Scarf fever

I've got scarf fever!  My knitting obsession seems to have turned to scarves.  I'm choosing to ignore my list of about 80 things I'd planned to knit for the summer & instead, I'm madly knitting wool scarves.  At least I know I'll be warm come winter.

Yesterday, I finished this beauty:

I started with a mitered square and turned it into a loooooong rectangle.  The yarns are Knit Pick's Palette and a Jawoll Magic knit on US 3 needles.  It took me several tries, but I'm happy with the outcome.  I'd started out using only the Jawoll but the scarf was eating yarn like crazy & I decided I wouldn't have enough.  I frogged that & started over using a coordinating blue Palette & the Jawoll but although the two skeins looked great sitting next to each other, the knit stripes weren't so hot.  I frogged it again & gave the black a try.  Hats off to the Jawoll for surviving two froggins!

Rather than weaving in the ends & blocking it, I promptly cast on for another scarf.

I'm not sure I like  how the stripes are falling on the chevron pattern but I'm hoping it will grow on me.   The yarn is Patons Kroy Socks which I've used many times and the needles are Knit Pick's interchangeables, size US 4.  Have I mentioned how glad I am to finally have a set of interchangeables?    I love my interchangeables!  They are like my Kindle.  I thought I was probably throwing away money when I bought both the Kindle & the interchangeables, but everyone else had one so....  Turns out, Everyone was right!  They each quickly proved their value & became prized possessions.

Well, it's a cool, rainy day here & the couch & afghan (hand knit, of course!) are calling.  I think it's definitely time for a rare afternoon nap.
   

Champions!

Wow!  I've been horrible about blogging.  I blame many things; laziness, an obsession over my recent knitting projects, and my son's bowling & work schedules.  The boy child recently got his first job working as a mechanic at a bowling alley.  He's in Heaven!  The glitch is, he still doesn't have his driver's license & he doesn't get off work until 1 a.m.  And the bowling alley is an hour away from home.  Which means, I am surviving on about 3 hours of sleep at night since we don't get home  until 2:00 or 2:30 a.m. and that %$#@%^ loud, chirpy, morning-loving-bird starts making a racket at 6 a.m.  By 6:30 a.m., the woodpecker has joined in and any hope for additional sleep is lost.

I've also been spending a lot of time watching my son bowl recently.  The Youth YBA season was winding down & there have been lots of tournaments & end of the season hoop-la to attend.  Besides the regular schedule of bowling 4 days a week, there was the awards banquet for Zack's regular youth league.  Zack brought home several trophies, lots of patches (so many that for the first time, I'm thankful that he nails them to his bedroom wall instead of asking me to sew them onto something) and a ring.

Zack was presented with the ring for rolling an 820 set which was a youth record breaker.  It's a really nice ring, sterling silver & has his name, date & score engraved on the inside.  Sadly, he didn't get to hold his place as a record breaker for long.  Another local youth, Austin Washington (hope I have his name correct) rolled an 825 this past week.  I'm not positive  he rolled it during sanctioned league play though, so it may not count as an official score.

Zack's travel league also came to an end, with, wait for it.....  AMF Sunset becoming league CHAMPIONS!  AMF never wins, a Bowl America team always does, but not this year!  I'm so proud of the kids!  The last two games of the season were quite tense & the kids handled that stress much better than the parents!  Way to go kids!

It was a bit of a bitter sweet victory for us though.  It marked the end of Zack's youth bowling career.  He still has the State tournament in June & the Jr. Gold tournament in July, but this past weekend was the end of his youth team play.  My baby is growing up!

Meanwhile, amongst all the bowling, I've been getting a little knitting done.

I finished the mitered square afghan.

Pardon the messy desk.  After weaving in all those blasted little ends, I realized that I didn't have a decent place to photograph it.  I'm quite happy with the way it turned out and I used up lots of little scrap balls, although I probably still have enough to make another.  Shhh.....  don't let me have that thought for a while.  I have other projects I need to focus on instead of making another afghan.  Anyway, it was knit with fingering weight wool on #2 needles.  Fifteen rows of eight squares, and each square contains 440 stitches for a grand total of 52,800 stitches.  Hmm, sort of wish I hadn't done the math!

Yesterday I finished a chevron scarf.  It was knit with Patons Kroy Socks & a #4 needle.  I've said it before & I'll say it again, for "cheap" craft store yarn, it doesn't get much better than Patons Kroy.  I used 2 full skeins and I still need to weave in the ends & block it.  I have one skein left & I'm trying to decide if I should knit matching fingerless gloves or a hat.

And to prove that I have done something other than knit & hang out in bowling alleys,

The spinach is starting to come up although it still looks more like rows of weeds than spinach.

I also got a few tomato plants planted.