DexCon 10 Day 1

Kate as Alice



Owen enjoying Steel Battalion

Connect-a-Jar

Sweet! I just found these in the pharmacy section at my Shaw's supermarket. I've been looking for tiny containers to hold dried herbs and ground spices that are small enough to be portable to take on camping trips and vacations. I like to keep my cooking options open, and although I'd rather not be relegated to bland food, it's sort of hard to take the spice rack with you. I had seen Alton Brown use something like these on a pot roast episode and I've been looking for them every since. Today I picked myself up a couple sets. I really love the fact that they stay connected to each other and are teeny-tiny.

Coachella FO

Two days ago I finished Coachella. I used a double crochet bind-off (J10 hook)so that it would be nice and stretchy, and then I went through with a matching sewing thread and stitched into and wrapped the yarn joins on the pearl side and then cut off the excess. I'm hoping that will keep everything securely in place through washing.

Yesterday I got to give Coachella to my sister-in-law as a very early birthday present. She immediately put it on and wore it the entire day, so I would say that was pretty successful. It fit great, I don't think I could have done better, which is a relief since the guage on the top came out tighter than the guage on my swatch! I just couldn't get a good measurement of the circumference until I'd knit almost halfway down, and at that point it seemed too late to go back to the beginning. Now I'm really glad I didn't, because I don't think I could have done better than it came out. The shaping was perfect, it fit her like a glove. And I think the fabric is stretchy enough that even if her weight fluctuates a bit it'll still look great.

Coachella progress

I'm glad that there are photos to prove that I haven't been spending *all* my time knitting because this project has gone by so fast that even I'm shocked that I'm going to be finished at my self-appointed deadline. I guess that's what happens when you sneak a few rows in here and there. Not to mention that it's such an easy knit, no complicated charts to memorize or lose track of. I'm glad I decided to use a row counter on this one. And no Mr. Mick didn't steal it. Somehow it managed to drop into the centar of the yarn spool and got stuck.

cabinets!

Here are the cabinet carcasses for the kitchen peninsula. The gap is for the drop-in stove.

A Door!

Paul and I installed the door on Thursday and then we shaved off a bit at the bottom, re-hung it on its hinges and I installed the knob this morning. It's so nice to have a door on that closet now :) Of course we still need to wrap it with moldings, but you get the idea.