Monday, March 3, 2008

Well, this can't be good

The overpriced but large and impressive-looking dryer we bought a few years ago to handle the laundry generated by four or five semi-adults started making a clunking noise a few months back. Rick figured one of the rollers had become distorted out of round or something, and invested a fair amount of time complaining about LG, Best Buy, and the entire consumer system (which was obviously out to get him). And we stopped drying clothes at night, since you could hear the "klunk-klunk" reverberate throughout the house. Then we noticed this in the drum yesterday morning:
It looks like a spot weld had broken free along the seam of the drum and started flexing, and now we have a jagged "metal fatigue" hole inside the dryer, right where our clothes have to rub a hundred or so times whenever they tumble dry. (Actually, it could have been there for a bit already. I wondered how I'd torn a hole unnoticed in the leg of my jeans.) So Rick found a used Kenmore on Craig's list, and now we have to (1) clear workspace in the slightly cluttered laundry room; (2) move the old drier into an adjacent room while Rick considers the options for its repair; (3) carry the replacement upstairs to the laundry room; and (4) dry the load of clothes that has been sitting damp in the washer since yesterday morning. Oh, and we'll be inspired to stay inside and do this, because we're supposed to get an inch or two of sleet this afternoon. That will be good for morale.

On the other hand, I finished this section of the Tree of Life shawl:
For those who are curious, I confirmed once again that I cannot read a cable chart to save my life. Thank goodness Lionbrand had the steps written out as well. Oh, and the yarn is a 100% extra fine merino made by Zegna Baruffa, color number 26733. Beautiful stuff, even if it does split a bit.

3 comments:

Susan said...

Love it & I think it will be perfect for the anniversary couple.
Very creative.

JanKnitz said...

Hey, great minds think alike!

I've been swatching the Lion Brand Tree of Life as a tallis--Jewish prayer shawl. Since it has to be thin and light, I'm not sure how I like the cables in the thin, light yarn (a laceweight mohair). I've swatched it, but now I have to block the swatch and see what I think.

I can't read those cable charts either. I put each row of the written-out pattern on a separate index card in a book of spiral bound cards and I color-coded each type of cable stitch, but find I can't memorize the cables. Every single time I have to think it through. It's frustrating, especially when there are several cable stitches on a single row!

Anonymous said...

Simply beautiful