The long weekend

This evening will be the beginning of the extended holiday weekend. The family is going camping along-side horses. It's supposed to storm and rain a lot, so it is yet to be seen if we'll make it long stuck in a small camper with twin 3-year-old boys! Especially without electricity. Watching Barney, Thomas the Train or Stuart Little gets interesting without electricity! It just won't be the same!
I hope to get some knitting done, but I also hope to take time to read. I'm in the middle of two books. Very different books, that's why I can handle reading two "at the same time." (not literally, of course!). One is Lucky by Alice Sebold and the other is, Rebecca by Orson Scott Card. I'm quite certain I won't finish either book, but I've enjoyed them thoroughly so far.
Lastly, on this trip, I hope to get some rest and kick this head cold out of my body! I hope my husband rests as well as he's leaving first thing Tuesday morning and driving his mother-in-law (my mom!) and aunt-in-law (my aunt) to North Carolina for the rest of the week! Leaving me home with the boys to be a single mom for a week. More on that later...

Last knit night for summer

Last night was our end of the year knit night at Kathy's. What a good night. We did a pot luck taco/nacho bar and everyone pigged out! Wonderful desserts too. This awesome peanut butter sheet cake that was to die for! Hit the spot after spicey Mexican stuff. YUM. I personally didn't do any knitting, but a few other die-hards did.


Knitting night is now located at my house for the summer. Beginning June 7, anywhere from one to six? knitting-guest-friend will arrive at my crazy home for a few hours of knitting. The boys and DH (dear husband) will be in and out of the dining room with swimsuits on and snacks in hand! It will be fun to see how the twins react this year to having ladies invade their home. Last year, they had to kiss everyone goodnight and typically run through the house naked because they just came in from the pool. Crazy boys! I enjoy hosting knitting, but when fall rolls around, I'm more than ready to go back to Kathy's as it gets me out of my house and away from the boys for a few hours.


So, while this post is about knitting, it isn't about progress on my afghan! I always intended the afghan project to be a low-stress, no pressure, no deadline kind of project and I fully intend to keep it that way! That said, I can't wait to get home and get the mid-week house pick up done and sit down and crank out some squares!

Squares galore!

The afghan squares are coming along. Clearly, many, many more are needed, but a good start and some fun has been had! I've had an idea to make a each twin boy a square with their name and then another with our family name and yet another with the year (or years?!) that the afghan was made. Intarsia letters pattern is my goal for the week. While I don't necessarily plan to get said squares completed this week, finding a pattern or making one of my own is the goal.

I've thought about doing the same with each boy's afghan when the time comes. They should have their names and definitely the year it was made. It'd be nice to include their nicknames since those names have held a vital role in our house, nearly as much as their legal names! Our famiy and most of our friends know the nicknames and who's who when we use them. Their nick names were chosen just days after being born. We had them set while on our way home from the hospital. Awwh.

The new project

Okay, so I have several projects on needles...but I also have gads of yarn just yearning to be worked into something. I have begun the long process of knitting squares for an afghan. I won't say that each square will be different, but there will be several different ones to make it somewhat like a crazy quilt. This one is from yarn I've had in a stash for years and will be plum, purple, midnight blue and have a varigated of those colors. I plan to get some other contrasty color to work into it and probably do the edge with, etc., but not sure if it's going to be another purple or if I'll go with black, white or cream. This will be for our bed, but probably only during the winter and under the comforter.

I have dreamy ideas of making one each for the boys. Trains for Jarrad and tools for Ashton. Not sure when I'll ever get those started. But someday...we'll see how long it takes to complete this first one...especially with having to sew all those squares together.

I've put the felted clog slippers away for the summer. The pattern was my one (ever!) that wanted to be my nemisis. Seriously had trouble working with it, while others in my knitting group sailed through without a hitch! Even more novice knitters! How exasperating! This too shall pass. Who needs felted clog slippers in the middle of summer anyhow?!

Before I know it, it'll be time to begin serious projects like mittens and hats for those two cute boys in my house and a new fun scarf for me. Dad might need a new hat too, even though he just got one last year.

A Finished Object! Whoohooo

Okay, it's been a while since I've completed any knitting projects. I have several on needles in a big over-flowing tubby in the basement and no interest in completing them anytime soon. Sad really. They lay among the stash and other odds and ends of knitting.

Back to the good news! The finished object is the first of what I hope is many afghan squares. I used an acrylic (don't choke, all you natural fiber enthusiasts! I love naturals too), dark lavender to medium purple and knitting by using a chart (virgin chart reader I guess you'd say). It's got a daisy motif and I added a nice seed stitch border.

I'm anxiously waiting for the D. Abrahams, "100 Afghan Squares to Knit" book to arrive at my door. Once I have that, I hope to be scurring to finish squares this summer to put a blankie together by end of fall. If I like it enough, I would love to make one for each boy in colors they choose. Hmmm, that could be interesting! They'll probably be the most beautiful things yet!

I keep saying that pics will be up soon. I promise, they're coming!

Spring sprung and sprang back!

We had frost last night and a couple of days ago, sleety/snowy stuff! It was upwards of 70 a few weeks ago. I enjoy the cooler weather and it keeps me in the knitting mood. I've had some down time on my knitting (and blogging!). No inspiration I guess. But! I started an afghan square and I'm using a chart for pretty much the first time. I'm not diggin' it much, but figure I'll love it eventually. The square has a daisy pattern in it and it's made with a lovely dark lavender color.

I couldn't go to my normal Tuesday knitting night because of DH not feeling well (I don't have to take care of him, but he couldn't really take care of the boys). I've been missing a lot of knitting nights lately. I have SEVERAL projects on needles that I have lost interest in. I'm trying to not feel bad about that.

Knitting photos to come.