Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

After all those posts on assembling furniture, I thought I should add a couple pictures of the finished set-up. There are a couple hanging sky chairs on the porch as well. All in all, a fine set-up for game nights, knit-ins, and Dungeons & Dragons sessions. The Cuddly Hubby checked it out and, yes, this new table is wider than what we usually use for gaming. More space for spreading Dungeon Master screens, rolling dice, setting out chips & dip, and marking up battle mats. We even ate dinner out here one night. The view from the porch includes plenty of tall oaks and lots of little local wildlife. Ahhhh. Happy sigh.

Now you are almost done! You have three big chunks: a seat-back combo, an armrest-legs combo, and an armrest-legs-crossbeams combo. (See the previous three posts for pictures.) Lay the seat-back combo sideways and place the armrest-legs-crossbeams combo on top of it in the correct position. If it doesn't seem to fit, you might have to flip the seat-back piece around to the other side. You can see in the picture that this is looking very much like a chair! You should have eight fasteners left: four short bolts, two long bolts, and two fasteners for the crossbeams. Use two of the short bolts to attach the legs to the seat of the chair. The bolts go all the way through the seat edge and the chair legs. Use one of the long bolts to attach the top of the armrest to the chair back. Use allen wrenches to tighten. Both parts of all these fasteners can be gripped with the allen keys, so it is easy to make them tight. All that is left is to flip the chair on its other side. The remaining arm...

The directions suggest adding the crossbars after the chair is assembled. I tried that, and it didn't work for me. I recommend adding the crossbars to one of the assembled armrest-legs combos. On the inside of the leg, you'll see two small holes close together. One hole goes all the way through the leg. The other hole only goes partway through. This pair is where the crossbeam attaches. I've included two views of setting the crossbeam into the leg, depending on whether the leg is held perpendicular to the floor or is lying flat on the floor. In either case, you'll see that there is an opening in the bottom of the crossbeam. So, you'll need to turn the armrest-legs piece at least partly upside-down. The fastener you'll use is the long bolt with the odd little cylinder. The bolt is inserted from the outside of the leg, through the leg, and into the crossbar. That little cylinder drops into the hole in the bottom of the crossbar. Before you drop the cylinder into t...

Here is the middle part of the instructions. Believe it or not, these are explaining how to attach the legs to the armrests. The armrests are smooth wood on the top side and have two inserted metal screws on the bottom side. It also helps to identify which end is front and which is back. The front end is rounded. The back end has a curve and a hole where it will attach to the back of the chair. You'll also need those odd bolts with the circles. As you can see, I've used my screwdriver to take one apart. It has three pieces: a shaft with a screw at one end, a stubby cylinder, and a circle that screws into the side of the cylinder. In this first picture, I've placed the armrest upside down, so that the wooden surface is against the floor and the two threaded areas are facing upright. I've already taken two shafts from the fasteners and screwed those into the armrest. The next trick is attaching the legs. In the initial picture from a three days ago, the public side of the...

Here's what the goal is for this segment. You'll notice that the chair back is longer than the seat. You'll also notice that the two have a curved area with a hole. The goal is to align the two curves and the two holes. Place the seat and back on the floor and carefully slide them together with the chair back overlapping the seat. Then fold this joint to a not-quite right angle. You'll get something like this: The holes won't completely align. Once the holes are at least partly aligned, if you have a handy-dandy sturdy screwdriver, you can do this: Insert a strong screwdriver and wiggle the shaft. That will help align the holes. The final look: The curved edges are aligned as are the holes. In a later step, you'll be able to insert a bolt through the hole in order to attach the chair to its legs.

I'm posting this out of pity for any other consumers who had to try to read those directions. This first photo is all the stuff that comes in the box. I've laid it all out on a blue fleece blanket so that I don't scratch the chair or my hardwood floor. You can see two chair arms in the upper left and two crossbeams next to them, legs to the lower left, a seat in the center and a chair back to the upper right. The lower right is all the fasteners and the two allen wrenches that came in the box. I also used a good screwdriver. The fasteners in the upper left with the odd circular parts are used to join arms to legs. The ones in the lower right with the odd cylindrical parts are used to join the crossbars to the legs. The set of four shorter bolts (upper right) attach the seat to the legs. The two longer bolts (lower left) attach the arm to the chair back.

During the Memorial Day weekend, the Cuddly Hubby & I went shopping for furniture for the screen porch. We purchased a very nice expandable table and six chairs. They were supposed to be delivered on 20 June, the date of the Mensa game night. The salesman seems to have had trouble with the concept. I had to call three times to finally get him and find out that, no, the furniture was not going to be delivered on Friday after all and would 2 July be okay? Um, no. The compromise was that I could pick up the furniture. I borrowed "Old Bessie" from Buckley. She's a 20-year-old Chevy S10 with only 75,000 miles and only essential components work. But, hey, you can fit a four-foot by six-foot table in the bed because the truck bed is about four-feet one-inch by six-feet one-inch. The salesman forgot to call me Friday as soon as the furniture arrived. And I showed up at 3 o'clock anyway because I was told my furniture would be there by then, so at least the salesman got th...

For those of you dropping in to check on Copernicus, he is still here. He and my husband sat on the couch today and watched American Dreamz and part of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon . On Friday, I bought five cans of assorted cat food from the veterinarian. Sophia was being picky, and I hoped to keep her happy in the middle of everything. Copernicus has eaten at least some of her food. He woke me up this morning about 7 AM because he was hungry. And all the food I had left out last night was gone. Of course, I don't know which cat ate what. But at least Copernicus is up and around. I don't think he is eating enough to gain back the weight he lost, so it really is an uphill battle. But at this moment, he has not yet lost the war. As for me, I'm busy doing battle with the mahogany African bar. I am in the middle of refinishing it. It must be done before Friday, because we have a Mensa game night here on Friday and an Atlanta Knitting Guild new member knit-in on ...

Thursday was a good day for Copernicus. And today started off even better. I got a whole can of kitten food into him by 2:30 PM. He ate, he was active and involved. And then things turned sometime in the evening. The photo at left was taken about 7:30 PM. Copernicus went several hours with no interest in food. I gave him his evening medications in the hope that he'd feel better. As my vet said, just take it day by day. After awhile, Copernicus and my husband sat on the couch and watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High . I feel very fortunate that I got two and a half good days here near what is probably the end. Of course, now that I'm writing this, I hear my husband saying that Copernicus is in the kitchen and eating. I'll take what I can get and be thankful for it.

When people get to know me, it doesn't take long before they hear me mention Copernicus. I'm not talking about the great astronomer; I'm talking about my cat. A flame-point Siamese, he's been part of my household for almost 19 years. As you might imagine, he's not old, he's venerable. And his health, though delicate, is proof that you really can treat diabetes and live. He's mostly had a good winter and spring. But last Monday he didn't eat. Vet appointments ensued. Assorted medications were prescribed. To his already extensive regimen of two pills each day, two insulin shots each day, fluids every-other day, and another special pill every third day was added another pill each day, two more shots, and fluids daily. This Monday, he still wasn't having a good day. His weight had dipped to a mere eight pounds, when it should be at least twelve. At the veterinarian's office, we both came to the conclusion that he is nearing the end of his days. Decis...