The Endless Afghan -- Twenty Two Down - Eighteen to go

This block is featured in The Great North American Afghan and was designed by Deborah Newton of Providence, Rhode Island.

It was very easy to knit. I cast on while waiting for our flight from Seattle to San Jose last weekend. I was at the halfway mark when the plane touched down two hours later. I can't knit in the car (I get motion sick) so I had to wait to finish it this weekend at my Saturday morning knit together.

I blocked it Saturday afternoon and this morning I have yet another square completed! Although I am now more than halfway through my goal, there are still 18 more squares to knit. I have been thinking that I may modify my plan and add a large border and keep all the squares on the top of the bed. I 'll have to play with the measurements.

The Endless Afghan - The Twenty First Square

I have been working on the afghan as much as I can. I would like to finish it this year but, quite honestly, that may not be realistic. But whether I do complete it or not, I am having a great deal of fun which each square.

This block is from the book, The Great American Aran Afghan. It was designed by Marian Tabler of Cincinatti, Ohio.

The twin cables wander back and forth throughout the square giving the block a "bas relief" look. Best of all, it knit it up exactly at gauge!

The Endless Afghan - The Twentieth Square (or only 20 more to go!)

Last Monday, our receptionist had the flu but came to work anyway. When Bear found out she was sick, Bear immediately sent her home but apparently, not soon enough. On Friday, I felt the first chills and slight headache. By Saturday afternoon, the fever had arrived as well as chest congestion and stuffed sinuses.

Since it was obvious I wasn't going to be out and about over the weekend, I settled into my easy chair, wrapped up in a blanket, and picked up my knitting. I decided to knit a square from The Great American Aran Afghan.

This square was designed by Barbara McIntire and features Celtic cables as the centerpiece as well as the borders.

As with all cables, it was important to pay attention to the direction the cables crossed each other. Once I got the pattern memorized, the square knit up quickly. It blocked beautifully. Only twenty squares more to go.........

The Endless Afghan - The Nineteenth Square

I am finally knitting again! Christmas is over, the office has slowed down back to normal, and Kenny’s homework is under control. What better project to celebrate "I-have-time-just-for-me-again" than the endless afghan.

This square is from the Great American Aran Afghan and was designed by Julie Levy.

It features interlocking diamond cables at the center of the square and a single row of diamonds at each of the edges.

Overall, a intricate looking square that is not difficult. And I am now one more square closer to finishing.

The Endless Afghan - The Eighteenth Square

I finally managed to finish another square despite all the homework assignments Kenny has been bringing home from school.

This square was designed by Ann Strong in Olympia, Washington.

It is based on a pattern called "pomegranate" and does resemble the fruit after it has been cut in half.

The side cables are also interesting. It alternates a solid knit cable with a seed stitch cable intertwined with each other to create an unusual look.

Overall, there is a lot of seed stitch throughout the square which gives the square a very pretty and very distinct look. It was also fun to knit.

The Endless Afghan - The Seventeenth Square

While in Washington I was able to complete two squares for the Afghan I am making.

This is the second of those squares which features an oakleaf and acorns.

The design is featured in the book "The Great American Afghan" and was fitting as the oak leaves were just starting to turn red.

The Endless Afghan - The Sixteenth Square

With all the rain, I had time to work on the Great American Aran Afghan. I chose this square designed by Judy Sumner because I like spiders.

It was actually quite fitting for vacation because there were several large Orb Weavers making webs by our front deck which I enjoyed watching while knitting.

Here is a close up of the spider....

And the web with a bug...

And finally the leaves and branches with a "X-O" border. I think this is my favorite square so far.

The Endless Afghan - The Fifteenth Square

This square is from the The Great American Aran Afghan and was designed by Meredith Morioka. It consists of an intricate center cable and a seed stitch and lace pattern as the side borders.

I finished this square last week but apparently I misread the instructions and used a needle size too large. Previously, all of the other squares I had knitted were fairly consistent as to size. In fact, all of them had blocked nicely at twelve square inches each. But this square was huge...... and I do mean HUGE! When I measured it, the tape measure revealed the thing was fourteen inches wide and fifteen inches tall.

