Flushed with success

Do you see those happy, smiling faces??? Those are faces of knitters who have just spent 2.5 hours on their knees and "arses" (as the Yarn Harlot would say) sewing the garter stitch red border strips to the completely assembled blanket. Our faces show a mixture of pride, relief and pain--none of us are young enough to sit or kneel on the floor that long, with legs under or splayed out. The five of us are only half of the group, but we are the ones who put in the last stitch! Dee, second from the right, has the unwelcome job of weaving in all the remaining ends. Although, after I wove in about 35,000 ends 10 days ago, there are not many remaining. Click on the photo to see a larger image.
Here is the blanket in all its splendor. I had a hard time getting a good, non-distorted image without a wide angle lens. And, somehow the ugly fireplace ended up taking a prominent place in the photo as well.

In addition, I finished another strip of 11 squares for my daughter's similar but not so artistic left over sock yarn blanket. Unfortunately, the socks I've been making recently have used up nearly all of the yarn in the balls. For example, the upper right corner has a yellowish square that used up every inch of the leftover yarn from those socks. Same story with the square that is third from the top right.

I now have two friends who are making similar blankets. However they aren't following THE RULES. That is, they purchase sock yarn specifically for the purpose of making squares for the blanket. Whereas, my original RULES required using only left over sock yarn. That is, I have to make a pair of socks first, then use the remaining yarn for the blanket. However, since I have been getting only one square per pair of socks, and there are now 110 squares in the blanket and I will need at least 36 more squares, that means 36 more pair of socks...... I think I may also bend the rules. My friends are swapping sock yarn. Therefore, if they give me some of their remaining sock yarn, the yarn is--technically speaking--leftover, even though the skein was not originally used to make socks. What do you think?? Am I cheating if I bend the rules???
Here is an example of the problem. Do you see this sock?? I have two skeins of JaWoll sock yarn--should be enough to make two socks with a little left over for a square for the blanket, wouldn't you think??

Look carefully at this toe. I had to add solid grey in two row stripes at the toe to extend the yarn enough just to finish the sock!! I must admit that the striping solution worked beautifully, but it means that my plan to knit socks to generate left over yarn will not work.

Mother Nature has bent the rules about spring here in the upper Midwest. The daffodils and tulips were luxuriating in the warmer spring weather and poking up their hopeful heads this weekend when, wham!, Mother Nature sent 6 inches of wet, sloppy snow!! This was after some nights of freezing that bent the flower stems and flattened most of the blossoming daffodils and tulips. However, this little ice coated guy remained upright in the gloom of the dreary, cold day. He gave us hope that spring would eventually come!!


The birch clump in front of our house was especially burdened with the soft wet snow. The clump split in two, with the branches of each side nearly touching the ground, even after I tried to shake off the snow.
Our wind vane was frozen in place and did not move, despite the strong winds.



I hope spring is coming more quickly in your area. I feel positively lighthearted today--there is sunshine and the snow is melting. We can again see green grass in some spots!! The trees are now standing upright again and by tomorrow I should be able to take stock of the daffodils and tulips to see what has survived Mother Nature's test of our patience and belief in springtime!!