Not all I had planned for the week, but...

We have all heard the saying "The best laid plans of mice and men."  I had several of them this past week, but to even hint at how things really turned out you need to know just a little more about me.

It is a sad truth that I hate doing laundry.
Absolutely, positively, there is not a word strong enough for it, HATE laundry.
No matter how much you do, or how organized you think you are it is truly one chore that is never ending.  There you stand, seeing empty hampers, or baskets, clean clothing neatly stowed in drawers, closets or wardrobes and what happens?  You go to bed and suddenly there is more to do!

I don't know much, but I do know that to conquer the dreaded "wash day blues" there is only one thing to do.  Make sure the pile of dirty things to wash never exceeds you ability to face them.  In order to do that I have a plan that has worked very well for me for years, and years.  Even when I had someone who kindly came to my house each day to watch my children, and while she was here took care of many chores, she too bought into my insanity of : Do a freaking load of laundry every day!  Now obviously on sheet changing day, or towel washing day, there is more than one load in a family of four, but as a general rule I do one load each day before I go to work and can face the idea of two or three on Saturday or Sunday when I am not working quite so many hours.

My plans were derailed this week when the latch assembly on my front load washer broke!  I knew at 6:30 am we had this problem, by 6:45 I thought I had ordered the right parts and would be ready to install the following day (an eleven dollar part that cost more than twice that to ship, but I wanted the part RIGHT NOW!)  As it turned out I was a little off the mark and needed another part as well, so another full day and a bit of waiting.....Four days where I could not do laundry.

Much to the amusement of the people who know me, calling a repairman was never top of my list of ways to deal with the washer issue.  My feeling was that I would try on my own, and only if I failed would I call in a professional, and after all how hard could it be to fix something that took just a couple of parts, one of which was eleven dollars!  Turns out it was the right decision.  Although I admit I had the machine apart as far as I needed to before I got the pieces to put in it,  but putting the new ones in took less time than making coffee and that included re-seating the gasket that keeps the water the right side of the washing machine door!

Guess what I was doing all weekend?

Well, I suppose not all I was doing there might have been some of this......

Don't be too impressed, I have been working on this one since September of last year and it is only 125 rows big...yeah I know it looks bigger, that is because I took a doily pattern and worked it in fingering weight yarn with needles that were significantly larger than you would expect!
Stats:  Stor Lysedug, from a Danish website, translated into English so I could knit it.
Bernat Baby Yarn in Antique White
Needles 3 through 8 (US)
Mods : I did not do the crochet bind off, just a simple knit two, *slide back to left hand needle and knit together through back loops, knit one* and so on and so on ad infinitum!

Non-knitters, and even knitters who do no work things that need serious blocking, have no idea how long it takes to pin out some of the lace pieces that I knit, especially when I plan on killing (scroll down to Lesson: Blocking Lace) an acrylic to make a soft drapey piece.  First I washed it, then I started pinning it, then had to hunt up a spray bottle because it was drying faster than I could pin, followed by a nice sauna with a steam cleaner.  Total time : most of the afternoon and early evening with occasional breaks to swap laundry, fold laundry, make and eat dinner!

TDQ had her birthday somewhere in the middle of the week, complete with her ramen noodles, and hand knit gifts.  Some you still can't see, no pictures to share, but she does have a (now scrunched up from wearing it as the photos came days after gifting it) little neck scarf to go with some fingerless gloves.

You saw this earlier before it was complete, not much in the way of stats for it, other than to say that the yarn I got for Christmas has thus far turned into : long fingerless gloves, foot ovens, that neck warmer....

This neck warmer (for me!) and another pair of fingerless gloves to match it (still on the needles.) With an entire ball of yarn left to knit!  Nothing like stretching out a present, and if I have calculated correctly the non-knitter that gave those four balls of yarn to me will also be able to get a scarf and mitts...she asked me to knit something for myself and TDQ from this batch of yarn and suggested a scarf if there was enough, I think I am following the letter (if not the intent) of her instructions, we each have a scarf now!  LOL.

I am way behind on my Sugar Plum Fairy, still have over half of Chart 3 to go before I can catch up to last weeks Chart 4. 

And no, I did not work on my mystery socks at all this week!

~M