Lace Fence and Window Progress....

I'm not a big fan of chain link fencing, but the Lace Fence company has done some amazing things with it! Visit the gallery on their site. Some of it is too busy for my taste, but the simpler ones are quite beautiful. Apparently they can do any design you'd like with this technique.


While I've been off working on my car, Joe has been finishing up that window in the guest room. He managed to match the stain very well. I love how it turned out...now I guess I better put the hardware on it, and get back to painting that room!

On Saturday and Sunday, I knitted up this little guy during slow moments at the shop. I think he's downright cute, and I may make a few more and turn them into a mobile. It's the Frida the Fish Pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. Well, it sort of is that pattern....I hate knitting a bunch of little pieces and sewing them together, so I rewrote the pattern to be worked in the round. I think I got it pretty close. I'm making another one by my pattern, and if I have the bugs worked out of it, I'll put the pattern on here for free. Or if you like to do a lot of seaming, the original pattern is also free and can be found here on Lion Brand's website.

Using the Old Woodwork

Look at this! Joe found enough window trim that is stained rather than painted! So, if I can manage to stain that little bit of new wood to match so it won't stick out like a sore thumb, the new window will go with the rest of the room rather than being painted.

About 18 years ago, we changed the roofline on the back of the house, due to some bad remodeling by previous owners. In the process, we had to lose one window from each of two bedrooms. One of the windows we had to remove was from this room, so it's very possible that that trim came from this room in the first place.

There's a lesson in there. We stashed that trim from the old windows in the garage....and now we are using it. If you are just starting to renovate an old house, and you have to remove pieces from it, don't throw them away! Stash it over your garage doors or some other out of the way place. Even if it stays there for years, that's ok! You never know when you might need some of that old trim...and it's not easy to find if you have to buy it.

Here's the window from the stair side. Pretty cool!

The Stairway...........

I've referred to the stairway a few times in this blog. It's very tall and narrow and dark and runs right up the center of the house. We gutted it 7 years ago when we gutted the kitchen. I didn't know when Joe was going to get to it, but I knew I can't do that kind of height, so I just tried to be patient.

Well, a couple of days ago, Joe asked if I still wanted a window from the bedroom into the stairwell....I did. The problem was that I had already painted the ceiling and started cutting in the walls in the bedroom, and I really didn't want sawdust and plasterdust all over that new paint. I said yes though, because I'm really hopeful that the window will throw some light into the stairs.

And as you can see, it is! The window we are putting in is a very plain stained glass one salvaged from a local church. At night, if a light is left on in the guest bedroom it will be almost like having a night light on the stairs. I think it breaks up the tall narrowness of the stairwell...at least a little! Joe found enough trim to trim it out like the rest of the windows in our house, and I think the window will be in and all done in a couple of days. Yea!

I love Lucy.

I like how the Lucy Bag turned out. It's actually a little redder than this photo shows...more like in the photo below. The only change I made was to add some bobbles at the bottom. For now, I attached one of the felted pins I made a few years back. I may still line it.

Here it is before it hit the washing machine...huge! These are fun to make because you knit them on large needles and it goes fast. And then there is the magic of watching the transformation as it felts. Maybe I'm just easily entertained, but that's OK....I'm rarely bored!

And here she is all felted. I have yarn to make another that I will be giving away as a birthday present.