Passing the Time Away

You might wonder what I'm doing all day while John is at work.  Well, there's the typical housekeeping and laundry, grocery shopping and research for John's off-hours.  But I also knit and crochet.  I haven't done it in years though.  I made afghans for all the grandkids using their favorite colors, but new grandkids have come along that I haven't made afghans for.  Christmas is coming.  Maybe I should catch up on those grandkids.  You know how us mommas are about making things even...

I begin looking around for yarn.  Figures, Kauai doesn't have much call for knitted product.  My ever true Wal-Mart has some Red Heart yarn and some Simply Soft.  Those are always good, basic yarns.  The color palette isn't to die for, but it'll do.  So I begin.  Those other afghans were a knitted ripple pattern.  Now if I can just remember how... Circular needles size 8, Red Heart yarn, verify favorite colors with parents, (make a note of those in the handy-dandy iPhone), 180 stitches, and I'm off!

Now I remember!  I'm gettin' the hang of it!  This one's for Alexis.

And, just like that, I'm done!

Now, how does it look compared to the ones I knitted several years ago for the oldest grandkids?

Not too bad.  Red Heart seems a more durable yarn than Simply Soft, and I want these kids to USE these afghans.  They love puppies and kittens and really anything that breathes so the afghans have to not only be kids safe, they have to be pet safe, too.  I think this will work.

Now for Eliana.  Her momma helps me chose the yarn colors. (That's another advantage of shopping Wal-Marts.  She went to Wal-Mart in Texas, called on my cell phone, I'm standing in Wal-Mart in Lihue, and we work out which colors to use.  What a deal!)

Now, for Nina, her favorite color is yellow.  I had bought some home-sheared,hand made , hand dyed yarn in Connecticut that was a varigated yellow.  It's not Red Heart, but I think it's sturdy enough and basically the same weight...  Yup, I think I'll work that into Nina's.

Eliana's and Nina's finished product side by side:

See the Connecticut varigated yarn at the top (well, actually, middle - but over the back of the chair it's the top).  Colors worked out pretty good, huh?

Now for Calin's.  All of the other grandsons (three of them) chose camoflouge as their favorite color.  Calin is too young to say his favorite, so I decided to make his camo, too.

It's taken a bit over two weeks for each afghan.  It's mid-November.  I have some time left before I have to package these up and send them to Texas.  I think I'll throw in some ponchos and snowhats!