Spoke too Soon

What do you know! Right after proclaiming it a lost cause, my zucchini plant offered me two gorgeous zucchini the other day, just right for cutting up and tossing in last night's stir fry. Well, one anyway, the other is for another night, and I need to come up with a recipe now. Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas, and I'll plan to try out some new recipes. I still haven't seen any pumpkin progress, but I'll keep an eye on the zucchini for more delicious squash.

My husband insisted on adding the pencil for scale.

In other news, I have finished the  Moderne Log Cabin Blanket  by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne.  I liked the look of this blanket, though for the sake of my sanity and to complete this in relatively short order, I turned to the awesome powers of crochet. It worked well. The blanket is very cozy, and drapes very nicely. I only got bored during the last two squares, and at that point, being almost finished kept me going. I used half-double crochets (North American terminology here) for the whole thing, including three rounds of the same for the border.

 

 

 

A quick count of the empty Knit Picks Wool of the Andes yarn ball-bands tells me I've used tells me that the blanket took 5 balls of Cloud, 8 of Coal (and it would have been good to have a 9th ball for insurance here, as I used up every last scrap plus about one yard of another black wool that was close enough for jazz), 7 of Dove Heather, and 7 of Mist. I enjoyed this yarn, and would happily use it again. Actually, I've started planning out a blanket for each of my daughters, though I might play around with some other log-cabin-related layouts.

 

This came out to a not-quite-queen-size blanket, so either a cover for a smaller bed, or a nice big blanket to snuggle up under by the fireside, or perhaps by the eerie glow of the T.V. Either way, it is very warm and snuggly. I can attest to this from sitting under it while crocheting, which is something that I was only able to do in our nice cool basement, as it has been rather hot out (August is like that now and again). I'm quite pleased with this, and hope that the future owners of the blanket will enjoy it.

In Which Crochet, Knitting, and Gaelic Football Occur, but Not Neccessarily in That Order

I've been away, and also very busy, so I haven't been keeping up with the blog lately. Sure, it's fine to take a vacation, but it's so easy to fall out of the habit of posting regularly that today I'm having a hard time coming up with much more than simply providing a photo of the blanket in its current state (and it is coming along quite nicely):

There's more to write about, though, it's just a matter of putting in the time to actually think and write about it, so I will steal some time instead of doing the laundry to do this properly, at least to recount the very first part of my vacation.

Back at the last weekend of July, I went with my Gaelic Football team (The Edmonton Wolfe Tones) to Calgary to play in the Western Canadian Division Championship. We had a great time, and enjoyed some great football. The Edmonton ladies, with eleven players for an eleven-a-side match, won the Calgary tournament (by 7 points), lost the friendly match (nine-a-side) with the Calgary Chieftains later that day (by 3 points), and then won the Championship the next day (elevens again, but with twelve players, so we had a sub); the score was 5-7 to 2-1 (so that's a win by 15 points, as the first digit counts for goals put into the net, worth three points each, the other digit being points for balls put through the uprights, and one point apiece). I am very proud of all our team, but should particularly mention the pride I feel for the three players who had only just learned the sport anywhere from a month to five months ago, and who all rose admirably to the occasion. If we can recruit a few more newcomers like that next year, we'll be a force to be reckoned with indeed.

Kim and I pose with the hardware

The ladies' matches were truly exciting football to play. I also hear from our loyal fans, including the lads' team, that it they were exciting matches to watch as well. Our lads played some excellent football, which I really enjoyed watching while cheering them on. They made it to the finals, though the Vancouver Harps proved victorious in the end. Calgary threw an excellent tournament and an excellent party for afterwards. I'm still reliving the best bits of the match whenever I think of it, and I can tell you that it felt just great to hoist that cup.

It took the better part of the week before I stopped talking on and on about football and how fun the tournament was to whoever would listen (though in all honesty, being me, I still would go on and on if anyone asked about it). To those of my readers who have never played Gaelic Football, it's hard to describe just how exciting a game it is. I mean, I love soccer, but there's just something about Gaelic Football, with how it exercises so much of the body and mind while providing a series of exciting contests with little or no pause in between, that goes beyond that love of sport through to obsession. After one practice, I was entirely hooked, and wanted to work hard to learn all the new skills needed. I'm already planning out my winter fitness program for the sake of improving my ability to play next year, and hope that I'll be fit enough to keep playing the sport as long as I can.



Lest you think there was no knitting that weekend, let me finish off by presenting to you the socks that I knit for my youngest. I knit nearly the entire second sock while travelling down to Calgary, and in odd moments, finishing it while watching the Kerry vs Limerick and Cork vs Mayo matches (also Gaelic Football) on TV in the morning before our Championship match.

The yarn is Regia's Flusi Das Socken Monster, colour being "Zottel" (which comes up in a translation search as being either rat's tail or pom-pom, so some sort of adornment anyway). My daughter picked out the colour, and appears to love wearing them. I made knee-highs for her, as she always pulls her socks up as high as possible, and would pull them that high (or try to) even if they were anklets. She was certainly pleased to model the socks despite the heat today. They should keep her warm in the fall and winter; it's way too nice out (25 ᵒC) for socks though today!

A Finished Sweater and a Blanket-in-Progress

 My Daughter found a few moments between being busy having fun and enjoying reading to model this sweater I knit for her. She seems to quite like it, which is good, as she picked out the pattern herself. The pattern is Audrey's First Day by Elizabeth Smith, which you can find in the incredibly adorable and also free online magazine Petite Purls.


The Yarn is Bamboo Ewe (Stitch Nation), and we found a few skeins of this colour in the clearance bin, so we picked them up (as they're my eldest's favourite colour), and reunited them with the leftover Periwinkle Bamboo Ewe from my stash for the subtle stripe.

The only change was really in the length (both body and sleeves), and I added more buttons accordingly. Now my daughter has a nifty cardigan to wear when she starts school in the fall!

Now, I must get back to work (football e-mails, baking with the kids, mopping the floor), but I'll leave you with a photo of the blanket-in-progress, with a nectarine for scale. Why a nectarine? I honestly couldn't tell you. What I can tell you though is I'm not getting even remotely bored with this blanket, even though it's all the same stitch, and have started planning to make similar ones (but in different colours) for my daughters.

Off to the Races!

My yarn order arrived on Wednesday, I started swatching immediately, and here's where I'm at this morning. I have a bit of a deadline for this blanket, but I think I can meet it no problem (at least at this rate). I still have to ask for some modelling help for a finished object, and I'll post pictures of that soon, but in the meantime, please enjoy the blanket-in-progress.