Monkey In The Middle

I just finished the monkey square for youngest's "monkey in the middle" knitted afghan.  The square is actually intended to be an 8"x8" dishcloth but I increased the size a bit by using a much larger needle (size 7 US) than what was called for in the pattern so my square ended up being about 10"x10". 

The square is super cute but the pattern, which you can find for free here, is not one for mindless knitting.  If you intend to make a square while watching some super exciting movie on TV then this is one you'll want to skip.  The stitches are easy, no lace or eyelets, just plain knit and purl stitches so if you have the time and quiet to be able to focus just on the knitting for awhile then this is definitely worth it.  It took me about 12 hours to complete the whole thing and that was with the usual distractions that come with three kids, although some things, like my sink full of dirty dishes, got pushed to the back burner for the sake of this monkey. 

The plan is for this to be the center square (hence the monkey in the middle moniker) surrounded by plain, solid squares in this blue and a complimentary green.  I'll have to make about 34 plain squares if my calculations are right but those should work up pretty fast since they are going to be just stockinette stitched squares with a popcorn border to match the monkey square.

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, the monkey is symbolic.  DH and I affectionately refer to each of our children as Monkey #1, Monkey #2, and Monkey #3 due to their climbing, jumping, running, and general tendency towards wreaking good natured havoc.

Some New Projects

It's been nothing but cloudy, rainy, and downright dreary around here lately.  It was unusually warm yesterday and today but, to quote Dr. Seuss, "The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house..." and we made sculptures!

This is the before picture (note the newspaper. Multiple layers are necessary if your doing this project with kids that are anywhere near as messy as mine)

We used a homemade self hardening clay recipe:

4 cups of flour

1 1/2 cups of salt

1 1/2 cups of water

Mix together in a large bowl until a dough forms and you have self hardening clay.

After your finished modeling and sculpting away, allow the clay to sit in a warm dry place for about 2 days (depending on the thickness) until completely dry.

The sculptures seen above had been drying for 3 days.

Once they were completely dry I mixed about 1/2 cup of white vinegar to 1 package or kool aid to make a nice stain.

Then I gave the kids free reign to "paint" their sculptures to their heart's content.

The picture above are the finished products.

On a more grown up note, I've finished one comfortghan for one of our local nursing homes.  

It's large enough to fit a full size bed and fits a standard size nursing home hospital bed with a little extra hanging over the edge.

I really loved the colors in this afghan.

The variegated green, brown, tan and white yarn just makes me feel happy.

We also recieved a wonderful gift on Saturday.  

A beautiful, light, and lacey baby afghan from my very talented aunt.

I love this because the color would work well for a boy or a girl and it's nice to have something a little lighter weight to wrap Youngest in when we are inside.

All in all it was a pretty good weekend.  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

It's just around the corner

It seems to me that this summer has gone by much faster than last summer. Maybe it's because the weather in my part of the world was extremely pleasant this spring and summer. We had very few days above 80 degrees. No extremely hot days that seem to just drag on forever.

It's already a full week into August. August is always a busy month for us, but especially this August. Coming up we have the fair, my birthday, my daughter's birthday, my father's birthday, my daughters kindergarten open house and a few days later, her first day of school. This is also the time of year when I begin making 7x9in squares for Warm Up America. As soon as I'm finished with the first square I'll post it on here.

If you're interested in crocheting some yourself, you can check out some of the patterns and stitch guides right here: http://www.warmupamerica.org/patterns.html

The Afghan from Hell.

I've been crafting since childhood, but only crocheting for about 3 years (give or take). So it came as quite a surprise when my wonderful husband, Joe, came to me with an afghan request. He had an afghan he'd wanted made since he was a kid but no one had ever made it for him. It turns out no one had made it because they couldn't figure out HOW to make it. His Grandmother, who had been crocheting for around 60 years, couldn't figure out how to make it. His aunt also crocheting for over a decade, couldn't figure out how to make it. And now, here he was, standing in front of me with puppy dog eyes thrusting this pattern labeled *extra challenging* (Afghan Extravaganza 1995, Challenger pg. 124) onto my lap. I thought he must be joking, but I tried the pattern on a test run anyways, convinced that I wouldn't get past row 2. Well, I actually did get past row 2 and managed to figure out the pattern entirely. That was my undoing. My husband began searching the local craft stores for the yarn he wanted the very next day. He then decided that the blanket would be just too small if I followed the pattern exactly. So he made it almost twice as wide, which then meant I had to make it even longer, "so it would remain proportional" he argued. As a result, I've been working on this afghan for 2 1/2 months....and I just finished row 13 of 56. That's not including the border. This afghan hates me. But hear this! I will not be defeated! I will finish this afghan and I will do it in time for my hubby's birthday in Sept.! (Maybe).