WIP- Owls II (Five Shades of Grey)

Since coming to terms that my original Owls sweater shrank, I've been working on a new one. It's been a bit of a process, what with ripping most of the body once I ascertained that after blocking, the short row bulge at the back bounced back. (A picture would have been more descriptive, but I was so focused on the sweater at that point I forgot to snap one.)

Which brings me to now. All five skeins of yarn are slightly different shades of grey. Originally, I started the neck ribbing with one skein, and then started a second skein to alternate. Again, I should have taken photographic evidence, but take my word for it, it was obvious so I ripped the whole thing and started over.

Then I decided I couldn't live with the short-row bulge so I did two miniature sets of short rows, one above and one below the owls:

Now I'm on the sleeve. I'm still alternating skeins. And I hate it, because it makes the knitting more fiddly and less relaxing. But look at the variation in color:

If I just knit one skein at a time without alternating, I'd have color blocks of different shades of grey. The first (left) sleeve seems to be taking one weekend, I'm hopefully I keep it up and finish before cold weather sets in.

DIY furniture

Last night my husband showed me this site. And I am so bleeping excited I could jump for joy. This mom has all of these free plans up on her blog for FURNITURE. Did you ever find yourself oohing or ahhing over all of that overpriced Pottery Barn Kids furniture? She's got a ton of look-alikes, as well as other riffs on say, those really cute $1400 bunk beds.

Hubby is excited too, because apparently, according to him, he likes to make stuff (this is rather big news to me, as we've been married nearly a dozen years and I've never seen him do more than recaulk a bathroom tub or paint a room). But, he plans to someday have a workshop, and he will supposedly be making a lot of our furniture. Until then, I suppose we're sleeping on the floor.