Grab your cups of coffee and gather round the fire…
Last we spoke I was starting my recovery from the great American smoke out. As you can guess I have been a busy bear since then. As some of you recall I was working on the “Genderless” Baby Afghan. This is the project where the pattern stated in big bold letters “Weekend Project”. Well it was more like the multi-weekend project. I am happy to say “It is done!”. It was my first project on circular needles. I have to say the circular needles are incredibly fast. Of Course the needles also had a blurb on their package that stated something like “Speed Needles”. So of course combining my “Speed Needles” with the “Weekend Aphgan” pattern I was sure to be able to start this project on a Friday after work and be done by Saturday at lunch so I could start my afternoon of Tea and BonBons…. Umm not! 
I am really pleased with this project. I have to “block” the afghan and will include pictures after I get that done this evening. I liked this yarn quite a bit. I have had a few people recommend washing the afghan in Deft. We shall see. I do have one small complaint relative to the yarn. I was amazed at the number of “tie together knots”. When I say knots, I am referring to where they tied two end points together at the manufacturer. I had one skein that had two of these “tie together knots”. I do not remember seeing this happen so often in my old crocheting days. Here I am working so hard to ensure that this project is very clean and consistent and here comes “Mr. Ugly” down the line. Of course Mr. Ugly does not show his ugly face till I am halfway down a row. Fake Smile I try to throw a positive spin on it and say to myself “What would Amy do?”. Of course she would pull it out to the end of the row, cut off Mr. Ugly, and join in the yarn again. I watch Amy do it on the video and she makes it look like putting socks on…”Just insert your toes, slide the material past the middle of the foot passing over the heal, and lift past the ankle ensuring a secure fit…” Of course, my heart always races a little before taking on this minor challenge, and through the grace of God I achieve a similar result to Amy’s example. I then imagine my sock instructional video…” Take the sock insert your toes, and pull as hard as you can to get over the mid section of your foot all the while pushing your foot’s mid section past the taught material. Now with all your might pull the material past the heal. It is completely appropriate to grunt loudly as you painstakingly make it past the heal of your foot. Now lift the excess material over your ankle.” Sadly, but the time my video is complete, the big toe is sticking out of a hole at the end of the sock. And due to the applied brute force the sock exhibits a hole in the heal. The top of the sock is so stretched out that it is loose and flimsy. Okay so I exaggerated a little, but you have to admit Amy makes it look easy.
So where have I been??? Well we painted the master bedroom. It was this ugly flesh tone, and reminded me of the paint color you saw in grade school that they used to paint the cinderblock walls. I refer to it as “unicolor” because it looks like someone poured all their leftover paints into one bucket… stirred and painted. And how nice… they used it throughout the house.Fake Smile
We just moved in this place October 1, and I find daily surprises left by the previous owner’s “Four Year Old Terror”… Like the spare bedroom that appeared to have a collection of “Nail Pops” on the wall. One day a few weeks ago I decided to see what the heck was actually going on so I pulled off a large 1 inch piece of chipped paint to reveal surprise #8766132 Insert the Joy of Cooking Fake smile here. Apparently the little terror took bubble gum and applied it all over the walls in her bedroom and flattened them out very nicely. The previous owner must have liked the decorative blobs as he/she decided to paint over them. Thus, as I pull off the large chips of paint… long strands of blue/gray gewwy gum strings along with it… What a pretty picture… Not! It annoys me so much when people do not take the time to do things correctly. So the good news is that the spare bedroom was that unicolor tone so we were going to have to repaint it anyway. And honestly I am really happy that they were not “real” nail pops.
What to do next… Well, the lady at the office next to where I work discovered I learned how to knit… Oh how they love to spread the news! She joked about how badly she needs a scarf… I find they are not too difficult to make, and I saw one recently that had some “cabling” so I thought about whipping that up for her. Also on the agenda is a possible “Sweater” class being offered at the local knitting store. That sounds like a huge challenge to me. I am sure to Amy and the rest of you pros it is like making a pot holder, but to me it looks like a tough challenge. So, I am thinking of signing up for it.
Well I am sure there is more to tell, but I have taken up enough of your time. Real Smile
The bear that cares,
BigBearJeff
“A card carrying member of Knitters Anonymous”
