My blanket is going very well. I’m very glad I used the included “coloring sheet” to plan out how the colors would work together. I had to go through a couple of drafts because my goal was not to have any of the four colors touching. Once I figured that out, I tucked in and got to work. What I really like about this pattern is that I can choose which squares to work on - this means that if I want to accomplish something in an evening, I work on a smaller square. I never have time to grow bored with one of the colors because it takes me only an evening or two to get through even a larger section.

I was a little nervous about the turquoise - it’s Suri Merino while the other three are the Alpaca Wool. The merino is an eensy bit thinner than the others, so I knit up a square (essentially, a swatch) to see how close I would be. And HELLO! it worked. Do you understand that this NEVER happens to me? I was prepared to be upset - the color was perfect, so I just knew something would happen to throw a wrench in my plan. When I started laying out the blanket, it matched the pattern. So YAY ME.

I know this sounds crazy, but I think that I might actually finish this project. And after carrying around my lovely orange yarn for more than a year, I’m stoked. STOKED. Plus, the pieces are so crazy soft, I can’t wait to cuddle up with it. My main squeeze is excited because he can actually cover up with it - all of our throws are too short for him. Now. If only I could knit all the livelong day. That would be spectacular.

-dk

Since I started this blog to brag about my skills, I wanted to give you an update on Chuckles. We had the office baby shower for my coworker. Keep in mind that a lot of my coworkers saw me knitting in the lunchroom nearly every day, but had not seen the finished product. When she pulled the monkey out, everyone said, “Awwwwwww.” Until they heard that I made it. Then there were half a dozen people shrieking “YOUMADETHIS?OHMYGOSH, ICAN’TBELIEVEYOUMADETHIS?HOWDIDYOUMAKETHIS?” It was exactly what my ego needed: some stroking, plain and simple. A couple of the women offered to pay me to make a monkey, and I just might take them up on it…..but all in all, I did what I set out to do: totally impress everyone. Um, I mean, make a nice toy for the baby.

-dk

I have frogged all but one of my old blanket squares. And I have discovered something: it blows. Totally and thoroughly. See these hunks o’ yarn:

Looks like a lot, huh?

Grr. I mean, seriously: grrr.

-dk

I need to go to the yarn store. Again. And buy more orange yarn. (And turquoise, cream and brown). Again. I love my blanket, but perhaps my choice of yarns was a little rash. When I’m finished (in 12 or so years), I’m going to hand it to my boys and say, “Happy graduation. You can’t go to college because Mama spent it all on this lovely blanket.”

-dk

PS. It *IS* lovely…I pieced together 5 of the 7 1/2 squares and I am so, so, SO excited to finish it. And snuggle in it. It will probably be 100 degrees outside, but I will happily sweat to enjoy it.

I’ve been avoiding something for awhile now:

This big pile of froggin’ for me to do. What you see is the evidence of one of my many failed attempts to do something with orange yarn. SOMETHING. I found a pattern that called for knitting up equal squares and piecing them together. Except these are clearly NOT squares and, well, let’s just say that even in that sea of orange I can pick out the rough patches. Yikes. So now I have to decidedly NOT knit and frog all of these squares. Or maybe I can ignore them and continue to knit with the little bit that I still have. Or buy more! Or just freakin’ frog the suckers already…sigh…

-dk

My blanket is coming along nicely. I finished a monster square yesterday (finally!) so I took the time to lay out the seven I’ve done to see how it’s going to fit together:

(I know you’re counting - all 7 aren’t here because they don’t fit into this side of the pattern). I also know I didn’t choose the best background, but I was losing my natural light. So back off, people! You’re being kind of critical.

I am totally digging the color scheme. It looks like my orange yarn has found a permanent home.

-dk

It’s May 4th. And I already missed the mark with this whole posting once a day thing for 31 days.

I have now set a new goal - 31 total posts in 31 days. That means that if I wanted to post once now and have 30 posts on May 31st, that would be OK. I know, it’s not the intent of the NaBloPoMo project, but apparently I need to ease into that kind of commitment. Who knew? Most people I know tell me I have too much to say. Give me a writing project….and I have nothing.

-dk

Take a valium and take a nap. Oh, I know that’s not the way to face my problems. I KNOW. But it’s so easy!

I am going to try this whole NaBloPoMo thing ONE MORE TIME.  I’m going to do it. I’m not going to say that everything that I write will be relevant, witty or worth anything, but hey, I’ll get to keep that little badge on my blog. And it’s pretty. And I like it. So there.

-dk

I’ve started to work on the Square Deal pattern I’ve mentioned before. I knew that I would use the orange alpaca wool from Plymouth I have in my stash because it’s so soft and the color is gorgeous.

I went to my favorite yarn store over lunch today - Yarn Shop & More - to choose three other colors to coordinate with the orange for the pattern. I spent most of my lunch hour fingering the softest wools in the store. I know some people don’t like to have their LYS organized by colors, but I heart that. It’s like this explosion of color and texture and this store is a quiet and beautiful rainbow. After wandering around in the blues and the browns and the creams, I chose a beautiful turquoise, a soft cream and a yummy chocolate.

I love a lot of things. I love my husband, my children, spring air wafting through my windows, a fantastic novel open in front of me…but seeing all of these beautiful yarns in the handy Yarn Shop & More sacks just makes me beautifully and wonderfully happy.

-dk

I finished the washcloth Saturday morning at about 2 am. While watching Something to Talk About. Yes, I just wrote that last sentence.

Don’t you remember this movie? Truly awful and spectacular at the same time. Julia Roberts, Dennis Quaid, Kyra Sedgwick? Julia had weird mom hair and Robert Duvall is her overbearing, stable-owning father? I watched the entire thing. And remembered how much I LOVED this movie. Loved it.

Back to my project. Here’s Mr. King of the Jungle

We haven’t tried the little guy out, but I plan on using it to scrub down the boys tomorrow. I am curious how the embroidery will hold up. I love the fact that it also has an i-cord loop to hang up so the washcloth can dry.

The next time I make one of these I’m going to add some whiskers. His face doesn’t look as lion-like as I would have hoped. I do like the size - casting on 42 instead of 22 worked out well. And once I got over the weird knit, loop, slip, slip of the pattern, it went pretty quickly. And I made something that I actually kept. Shocking, I know.

-sk