I started to write a post with these pictures over a week ago. But then my camera to computer interface was giving me fits and I ran out of time the day I was doing it and never got back to it. So here I am! Ta Da!
I've been knitting and crocheting in between going to the theater for rehearsals. We opened Dearly Beloved last Friday to a great audience. I have more to say on all that but it will have to wait for another post.
The above blanket is made using this pattern. It's fast and easy and I love the way the colors work together. It came about because Sarah and I decided one afternoon to tear the gas fireplace out of the living room. We put this big square fireplace in shortly after we moved in here but before we remodeled the kitchen/family room. At the time the living room was just a sitting room with some toys in the back corner. It made it look more formal and added a focal point. But after the remodel we moved the tv in there and then the room had two big focal points and not enough room for the proper seating arrangement for optimum tv viewing pleasure. It had been bugging Sarah and I for months but we couldn't convince Steve is was time for it to go. So one week he was out of town for six days and we took the opportunity to get rid of it. Problem is that now we have a hole in our wall behind the couch and an electrical outlet about 5 feet up on the middle of the wall. (I'm looking for a handyman to come in and fix that soon.)
So how does ripping a gas fireplace off a wall lead to a new blanket? Surprisingly it isn't because the room is now cold because we almost never used the actual gas logs in there because it would get TOO hot. You see the thermostat is also in the living room, behind the big tv, so it already is unreliable and leads to the rest of the house being too cold while the living room is about 10 degrees warmer. No it was because once the fireplace was gone and the brown leather couch moved from the den to the living room and the rest of the furniture rearranged, I wanted an afghan that matched the decor on the back of the couch. I love my old fashioned, colorful Granny Square afghan that Emma and I made this winter but the colors are a bit garish. My friend Jodee was finishing up her Ripple Blanket one Friday at knitting and it inspired me to make my own to match my "new" living room. I also broke out the sewing machine and stitched together some quick pillows in the green and brown Olives and Damask fabric in Lila Tueller's Santorini line.
Before I started the crochet afghan I had cast on and started knitting on this shawl. It is the Gail/Nightsong pattern available free on Ravelry. I'm finally using the Briar Rose lace yarn I've been calling my "Invisibility Cloak" yarn since buying it at a fiber festival the day after attending the final Harry Potter midnight book release party. Like most laceweight projects the final beauty of this shawl won't be evident until it is finished and blocked. I'm going to have a lot of yarn left over even if I make it much bigger than the pattern. In hindsight I should have knit it with the yarn doubled. As it is it will be as light as a feather. I'm still debating on if I'm going to added tiny beads around the edges. I think they'd add a nice bit of sparkle and the added weight may help it hang better. We'll see. Right now it is resting in my knitting bag. It is too fiddly and takes too much concentration to knit at knitting group or backstage in the dark.
Emma went with me to knitting last Friday and that resulted in me buying yarn, pattern and casting on yet another project. She saw a finished sample of the Prairie Boots at Wool & Co. and wanted a pair. I have the left boot done and got all of the right foot done last night. If I go knit after finishing this post she'll have a finished pair of boots by the time she gets home from school today. (They'll still need buttons and leather soles but the knitting will be done.)
What new projects are you all doing now? Does the change of seasons inspire you to make big changes in your surroundings?
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