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!

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.