FO! And KO and HO

If a Finished Object is an "FO" and a Knitted Object* is a "KO", then a Home improvement Object should be an "HO", right? Ok, maybe not.

Are you sick of finished blocks yet? This is #5. It's another Chris Simon square - Star Overlay. Chris has several free patterns on her website, including these blocks. I want to have six blocks sewn together to show Saturday's first block-of-the-month class. Only one block - and all the joining - to go.

Dick's been busy working on various projects to complete the house remodel. He grouted the tile outside my studio door and put the oak finish piece in place (last coat of varnish went on yesterday. Yeah!) Don't you love the caution tape? Doesn't do a bit of good when you have cats and teenage boys in the house.

Today's project was sanding and staining the first part of the stair railing. And, oh boy!, I got to help. The excitement. The joy. The sarcasm. You may recall that I'm only allowed to do tasks requiring unskilled labor (for good reason) or semi-skilled under direct supervision. Sanding and wiping off stain are about as unskilled as it gets. And the results are pretty nice. I really don't mind helping, and between the two of us, we got this job done in about an hour. Plus, it gave me a chance to wear that really sexy dust mask.

*You'll notice I mentioned a Knitted Object? This is the first-ever item knit by me. It's not pretty, but I did it! I did it! This square is all knit stitch. The next one, in a tan version of the same yarn, will be all purl. I've tried to learn knitting before and it didn't take. I wanted to make sure I really understood both the knitting and the purling. If an entire 12x12 square doesn't teach me, I guess there's no hope.

I figured out how to bind off with a little help from here. And watched a refresher about casting on and purling while I was visiting. There are other knitting help sites (including a good one on DIY) but KnittingHelp.com is still my favorite. What did we do before there were videos on the Innernets?