Ends and Strips, Farms and Freedom

I continue to be bogged down in weaving the ends in on Rylee's blanket. I'm still less than half done. We are now in the same month as the little guy's birthday, and I still need to do all these ends and make and attach the boarders - and then do THOSE ends.

I'm about half done with the fifth strip on Sofia's blanket. Each of the four borders on that blanket will be at least as much work as one of the strips. The pattern calls for five strips, but once I've got them done, I'm going to lay them all out and see if I want to make one or two more. I'm starting to think I probably won't, though.

I made a lot of progress on the Sofia blanket yesterday; I attended an all-afternoon conference about the future of farming. It was organized by an alumnus from my college, and was a really good experience. I got to meet a young hay farmer who's attending K-State, which was cool because my parents used to be hay farmers and my uncle teaches at K-State (Go Wildcats). I think John did a really good job with the conference. Then in the evening I attended a staged reading of a new play being directed by one of the faculty in my department. It's about Freedom Summer, and if the reading (three days after it was cast) was that good, I can't wait to see the full play in October! So I knit through both of those events and got quite a lot done.

Today I have to create lots of time for end-weaving. My mom and step-dad are out of town for a few days and Pat has agreed to steam clean their carpet while they are away. So I'll go over there with him this afternoon, set myself up in their Sunroom and watch the Major League Baseball Channel with my tapestry needle and scissors. That should help!

Piecing, Piecing, Piecing...

I have been SICK since the end of Tuesday. A very yucky sore throat bug that Pat brought home from work. I'm not all the way better, but I've finally started feeling human again.

So far today I've been piecing together the squares of Nephew Rylee's blanket, and starting to feel that the piecing will never end. I've just started the last of six strips of seven squares each. Then the strips will go together and I'll be ready to weave in more than 500 ends. I'm looking forward to knitting the boarders, so those will have to be my reward after all the ends are in.

I've also had PBS on non-stop today. Starting Tuesday we'll no longer have TV. We got one of those digital converter boxes, but because we're in between two markets, and digital signals are weaker than analog, we aren't able to get any TV to speak of. I am strongly anti-cable and am pretty upset by this whole switch. I guess I'm trying to overdose today in hopes that it won't be so bad.

But back to knitting news, I started the skull beanie Polar Knit hat for my brother on Tuesday and finished it last night. That was the only bit of knitting I was able to do while sick this week. So that hat and Pat's Polar Knit hat have been washed and are likely dry by now.

At Knit Night on Monday I picked up a job and I'm pretty excited about it. I'll be putting names on some Christmas stockings using duplicate stitch. Christmas stockings are what I've made the most, and I've never seen any with quite this design. I'm waiting until I'm completely better to work on that, though (I suppose the logic there is that the blanket will get washed and stockings don't really).

And back to sewing up.... starting to think that I really won't take up quilting.

Bulimic cats?

The snow day was great fun. Several of our friends live within walking distance and so were able to come over to our house in the afternoon. I finished Pat's Polar Fleece Hat (although it hasn't been washed yet), and we built a snow fort in the front yard. Complete with ice crenelations and everything. Picture is forthcoming. The fort received reinforcements later in the week, but is now in full retreat. It currently consists of an oval of snow in the middle of our otherwise brown and muddy yard. I'm glad we've had some real winter, but I'm also enjoying this weekend's spring-like temperatures. I even have some towels drying on the clothesline.

But on to the knitting news: Pretty pleased with Pat's Polar Fleece Hat, and I think I'll be making one for my brother, too. If I buy the yarn at Knit Night tomorrow, it's even possible I could get it to him before Spring Break.

I've finished putting the side edges on all but a few of the squares for Rylee's blanket, but I have been slowed down considerably by the cats. My two cats are generally very good and don't take too much interest in my knitting. However, they both seem to have mild eating disorders. The younger one just seems to love her food a little too much, but the older one seems to be bulimic. No matter what kind of "digestive care" cat food we try, she's always leaving little piles of throw-up around the house. Disgusting, but bearable. This time, however, the little dear threw up into my knitting basket. It wasn't a lot, but it was right onto the Rylee blanket squres. It won't be too hard to wash them, but I had to walk away from the project for a while. As soon as I clean off two or three more squares, I'll be ready to put them together and start edging the blanket.

