Celtic Cable

Celtic Cable

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Monday, December 5, 2011

I May Have Snapped

And I blame the brown sweater. It was just so much brown ... nonstop, unrelenting, from start to 2/3-finish, brown.

I was compelled to cast on something that could be the opposite of the perpetual brown.


This ...  is so not brown.



This is also not something I would not normally knit with, but back when I was first starting out, I bought a lot of novelty yarn and Red Heart. This is one of the skeins of fun fur I've had for six years. It's been in the bin with the other acrylics, giggling maniacally, waiting its turn.

This is meant to be a child's hat. We'll see if I actually finish it or not ... mostly, I just needed to knit something that wasn't sedate brown cables (I'm starting the sleeves tonight, by the way).



The other test-my-patience chore was turning this:





(Textured bedroom ceiling falling down in spots, cracking, generally looking like crap)




Into this (Paint is not yet dry ... it's smooth and uniform now).




It was an awful chore. My friend S. ('Slick' from my other shared blog, ThreeFriendsFitness) came over and helped me scrape the old ceiling. Here are some in-between, on-the-way shots:




It was Not Fun.


It was a literal pain in the neck, and my hands hurt for hours afterwards.







Water damage. I've had the roof redone, but the water damage was from previous (lazy uncaring stupid sitonassesallthetime) owners, who let things remain in a state of disrepair.










The mess from scraping the textured ceiling was horrendous. It left this behind...

This is a tiny sample of the amount of debris. I estimate 45 pounds of plaster was scraped off and swept up. There is dust all over the house. I don't think I'll ever get it all up! (Note the heating pad. Very necessary the night after the scraping)





And the worst of it (for me) was having everything out of place for two days. This is a 1,000 sq foot rowhouse, and there just isn't a lot of room to maneuver if things are out of place.




This clutter drove me crazy. It made my doggie anxious (not hard to do, she is very paranoid and neurotic) and my cats curious and I couldn't wait to get it all back in place again. I'm far from being a neat freak, but I really don't like the disarray that comes with big projects.




This drove me crazy too:



The drop clothes caught about 2/3 of the debris. We picked them up, shuffled them around so all the dust and debris was in the center, then scooped it into bags. I can't describe the dust ... I really can't. It was everywhere, light as air, coating everything. I had it in my eyes (I couldn't find my eye protection, but I suspect it wouldn't have mattered .. the dust was that fine).




But it's over. It took all weekend. The final product is so-so ... I got paint on the walls, and I don't remember what color paint, or brand, I used, but I need to touch it up. Perhaps I can just go browse the paint chips at Lowe's and Home Depot and maybe a familiar name will jump out.




While S. and I were working away, scraping over our heads and sweeping and vacuuming and painting over our heads ... Momma Girl and Coraline spend a pleasant day basking in the sun on my car roof.




Oh, to be a cat.

13 comments:

  1. Oh yuck. We have that nasty popcorn ceiling stuff everywhere too. We haven't tackled it yet because of exactly what you describe and the fact that I'm gone too much... the disarray would last much longer than the weekend.

    Your fun fur definately looks fun. ;-)

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  2. How did you scrape it off? I have textured ceilings that I HATE... wonder if I could do it... at least in a few rooms.

    Anyway, the fun fur piece looks pretty awesome. It's nice to take a break sometimes.

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  3. Gosh, you have been busy. Aren't those textured ceilings a pain in the nether parts? We, ve got them as well, but since they sort of are right for these old houses I have left them as they are. Don't have to like them though. :)
    What is it with novelty yarn, I hve got a big bagful of it too. And I HATE syntetic yarn. It is a mystery. I hope you are having a nice Advent.

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  4. AAAhhhhh-the joys of removing popcorn ceilings. I've done it twice and I have several more rooms to go. I hate the stuff!

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  5. You are too funny. And energetic. What a thing to tackle! My back hurts just thinking about it. But every time you look at that ceiling, you will remember the pain it caused you.

    PS: brown is not fun....lol

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  6. argh! We have the textured ceiling too and it is a royal pain to work with.

    I have found a new solution for the fun fur and fun yarn that I bought when I first learned to knit...weaving. Of course, even my loom doesn't like it but it's so much better than cussing at the yarn as it sits on my knitting needles ;-)

    Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

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  7. Makes my neck hurt just thinking about it. I'm so thankful our house was built way before some genius thought up the textured ceiling. Congratulations on getting it done over just one weekend. Be sure to change your furnace filter to one of those micro filters for a couple of filter changes after that job or you'll never get that dust out of the air. Although the non-brown yarn is an interesting color, the eyelash, she makes my skin crawl. Good luck with that project. I think the brown sweater is magnificent!

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  8. Oh to be a cat indeed ;)

    Looks like a hell of a job, but the smooth ceiling looks fab now :)

    And I can't say I blame you casting on something colourful, all brown knitting can be a bit much (I got so sick of my brown cabled sweater!)

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  9. Oh my goodness, that was a huge messy project! Kudos to you and your helpers for getting it done so quickly!

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  10. Ah, the fun of fun fur! I think I still have a few balls somewhere. It's definitely not plain brown wool!

    We had to do ceiling repair once before (long story, but my husband managed to put a hole in our bedroom ;-)), it's a royal pain just think about it.

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  11. I always wonder why people do those speckled ceilings (and how dusty they must get over time). I do not envy you all the hard work to get it done, but I'm sure you will be much happier with the new version.

    The best thing about Fun Fur yarn? Using it up!

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  12. It is always nice to take a break and knit something new when you've been going too long on a project! Good job getting your ceiling done, I feel tired just looking at the pictures!

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  13. OK, knitting wins hands down as more fun than redoing a ceiling! Your yarn combo will make a darling hat!

    :)

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