After mumbling a few choice knitting words, I frogged the entire thing, reduced needle size, and started over. The re-knit version happily was right on gauge so I have added another finished square to the stack! Twenty five more to go!

The Endless Afghan - The Fourteenth Square

This square is the one I worked while on the road. The pattern is from The Great North American Afghan book. It is a combination of various Aran patterns which require careful concentration to avoid crossing cables the wrong way.
It also has lots and lots of bobbles which gives it a lot of texture. I was concerned that it was going to be slightly larger than the twelve inch square called for by the pattern but its final measurements was an acceptable 12 1/4 inches square. What a relief! I really did not want to re-knit it.

The Endless Afghan - The Thirteen Square

This is what I did when I couldn't work on the computer. I picked out a fairly intricate pattern out of the The Great American Aran Afghan and I knit.

Contrary to the opinions of the knit critics in the house, this in NOT a pineapple.
Nor is it an decorated Faberge' egg on a pedestal. (What goes on in the mind of an 11 year old anyway?)
It's a fish swimming through the water! It's also one more square completed on the afghan. Twenty seven more to go!

The Endless Afghan - The Twelfth Square

Kenny starts 6th grade tomorrow. This past week has been spent doing "Mommy" things after putting a full day at work ----- taking Kenny shopping for new school clothes, new shoes, school supplies and a new backpack. I have also been informed by my young man that he is "too old" for the kids dressing room so I was relegated to sitting outside the "adult" dressing room and waiting for him to come out show me his choices.

This left me very little time for blogging but a great deal of extra time for knitting.As a result, I finished the twelfth square of the Endless Afghan and have most of the thirteen square completed as well. Hopefully,things will return to normal around here next week.

The Endless Afghan - The Eleventh Square

Problem: Justin and his two best friends want to attend a 12 hour long rock concert in San Jose, California. Mom is very uncomfortable with the idea of three 18 year old boys driving 125 miles from home over a road nick-named "Blood Alley".
Solution: Offer to drive them to the concert, then hide out at a hotel for a day of uninterrupted knitting.

Reward: The boys had a great time and were very happy NOT to be driving back to Fresno at midnight. I was very happy because all that time alone allowed me to finish the 11th square on the "Endless Afghan".

This pattern is from The Great American Afghan and features a oak leaf and acorn design. I have oak trees at both my homes in California and in Washington so I thought this square was wonderful representation of my ties to both states.

The Endless Afghan - The Tenth Square

This square is also from the The Great North American Afghan. The design is a diamond inside the square.

Instead of using bobbles, the pattern is created via small eye cords of ten rows each. These cords are knitted on double pointed needles and worked directly into the square. The effect is quite striking although a trifle slow to knit.

The book states this technique is very old and has been used in the past to create intricate patterns.

As I finished pinning the square onto the blocking board, I suddenly realized that I made a slight miscalculation. I figured it would take roughly two weeks to complete two more squares on the afghan. Eight days later, I have completed both of them and the rest of the yarn is in California! I now had nothing to knit! Feeling faint, I headed to the Allyn Knit Shop for a wool fix just as the waves of nausea were beginning to surface. I made it just in time.

There, mixed in with the shelves of cashmere, wool, cotton and silk, was Elizabeth Lavold's Book #10 - The Kasmiri Love Collection.

The pattern that caught my eye was 'Lavinia". Silky Cashmere is unbelievably soft. It also has a fairly impressive price tag per skein and the pattern called for thirty skeins to knit the sweater in my size.Hmmmm. To knit or not to knit..........that is the question. No wait, there is no question. To knit!

The Endless Afghan - The Ninth Square

Look....actual knitting! This is the latest square I completed for the afghan. It is from the second book from Knitter's Magazine called The Great North American Afghan.This square has a lot of texture to it and really stands out on the blocking board. However, if knitted according to the directions it was 12 inches by 10 inches (30 centimeters by 25 centimeters for my Canadian friends) instead of 12 inches (30 centimeters) square. I ended up changing to smaller needles and added an extra pattern repeat to make it square up.

