Double it, go up an order of magnitude
That's the rule of thumb someone told me to use when estimating how long any "around the house" job will take. So, for example, if your contractor says it's going to take two days, you think, "Four . . . months."
Except that I routinely forget to do this. Thus I find myself sitting and looking at a dining room with three coats of paint on the walls (Benjamin Moore's "Shenandoah" covered with two coats of "Limelight,"* even though some of the "too dark" green is coming through. We're staying with the "rustic" look) and yet only .75 coats of trim paint, and .8 areas of trim which are taped for painting. First the tape ran out, then the paint. And I had a lot of that helpful kind of "Mama, can I help?" help, too.
Oh, and that trim paint? This is quart number THREE. We couldn't quite figure out what color we wanted, and our little local store doesn't have sample sizes of all the colors, so a quart here, a quart there. It's still less expensive than hiring that color consultant I like so much, even for an hour.
Quart number three is called "Opulence," but it's really purple. Just a less-pinky purple than quart number one or quart number two.
This painting project might also explain why that stripy sweater for my little son isn't done. I ripped out the swollen head version and began again yesterday, after reading quickly through a couple of hood patterns. Since I had it all figured out, I proceeded without the stitch markers I
Yes, you want to increase, yes, you want the sides to grow, but no, you do not want to travel those increases out to the edge of the hood, making the back panel widen and ending up with no stitches left on each side. You want to sort of stack the increases.
Whoops.
Too bad I'll spend tomorrow finishing the paint/cleaning for a party on Sunday/grocery shopping for the party on Sunday/sitting in a heap in the corner whimpering instead of ripping out and redoing that hood.
Besides, that much knitting should only take me a couple of hours. Right?
*Okay, Laurel? Can you imagine it now?
posted by Stefaneener @ 7:42 PM
5 Comments:
Sometimes, when my knitting gets to the whimpering point, it's better to give it some space, anyway. Once all the other fun stuff is done, you'll be all ready to tackle those increases, right? :0)
How about having a painting potluck party on Sunday so you can have some free time to knit?
And to think, I was just this morning contemplating the possibility of painting parts of my house.
Never mind.
Doesn't sound as fun anymore....
Thanks for stopping me.
That makes perfect sense. I thought painting a small room would take about 8 hours, but really it's much closer to 16 days. So that means that the kitchen won't take 2 months....
Yikes.
Lovely colors you've chosen.
Hee hee. Opulence. Paint manufacturers and makeup companies have the best names that DON'T indicate the actual color inside.
We've been thinking of painting (previous owners selected a margarita shade for the main part of the house...ick), but maybe now we won't...
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