Tuesday, September 13, 2016

The Walls Are Closing In…



September 13, 2016

Our shed at the farm finally has walls!  Charming has finished adding all of the T1-11 siding.  He still has several items that need to be completed like installing the side door and windows, putting shingles on the roof, adding outside trim to make it pretty, and painting.  Although this list still seems long, the major work is done.  Because I’m sure you’re getting tired of reading about the shed, I won’t showing any more pictures of that until it’s completed. 

We have many other jobs to focus on that will bore you almost as much as our incremental progress on the shed.  We are hoping to build a simple cinderblock chimney on the house before winter.  We also need to cut and stockpile some firewood so that it can dry out and be available for use next winter.  After those two things are done, we hope to start renovation on the house.  I’m all for taking the winter off and hibernating in our current home, but Charming is gung-ho to move to the farm.  Although it is inconvenient to be moving back and forth between the two houses, I definitely recommend doing this versus renovating a house while living in it.  Having gone through the kitchen renovation a while back, I can tell you that it’s really difficult to have to jump over construction materials to fix meals and live a normal life. 

Recently, I decided to start a new knitting project to fill my spare time while Charming was working on the shed.  Since the winters at the farm will be colder than it is at our current house, Charming and I will need plenty of warm socks, hats, and sweaters.  It will be important to have layers of warm woolies for our farm winter wardrobes.  Several years ago, a friend of mine gave me some older knitting magazines.  One of them was the Fall 2003 edition of Knitters’ Magazine.  In it, there was a lovely sweater called, “Round Trip” designed by Kay Dahlquist.  I have been moonin’ over this jacket since I first saw the pattern.  I especially loved the back panel of the sweater, which has a sort of hour-glass shape to it.  The magazine shows the sweater in a variegated yarn, which is beautiful, but I wanted the sweater to wear with dress pants.  Because I tend to wear black, grey, or brown dress pants I wanted a sweater that would go with these colors. 

I am close to finishing the sweater and I really like the way it’s turning out.  The back of the sweater, as well as the border, is off-white.  The right sleeve is tan and the left sleeve is dark grey.  Although these colors are definitely not for everyone, they will work perfectly with any of my dress pants.  The sweater has ¾ length sleeves and the front sections are rounded.  I may add some kind of a closure, if needed, after I finish it just to dress it up a bit more.  Because I like this sweater so much and it knits up quickly, I may make another one (or two) to wear on those no-so-dressy occasions.  I’ll share pictures of the finished sweater in my next post.  

Charming uses a rope to pull the upper level T1-11 into place.

Still need to cut out the window at the top as well as windows beside the door.

All T1-11 siding is now in place.
 
Charming designed and made vents to the top point of the shed.

He'll add screen to the holes and then paint before being put into place.

                                 Sweater shown in the 2003 Fall issue of Knitter's Magazine.

My version of the sweater.  I love it!

Back view of the sweater.  I love the hour-glass shape of the back panel.

Powder appears to like the sweater as well.