While taking a break from Rylee's blanket, I started Sofia's. This blanket is knit in strips of garter stitch, changing colors to make squares. The pattern calls for five strips of six color blocks, each 5 inches square. My squares are more like 5 1/2 inches on a side, and I may end up knitting more strips. I'm trying to maker her blanket comprable in size to those I've made (am making) for her brother and cousin. The border that will go around the strips once they are sewn together has a twelve-stitch pattern repeat and I figure it won't be too hard to adjust it to fit a slightly different size of blanket. Mostly, though, I just didn't want to stress about matching gauge for a blanket. I think reading the Yarn Harlot's blog is making me braver about modifying patterns.

O Glorious Day

Winter weather prevented us from driving to see my grandmother over the weekend, which meant I didn't get the car knitting time I was expecting. I did, however do some serious accomplishing around my house. Laundry, dishes, baking cookies, baking bread, making applesauce, balancing the checkbook, going shopping twice, putting away the final vestiges of Christmas, cleaning & organizing the TV/video area; I think all weekends should have three days.

The lack of car knitting was partially balanced by the seven hours of football knitting on Sunday. With so much uninterrupted knitting it was easy to calculate that it takes me about one hour and a half to knit a square of Rylee's blanket. I have nine squares left to go. Perhaps I could even finish this blanket by mid-February, giving me two whole months to knit the next one.

I have not been completely monogamous with the knitting this weekend though. Last night I went to a Polar Knits Hat class at the LYS. It was the first time I'd used Polar Knits, and I have to say I really like it. Very linty, but that reportedly goes away after the first wash. I think the main thing I love is how quickly it knits up; last night was also my first time using bulky-weight yarn - I may be converted. I knit one complete ball in the two hours of class, and it looks like that will be nearly half the hat. My husband bought a knit hat recently under the belief that if he asked me to knit one for him he might get it by the time it starts getting cold for next winter. We can't have purchasing of mass-produced knitwear going on! I think bulky yarn will be the answer. I might make one for my brother, too.

Off the topic of knitting, I have to say that today I am proud to be an American. I don't make such declarations lightly, and this is a new feeling for me. I've always felt very fortunate to be an American, but today I am also proud. I am also energized and ready to join in the hard work ahead of us.

Blanket Progress

I have finished the first half of the squares for the Nephew Rylee blanket, and am on the third square of the second pattern. My friend Keith has kindly loaned me his digital camera, so new pictures will be coming soon. But (1) I never seem to be home in daylight and (2) I don't yet have a way to get the pictures off the camera. So no pictures yet, but soon. Hopefully before the pile of squares takes over my end table. We'll be driving to see my grandma this weekend, so 10 hours of car knitting should grow the pile pretty rapidly.

With such good progress, I'm starting to plan for the socks I want to make myself this spring/summer. I am seriously coveting some Maui Yarn. Hand-dyed by someone who used to work at my LYS. I'm leaning toward a tidepool or black sand beach colorway.

Picture!

The Rylee Blanket is coming along at about the rate of one square a day. Which is about the rate I need to maintain. I figure that I have just under 100 days in which to complete both blankets, meaning I have to knit 2% of a blanket every day, which is about one square of the Tell Me A Story pattern. And with 14 squares already complete, I feel like I'm in pretty good shape.

So the camera possibility I had didn't pan out at all, but I managed to take a few pictures with my friend Matt's camera phone. Not the best picture, but I'll get better ones eventually. Also, a great big hurray for Matt helping me fix the html a bit!

Tonight spontaneously turned into an evening of dinner and cards with our good friends. Which is giving me another excuse to not take the Christmas decorations down yet. I know it's time, and they'll be coming down tomorrow, but that's just the least fun part of the season. More often than not my mom ends up painting a room in mid-January to counteract the bareness when the decorations come down.