Thrift Shop Yarn Sweater

Sometimes when one is planning a knitting project, one starts with a pattern one wants to make, and sometimes one starts with a yarn one wants to use. This project was one of the latter. I bought the yarn you see above at Value Village in 2012 for $4. It is Nuvoletta by Filatura Di Crosa, it is 70% mohair and 30% acrylic, and from what Google tells me, this brand of yarn has been discontinued since the early nineties so this yarn is over 20 years old. There were five 50g skeins of it. The colour didn't photograph accurately for some reason and the yarn is actually a rich warm teal, not the electric blue you see here.

I assessed this yarn to be between a worsted and a DK weight, and thought there might not be quite enough of it to make a sweater. This has usually been the case when I've bought a lot of yarn from thrift shops and I've had to do things like adding cuffs and collar in a coordinating yarn to get the resulting project done. You get a small lot and there is no possibility of buying any more of the same kind.

After some searching on Ravelry, I chose this pattern for the Nuvoletta. This is the Pull Me Over pattern, designed by Andrea Black. It's available for $5.50(USD). It appeared to be just the right tension and, even better, it had both a cap sleeve and a long sleeve option and a top-down construction that was perfect for a project for which I might have insufficient yarn. I could make the body and see how my yarn was holding out before deciding which sleeve length to go with. Moreover, how cute is this sweater?

Here's the result. This project was a total pleasure to work on. The yarn was lovely to work with, the pattern was one I enjoyed making, and the project proceeded smoothly with no mistakes. Finishing was a snap as there was no seaming to be done and only maybe ten ends to be darned in. I was done in three weeks and never got tired of it nor took a break to work on something else as I usually do. Moreover, not only did I have enough yarn to make the whole sweater with the long sleeves, I also have nearly an entire skein left over, which should easily be enough to make a hat. Mohair does tend to go far because it's so light. That was $4 well spent.

Orange Swan's Laws of Home Renovation

You've heard about Murphy's Law, of course. Well, here are Orange Swan's Laws of Home Renovation, as written by me:

• If you carefully cover your entire floor with a number of drop cloths and one of them shifts about to expose an inch of floor, that inch will immediately acquire a paint splotch, apparently through sheer magnetic force.

• When trying to install a light fixture, there will be a moment when you’re standing on a chair, the fixture is wired but not secured with screws and so still needs support from you, and you drop the screw you need to complete the installation on the floor, six feet below you. There will be no one around to hand you said screw.

• Things always cost at least twice as much and take twice as long as you ever would have thought possible.

• A task that you thought would be simple and take two minutes can more often than not end up being insanely complicated and involve a power outage, panicked bewilderment, hours of research, an emergency trip to Home Depot for supplies, and hundreds of dollars. I'm thinking specifically of a time when I tried to replace a plastic electrical outlet cover.

• You won't really know how to do a specific repair until you've completed 80 to 100% percent of the repair and it's too late for the information to do you any good.

• While working on renovations, you will find yourself muttering a) much profanity b) phrases common to porn movies, and c) bizarre word association/stream of consciousness verbal creations (i.e., singing “fuckity fuck fuck, fuckity fuck fuck” to the tune of “Frosty the Snowman”.)

• You will constantly make declarations about the laziness, incompetent maintenance, atrocious housekeeping, and bad taste of the previous occupants. Subsequent occupants will say similar things about you and systematically undo/redo all your hard and painstaking work.

• You will have “oh for CRYING OUT LOUD” moments when you discover some ridiculous attempted fix or incomprehensible mistake made by the former occupant of your place, such as finding a working electrical outlet under some wallpaper, or an excellent-condition hardwood floor under green shag carpeting, or the ruination of an antique detail via a botched attempt at retro fitting it.

• You will be hampered in your attempts to do something reasonable by some heretofore unsuspected and nonsensical city ordinances, and declare your municipality to be a) a Banana Republic or b) a fascist state.

• You will occasionally find out that you have unwittingly been running some health and safety risks, such as those occasioned by mold, lead paint, faulty wiring, a dryer vent that has not been cleaned out in decades, or smoke detectors sans batteries.

• You will find very old coins in unexpected places, such as a ventilation grill or under an appliance, check the date on them, and note that it’s been decades since that specific location was cleaned or maintained.

• You will occasionally make a discovery of something charming, such as finding old momentos tucked away in a hidey hole or an antique wallpaper behind a wall.

• The occasional utter disaster is inevitable. Quite often this disaster can involve a large quantity of water in places other than those in which you would desire it, i.e., not in a hot tub. These disasters are all the more likely to strike at especially inopportune times, such as the morning of your housewarming party, or while you're away on vacation for two weeks.

• Home renovations workers you hire will occasionally make comments you did not expect, such as compliments about the duvet on your bed.

• You will fondly reminisce about your days as a renter.