In the dry

Hooray! The extension is finally drying out...

We have a beautiful set of folding sliding doors on the ground level that can fold back for those warm summer days (if we get any!). We have windows with glass in. And the builders are finishing up the flat roof as we speak. The insulation requirements are crazy now for a flat roof - we now have almost 400mm of roof!! This shows how it is constructed:

We are a lot behind schedule now. But some of the internal rooms have started to take shape as well. We have moved out of our bedroom which has become the next target of the builders:

Here it is, complete with original wallpaper...

Now with window half bricked up and half opened up into a door:

And now with the studwork forming a new corridor through to the master bedroom:

The master bedroom is taking shape too:

On the right is the old pebble-dashed wall of the house, with bathroom and bedroom windows bricked up and the new corridor through the old bedroom visible. The stud wall forms the new ensuite bathroom.

And speaking of bathrooms, we have lost the dividing wall between our bath and toilet, which is well overdue! Probably time to say good-bye once and for all to that lovely floral wallpaper!

Knitting Cables

I love a pattern that starts with the interesting parts first! I just finished the first panel for the right front yesterday, armchair travelling by watching Monty Don's French Gardens on a rainy, sleety day. There are two 28" panels of cabling for the right and left fronts, then two rectangles for the sleeves and another for the back. I also looked up how to cable without a cable needle on Youtube. Although I can handle the technique, I think I prefer the security of having a cable needle.

The photo below isn't very representative of the colour, it's actually a dark grey Charcoal in Rowan Aran Pure Wool.  It's hard to get good lighting indoors as the builders haven't knocked through the exterior wall yet - the window open out into more house or are now blocked up!  The stray bits of coloured wool on either side of the panel are markers for constructing the cardigan later.

While I knit, Dave's doing his own cable work, laying the cables for our network through the new parts of our house.

Hello, Stranger

I have always admired intricate cable-knitted garments and they are my favourite hand knitting challenge.  Unfortunately, the ready-made garments are usually out of my price comfort zone, like this lovely All Saints jersey, or made of acrylic or acrylic blend which looks good for maybe one season.

I was really delighted to discover Brooklyn Tweed via Design Sponge.  Not only are there lots and lots of gorgeous cable patterns to download as PDFs, they look modern and fresh too.  I finally found the project inspirational enough to take me beyond accessories and baby knits - the Stranger Cardigan.  I love the design as it's cleverly made up of 5 rectangles (no shaping), and you can even wear it upside down.  Here's hoping I pull it off as it's a piece I know I'd love to wear.