My very nice next door neighbours are renovating.  A great big renovation that started this week and will continue for four months and involves them essentially lopping the back of their house off, and digging out this big hole and .. have I mentioned that we share a semi-detached? As we speak there is a guy, or maybe it’s fifteen, I can’t tell, smashing on the wall of what is their kitchen, and my kitchen/office. 

It’s making me want to eat rocks. The noise, the shaking the drilling, and I’m trying to be big about it because heaven knows that they set this up in the nicest way possible. They really did.  Our neighbours let us know it was happening, showed us the plans, introduced us to the crew, made sure I had the architects phone number, and other than the fact that this renovation is going to make our house look like some sort of old hovel stuck to their beautiful home (It’s going to be like their house has a wart)  we are really, really delighted with the considerate way they’re handling this. We’d ask the same thing of them if we were renovating, and I’d hope we would be as sweet about it. I’m so happy for them, or at least I’m trying to be, because right now I keep wishing it would rain a little just so that they would have to shut off the saw.   

My dishes are rattling in the cupboards, the cat’s right on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and this morning when Joe said it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as he thought it was going to be, I almost asked him to hold my coffee while I called a divorce attorney. Joe doesn’t work from home. He listens to it for an hour in the morning and then heads off to the studio, leaving me to wonder if the demolition would go faster if I went over tonight with a sledgehammer and relieved a little stress.

I’ve never been good at this kind of thing.  I don’t like upset, I don’t like loud noises, and I knew straight up that this was exactly the kind of thing that was going to turn me into the kind of person who screams things over the fence, so today, just as soon as I finish writing to you, I’m going to go to the pub with my laptop because I’m sure it’s quieter, and even if it’s not, at least there’s beer.  Although I’m going to write and edit (today I’m writing an essay about my dentist) I’m taking my sock, because I’d forgotten how much progress I can make on a project just doing a little bit here and there.  Every time I have stop typing and think, I’m doing a round to take the edge off, and it’s adding up pretty fast. 

Orange and red added since yesterday, and soon I’ll start the heel, and I know I’ve told you before, but I’m going to say it again, I love self patterning yarn.  I love the way you can mark your progress, I like that with a little bit of care and neurotic behaviour you can make them match perfectly, and I will go to my grave insisting that it is faster to knit than a plain multicoloured yarn that doesn’t make a pattern. Ever notice? It’s like it flies off the needles – although this time I’m using another scale, because of the way the book is ruining my knitting time dedication I have to my work. 

The sock isn’t the only thing that’s limping along… the Nadira shawl is coming along beautifully. 

You can’t tell by looking there, but it’s quite a bit larger than last time you saw it, and I know it just looks like a green blob. Use your imagination.  Slow and steady wins the race, and even though I can only manage a row or four in the evening before I’m asleep holding my knitting,  it’s still forward movement.  I’m all the way to chart four, and five is looming on the horizon. Very exciting, if in somewhat slow motion.

You know what else is exciting? Today’s presents. 
Diane over at The Knotted Bag has a beautiful gift.

According to our good friend Mr. Random Number Generator, it is destined to be with Mary S.  I hope she likes it.

Remember Aubrey at Goodies Unlimited? She’s a kind of nice that just doesn’t quit, because she’s back this week offering four more knitters $25 gift certificates, complete with free shipping. 

Amy N,  Jennifer C, Emma B and Rita S, enjoy! (If you need a hint about what to get, ask me.  I have favourites.) 

All right. I’m off to the pub. I’m pretty sure the guys next door just ran a herd of cattle through a wall to knock it down – at least that’s what it sounded like from here, and me and the sock are going to go get a little peace, quiet and beer while we put another chunk of the book to bed.  What are you going to do?