A Very Busy Day

We finally had a warm, sunny day today. It was a great day to have laundry drying outside so I did three loads, including our sheets AND the mattress pad. They are all going to smell so good when we crawl into bed tonight.

Then I went shopping for some plumbing supplies that we've needed for weeks but couldn't shop because of the pandemic restrictions. The store had lines on the sidewalk 2m apart for lining up to go in. I was surprised that I and another woman were the only two with masks on. I found the needed items and got out of there quickly.

I've been craving fried shrimp lately so stopped into Popeye's for a deep fried shrimp biscuit box with a side of coleslaw.

Skip and I got the deck umbrella and chairs up from the basement and out on the deck.

Then I got set up for the videochat with my stitching peeps at 1:30. It was so nice sitting out on the deck; a bit chilly at times under the umbrella but  delightful all the same.

After that I tackled the toilet and got its new innards (Korky) installed. It hadn't flushed properly since we got back from TX in mid-May and we'd be flushing it by tossing a pail of water down it since then. Thank goodness my laundry room and wash tubs are only steps away. The old innards were over 20 years old from when we had the low-flush toilets put in shortly after we moved into this house. The Korky came with great instructions and is very easy to install and adjust. The upstairs toilet had been filling erratically so I put a new Korky in there, too, and that seemed to fix it.

I then had to install new pop up hardware for the powder room sink. After a lot of heaving and grunting, I got the job done. In the middle of the job I watched a couple of YouTube videos on the subject which helped me finish the job and adjust the pop up stem to the right height. I figure I saved us a couple of hundred dollars in plumbing fees.

After that I was pooped.

I have finished most of the stitching on the 'K is for Knitter' piece.

There's still a key charm to attach above the knitter and I need to check it over for any other bits I might have missed. The pattern has hem stitching finishing instructions which, I'm sure, would be lovely but now I'm thinking of framing it somehow. I think Michaels will be open to shoppers soon so will see what appropriate frame or background I can find for this.

I'm STILL waiting for the parcel from Teresa. From what I have seen and heard on the news, Canada Post is overwhelmed with parcels. They're stacked high at sorting centres and very few are getting moved out of there. They're dealing with Christmas volume and half the staff as sorting facilities are not set up for 2m distancing. I really don't want to start a big project as I will want to start Teresa's piece as soon as it arrives. I'm going to take a quick look through my pattern stash and see if there is a smallish project I could start in the meantime.

I also have started a linen stitch scarf USING MY HANDSPUN!! I know, right? I was inspired by the Shuttlebugs who discussed it on some emails that have been circulating amongst us. I had a bit of FOMO and wanted to start another scarf. I couldn't find my favourite linen stitch scarf last winter and the other one I've finished knitting needs the fringes twirled. I have about 1" done on the new one. One of my balls of handspun was quite loosely plied so I hauled out my spinning wheel (for the first time in MONTHS) and re-plyed it.

I then gave it a nice bath to set the twist and thwacked it several times to relax some of the overspinning and hung it to dry outside in the late afternoon son. It is now a much better twist and better matches the twist in the other ball of handspun.

My spinning isn't the most consistent so the linen stitch isn't going to look as good as the scarf I knit with Koigu yarn but it is a good, mindless knitting project and will make a nice, soft scarf.