thank you for all the get well wishes; i’m actually fine now and even the printer seems to be doing ok. hahaha, it better.
and thanks also for the hilarious wallpaper stories you shared.
just so everyone knows what ballpark we are playing in
(and because we all know that bad wallpaper does not exist in a vacuum, i included a section of the canned pea green, crumpled-tissue-paper-and-varnish coated ceiling. I. Kid. You. Not.).
julia, if you are looking at this, please avert your eyes, dear—i don’t want any of your good decorating sensibilities to be singed by the gruesome sights on this page.
julia has waxed lovingly of the exquisite wallpaper in her stair hall, which, i am sure, is no less exquisitely applied.
while my own stair hall has a much less fortunate set of clothes. not that the wallpaper isn’t nice. actually—in a surprising twist of plot—it is.
it’s a nice, heavy embossed cream paper.
with a badly-applied wash of indeterminately yellowed antiqueness
in addition to being badly applied to the walls.
don’t even get me started on another ceiling with a muddy faux finish of thickly troweled plaster. as if the best idea ever was to paint all the ceilings in the house a dark, depressing color similar to a smeared mix of baby foods.
but who knows; maybe it was an attempt to match the sky.
ok so this is NOT really a b**ch session about the house . . . rather, it is a lead-in to the wonderment of a room that is light-filled and pleasant and totally new to me, though i have been walking through it for five years.
it still teeters on the edge of what is acceptable (and that floral wallpaper!!), don’t get me wrong, but Sooo much better than what it used to look like, which is something akin to this
and believe me, this room is next.
(to be fair, that room is storing almost everything that will go up to the third floor when the construction is done—like over 2000 books, artifacts, and obviously, dressers. david sort of uses it as a green room—his place to transition from dirty work mode to a state in which he can walk through the rest of the house.)
once it’s empty i will expand my stash storage fiber workspace into it. we will be in heaven.
now, i’m sure you want a knitting fix and i’ll show you what i have but i’m afraid it’s not going to be all that remarkable.
yesterday in class i finally got a little bit done on that poor lady cardigan sock that’s been languishing.
ruth anne, a reader who joined our monday class this month is knitting the same sock, so i’m psyched. maybe now i’ll actually get it done, if for no other reason than to be able to show my face in class.
seriously, it’s the only sock i have on the needles right now and i’ve gotten zilch accomplished on it. and since i want to start some new man socks soon, i better get a move on, wouldn’t you say? besides; i’m sure you’re sick of hearing about how i’m gonna finish it and then not.
i also put a few inches on another zig-zag mitt in an alternate yarn choice
the artesano inca mist, a baby alpaca that is nearly as soft as the original cashmere. the yarn has a bit more twist than most alpaca yarns which i like a lot. this color is pepper.
ok now, i’m going to do something i said i wouldn’t, but i realized that, while i swatch this week for the big new lace project, i have nearly nothing to talk about unless i show it.
and since i am made good progress without ripping for several late night session in a row, i’m going to take a chance.
i have resurrected the tangled ropes raglan pullover. i want to finish it so i can wear it to SPA.
it’s knit in a handspun coopworth/cotton blend. there was some weirdness last night as i worked the second sleeve with a new ball of yarn that has a slightly tighter twist (it’s yarn from my beginner days), and “reads” as heavier when i’m working with it. my perception has been that the second sleeve is going to be much MUCH bigger, and i almost ripped it out (i’m more than half done) based on visions in my head of one elephant sleeve and one gazelle sleeve.
but i stopped as i was photographing it and decided that i should try it on before ripping a whole evening’s work.
saved by the blog again—the sleeve is fine. yes, it’s a tad bigger, but not noticeably so. yes, the fabric is a bit stiffer on that side, but again, not noticeable—it’s handspun.
that’s what’s noticeable about it.
(sorry, back to the house for sec. do you see in the background of that photo how neat and pulled-together we can be in some of our rooms?? you could even say this room was “decorated” or has a “look”. . . . just sayin’.)
