13.5.07
Chronicles of C-Town: Part Deux!
Well folks, summer has officially begun: I'm back in Columbus for the next three months, and I start work in a week. Mom and Stan painted Lauren's and my room before we got here, and it looks fantastic. Instead of the insanity-producing yellow it's been for the last year and a half, it's now a peaceful grey-blue. It's crazy how much bigger this walk-in closet of a room looks with new paint on the walls.It's been fun trying to fit all of our stuff in this room too. One person would have a tough time living in here, but Lauren and I have to find a way to squish everything in and live in it at the same time. I'll miss Lauren when she goes back to Athens in a week or two, but I'll definitely be welcoming the extra space.
What's nice is that Peter's going to be in Columbus for the rest of the month, and we've been hanging out a lot this week. He bought two huge bags full of alpaca wool on eBay a little while ago, and we've made it our mission to get it all cleaned, carded and (possibly) spun by the end of summer. So, the other day we set out on our cleaning adventure in high spirits--with Lauren and Kalan for moral support.
We quickly learned that cleaning all the vegetable matter out of this wool was going to take a bit longer than we expected. We cleaned a good amount that day, but we made barely a dent in the bag, and we had another full trash bag of wool, to boot.
And doesn't it look nice when it's clean? I'm not sure what I'll do with the alpaca when it's all spun and plied, but I was thinking a cardigan or something. I like its natural color, so I'm not planning on dyeing it.
I found out a week or two ago that Dad and Lisa are going to get married at the end of July. I'm surprised that they're getting married so soon, so I started on their wedding present as soon as I got into town.
I've crocheted plenty of afghans, but I've never knit one before. This one in particular is a three-panel aran afghan with latticework on each side and a cluster of cables in the center. It's on size 11 needles, so it's knitting up pretty quickly, and the pattern isn't difficult at all. I just hope I stick to it and get it all finished and ready before the wedding.
Of course, I have a very short attention span, and it's things like these that are going to throw me off track:
I had some cotton left over from the aran knitting bag and a crocheted intarsia hot pad, so I cast on an entrelac hot pad last night. I knew we were going somewhere to eat that would require waiting on a table, so I thought to myself, "The aran afghan would be too big to lug around a restaurant. I should cast on something portable." Believe me, it didn't take long to convince myself. I'll probably knit a seed stitch back and crochet the two layers together for extra thickness. You can never have too many hot pads, I say. Plus, Mom saw the dishcloths and hot pads I had made over the school year and not-so-subtly hinted that she would like some too. I'm keeping this one for myself, though; I can't resist entrelac.
Labels: Fiber, Hot Pads/Dishcloths, Wedding Afghan
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