FO Friday 35/15: Scrumptious Stripes

Sacred Isle Tarot

So you may remember my forlorn aspiration of making an afghan for Destructo Boy in a week and a half. Of course, I didn't manage it, as you know real life things and especially people are so blimmin' selfish, wanting your attention, time, company and things like food and clean clothes.

I couldn't even use the approx. 5 hour round trip to pick the kids up effectively, as the deathgrip I had on the armrests meant I couldn't use a crochet hook. It also means Titch won't be able to sell the car on as the upholstery has been permanently dented ... And then I ran short of yarn.

Anyway, according to my Rav notes, it took me 18 days, which I don't think is too bad, considering; it's about 65 inches wide and maybe 72 inches long ? I should have measured the length I guess. It was 60'' wide before I added the border, that bit I did check.

The colors pick up the wallpaper quite nicely, I think. And more to the point, Destructo Boy is chuffed with it, and even though he's always too hot to need it, he sleeps under it.

I used 3660m of aran-weight yarn (none of which were scraps for a pattern named Scrumptious Scraps Afghan) - but that includes the border, which I took from Leisure Arts  #4531 '50 More Crocheted Borders'.

Having completed this large project means that I am also almost back in the mood to knit another shawl for my longterm Big 6 project ... but I can't choose which to do ...



 

Random Roundup

Fantastic Menagerie Tarot

I'm feeling a little low today, mainly because the half-term holiday is over - Mini Diva is back at school, Titch is back at work. I have only Destructo Boy to console me, and he is welded to his tablet and 'Clash of Clans'.

Wilhelmina passed her MOT, the kids' cousin D. came to stay, we went to the beach, the kids went swimming a couple of times (different leisure centres), there was a sleepover, they went to the funfair with my friend K. - it was Destructo Boy's first time as he is finally old/tall enough, and it turns out he is as fearless as Mini Diva. There has been cricket and tennis.

It was a week of weatherly contrasts, too. There was this:

And there was this:

Noah, Noah - what is a cubit ??

 But there was no football. The team Destructo Boy played for has fallen apart owing to adults behaving like toddlers - I am told there has been lots of stirring and back-biting, resulting in the main coach flouncing off resigning having cherry-picked the boys from his clique of favored parents. The squad has collapsed: what is left is being run by a couple of fathers who have some innovative ideas for training, but who lack experience and the ability to impose any kind of discipline. 

If I sound annoyed, it is because I am - Titch and I, as openly confessed non-football types, were not amongst the clique, and so Destructo Boy now has no team - we withdrew him from the ruins of the squad as he will have no opportunity to grow his skills.

I think what has amazed me the most is the behavior of the adults involved: parents of kids on the A team sneering at parents of kids on the B team, committee politics, lack of support from the main club - I am hoping that it is a football thing as opposed to a sport thing. On the plus side, now we have Friday evenings and Saturday mornings free to try other things which might actually set a good example for their youth sections.

Sorry about that - I am apparently not as over the whole thing as I thought I was.

So anyway. Our potatoes are planted, along with some peas, beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries and one solitary pumpkin plant. There had been 6 pepper plants, but snails reduced them to 0 overnight. I am awaiting delivery on 48 lavender plants ( a deal where they were free if you paid for delivery) which will form a nice scented hedgey thing in the front garden. All that I am on the look-out for now is a plum tree for planting in autumn. I need to mention that Titch has done most of the planting, nearly all of the watering, and all of the weeding. Yes, I know !

There has been knitting - I am taking part in a new MKAL by Kitman Figueroa, which should be even more interesting since I got the name muddled in my head, so I've been thinking of it as 'Summer Flowers'. When it should be, 'Wild Flowers'. So I may have chosen a totally inappropriate yarn .... but I am looking at that as part of the mystery: will it work, or not.

And now I must away, today's chore is to order Mini Diva's high school sweater and blouses so I can collect them at her 'Transition Day' in a month's time .... and hope they might still fit come September.

Short Report Card

Pagan Tarot

Half-term week was fabulous, not least because DH was home for the whole week. OK, that was mainly to take care of Wilhelmina the Volvo's MOT and any issues arising from that (a new tyre and whole set of brake discs and pads, so she is not a cheap date), but even so - we even had some grown-up time on our own, as the kids had a sleepover at Belo's, after which he put them to work weeding his garden.

Sure, I can tell you what we got up to, why wouldn't I ? 

We ate, drank, went to sleep early, and slept til late - as one ages, one begins to truly appreciate a long night of uninterrupted sleep all the way through until mid-morning. In separate beds. It was blissfully good.

But lest you think that all I did was lie around delicately munching peeled grapes, let me show you the front garden. It is only tiny, but what with the weather (drought then floods) and other things, I had really left it to itself for the last year and a half. It just shows you how messy Nature is when unsupervised:

And after a few hours and half a bottle a little sip of wine, we have this slightly less messy and with more gaps/spaces result:

 

 

Tottering away dragging my trowel behind me, I decided that the only thing that could possibly revive me would be more wine and a doner kebab the size of my head; then I collapsed in a catatonic heap of digestion ....

 But now I must be off and attempt to be productive - another shawl needs blocking. I finished it yesterday - binding it off took all afternoon (really, it was like a squillion million stitches AND a picot bind off) sitting in the sunshine; I have the sunburnt inside knee to show for it. How do you burn just the inside of one knee ? All these mysterious things that I never used to worry about.