I finally figured out where to put my blocking board. If I clear off the table in my little room/office, I can balance it on the top. It’s not a terrible fit, either–it’s larger than the table, but only by about about 5″ on each side, so while a little inconvenient, it at least works.

Of course, I don’t know what I’m going to do the first time I have a lace shawl to block–those never fit entirely on the blocking board, so that’s going to be interesting…

Of course, this means I was finally able to block my ribbed-cabled cardigan that I finished last month. The poor thing has been waiting for weeks and weeks to get its final wash.

My orange sweater is blocking, too–laid on a towel on the cedar chest. I had recently torn out the button bands that had stopped halfway up, because I was never happy with that. So I just reknit them, finishing them last night. So, that’s drying now, too.

After I had laid everything out and sat down to rest, I glanced over … the blocking board was just as eye level. (You folks know I sit on the floor when I’m using my computer, right?), and I loved the ripple the ribbed edge made.

Now, I just need to pick out the buttons.

On the plus side, it’s not going to take long for these to dry. Not only did I spin most of the water out in the washing machine, so they’re damp/wet, not sopping, but … it’s warm up here! We joke that this townhouse is a Goldilocks house… the downstairs is too cold, the upstairs is too warm, and the middle is juuuust riiiiight. And on days like today, when it’s really cold outside (like, 20 degrees) so that the heat is on a lot? The upstairs is extra warm. In fact, I’m sitting here right now in jeans and a tank top, having shrugged off my sweater. When I get up to go down to the kitchen for lunch, I’ll grab it, but for now? Too warm for a sweater.

Yes, I know, it’s weird. And we’re all a little worried about what’s going to happen this summer, if the heat rises this dramatically–especially with that huge window of ours.

In fact, we’re trying to figure out what to do about that window. It’s beautiful, but it’s HUGE, and it lets in way too much sun in the afternoon. (As in, it’s blinding in the kitchen.) Not only that, since that’s a large amount of glass, it’s letting too much cold air in now and is going to make things extra hot in the summer.

We’re desperately trying to think of something we can do to cover this window enough to (1) cut down the glare, (2) add some thermal protection, (3) still let in some light because we like the whole natural-light thing, and (4) won’t be too expensive.

This is harder than it might seem. First, the three of us all have different ideas on what will or won’t work, or how it shoul be done. And, second … even if we agree on a drape or blind or something, installation is going to be HARD. This window is about level with the second floor, so it’s HIGH. Even if we owned a ladder–which we don’t–there’s no way it would be tall enough to reach ABOVE the window to hang, say, a drapery rod. And that’s assuming you could find the floor space to put the ladder, because we have almost none, and our huge behemoth of an unmovable tv is in the corner right in front of the window. We can’t move it even an inch. Even if we find some affordable kind of cover that we can all agree on? Installation is going to cost a fortune …

I don’t suppose any of you have any ideas, huh?

And now? Do you realize that I don’t have any knitting projects? I’m still trying to find a pattern for all that lovely Black Water Abbey yarn I unravelled, but … haven’t found one. Which means that the only thing I’ve got to knit right now is the sock in my purse (yawn).

• Tags: Finished Knitting, General • Permalink:Knitting Horizons // 4 Comments »