Knittinggarden

I've been working on this blanket since the middle of September.  Now, that's not nearly as long as it took me to finish the Neverending Blanket , and at the end of that tale, I mentioned that I needed to learn to crochet.  I figured that crochet was supposed to be faster than knitting, so that was the way to go. afghans for Afghans  announced a new campaign and they needed wool clothing and blankets for children.  Aha, I thought!  I recently learned to crochet, I have bucketloads of worsted weight wool, and I'll make a blanket.  No, I'll make two! Needless to say, crochet (for me) was indeed faster, but not as much as I thought it would be.  I started a log cabin crocheted blanket at home and a striped single crochet blanket in the desert.  I learned that they required a lot more yarn than I was expecting and indeed took longer than I thought.  Maybe I'm just slow at crochet or maybe I was being unrealistic in my expectations (me?) ...

I was shown this disturbing video by my daughter.  It was sent to her by the (responsible) house and dog-sitter we had staying at our home during my absence.  I decided maybe I was paying her too much. Thank heavens Buddy was okay when I got home to check on him.  It was smart of him to duck and cover at the last minute, wasn't it? See?  He's fine! Disclaimer:  No animals were actually hurt during the filming of this video.

There's a group on Ravelry  called Sock Knitters Anonymous and they have challenges each month.  Every so often they have a mystery sock and I've knitted them several times.  You get one clue a week, usually three or four total, and at the end of the time, you have socks.  I like to knit the mystery socks two at a time so there's more chance they'll be finished. The ones for January were designed by Carrie Sullivan (irishgirlieknits) and had a flower pattern. The first clue was the cuff: The second clue was the leg: The third clue went over the heel and down the foot: The fourth clue finished them: This is the first time I've made socks that had a lace pattern down the heel flap, so it was interesting. I needed some semi-solid sock yarn, so I found a pretty ball in my stash  that was dyed and given to me a few years ago by my kind twin, Cathy.  Thanks again!  The yarn, which is Knitpicks Gloss, has a lot of subtle variat...