Now she knits, too!

My longtime quilter friend, Rosemary, has been hosting a monthly get-together at her home for a few quilter friends.  The funny thing is, instead of quilting, we are all knitting!

 We have not given up our quilting by any means, but the portablility of a knitting project has won us over.  Come in, sit down and start knitting.  No sewing machines to unload from the car.

I haven't done any knitting since the obligatory baby sweater when my children were born.  (What? That's not a requirement?) , but my mother and sister are avid knitters and always have a project going.  My sister  Joanne practically never leaves the house without taking her knitting with her.  She brings it out and knits a few rows at every opportunity.

I decided that an afghan would be a nice longterm project that would keep my fingers occupied at our monthly get-togethers but that I would be in no rush to finish.  First and foremost, I am a quilter, and I have lots of quilts to keep me warm, so it almost felt like a betrayal to start knitting an afghan.

I found a free pattern that I really liked, and shopped around for a sale on yarn. Afterall, I am a quilter, and I don't want to spend a lot of fabric money on yarn.

I found a lovely, soft, variegated yarn at my local craft shop.  There was plenty of it, it was on sale, and it passed my sister Joanne's softness test.  (Joanne's softness test:  Hold the skein of yarn against your neck and determine if you could wear a scarf made from it without itching.) 

The colors in the yarn I picked vary from cranberry to rose to jade to moss to beige.  It didn't make me think of Christmas until I saw the name the yarn company had given  it which was "Holiday".  Undaunted, I bought it anyway and decided that it didn't scream Christmas too much.

The pattern I'm using can be found here.  The afghan is made in strips and then sewn together.  I decided to make it bigger than the pattern calls for.   This was going to be my longterm, no-rush, keep-my-hands-busy, take-along project.  Afterall, I am a quilter.

I started knitting in August.

Fast forward just 2 months later.  I have completed 6 of the 7 strips needed, and am halfway done with number 7.  After that,  I just have to sew them all together.

I think this afghan might be done within a couple more weeks, and when that happens, I will be in need of another longterm project.  Longterm?  It reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride:

"I don't think that word means what you think it means"!