Best Entertainment Around

I'm thoroughly enjoying our new washing machine, which arrived in our basement yesterday afternoon. As might be expected, it seems to clean really well, use less water and less detergent, and work very quietly. But, as an added benefit, it has a glass lid and I've pretty much watched it go through two washes because it is fascinating!

Our old machine was a workhorse and got us through 22 years of laundry for a family of four with very few complaints. We probably should have replaced it years ago, but our repairman (who has worked more on the two dryers we've owned over the years than on the washing machine) always enthused about how much easier it was to repair older machines, so we just kept chugging along with it. Plus, there were sentimental attachments. We "inherited" this washer, along with dryer, when my Great Aunt Ruth passed away. I was pregnant with twins and my aunts voted me as the most in need of a washer/dryer at the time, so it joined our family when we moved into our house 6 months after the boys were born. Lately, though, it has been leaking sparodically but with evermore frequency when we would run a load of laundry. I decided to take the proactive move of replacing it and then the agony of deciding what to purchase began.



We ended up with an LG energy efficient top-loader (with a glass lid!), purchased at our local Home Depot (they had a sale going on, free delivery/take away, and actually recycle the old machines they pick up instead of dumping them). The tub is huge! Don was home yesterday with his laundry waiting for the new machine to be delivered so spent the afternoon learning how to use it. Today is my turn. The tub wiggles and jiggles, swishes a little then swishes a lot, spins a little then spins a lot -- fun to watch.

We're slow around here to adopt new technology, but I think this one is going to make us very happy. It even plays a little tune when the cycle is done :)

On My Needles:
Still working on my mother's cardigan for Christmas. I've got half a sleeve left to do and then will do the neck and button bands and assemble the whole thing.

I've got a bunch of things that just need assembly and finishing, but I've been loathe to do it, for some reason. My Sprössling is blocked and ready to assemble. My Debbie Bliss cabled sweater is blocked and ready to assemble. I have a Baby Surprise sweater ready to assemble. And I have another sweater that my aunt bequeathed to me as a project she would never get to all knit and ready to assemble (that one is going to be my aunt's Christmas present, which should surprise her). Gosh, this is sounding like an issue I need to do something about. Maybe I'll make it the goal of my vacation (I'm looking forward to having the whole week of Thanksgiving off; even though it does involve a couple of family events, I'll have a couple of days to myself) to get some/all of these projects wrapped up. We'll see.