I liked the lace work surrounding the body of the knit. It adds interest and also helped prevent the edges of the square from curling.This square has great possibilities. I would like to re knit it in a larger version of 36 inches x 36 inches (92 centimeters square ) as a baby blanket. It would also make a beautiful full size afghan. I can see the same version using stripes at each junction of the triangles. I'll have to get out my graph paper and see what I can design.

The Endless Afghan - The Eighth Square

Remember the movie "Alien"? There is a scene where the alien larvae leaps onto the face of the victim and attaches itself. That larvae is called a "Face Hugger". How do I know this? Well, my son has a "Face Hugger" stuffed animal. (Don't ask.)

Now take a look at the square designed by Ginette Belanger.

Remind you of anything?

Don't get me wrong, I think the square is lovely and it was a lot of fun to knit. But when it was done, all I could think of was the movie.

Polergeist!!!!

Webster's Dictionary defines the term 'poltergeist' as "a supernatural being supposedly responsible for physical disturbances such as hiding belongings or throwing objects about."

A poltergeist must have moved into our house recently. I know this because in the last month things have been disappearing. At first it was just a little things --- like the extra skein of Sublime yarn I desperately needed to complete the vest. Then my car keys vanished into thin air. Since I tend to misplace them with startling regularity, no warning bells were set off in my head that a supernatural phenomenon had apparently found a new home under our rafters. But then the electric power cord to my laptop computer mysteriously vanished into thin air. It turns out the power cord is a fairly important piece of equipment for my computer. Without it, the battery cannot be charged and the computer turns into a shiny, black paperweight, which is useless for blogging.

The power cord is only ever in two places --- the laptop case or the wall plug in the living room behind my chair. There is no reason for it to be anywhere else. But when I went to plug in the computer, it wasn't there! I checked the computer case. Not there either. Nor was it in the kitchen, bedrooms, dining room, or family room. I even looked in the bathrooms. It had simply vanished.

I did, however, find the missing skein of yarn. It had found its way to the laundry room and was sitting on the dryer. Since I never knit in the laundry room, the only explanation as to how it managed to get out of my knitting bag and migrate to the laundry room has to be a supernatural one. How did I come to this conclusion? Simple really. When I quizzed Kenny, Justin and Dan as to the missing items, they all looked at me blankly and told me the same thing....."I didn't do it".

I know that a poltergeist must have hidden it.

Since the power cord was nowhere to be found, I decided that I would simply replace it and have a spare in case the other one ever turned up (it still is missing). Grabbing a phone book, I telephoned every electronic and/or computer store listed on both the yellow and white pages. Apparently, the power cord for the HP-9000T is not stocked in any of the 32 electronics and computer stores in the greater Fresno area. To make matters worse, each laptop uses a different type of power cord that it unique to that particular computer model. I was informed that using the wrong cord can damage to the computer (something about amps and voltage). There was now way around it. I had to order a new one and wait. Joy of joys, it got here yesterday. I am now back up and running.

Justin is now officially a high school graduate! He had a great time as the center of attention and really was excited that my parents flew all the way from Atchison, Kansas to be present for the ceremony.My parents, Justin's girlfriend, and our neighbors, Dave and Becky waiting for the program to begin. The traditional processional walk began the evening.

And finally posing with his proud grandparents after the ceremony.

I was also able to knit the next square in the The Great American Aran Afghan. This square was designed by Dagmara Berztiss. This square was beautiful and fun to knit. I love the design.

I also have been spinning and should be able to ply the yarn tomorrow. I already have a project in mind.

The Endless Afghan - The Sixth Square

The sixth square I chose to knit was designed by Suzanne Atkinson. Since this was Memorial Day weekend, I thought the church and tree were fitting.

This is a close up of the tree.

And here is a close up of the church. I really liked this design and the final result.