Two days of massive spring cleaning! The house feels so much lighter, now. The big news is that #1 Son’s room no longer resembles a toxic waste dump. I can actually venture inside without fearing for my life! The transition is truly amazing. Monday we cleaned from stem to stern. Tuesday we cleaned and sorted, and took junk to the landfill, recycling to the transfer station, and donations to the appropriate places. There are still things that need to be delivered, but I can get a car in the garage again.

And the best thing about this venture? It was #1 Son’s idea! After the initial shock wore off (who are you, and what have you done with my son?), I decided to go with the flow. And I’m glad I did.

I have today as a vacation day, also, as I wasn’t sure how long the cleaning would take. Today I’m knitting. Maybe I’ll finally get somewhere on those socks!

Today I had the privilege of seeing the Son Of Aran sweater knit by Jerry at When Knitting Was A Manly Art. All I can say is that pictures do not do it justice. The yarn is a much darker, yummier green for one thing. And the workmanship that went into it is simply amazing. Kudos to Jerry!

After lunch today I ran down to Oregon City for the 18th Annual Spring Fiber Sale at Abernethy Grange because I really wanted to see that sweater! The Grange has two floors, and both were loaded with vendors selling all kinds of wonderful fibers, fleeces, yarns, spinning supplies, etc. I had promised myself that I would only look for yarn for #1 Son’s socks. He wants seafoam green. There wasn’t a lot of seafoam there. But I did buy a skein of Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ luscious “Soft Rock” handpainted yarn in the “Mermaid” colorway. It’s a blend of soft greens and purples. Yes it has some seafoam green in it. No, it’s not going in #1 Son’s socks.

Jerry turned me on to a great book by Mary Ann Beattie at Queen Kahuna Creations. This is a good-sized, substantial book with lots of color pictures — good for knitters like myself who need to see something to get it. The book is full of all kinds of cool techniques like a long-tail cast-on for toe-up socks that Beattie calls the Aloha Cast On. I ordered the book as soon as I got home, and I can’t wait to get it!

I also saw a pair of blueberry waffle stich socks and I really like the way that pattern knitted up. I’m not that happy with the way the Wildfoote socks are coming out. At the gauge I’m knitting, they are turning out too big for my skinny feet. And the pattern doesn’t show against the multiple bright colors. I’m thinking I’m going to rip it all out and try the Aloha Cast On and the blueberry waffle stitch. Yep… I think that’s what I’ll do.

When I set up the delivery for the new water heater for this morning, I was assured that the plumber could be here by 8:00 AM. I explained that I had a very important appointment at 11:30, and the installation must be complete by that time. No problem, I was told.

My 11:30 AM appointment was lunch with M. We’ve gotten together for a Saturday or Sunday lunch at least every other week for more than 25 years. We’ve missed weeks only for incidentals like marriages, the birth of my son, the birth of her son and funerals. We’ve been known to plan vacations around our lunches. We missed last week, and I didn’t want to miss again.

At 9:50 AM, the plumber called. He was picking up the stuff and he should be there about 10:30. I started twitching a little. Mr. Plumber Man said:

8:00 AM? ha ha ha… That’s about the time I usually roll out of bed on Saturday. No… I don’t know how long it will take. Could be anything between 45 minutes and 2 hours.

I’d been up since 6:00 AM, so I found that less than amusing. I called M but couldn’t reach her. I left her a message asking for a later time in the day and crossed my fingers.

When Mr. Plumber Man arrived at 10:30 AM, I told him if he could be finished by 11:20 he would have my undying gratitude.

Fortunately the new water heater turned out to be exactly the same size as the old water heater. All that had to be done was to pull the old one and install the new one with new fittings. With me lending a hand on the earthquake straps — the only non-technical thing I was qualified to help with — Mr. Plumber Man finished at 11:15 AM sharp!

As I ran back inside to get ready to go, the phone rang and it was M. I told her I was on my way, and she said that she was, too, and we both arrived at about 11:40. Whew.

And the rest of the day was much more fun, but deserving of it’s own entry because it shouldn’t be mixed in with water heaters and plumbers.

Why is it that the battery in the smoke detector always loses its power in the middle of the night?

I find waking up in the wee, dark hours to an incessant CHIRP [pause] CHIRP [pause] to be annoying and not conducive to a restful sleep.

The smoke detector is not far from my bedroom door. The [pause] is just long enough to begin to drift back to sleep… then the next CHIRP sounds. And I lay in bed, trying to ignore the CHIRP, but knowing that the only way to fix the problem is to change the #$@% battery.

CHIRP

Mom crawls out of bed with eyes only half open. Is it really the smoke detector, or maybe something easier to deal with?

CHIRP

It’s really the smoke detector. Do we even have a battery? There’s got to be one here in the kitchen junk drawer. I need a 9-volt…

CHIRP

OK. Battery in hand. Now I need the step ladder.

CHIRP

C’mon detector… come off the ceiling! oh yeah… gotta unplug this doohickey. Open the little door. Old battery out. New battery in. New battery in. New battery in. It came out, it must go back… go back! there.

Now… can I hook the little plug doohikey back up… can I get my bifocals in the right position so I can see the little plug doohickey and where it needs to go while precariously perched on the top of a tippy step ladder? If I could only lean just a little further back…. whew…

attach the thing back to the ceiling, and to bed… c’mon detector, attach already… please… PLEASE!

Now, test. Nothing. [sigh] pull from ceiling, check connections, test

CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP

good enough. attach to ceiling… attach to ceiling… why is this so hard? attach to ceiling…

silence

bed… sleep…

Why is it always in the middle of the night?

Here’s the picture of my completed sock scarf, all washed and blocked. As we all know, it is a blatant rip off of Jerry’s version of the sock scarf.

Except mine doesn’t look anything like his.

For one thing, mine is a lot fatter, and at about 4 feet long (because that was all of the yarn I had) it’s 1/2 the length of Jerry’s at 8 feet. His is striped, mine is ribbed. He worked both sides of his top-down. I started at one toe and worked toe-up and then top-down on the second sock.

It’s all good.

I’m glad to have mine finished. It was a lot of fun to do, though, and worked really fast. I might make another one some time, if I get ambitious. I like the way that the fish-tail cables turned out.

This is a picture of the Wildfoote socks as of last night. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but there is a fairly subtle lace pattern between the ribbing on the front of the socks.

I’d messed the pattern up at one point and, after unsuccessfully attempting a “fix” with a crochet hook, ended up tinking out about 6 rows.

If the weather holds out the way it’s been so far this March, there won’t be much call for wool socks until next autumn. But if I can get them finished fairly soon, I may get a wearing or two in before summer.

The next planned project is a pair of socks for #1 Son. If he doesn’t decide on a color soon, though, I may knit up some cotton yarn I have laying around. That would be a pair of socks that I could use! I may also knit a second alpaca pair for my friend, who is going to wear out her socks because she refuses to take them off except to wash them!