(ok, so yeah; i’m a little sensitive about the house lately . . .)
meanwhile, while all that other stuff is going on, the swatching continues, and soon i will be able to show a design plan for the new shawl. here’s a little peek at the progress
speaking of progress, i really should get some in before the day is done.
47 thoughts on “i’m drowning in paper work”
I love this post, it makes me feel a lot better about my house. We have a couple of scary rooms too. We have a spare bedroom that was a “box room” that our cats have decided to turn into a “cat room”. It used to have organized stacks of books and boxes on the floor for us to sort through and put up, now it’s more of a disaster area with books and papers strewn all over the place. It’s actually hard to see the floor through all the mess. And then there’s the kitchen. Half of the wallpaper in our kitchen has peeled off the walls, and everything else is painted white….well…it was probably white about 30 years ago, now it’s more of a cream to beige color. Apparently a lady that lived there a few owners before us smoked like a chimney. There are also nice stains on the “white” cabinets from grease splatter. Lovely.
Who hangs wallpaper like that (not to mention buying it)?! I guess they didn’t know about matching the pattern up, or brushing out the bubbles… Oh, my! But where you and David have worked on the house it looks very nice. Pretty rope cables on the sweater, and I love the grey color.
Oh, wow. The last owner of that house should be put away for life for doing something like that to the ceilings. And I thought *our* dining room was bad when we moved in! It doesn’t even compare (the kitchen might have, but we’ve long since ripped that out). Those swatches are making my heart flutter — progress, I say, progress! 🙂
Oh my. No wonder you don’t feel well! Wallpaper is a pain. How did you you ever feel like messing around with it lately? Everything is coming together nicely, as far as your knitting, and so will your wallpaper. . .yes, I think it will.
You sure had to go beyond what the house looked like when you first visited it, and see the potential it had, hidden somewhere under the layers of wallpaper! It’s a good thing you’ve been able to do so and you decided to buy it, because you (and your hard work) are truly revealing her beauty…
Our house had a wallpaper based ‘decorating’ scheme that my husband described as the bstard offspring of Martha Stewart and Salvador Dali. I still have a hallway and bathroom to strip. The kicker was that the ONLY book we saw in the entire house when we looked at it was a coffee table book on the Bauhaus. Must have been borrowed from the realtor.
We have no color on any walls in our home. It takes me years to pick color and my BH sees no point in painting if there is nothing wrong with the walls. Hmmm…perhaps I need a sledgehammer and a few holes.
EVen so, I think I had a dress made out of the floral print you have on your walls. It was a late 80s dropwaist jumper. Made me look like a house – now that I think about it.
Ok, listen, I happen to LOVE that flower wallpaper!!! Miss Anne knows I adore it…*whsipering* she also knows I have NO CLUE what color the flowers TRULY are;)
Oh Anne, that photo of your sweater does NOT do it justice, it is as soft as a baby’s….well, you get the picture:)
On a side note, I dunno if ya’ll should be allowed to knit at your house anymore, you scared my poor little ol’ husband with all of your womanly chuckling. He was SO frightened, he tossed chairs right out the car window and kept on going. he SWORE he seen people waving double points at him in unison. Poor, Poor hubby of mine. Now he is at home all traumitized and such.
Hey Anne,
I always love seeing pictures of your house. It’s almost as satisfying as seeing pictures of your handknits. Almost.
Your house is older and has excuses to look that way. Mine is only 7 years old and is decorated in early american messy childern and parents. I shutter to even allow people to walk through the door. “Stand on the doorstep won’t you and talk to me even though it’s snowing and 15 degrees out there.” And the walls are almost all Aspen gold which is Colorado speak for boring cream/white. Yep, we’re a mess, but hey, we’ve got a wine cellar in the unfinished basement so I can drink enough and squint and not really see any of it.
