G. Knerd

I’m super behind on a lot of things lately, not least of which is this blog.  As it turns out, when you decide to do three major home improvement projects in a week, it ends up being three weeks of working on said projects at every spare moment.  Actually, technically I’m still not done, but what’s left is mostly cosmetic and I’ve been putting it off.

Just as I was finishing up the home improvement, though, I had a concert run with my choir which took up all of my spare time for another week.  And since The Blanket Thief proposed in May and we’re planning on getting married in September there’s plenty of stuff to do and worry about in that area as well.  Not to mention, work continues to be extreme.

All of which is a long run up for my apology for not posting as often as I should.  I swear, I’ll try to post more often…in fact, to that end I’ve installed an app on my phone that claims I’ll be able to post from anywhere.  If you’re reading this, apparently it works.

Next post to contain an actual picture of the Wedding Blanket – I’m almost 15% done with the second panel!

So, just over a year ago, I decided to knit the Blanket Thief some slippers.  I’d read about them on the Yarn Harlot’s blog a while ago, and when he mentioned that he didn’t have any slippers I immediately thought, “That’s something knitting can fix!”

Now, mind you, I tend to have the “That’s something knitting can fix!” reaction a lot – it’s my version of “if all you have is a hammer…” – but usually I’m stretching at best.  This time, though, I was right – this was indeed a problem that knitting could fix, and without much ado I found yarn, I found that Fiber Trends pattern, and I went to work.  Easy peasy.

The Blanket Thief has been super happy with them for the past year, except for one tiny little thing.  I had planned to sew on some suede bottoms in order to make them a little less slippery/last a bit longer, and I went so far as to buy said bottoms…

…but I never actually attached said bottoms.  By and large, this was something that everyone was okay with, and things might have in fact stayed this way forever if I hadn’t noticed that the slippers were leaving little pills on the carpet next to the couch where the Blanket Thief liked to sit.  Apparently, I was totally okay with the idea that I might have to knit him another pair someday when they wore away, and I was kind of okay with the idea that he might slip a little on the few tiled surfaces in our house, but the idea of the really messy, to-be-replaced-someday carpet getting pills on it?  Apparently not okay.

I quickly whipped out my cotton thread, and within a couple episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, the slippers had soles.

I’m not convinced I did the best job ever (frankly, I’m sure I could do better if I were to rip them out and try again, now that I’ve had the practice), but the Blanket Thief thinks they’re snazzy and who am I to argue?

Besides, when you get right down to it, they do look pretty snazzy.

Maybe I need a pair…

Things have been a bit…er…hectic around here lately.  A few months ago, I got the brilliant idea that I would take a week off of my real job that people pay me to do and spend the time doing Home Improvement tasks.  (The capitalization is important, for that’s the scale of the improvements we’re talking.)  Not to be satisfied with simply painting the walls or cleaning the house (Cleaning?  Seriously?  Have we met?), I instead opted for painting the cabinets, refinishing the stairs, and retiling the shower.  It’s worth keeping in mind, for those who haven’t actually been to my house, that there is one shower/bath combo, one staircase, and the door opens to the middle of the stairs (so it’s not like you can just live out of the bottom floor for a few days, because it’s not possible to leave the house then).  And, as if it weren’t crazy enough that I wanted to do all three of these things, I decided that I would just get them all over with and do them at once.

Yeah, apparently you’re not supposed to do that.  Funny how no one told me that until after I’d destroyed my entire house.

The way the Blanket Thief tells his friends about it is to say that I’ve taken away his ability to feed himself, walk through his own house, or bathe himself.

Also, that week I took off work?  Ended Monday, and (surprise!) not one of the projects is done yet.  I have high hopes that, eventually, at least one of these projects will drop off the radar (either by being finished [preferable] or by being “good enough”).  In theory, I should be able to shower by Saturday, at least.

It might occur to you that none of this has anything to do with knitting.  You’re very astute.