Wowwwwww.

Ok, as soon as I get the tile backsplash replaced and the walls painted, I'm posting a picture of the results.

The counters are better than I thought they'd be. Much better. Holy moly. Gorgeous. Click on the picture to see the countertops installed in a home. Not ours, not until I get the pictures developed. The sink, garbage disposal, and dishwasher are all in place, and WORK! Yay! No leaks, everything has a shut off valve for the water, and it's nice and clean under there.

My husband and I made a great team. I'd start the nuts and bolts, and he'd tighten up everything. The kitchen sink is the hardest, next up are the guest, master, and Fry's bathroom counters. There are three vanity counters and four sinks to do. Nothing has a shutoff valve, so that's going to be fun. Plus, three of the faucets are soldered to the copper tubing. Oh boy.

The secret to any good plumbing job is plumber's tape. Don't leave home without it. Putty is ok, and good for sealing that ring around the drain, but it's the tape that does the trick.







On to the good stuff! Finally, a shawl good enough for my cousin. I'm using three skeins of Lion's Brand Trendsetter's Dune knockoff mixed with an eyelash yarn. Not a fun furry yarn, but a true 'lashy' yarn.








Whenever I go to www.virtualyarns.com, this sweater always makes me yearn for its pattern. I love it. There are some other patterns I adore, but the Medieval draws me in every time. Blue or red? Whichever, I love them both. While I'm not fond of blue, (a nice way to put it) in this, it's ok.






Finally, I broke down and bought me a pre-Christmas present. This came in the mail today. You have to have the book to do any of the patterns, the prices are without book, so... I wanted to see if Virtual Yarn's yarns were as good as they looked. This picture does NOT do them justice.










Pebble beach is much prettier in real life. A lot more blue, too. But then there's flashes of red and yellow. Very lovely. It's 100% superwash wool, three ply.



Then, because I also needed to see what the two ply is like, here we have Mara. A very royal blue. A bit heathered, too.

I ordered the Pebble beach because I wanted to see what the color looked like, and the Mara because I'm leaning towards the Medieval in blue. The blue contrasts much more with the yellowish (more like wheat) than the red. www.elann.com 's Peruvian wool and Jaimeson & Smith's DK compare in the color and heft of the yarn. I happen to have a lot of the Peruvian in the stash already... Maybe I should mix and match? Maybe get started knitting TODAY? LOL! I'll knit a few more inches on my father's Christmas, a few more on my cousin's, THEN get busy reading the Medieval pattern. It's so cold out, I NEED a new sweater, right?

I'm going to ignore the purple cardigan and grey sweater for about 10 minutes, then set them out. I'll have to knock out a few rows, just to keep them from 'feeling' neglected. :)