I am forced to climb over boxes and a nice library table, all of which are sitting right in front of my YARN - except for what is in the spare bedroom.

Am I drumming up any sympathy yet?

But I have been knitting and getting things done. After I finished the boot toppers in this post, I made hand warmers to go with the toppers and cowl. They have been used many times to keep my cold hands during this cold, cold winter. The Ella Rae wool is so toasty. I made the hand warmers on straight needles and the pattern can be found here, near the bottom of the post.

And I discovered that my lovely vintage rhinestone pin with black filigree has some matching blue stones. It looks great on the cowl. I wore them all this weekend to church and afterwards to a nice knitting visit with a good friend.

I've also been working on a sweater and am very close to finishing. I will post more about it when it is finished but for now, I purchased the Dolman Pullover Pattern over at Patternworks.com. It is a fun, easy pattern and I think I'll love wearing the comfortable style.

And I have worked on a "Wee Little Rabbit."  I was a "test knitter" for Ann at Simply Playing. She has been making these little guys and selling them on Etsy so she decided to try and write up her pattern for purchase. She asked me, via the "blog-o-sphere," to test knit her instructions. I was nervous about it, thinking I had to do it perfectly - and I had never knitted an animal or toy. But as it turns out, testing a pattern with no experience makes for a decent tester. I had to read the pattern as it was written and not lean on any past experience. Which there was none of. So I think I made a couple of useful suggestions and her pattern will be available soon, I'm told. 

The pattern is fun to make but my bunny needs a little "sprucing up," before he's ready for the streets. Here he is tail-less and he need some plastic surgery on his face, ears and legs. Or maybe I should just make a different one now that I understand the process. :^)   

So these are the things I've been working on. I will be teaching a Fair Isle Hat class very soon so I need to get another hat on the needles to demonstrate that ol' Lativan Braid. That is the hardest part.

What have you been working on?