I Think I Ate a Whole Pie Yesterday

So the day after I moved in, I naturally invited a bunch of people over for my second annual National Pie Day celebration, like you do.

There were knitting quizzes and pie trivia!

There were door prizes!

There was much tea consumed!

There were rows knitted!

And there was a pie per person! (and some creme brulee that snuck in, but who can complain?)

(Counterclockwise from bottom right: quiche (egg pie), shepherd's pie, vegetarian shepherd's pie, banana's foster pie, cherry cream pie, spinach feta and phyllo pie, lemon meringue, and s'more pie.)

In other news, it's -10° F outside, but the house is warm and there were a pair of beautiful cardinals chirping outside my living room window as I ate my breakfast this morning.

And I have a bunch of leftover savory pies for my lunch. Not a bad start to a cold day!!

Moving Day - Part One

Moving Out:

See you on the other side!

With Brush In Hand

At the start of the weekend, the master bedroom looked like this:

Now it looks a little something like this:

The bad news: I don't like the color, it's just too saturated/bright. I was going for a robin's egg blue and this is much more tropical than I was aiming for, if that makes any sense.

The good news: The paint only cost $10 on sale, so it's no big deal to buy a different can and try again.  I'm leaning toward the following color.

Water .01

[polldaddy poll=4405228]

In the living room things are more certain.

Before:

Primed:

Painted:

Both Mr. Cleaver and I absolutely love the transformation. The original color made the room so dark and den-like - it's so much brighter and more modern now! Eventually I'll make some curtains to cover the lower bookcase and we'll paint the doors to match the trim, but aside from a few touch-ups and painting the built-in's shelves, we're done in this room - which is huge.

Once again, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our friends, who helped out enormously!!

Work In Progress

In the midst of all the painting, packing and scraping, it's nice to have a simple lace pattern to turn to at night.

Wallpaper Archeology

Mr. Cleaver and I have our apartment through the end of January, so we're taking advantage of this time to get some work done in the house before we move in. The goal: to paint the master bedroom and living room.

Our Friday, December 31st, the master bedroom in our new house looked like this:

Yesterday, on Friday January 7th, it looked like this:

For the week in between, it looked more like this:

and this:

and this:

I had been told that whenever you do a remodeling project expect it to take twice as long and cost at least 10% more than you think.

I don't think I was prepared for the "dear God, what have I done!!" feeling that happens in the middle when everything looks terrible and you're too far into the project to turn back, but not near enough to being done that you can see the end yet.

Deciding to remove the early 90's style wallpaper seemed an easy enough decision. And it was easy enough to remove.

It was the other 3-4 generations under it that were more difficult, particularly the charming at first, but stupidly stubborn later, patriotic print that was the bottom layer. We guessed the lowest level of paper was put on in 1962, based on a note written on the underlying wall.  The house was built in 1948, but there had obviously been some patches and repairs done since then.

It was interesting to see all the levels and think about the people who lived there before. The eagle print aside, there were a lot of muted florals on greyish-pink pastel backgrounds.

Thanks to some paperwork passed down from owner to owner, we know the names of at least three previous owners who lived in the house during 1982, 1989, and 1997 (at least), and it's interest to guess which paper belong to which owner. It was like wallpaper archeology. In someways, I felt bad pulling out all that history. On the other hand, we made things so much easier for whoever may own the house after us.

All in all it took 3 days and 3 garbage bags worth of wallpaper. Fortunately, there were no big surprises under all that paper, though we're still not sure what all the walls are made of - it seems to be pressboard/paperboard in some places, maybe plaster or plywood in others.

Since the walls weren't in great condition after the wallpaper removal, Mr. Cleaver and I skim coated the walls with joint compound and caulked the seams between the molding and the walls. All new skills we didn't know a week before!! I wouldn't call us experts by any means, but we did a fair enough job - and hopefully by the end of next week, it'll all be painted and ready to move in.

2010: In Review

Looking back at 2010, I'm amazed at how big of a year it has been for me.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking on the phone to a friend who's was just finishing his first semester of grad school - and he is very much a grad student  - everything is big ideas, and being humbled, and learning, and being amazed at how much there is to learn - and he's exactly where he should be.  Then I talked a bit about what I've been up to, and I got the feeling, in his eyes at least, that it all seemed small and a little dull.

