Finally Finished!

Last evening I finally finished crocheting the motifs for the Christmas Star afghan, sewing them in place and crocheting the border all around. Then...I stayed up pretty darn late to work in all the loose ends on the back. I do like how it turned out and it will make a nice, festive addition to the holiday decorations this year.

Concurrently I've been working on a baby afghan to give as a gift to the daughter of a friend. It's not far enough along to make taking a picture worth it yet.

Progressing

Still making progress on the Star afghan. Last evening I was able to complete the entire first row of red stars and the left border. Only one green and two and a half red stars left and, of course, the rest of the right side border and the couple of green rows that will go around the whole thing.

The star afghan is coming along nicely. By my estimation, without actually counting, I think I'm over half done now. Here's the latest picture.


The exciting news of late is I got notification this morning that one of the articles from my Awakenings blog got published on the Watershed web site. Watershed is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba (yeah, Canada), dedicated to integrating Spirit and Learning and contains many good articles and book and movie reviews. Their url is: http://www.watershedonline.ca/whatsnew/whatsnew.html
(After clicking on the above link, scroll down to see the link to my article "Blind Spots".)

Star Update

Progress on the Christmas Star afghan is moving along steadily. Lately the hot and humid weather has keep me indoors in the AC comfort quite a bit and that along with the evenings have given me lots of crochet time. Guess I could have laid it out straighter but...you get the idea. The green motifs on the right are part of the right side border.

Moving Along...

Yesterday I wanted a change of pace so I headed out to the retreat center, where I'll be leading groups with reflections and retreats, for a few hours and for lunch. I took along the sketchy notes I wrote late one night for the class I'll be leading in September and managed to get a good working outline, timeline and the hand-outs done. Amazing what a change of scenery can do for my productivity in that area.


Then last evening, after mowing the lawn (thank you Mother Nature for the rain and the once again green and growing grass), I was back at it working on the Christmas star afghan. Today I sewed last night's motifs in place which now includes part of the left-hand border. (The sides will be straight and the top and bottom will remain zig-zagged.) More motifs will probably be made tonight. I'm liking how it's shaping up. When I have all the motifs made and sewn in place, a dark green edging will be crocheted around the whole afghan. Wonder how long it will take me to finish this project...

Keeping Busy

Yesterday I took Simon to a movie but...before picking him up I just had to stop and pick up more yarn. I had a pattern in mind and did buy the yarn for that but while I was deciding on a color, I found this Christmas Star afghan pattern (one of those free ones that they have hanging by the yarn). So...I bought the yarn for this one too! Last evening I started working on a few of the motifs and got the red star finished. Today I treated Sara to a movie - we went to see "Julie and Julia" and it was hilarious and great! Wow, that Meryl Streep is quite the versitle actress! Late this afternoon and this evening I went back at it on the afghan and got this far:



There will be another row of red stars to the right of the green ones and a border around the whole thing. The pattern says the finished product will be 45" x 72". I'm thinking this one is going to be a keeper.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain...

This is the second day in a row of rain here but it is so very welcome. The lawn is actually green again after being that all too familiar July crunchy brown for way longer than a month! Sure glad we decided to go camping last weekend and not this one :~) The campground we were at celebrated Christmas in July complete with a decorations contest (I just took along a string of our outside blue icicle lights to hang on the canopy), a golf cart parade, and a quite good fireworks display on Saturday night. The days were warm, but not too hot, and the night cool - just right to catch some good sleep. Simon and Dan did a whole lot of swimming and some fishing; Pugs and I went on long walks. The campground covers 30 mostly wooded acres so there was a lot to see on our walking ventures. For a little while on Saturday afternoon, Dan and Simon took a break to play cards for a while - three games to determine the "all time winner". The final score: Simon 2; Dan 1.

This past week I continued working on the moss green afghan and finally finished it last night. This is one project I'm glad is finished. It was a pretty simple pattern and got a bit monotonous to be repeating the same row over and over and over again. But I like how it turned out and think it just may be someone's Christmas gift this year.
(Click on the picture to see the detail better, then click the back arrow on your browser to return here.)

Other than that, I've been tending to the garden, harvesting some beans, beats and small zucchini (to cut up and add to my pasta sauce); trying to keep a handle on the house clutter (sometimes a nearly impossible task); and gathering ideas and working out an outline for my first offering at the retreat center slated for Sept. 19th. Since this one is so "soon" it will be advertised in local papers but I think at some time between now and then it will appear on the center's website. So...I've added a link to that site if anyone is interested in checking it out.