I would like to publicly thank my shop vac.
(Or perhaps I should thank my parents who “loaned” it to me nearly a decade ago…)
It has faithfully sucked up all matters of crumbling house shit – even some of the actual stuff I’m sure – through two whole home renovations.
And each time, it has played in integral part in renewing old floors.
Living in a house with a new lease on life makes me want to revive other aging but still solid things.
Like this ridiculously long sock yarn scarf I made for N back in our early days.
(And yes, that is the same spot where the vac was, only with a newly built bookcase made by N to house his cookbook collection – I’m standing in the kitchen – and the color isn’t quite right, the walls are a yellowy cream.)
But back to the scarf.
I’m really loosing the concept of time these days and my brain can no longer keep track of events and markers in which to categorize life and the passing years. But I do know if I see one of my own garter-stitch scarves, then a helluva long time has passed. I thought I was past those by the time I deemed N knitworthy, but perhaps I just wanted to work it up as quickly as possible.
He picked out the yarn – I remember that part. And he said he wanted it to be long, so I delivered.
Only it grew and grew and grew…
So I’m finally going to rip it out and turn it into a baktus sort of neck thing – preserving the original intent with garter stitch, but making it much more wearable.
Or maybe socks?
And I’m not in the clear with woodworking projects yet…
We decided to immediately tackle the massive refinishing job of our new Heywood Wakefield furniture, and started with N’s desk as it was in the worst shape…
And I have to pat myself on the back again because it turned out great.
We used the wheat stain and toned varnish from here followed with some clear poly at the end. I was a little skeptical about using water-based stuff, but I’m now sold (at least for this furniture). There was just a pinch of opacity in both products giving it that wood soaked in skim milk (yuck) effect, but it was nearly spot-on with the original. And though I’m also a whiz as renewing old linoleum, I doubted I would have been able to come up with my own oil-based formula to use on these pieces. I also used some wood bleach for the first time on the desk, and was amazed how well it worked – it took out 99% of a nasty black ring left by a plant or can of paint or something of that size.
Now we just have four more pieces to go…
ASTITCHMATISM 