Making Fabric-Covered Homasote Tack Board

And now, the moment I've been waiting for: My fabric-covered Homasote board is going up in the craft room! I think this gives you a good idea of what it will look like above the desk. This board will allow me to use tacks, push pins and hang up memos or photos in style! It just needs to air out a bit in the garage and get screwed to the wall, but here is where it is going:

And here is how we made it. Step One: Order the Homasote board from a reputable lumber place that will special order it in for you. You should be able to get a good sized piece for $40 or under. Ours cost $35 for a 4 x 8' sheet. They may do special size cuts for you, or it may be a standard size when it arrives and you may have to cut it down to fit your particular wall area. In our case, they helped cut it roughly to size. Both my husband and I are making boards for our separate rooms and he did do some cutting to finish them off, as he had the special saw blade he needed to do so. It is messy to cut, as well as thick. It's made out of compressed recycled paper type material. It cannot get wet or it will swell up. (Edited to add: I believe I am partially wrong on this. Thanks to Ellen's comment, and after googling around, I see alot of knitters actually use the Homasote as a blocking board! So the slight dampness during blocking is OK. Maybe it is only not supposed to get super doused. I surely would like to use our extra piece as a blocking board. That makes me even happier!)

My husband softened the edges a bit with another tool.

Step Two: We practiced laying out my fabric and decided how we wanted it centered. I found my fabric at IKEA and payed $8.99 for it. It is a very heavy cotton. Make sure yours is ironed and fairly wrinkle free. I did not have to iron mine. It was substantial enough and wrinkle free at purchase. You might want to avoid any fabrics that might snag easily with your push pins.

Step Three: Next, my husband sprayed a good layer of this adhesive on the bare board and gave it a minute or two to start getting tacky.

Step Four: Then we each stood at either end of the table and held the fabric very taut as we eased it down into place at the top of the board, holding it down tightly at the top two corners. Then making our way slowly, easing the fabric down gradually onto the board as we headed in the direction of the bottom of the board. Then we made sure it was flat, smoothed out and had no wrinkles.

Step Five: We carefully flipped the board upside down onto a clean large piece of cardboard on the garage floor to begin the stapling process. With a staple gun and pulling the fabric tauht as we went, staples were placed on all sides.

Corners of the fabric were folded in and made as flat as possible before stapling.

Now the board needs to air out a bit from the adhesive fumes so we will give it a rest.

Step Six: Then we will install on the wall using these (shown below) along with screws.

And when it's done, it will look like this (with the wall screws). And I can start tacking and pinning to my heart's content!

And voila! My room feels even more complete. You can really have fun with the fabric choices out there!

And the unexpected bonus is: I can use the leftover piece as a blocking board, apparently!

Adding the Accents to the Room

Edited to add: How about this interesting ficus plant which I hope does not want to become a tree?

Up goes "Billy" the shelf above the desk!

So I'm thinking about accents now. What do you think of this pillow? I like that it has some of the green that I am wanting to use to liven things up. It also has some of the salmony that is in the rug and the chocolate brown...It's a lumbar pillow from Pier One. I am also thinking of adding in some green things as accents like this...

Maybe some fake bamboo in the other vase also with rocks on the bottom...hmm..Fun to think about.

A Room Just for Me...

Here's what our living room has looked like for several weeks during our remodel of a lower bath, office and an upper bedroom. Lots and lots of boxes from Ikea. This is my husband hunched over one of the many items we got from Ikea. Everything comes in a flat box and has to be assembled. He has been assembling non-stop for a few weeks now. He can drill these in his sleep! We have logged 4 trips so far down there and back and been in the return line about that many times as well to exchange damaged items, overcharged items, etc. Our car knows the way there automatically now.

This is how the instructions look in the manual. No words, just little men and symbols. This man looks confused to me.

The cat is even more confused.

Here's a nice wide angle shot showing the room upstairs coming together and the new closet doors.