Okay that wallpaper is atrocious. I mean maybe it was in style at some point but come on. The seams aren’t even matched which is the appeal of wallpaper right, that you have this uninterrupted pattern on the walls. The charm of an older home I guess. The knitting is of course lovely.
Maybe you can just say that the previous owner got stuck in an HGTV episode but didn’t pay attention to the instructions!?!? The thought of tissue paper with varnish is almost too overwhelming.
I should take some pics of the semi stripped bathrooms I have upstairs…paper that no one in their right mind would put up…chosen by some “decorator” and awful. Spent 4 days “stripping” with a rented steam thing and there is still more to do.
My son’s parting shot…when are you going to do something about the mess or are you going to wait until we want to sell the house!!:-)
WHile your wallpaper is more offensive than mine was, I’ll venture that mine was pretty damn bad. Grey. Grey and white and pink. And then the same paper with a reversed pattern. And then SHINY versions. Of grey. With pink and baby blue splodgy things. Basically, you walked into the foyer and fell into a coma and, once you managed to shake off that coma, God help you if you need to go to the bathroom because you’ll fall asleep on the john from the insanely mind-numbing boredom of the wallpaper.
Which is now all gone and replaced by lovely things like screaming turquoise blue (I believe bathrooms are wonderful places to make as bright as possible) and chocolate brown.
Did you say Spa??? Waaah! My car is on the fritz and for the third year in a row it looks like I’m not going to make it – first I miss Stephanie and now I’m going to miss you – darn it! Don’t suppose my Dh might let me snag his car for a trip to Freeport? Naw not leaving him with the kids. BUMMER
Oh Anne! I just knit my daughter (she’s 3 1/2) her Christmas sweater in that lace it’s snowflake lace in Barbara Walker! I can’t wait for this shawl, Marin’s sweater is from the top down stocking net with garter boarders and the snowflake lace on the bottom. I love the buttons, they are clear plastic, but look like snowflakes to me – but she says they are diamonds!! Can’t wait to see the finished product, you are such an inspiration, I look forward to reading you every night (but not in a stalker kind of way!)
I was just looking at my sock sitting in the knitting bag as I reached for something else and thought, “I wonder if I’ll get a chance to pick that up again before Monday’s class . . . ” So don’t worry about not being able to show your face in class! I do love the pattern, I just have too many projects!
You know I’ve always loved Campbell’s split pea soup but I don’t think I’d want it on all my ceilings. Oh my.
Oh, Anne–
The wallpaper is just bad wallpaper, but that green tissue paper ceiling looks like–well, I won’t say it because it would be just too upsetting:)
I have done some weird decorating in my day, but I think I have finally learned to let good spaces speak for themselves with colors and finishes that, like good makeup, let their beauty come through. And I see that you have taken that tack as well.
When we moved into our current house, most of the decor was just dull and inappropriate for the architecture, but the 1/2 bath was beyond awful: very “traditional” red toile print wallpaper and shiny black “contemporary” toilet and pedestal sink. It just hurt my eyes. I had a very happy day tearing out that wallpaper, I’ll tell you. Someone else hauled out the fixtures.
That glimpse of shawl is tantalizing–and I love your handspun sweater.
Kathleen
Isn’t that the “Iceberg” or was it “Snow Squall” colorway that you wafted under our noses sometime before Christmas that you’re using in your new shawl? Very pretty. You’re house is going to be gorgeous when it’s all done.
Oh, Anne, your house may have surface “issues” but its bones are clearly BEAUTIFUL and I am envying you madly right now. I grew up in an older house but am living in a newer one these days and I am so so wistful for an older house. Just seeing the upstairs railing in that background… sigh! Also, big rooms and beautiful floors.
Oh yeah, so, knitting. That handspun gives SUCH a gorgeous texture and am drooling to see more of the shawl.
