The past few days

Things have been a whirlwind this week.  My uncle passed away on Friday morning so we drove out to Texas for his Celebration of Life service.  It's been hard dealing with this death only 6 weeks after my father's.  I found today on my drive in to work that I'm rather emotional about everything.  It's going to be a difficult couple of months as I process all of this.  I certainly hope that nothing else happens because honestly I think I'm completely wrung out.

What did I do, you may ask, over these few days...well, lots actually.

I finished the basket and gave it to mom.  Pattern is here.

I also decided that it was time to finish Elizabeth's bath mat.

(this design is all my own, yarn is Lily's Sugar and Cream).

Then for the road, I knew I wanted something cheerful so I picked out this rainbow self-striping yarn from Twisted Fiber Arts.  Oh my...it's got cashmere in it and may be the softest sock yarn I've used.  LOVE.  Pattern is my favorite, Hermione's Everyday Socks.

(Don't you love the "rainbow" in front of the storm clouds?  We saw several rainbows on our drive out Monday morning...and not just on my knitting needles!)

And finally...yesterday when I was recuperating from 20 hours in the car in 2 days, I started putting some of my crochet squares together.  It was such fun and I was just cruising along and having a great time of it when I realized that I was really tired and should bathe and go to bed.  Really not fair how this sleep thing gets in the way.  I'm using a book of "99 Granny Squares" and my random mini skeins as well as the "magic ball" I'm making from my sock yarn scraps.  My blocks are all piled up and I'm picking out random squares to put together based on a random number generator.  I started with the horizontal bright yellow one in the bottom(ish) center and putting it together log-cabin style.  I have to add rows and borders and such to get everything to join up at the same size, but it's cool...more fun taking some of those Granny ideas and making them rows instead of rounds...interesting thought experiment.  I'm joining with a reddish brown Malabrigo Sock yarn which is divine.  It's SO fun putting these together and I love how it's turning out.   I gotta get to crocheting more squares...this afghan wants to be a big one, I think.

I'll have more daddy stories next week.  Right this very minute I have to report for academic advising (I'm the advisor, though I really wonder about the logic of that! ha!)