So, I'm still not accomplishing a lot right now. Or, at least I don't have a lot to show for what I am working on. What will happen is I will finish a lot of things at the same time. My sewing corner is due to be torn up on Thursday because they have to run the vent for the bathroom down here up that corner of the dining room. The vent has to be above the highest drain in the house which is the bathroom upstairs. The bathroom wall will have to be broken into also.  Things are going slow because David isn't up to much these days. With tact I have to suggest that he go down and work for ten minutes and then if he still doesn't feel good he can always go lay down. He usually feels well enough to work for a couple of hours. What I didn't say was that I am sick of him sitting around feeling sorry for himself because he doesn't feel as young as he used to. Maybe I am learning wisdom in my aging years! I told that to Ambrosina and she laughed and said that he wouldn't have taken that well even though it may be true.

I have learned a new knitting technique called brioche. It is double sided and makes a soft, squishy fabric. It wouldn't be good for garments, but for things like scarves it's really nice. The above pictures are the reverse sides. It's fun to do but takes longer because each row has to be knit twice, once with each color.

There are a lot of patterns that I want to try, and since I have decided to knit scarves and hats for the whole family I will get plenty of practice. I can knit a hat in an after noon but the scarves take longer. I have been on the current one for four days but I have been working on a lot of other things at the same time so that has to be considered in. I do about 8 inches in an evening's knitting. It uses a lot of yarn too.

With one thing and another I am keeping busy although I don't yet have a lot to show for it. My printer stopped working and I have to get another one payday, so I will get behind in my schedule for paying off some bills so we can get a new car. I did factor in unexpected expenses when I made my plans because things always come up. Our lawsuit has been dropped and so our lawyer is helping us fill out the papers for debt forgiveness since they are doctor bills and we always qualify. We finally got David's first hip paid off from 12 years ago. Now we are working on his heart attack in Washington four years ago. We have never in our entire life together haven't been paying on doctor's bills, I don't know how we would feel if we ever got them paid off! It would be nice to find out.

Well anyway, that's where I am at in this point of time.

Motivation hasn't been strong these last couple of weeks. With everything torn up down here and most of my stuff outside under the back porch, under tarps, I can't get at anything to work. The loom is under plastic in a corner, under the stairs and I don't dare take the plastic off because of the dust. Things are piled everywhere here in the finished part of the basement. These are not complaints, I am quite happy that I am getting a bathroom down here, just an explanation why I am not feeling particularly inspired right now. It's more like I am marking time until things start up again.

 So this is the framing pretty close to done. This is Anthony's room which is in the southeast corner.

This is the northeast corner, the door on the left is the mechanical (furnace, hot water heater) laundry room/dye kitchen. The door on the right is the bathroom. I'm sorry the picture is blurry, I must have wiggled while I was taking it and didn't realize. There is not going to be a lot of room left over there so I am in the process of deciding which pieces of furniture have to go to new homes.

I have filled up another box for Goodwill, and the trunk you can barely see in the left hand corner is now going to Timothy and Rosa. All in the family. Getting rid of stuff has always been hard for me, but is character building, I suppose.

I haven't been working on Dear Jane because the printer isn't working, no surprise there it is over ten years old, and I haven't been able to print out the patterns. Something will have to be done about it, but we haven't decided what yet.

 These are the current hand work projects. I am making knitted hats and scarves for everybody.

And to satisfy my desire to make lace I alternate some crocheting with the knitting. This pattern is from that old Workbasket magazine that I made the doll sweater out of. The patterns assume quite a bit of experience and skill. One has to fill in between the lines and look at the pictures to figure out what they mean. I am not sure what I will do with it because lace doilies are not in style and nobody uses them any more, but I find it relaxing while I am sort of between projects.

Not earth shaking I know, but it's these sort of things that make life pleasant and enjoyable.

Anyway I thought I'd catch up, and now I have!

Crazy quilt Al Beasly's ties. It's not a very big quilt and I kept it simple. The blocks themselves have to be over 25 maybe 30 years and I felt it was time to get it done. I quilted some by hand in quilt-as-you go but decided to go a different route because I was never going to get it done. So now it's ready to quilt.

 If you can't read the date on this magazine it is August 1950, older than me!

Sometimes I get a hankering to make baby clothes, and I had some baby yarn that had been sitting around for quite a while. I really enjoy looking through all those old vintage magazines I have and this caught my eye. It took about a week to knit and now Grace has a sweater set to wear.

I've been sort of between quilts for the last few days and haven't been able to decide which direction to go. My printer isn't working so I haven't been able to print out any Dear Jane patterns. Don't know what is wrong with it but it's over 10 years old and I have a feeling it's ready to be replaced.
Well this quilt has been a long time in the planning and I have collected tons of lace over the years, and since everything was at hand I decided to give it a go. This block didn't take long so I don't think the quilt will take long, but I will only use a small part of the lace I have collected.

With the downstairs in such confusion and everything packed away, I feel like I'm sort of just marking time right now. I know that I have gotten several things finished but it doesn't really seem like I have accomplished much. Of course, the time change last weekend doesn't help much, everybody seems tired and listless this week.

However I need to get a grip on myself and start making some progress on something this afternoon. I can always decide on a new knitting project and that is always fun! There is nothing I enjoy more than starting a new project. I just don't want to add to the UFO tub when I am supposed to be emptying it!