Congratulations on some spectacular wallpaper there. Expertly applied, too. I wish I could share the stuff that was in our house when we moved in, there was so much terrible wallpaper. Ah, god bless archive.org – here is the living room one, and here is the bedroom one. Not nearly as bad in digital form as they were on the wall. I hope those links work…
Lovely, lovely sweater – the cables are wonderful and the color is great on you. I’m excited to see what the lace project turns into – it’s quite pretty in swatch form.
Anne,
Isn’t wallpaper fun? All the walls in our house were covered in ugly wallpaper or faux wood paneling. It’s amazing how we can see beyond the ugliness thrust upon some homes to the potential that lies beneath.
Karen
Wow . . . the wallpaper is truly hideous . . . the way these were put together – apalling. I watched a DIY show where they showed how to put up the wallpaper in such a way that the seams were unnoticeable.
One of the rooms in my apartment is badly wallpapered. It’s pink and greenish stripes loosely applied to the wall, which went over red, white, and blue stripes tightly pasted to the wall in most places, which went over a greenish-grey flower patterned stuff which was done pretty well, which went over purple paint. We know this because most of it’s tearing off the walls as we speak, and we keep finding new layers of horrid under it all. Before we find a new apartment, we’re going to rip the whole thing off and repaper the wall. Even if we do it with ugly wallpaper, at least it won’t be loose and wavy on the walls once we’re through with it!
Your old house sounds very much like ours. Little by little we have been renovating it, but my bedroom…..has that same muddy faux finish of thickly troweled plaster. I.C.K. What were they thinking??
wallpaper – my worst enemy….my parents for some reason loved it and did our entire house as a kid. nightmares still haunt me….
The yarn you’re using for that Lady Cardigan sock is stunning. What is it? Without even asking, I know my boyfriend wants… something made out of it. It’s speaking to me. 🙂
Also, I feel the pain of your wallpaper. My mom went on a spree in the mid-nineties when she sponge-painted all the walls in the downstairs kitchen and great room with some awful mauve color overlaid on cream. It truly looked like a massive pepto-bismol event had occurred in there until we all pitched in to redo it around 1996. 🙂
We also used to have a duck wallpaper border marching around the ceiling of the kitchen and dining room. Not even living in the south and having a maiden name of Duck is a good excuse for that, I say.
At any rate, good luck with your renovation. Isn’t the redoing of it all so fun? 🙂
Yes, the wallpaper is horrid. What *were* they thinking? But do you know what my eye zeroed in on? The wonderful moldings. Fabulous. I have door- and crown-molding envy. We have *no molding* inside our entire house. Not around windows, doors, anything. The previous owner stripped them all out, and replaced all the corner beads with those horrid round corner things that look fine when they’re new, but if you bump them the plaster falls off, and *how* do you change paint colors from one room to the next, I ask you. Sigh. Yup. Molding envy.
Chill on the house girl!!!!!! It is an awesomeable house!!! The Orange Room is the BEST!!!!!
Oh, I’m with L. and Laura!
I saw the awful wallpaper and ceiling treatment (yikes!), but what I remember are the railing, the high ceilings, and the crown moldings…
Keep going, it’s going to look sooooo good.
Think of it like lace… looks like crap while in process, but just wait till it’s done and blocked. You’ll be so happy!
And we’ll all come for a house tour!
i saw paintings… paintings on the mantel, just saying… anne’s paintings on the mantel?
Before we moved into our house we had to strip horrible wallpaper, too. There was dark brown with large orange, yellow and white flowers on the walls and ceiling of the bath with yellow 4″ plastic tiles 4 feet up the walls. Yup, they just ran the paper from the top of the tiles, up the wall, across the ceiling and back down the wall to the tile. The bedrooms and kitchen were no better. Beyond that ugliness and all I could see were hardwood floors and real wood molding everywhere.
Beautiful swatch on for your shawl.
It seems like we are all in the same boat! At one time even our master bedroom was know as the bedroom/storage room my my realatives!!! How embarrassing!! Love the color of the lady cardigan socks. Such a warm color!!BTY the yellow wallpaper….I have fabric just like that in my fabric stash!!! LOL!I do love it though!
