Why Didn't I Know About This??

Because I freaking love these wacky patterns.
She's brilliant. Simply brilliant.That is all.

Back to my swatching...

Ach. Gott in Himmel!

To PDX peeps:

Mary Scott Huff, a hard-working knit designer, experienced a break in of her car on Thursday and lost a suitcase full of her lovely work. I don't know her at all, but I'm so sad for her, as I'm sure any knitter would be.
Please check her blog post. If by some miracle you happen to see any of these items, please get in touch with her.

She's (still) Crafty

Law School (notice the capital letters?) is insane. It's good, it's challenging, but knitting time has been seriously curtailed. If I get a row done, it's a very, very good week.
So instead, I sneaked in this project:


I had the little deviants (er, darling children) rip out the old peel & stick:
and then tear up a bunch of paper bags from our local grocery stores:

Didn't count, but I'd guess we used ~30 bags.

At first I painted front and back of each paper sections, but when Z started to 'help':

I made it easier on us both by crumpling the sections of bag and dipping them in the watered-down glue. Much faster and had more texture, so I was happy.
Note: My floor had a combination of what appeared to be self-leveling compound and plywood underlayment, but I didn't worry about it and just papered right over it.


I let that dry for a day and a half, then I stained it with some cheesecloth and a tube of Minwax Express Color in mahogany.
[I was cheap, er, frugal and only bought one tube ($6.50) b/c our bathroom's not that big (abt 55 sq ft). Right now there's just the teensiest bit of stain left in the tube. If I were going to do it again, I'd buy a can of stain and hold on it for touch ups.]
Then I polyurethaned it many, many times.


When you're sick of this floor, to the best of my knowledge you can just do a new underlayment and then whatever your new choice of top layer is.

Here's some tips & good images if you want to try it:
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/20 ... e/flooring
http://groceryshrink.com/2010/05/illust ... loors.html
http://www.anoregoncottage.com/2010/08/ ... loors.html (the video is quite helpful)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/di ... s=287x5019
http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubb ... 80/gonew/1

I was lazy and didn't take out the fixtures (horrors!) but I figure as a temporary (2-5 year) treatment, I'm not gonna worry too much about it. If it gets holes, you can just patch with another piece of bag and polyurethane.

I really like it, esp. b/c technically it means we now have a wood floor in that room.

Happy Halloween!

Here you go. You're welcome.

The Talented Mr. Flood

Sometimes, if you are very patient, the universe will send you just the thing you need when you need it.
That's what happened when I met my husband, that's what happened when I got in to law school (which I am loving, BTW -- every single cracked-out, stress crazed moment of it), and I'm pretty sure it just happened in my knitting life, too.

I've been looking for a tweedy little something to swatch with -- I have an idea that's practically burning a hole in my brain, I want to knit it so badly -- and here comes Shelter, by Brooklyn Tweed AKA Jared Flood. I love his beautifully lit, atmospheric photos and clever designs. I am already in love with Shelter, too.

Hmmm...whose weekend plans suddenly include a lot more cups of tea and rolling around nekkid in playing with some yarn?

Missing The Ocean?

Oh, my gosh -- I think I need these toys. Um, for the kids of course.

I mean, what would a grown up woman need with a toy starfish or orca?
(Goes off to find secret hiding spot for toys...)

It Comes in Threes

Thanks so much for the kind words of support. It means more than I can say.

So much has changed in the last few months. Not just the loss of my dad, of course, though that is a sea change I still haven't fully processed.
But there are three big updates since I last checked in:

1) I sent N & T to Chicago for the summer, because their bio mom has been really sick. They've just returned -- and are huge! Many pounds and (shoe sizes!) have been added thanks to the Grandmas. Shopping for school will be interesting this year.

2) Miss Z will be starting school this fall! We've been home together for 2.5 years, and she's ready for a change. Unbelievably, we all loved the first place we checked out, so we're signing her up!

3) Mama will be going to school, too! I was accepted to Lewis & Clark Law School. I'll be starting in a couple of weeks.