Work In Progress Wednesday the Thirtieth

Good news - the Slytherin scarf is 99.9% done. All I have left is the fringe. The bad news? I ran out of the Knit Picks yarn I was using for the gray stripes. I could finish it with just green fringe instead of the green and gray fringe I was planning on, but that seems boring to me. Unfortunately Knit Picks no longer has any yarn in that that shade of gray available in Telemark. In fact, they seem to have all the Telemark marked as sell out, so I think they're getting rid of that brand. Knit Pick's Wool of the Andes has a similar shade, and it's the same weight and fiber, but they aren't going to have any more until February. I haven't been able to go to Michaels or Joanns yet to see if they have anything close. 

Several months ago I told a friend that I would make a baby blanket for her. Between working on the scarves and the wedding, I just didn't have time. Since it could possibly be awhile before the Slytherin scarf is done, I went ahead and finally started the blanket over the weekend. I, personally, LOVE granny squares, but I didn't want to do another one, and I didn't feel like another granny stripe. Then I found the granny ripple and I just knew I had to try it. 

It's actually pretty easy. However, I had some problem starting it because this pattern here said a baby blanket sized granny ripple afghan should be a 133 long chain, but that seemed too small. I did a 188 chain instead (which is supposed to be an adult sized blanket) They also said to keep your chain to length that is multiples of 11, but I had at least 5 left over when I started the first row, so I'm thinking they did the math wrong. But it could also be that I made a mistake when I was counting because I had this guy begging for my attention:

(Even now he is curled up on my arm as I type this blog)

Thankfully the left over stitches can be hidden by the trim. 

The other problem I've had is figuring out how to start the new color of yarn when it's time for a color change. When I did the granny square blanket and the granny stripe I had a certain way where I would tie things off and hide the left over yarn by the next row - I can't really do that on this one though, so I've been having to tie things off and weave the ends in as I go. It's a bit more work, but it looks nice!

The boys have also been good the past couple of days about being loving without attacking whatever I might be doing, so I've been able to get a lot done on the blanket even though I just started it.

You know how I said the boys were being loving but good? Well, I think they sense its been a rough couple of days for me. See, I was let go from my job yesterday. I had a feeling it was going to happen and I was already looking for a new job, so I'm not as upset about it as I have been when I've lost jobs in the past. It still sucks though. I'm hopeful that something will happen soon - that I'll either get a new job that's better then what I had before or that EDD will come through quickly.

There are upsides to being let go though: now I have more time to apply for jobs and now I don't have to worry about taking time off from work to go to interviews when I get them. Plus I'll be able to finally unpack those last couple of boxes from when we moved in April (there's always one or two) and I can work out (I plan to start walking every day) and knit, crochet and write of course. Maybe this is the opportunity I need to get one of my stories finally done, edited, and sent out to publishers (or self published as an ebook) So it's not all bad.

Who knows, like I said, something will happen. Something's got to. 

Check out Tami's Amis for more Works in Progress!