I suppose, in some ways it is.

On most days, I get up choose between oatmeal, cereal, and waffles; go to work; come home; watch Jeopardy!; hang out with Mr. Cleaver; have tea and desert; read; and go to bed by 10:00 - 11:00. Overall, not much changes from day to day.

Back when I worked in the theatre, everything was always building up to opening night, getting more frenetic and exciting and exhausting as the big day neared. Then there were a few weeks of runs, and then you tore it all down and started creating something new. It was wonderful and very tiring. I burnt out and I decided to do something different and more stable with my career and my hobbies.

I got a good job in a completely new field that is a wellspring of new things to learn, I turned my creative energy into my knitting and sewing. My days have a quiet rhythm to them and I like it.

But even in that quiet everyday rhythm, sometimes big things happen:

I started a business this year, releasing seven knitting patterns and submitting a half-dozen more.

I planted my first garden and learned the joys of growing and processing your own food.

I took up running and ran a 5k.

I traveled to Rhinebeck, Chicago, Boston, and Southern California.

I camped and canoed and enjoyed a perfect Maine summer.

I increased my sewing skills, tissue-fitted, made muslins, and sewed a coat.

I spent more time developing my friendships.

And this morning Mr. Cleaver and I bought our first home.

Like I said, 2010 has been a very big year.

Mr. Cleaver's Christmas Shirt

Last year for Christmas, I  secretly knit Mr. Cleaver a sweater. This year, I secretly sewed him a shirt.

Secret sewing is much more difficult than secret knitting, especially when your sewing machine lives in your bedroom! But I squeezed the project in on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, when Mr. Cleaver left for work early (except for one when we lost power!).  I did kick him out of the house for an hour and a half on the 22nd or 23rd so I could do the buttons and buttonholes, and I thought for sure he was onto me.

But Christmas morning came and he opened his shirt and I had to tell him I made it, even though I stitched something inside one of the cuffs,  which I guess is a good thing. I did work really hard to make it the shirt as professional as possible, including doing flat-felled seams throughout and matching the plaids wherever possible.  You could practically wear this thing inside out!

A flat-felled seam.

My biggest worry was that it wouldn't fit, even though I kept comparing it to shirts in his closet, but it fit great and he wore it all Christmas day. The fabric is a lovely light-weight wool  from the Pendleton wool mills that irons and wears like a dream. My family has a long-history with Pendleton wool button-downs, so I was glad I could bring Mr. Cleaver into the tradition.

Pattern: McCalls' M6044 - View C

Fabric: Pendleton Lightweight Wool from Gorgeous Fabrics

Flat-Felled Seam Tutorial: sewneau.com

Introducing: Fisherman's Wife Beret

This pattern is a long time in coming. I knit the first version of this beret back in 2006 in a cream-colored bulky yarn and still wear it all the time. The pattern is inspired by fishing nets, and is the kind of thing I imagine a fisherman's wife would make and wear while waiting for her husband to come back from a long trip on the seas catching swordfish.

The pattern came to pass when my friend Bristol approached me to make it into a pattern to feature SuriPaco's bulky farm yarn. (Full Disclosure - I received yarn support and compensation from SuriPaco for the use of the pattern.)

The yarn is a 75/25 alpaca/wool blend in a superbulky single ply.

The hat features a simple k1, yo lace pattern and can be completed in a couple of hours - if you have any last-minute knitted-hat needs.

The pattern can be downloaded via Ravelry.

The hat is knit at a relatively tight gauge, and the yarn is bulky and fuzzy enough that it stays warm in spite of the lace holes.

That said, I wouldn't recommend taking photos of yourself outside in 33°F weather with falling snow. It took forever for my hands to warm back up! I think I need to make myself some new fingerless mitt for photo-taking :)

First Snow

There is something magical about the first snow of the year, so Mr. Cleaver and I went out to play:

Oh Christmas Tree!

Because we usually travel every other Christmas, Mr. Cleaver and I look forward to the non-travel years because it means we can get a Christmas tree. Growing up, my family always did cut-your-own, so we try to find a local place to pick our tree. Last Sunday we headed to The Old Farm in Cape Elizabeth and got around to hanging the ornaments last night, so without further adieu, our Christmas Tree adventure: