This and that and a few threads

There are six columns in my flower afghan and eight rows.  48 granny squares.  4 borders each.  When I am done with this thing, I’m going to count approximately how many stitches there are in the entire thing.  Squares, borders, the whole thing.  And I’m going to figure out about how long this blanket has taken me.  I am fairly certain I am going to be appalled by the number of hours, but not surprised, exactly.

All six columns are now assembled, and two have been stitched together.  If you’re wondering, yes, this feels exactly like making a quilt, except FAR MORE labor intensive.  I never thought anything could be as labor-intensive as a quilt, but I was wrong.  After the columns are stitched together, then there are two borders of different color.  I could have just done one, however, I had to buy an entire new skein of red yarn to finish the last two red squares, so it’s getting a red border.

Meanwhile, I tried out a few stitches on my  birches quilt.  Take a look, because that’s the last you’ll see of them.  They’re supposed to be waves, but I definitely did not like and I ripped them out.  I think I know what I’m doing now (haha, sure).  Tell you what, all I’ll commit to is that I’ll try the next one I thought of, and I’ll show it to you regardless of whether or not I like it.  I can’t promise to keep it.

I wish my camera showed the color variation in the blue fabric well … the warp and weft are different colors, and it gives it an interesting depth.  The weft is the blue that you see, but the warp threads that were used are silvers and golds.  It’s so pretty.  Unfortunately, that means that most of the blue and gold embroidery threads I’d chosen do not show up at all.  Bummer.

To take a break from big projects, I keep cooking, hopefully nothing too hard.  I find I’ve been liking pureed soups for their simplicity and how tasty the simmered ingredients can be when blended.  Last week I invented some zucchini soup with basil, which I enjoyed very much.  I just looked for a similar recipe online with no luck – this one’s not chilled or curried or made with dairy or mushrooms or whatever else, so I’ll have to write it down sometime.

This week I tried my hand at African Peanut Soup, but made it a whole lot spicier than the recipe indicated (honestly, 1/8 tsp of cayenne in a tomato/peanut butter soup is nothing!  That’s not even respectable!).  I even made my own peanut butter for it, because I have a food processor, and I can.  I fell in love with the peanut soup at a local restaurant and had to try making it, and this is pretty darn close.  It was also pretty simple, even though I made the peanut butter.  Plus, I then got to mix the leftover peanut butter with honey, which I will apply to graham crackers later.  Winner!

I will leave you with The Two Troublemakers.  Oh, and they certainly are.  Audrey got a good report on her health the other day – she will probably never be totally well again, but we are told her recovery so far is unusual and really very good.  She’s out of the woods.  Callie, on the other hand, is completely well and leaping tall buildings and all that, and getting fatter and fluffier by the day.  She’s a year and a half old now, and thank pete she’s not a kitten anymore.  That was just a nightmare.  I’m kind of dreading spring as our temperatures climb above 85F – what will she be like when she sheds?! O the horror!

In the immortal words of Chevy Chase in National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation: “Later dudes.”