It’s really just a beautiful day out there today. Upper 60s and sunny–far too pretty a day to stay inside, so this morning, Mom, Chappy and I went into town.

We stopped and got coffee first (for me and Mom) and then found a bench and just sat to watch the people go by.

Then we went for a walk, and look at this tree–Mom pointed this out. It looks like a row of frogs sitting on the branch. We walked all over town, and nicely wore out Chappy (and Mom).

If there were any doubts that Spring is coming, though, I’ve got evidence. Chappy pulled me into one of the little parks apparently just so that I would see these sprouts. (Daffodils? Crocuses? I have no idea.)

We made a quick stop at the grocery store for some carrots and pineapple because I’ve been craving carrot cake. (Actually, I got baby food strained carrots–would you believe my favorite carrot cake recipe starts with baby food? SO much easier than grating the carrots myself.)

And, otherwise, it’s been a lazy afternoon.

I’ve been thinking about my afghan, though, and worrying about running out of yarn. Which is probably silly. My border–which I started last night–is about a foot wide, and being knitted on, but since it gets two knit rows for every stitch that’s joined at the afghan … that is, knit a row, join to the afghan by knitting the last stitch together with a stitch on the afghan, and then turn, slip the first stitch and knit that row … you’re knitting two rows for every one you connect to the afghan, which could make this border really, really long.

But, I was looking over the instructions at the back of Victorian Lace Today (one of the very few books that has instructions on how to knit a border, joining it to the finished piece as you go), and while it recommends knitting into every stitch on the cast-on/cast-off row, while working up the sides, you knit into every other row … so that the side border ends up having the same number of rows. Which makes me feel better. There was no way I was going to have enough yarn for that wide a border if I was knitting two, full border rows (102 stitches) for every stitch and row around the outside edge.

I’ll have a better idea, though, when I’ve used up the first ball of yarn and seen how much border I get per skein.

I wonder if it would be more thrifty in terms of yardage) to simply knit the borders separately and then sew them on? Although … ugh.

Okay–I’m tired now, too, so I’m going to go curl up on the couch with Chappy and a book until it’s time to make the frosting for the cake!

Oh! And go send Jessica some get-well thoughts, would you?

Tags: General // 5 Comments »