For a long time I’ve wanted to try my hand at knitting cables again. I finally found a YouTube video with instructions and here’s the result.
I made it an envelope so I can remove the cover to wash it, although I have no idea whether it’s washable or not, as I found the yarn in my stash with no label. Actually, I had made an infinity scarf from it when I first got back into knitting a couple of years ago. It was definitely infinite. When I put it on, it reached my feet. When I wrapped it around my neck a few times, my head was buried to the crown. Guess that’s why they say “check your gauge” all the time. Anyway, I de-raveled the scarf and made a pillow.
So when the boys were little I had the worst time finding a toybox. In our Eau Claire house, it wasn’t much of a problem because I just started throwing everything into a big bottom drawer in the dining area. That worked out great. But when we moved to Trego, it became a Mission to find something that would contain Legos and GI Joe guys if for no other reason than that our feet were complaining of nocturnal ouches.
I finally found the ugliest box in the world, but it had potential. I did a cursory search for a picture from when I bought it — which I know I have — but can’t find it now. A simple pine box with a hinged lid. I removed the covering, upholstered the top with brown corduroy and that box served us well for storing toys and other items until last week.
That would be about 30 years. Yikes. It’s living in my bedroom now and wasn’t exactly fitting in with the decor.
So I painted it and reupholstered the top in a lighter color.
I wasn’t a bit worried when my friend, Jane and I discussed stripping the wallpaper from her living room walls. Until she mentioned it had been there for nigh on 40 years. Jeepers. Who knows what types of glue they were using 40 years ago. Plus, the house (gorgeous!) is over 100 years old and we KNOW they weren’t drywalling back then. So it was with great trepidation that I climbed climbed the ladder to see if the paper and wall were married till death do they part. HA! Apparently they were ready to divorce.
The bottom paper must have been ready for same a few years back, as it practically jumped off the walls. Jane’s husband, Mark sort of grabbed one corner and, as I recall, marched off around the room with large strips of it in hand.
Jane and her trusty Conair steamer. As an side benefit, we figure the steam removed a few of our facial wrinkles. OK. Maybe not. But the moisture felt good in dead center of a Wisconsin winter.There are few things as satisfying as slowly pealing wallpaper away from the wall.
We had this other steamer, but it has a trigger, that forces you to use both hands. It works fine, but you can’t use the scraper and steamer at the same time, so a little less efficient.
Contrary to rumors, Mark did not stand around drinking coffee all day. He helped. A lot. Abby the dog however, did not. Her excuse: she doesn’t have opposable thumbs
The whole project took two days. Weeeelllll. We’re not exactly teenagers, so our “days” aren’t 12 hours long. So, two sixty-something days.
Next: painting. But I think Jane and Mark are going to leave that to a professional.