Been there with the house too. Some of our rooms were so bad we had to plaster board (dry wall) over them, still, made it a bit warmer what with the thicker walls! Keep up with the good work though, the finished rooms look great and the hand spun sweater is lovely, can’t wait to see it finished.
Nooooooo! Not the ceilings! AAaaaaaggggrhk!
Why do people do this to the poor ceilings?
I spent too many years in a house with oddly textured ceilings – looked vaguely like earth prepared in corn hills, but pebbly and cracked. Just white, so not as bad as it could be.
Plants and light (and removing stuff) sure perk up a room.
I am frequently stunned by what people do to their houses. I remember once, years ago, someone suggested a wallpaper to me and I said, “No. The house wouldn’t like it.” They stepped away from me like I was completely insane. But houses have personalities and you have to work with that. But most people don’t realize that.
ann…i don’t have much to say about the wallpaper..but the sweater is absolutely gorgous…and it’s only half done and i can tell its one you might just want to slide into everday! I’m really enjoying the math wiz socks..you do have the bestest patterns ever!!!!!
The sweater is looking good. I am looking forward to seeing the lace project! As for the wall paper, I have no comment.
that wall covering is…something else! the paper itself could perhaps be lived with (depending on personal preferences, color coordinations, etc.) but that papering job – ugh!
those shawl swatches are absolutely tantalizing, by the way!
houses – yes, they are works in progress. It’ll all be done one day and you’ll look around and say “what’s next!” (smile)
love that tangled ropes sweater, and hoping that you’ll publish the pattern when it’s done (I’m such a sucker for cables!)
and ooh lala.. cannot wait to see the new stole project. I am just itching to get back to lace knitting (and keep telling myself to have patience!)
Ouch! That floral wallpaper is the very one we picked out for our bedroom when we lived in Vermont years ago. It was expensive, top quality wallpaper, looked great in our room, and we loved it. Of course, we applied it correctly, juxtaposed it with a plain white plaster ceiling, it was new, not yellowed with age, and we lived in a nineteenth century farmhouse with large square rooms which were furnished with Victorian
country antiques passed down in my family. Context is everything (almost) when decorating a home.
That’s pretty impressive lack of taste in the previous house owners. The paper isn’t *too* bad, but next to the ceilings…
It is a gorgeous house, though. And at least you can remodel. Someday I will not live in an apartment… =)
I love the cables sweater. Really, with cables and alpaca *and* handspun, how could you go wrong?
I share your wallpaper pain! We’re fixing up an 1876 Italiate house that hasn’t been touched since the late 1960s. See a sampling of OUR horrible wallpaper here:
http://woollies.wordpress.com/2007/10/16/a-study-of-american-wallpapers/
Your cables sweater is lovely!!
Oh wow. There are just no adequate words for that tissue-paper ceiling. And I thought my elevated train track was bad! (It was the first thing to go when we moved in. I danced around the room with glee afterwards.)
I really love the yarn you’re using for your lady cardigan sock. It pushes my color buttons much like the tree scum sock did. And I can’t believe you let such a gorgeous sweater (handspun sweater!) languish for so long! It needs to be finished and worn. It’s much to pretty to linger in UFO land.
That sneak peek of lace is so enticing. I’m so intrigued.
Your new sweater is gorgeous so far!! Glad you did not rip I bet 🙂 I’ve had a love/hate relationship with wallpaper btw, (mostly hate lol 😉 )
I actually LIKE your dining room wallpaper!
That said, on the whole, I despise wallpaper. I hate it being put up, and I hate it even more being torn down. At least with paint, you can paint over it.
I agree with Beth, the handspun sweater is much too lovely to languish.
I can sympathize with you on house woes. Everyone’s taste or lack thereof doesn’t always correspond with new owners. I have no doubt you and David will properly decorate the house to your specifications, as time allows.
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