First the knitting since a) that is ostensibly why you visit and b) it has been sorely lacking from the blog lately. That’s part of the problem with designing…you can’t show the projects on the blog. First I have some great hiking socks for Jim (did I mention he has size 12 feet???) I thought I might submit this pattern to the winter knitty but then I read a comment on a blog about how “everyone and their cousin” is a sock designer lately which made me reconsider. The pattern isn’t quite as “exciting” as I hoped so I think I’ll just finish them up and move on. Oh and my new favorite sock yarn might be Trekking XXL…love it! Next for your enjoyment I have Baudelaire, looking lovely in Lorna’s Laces Baltic Sea colorway. I started these as a plane project and since I have another plane trip coming up I’ll wait to start the second one then. Love the pattern and heel on this one. No fit problems as I had read about in the pattern and elsewhere.

Now for the home improvement. Our garage doors have needed a new coat of paint for a while now. They’re wood (bummer since you can get ones you never have to paint) they’re 20 years old and they had some mildew on the bottom part1. Somehow I always forget I have a blog when I start something like this so I will begin by showing you step two. Step one was completed yesterday with a dobie (Jim always calls them doobies…cracks me up) and some Soilax.2 Today I moved on to scraping old caulk, wood putty3, trip to home depot for paint, sanding and applying new caulk. Big fun here over at Chez Kemp, as always! Tomorrow is the fun part…the paint. Stay tuned…you know you can’t wait4!

1. ah, the joys of life in the Midwest [↩]
2. I may have gotten just a wee bit lazy towards the end…note the bottom of the second door [↩]
3. We shall not discuss how there came to be a need for wood putty. It involved me, a vehicle and no alcohol. Enough said [↩]
4. What do you think of the footnotes? Useful or just plain annoying? I’m thinking they might be good on a day where I seem to want to use tons of parentheses like today [↩]