Another nice shot of my work space and the cubicles I will start filling up with my things. Now the fun begins!

First we must add some yarn to the cubbies! And the little cabinets and baskets too. Lots and lots of room for yarn! Yay, my dream has come true!

Next we add some books and photo album supplies.

And we add a nice dark brown leather chair in the corner just right for reading and armrests at the right height for...you guessed it...knitting!

Then a bookshelf (not pictured) will go in soon above the work surface. And below that...

I will have a pretty cool tackboard made out of homasote board that we will get cut at a lumber place, and cover tightly with this lovely fabric, also found at Ikea:

I must not leave out the lovely two-drawer filing cabinet which holds all my files well and in style.

It's enough to make this girl one happy camper....Time to settle in with a cup of coffee and sit back and enjoy the hard work we put in to making it a special room!

P.S. Because he's so nice, I will let my husband sit in my chair :)...

The Joy of Gifting

This week I had the joy of seeing one happy little 3 mos. old baby girl wearing my first ever "gifted" Baby Surprise jacket and her first smiles at the same time. It choked me up! I will post the pic of me holding her as soon as I receive it from her mom's camera.
I also got to give a beautiful, expectant mommy the first Baby Surprise jacket I ever knit which will be for her soon to be born first son... How rewarding it was to give something handknit away and to know it will be worn by a cute little person soon!

Helleborus...Finally!

 Edited to add photos after deciding to put on the collar and fix the buttonband. End result, the collar is a challenge and I can see why many mentioned this in their project notes. I decided that (as you can see in photo below of me wearing it with the collar up)...that it just didn't fit right. My wonderful idea was to taper the buttonband by decreasing one stitch at the top every other row, an idea I got from another knitter. I picked up only 60 stitches this second time around for the buttonband. Much better! My other great idea was instead of fighting the collar and it's floppiness around the neck and its unwillingness to lay down the right way: FOLD it over ! Voila! Problem solved. It is now a shawl collar sweater! Ta Da!

I think it's finally done! The only part I didn't do was add the collar. And I am thinking about holding off on it, or maybe not even adding it at all and leaving as is. Shown before any blocking in a photo shoot by my husband this afternoon:

Did a few mods. This is my second time around knitting the sweater and this fits much better than the first which was done on 10 1/2 circs. This was done more like the size 38 in the pattern. Modified by using another sweater as my "model," so my row counts differ a bit from pattern. Knit on size 9 circulars for right, left front, and back pieces. Yoke was knit separately and other pieces seamed to the yoke. (Pattern calls for it to be knit as one piece side to side) Then picked up stitches at the bottom using size 8's to do 12 rws. garter stitch. Then seamed the sides. Finished sleeves using size 8 circ's by picking up stitches and knitting in the round the rest of the way down. Buttonholes moved slightly over so not so close to edge, otherwise followed pattern for picking up 78 sts. using size 8's for buttonbands. So many people seem to have had probs doing the collar and I am not sure I want one yet...so for now, I will let it rest!

I learned alot about knitting a garment "sideways" and about "correct gauge" and about "winging" it, alot about "tenacity" and "stick-to-it-ness" with this project. I surprised myself with the determination with which I pursued the very yarn pictured in the book, and was blessed to find the yarn in two separate states in the same dyelot! And I learned that if at first you don't succeed, please do try, and try again! The end result will be worth it!

Nearing the Finish on Helleborus

This is one of those cases where perseverance will pay off! On to the finishing stages of Helleborus Yoke Sweater. Shown here after seaming sides, and picking up along bottom edge to do 12 rows of garter stitch, before finishing sleeves. A close up of one sleeve:

Next will be the picking up of stitches along the fronts for the button bands. And then the big decision about the collar. Whether to add one or not. This 2nd version of Helleborus fits much better than the first, and the alpaca makes it stretchy and forgiving as well. I will press on to the finish!

Happy Mother's Day!