Still plugging away on the left back of the Dolman Updated sweater. This is a good knit-and-read project. My goal is to finish this and the Kat shawl before starting my next projects. Which I have already decided upon: I'm going to do the Song of Hiawatha stole and for the sweater (and work-and-read project) a Sitcom Chic out of some Schachenmeyer Rainbow I bought off of Elann. (I hope it'll give the right gauge; I may have to play about with needle size when I swatch).

Thanks to having rented "Secondhand Lions" (which I enjoyed; it was a satisfying movie) I added a couple more rows to the border of the Kilimanjaro Kat shawl. If this weekend is rainy (as predicted), I may finish the shawl.

If not, I feel the obligation to scrape my garage more. This is getting to be a yucky task. The last time I worked (up on the ladder) I discovered that one of the boards - the board right over the door - has a huge rotten spot (which I discovered when my scraper when smack into it and started peeling out soft wet wood). It's a cosmetic rather than a structural problem, luckily.

But it did mean a trip to the Lowe's for a reciprocating saw (which the nice man there told me was the best tool for the task. It's kind of like what I was picturing - my dad had something I think was called a saber saw, which was a handheld thing with a straight blade that went back and forth, but the tool had a different shape). The guy at Lowe's gave me pointers on using it. At one point I had to restrain myself from saying "It's a lot like a sewing machine, then" because there's something like a presser foot on the saw that you need to keep flat and straight on the wood you're cutting.

Anyway. I now own a reciprocating saw. My plan is to cut around the rotten area (cutting well away from it so if it's mold, there won't be any spores left) and then buy a piece of cedar or some other kind of rot resistant wood and cut it to fit in the space, nail it in, spackle, and paint over it. I'm quite proud of my solution, I came up with it on my own without running to the handyman books or calling my dad.

I also - and this is where I cringed when I saw the final bill - bought a power washer. Well, I figured it costs like $30 to rent one, and this one was $98, so in four days' worth of use, I'll have saved the cost of a rental (right?). And I don't have to go deal with the people at the rental place. So I can powerwash all the spider egg cases and algae and mung off of my garage before I paint. And I can use it to wash the grubby siding on my house. And shoot all of the leaves and crud out of my gutters. And maybe even use it to force all the pecan catkins off my roof, without my having to climb up there with a broom. Or I can use it to clean all the crud off my sidewalk.

Besides, a tool that shoots water under high pressure sounds like a fun tool anyway. No, I haven't tried it yet, I may feel differently if it's really fiddly or if it hurts my hands.

then again, ter Braak once said "To the man with a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail."