Sampler Afghan With My Sampler Square

Here is a sampler afghan a going away present f0r a fellow fiber artist made up of 20 different sampler 12 x 12 inch squares each from a different knitter and/or crocheter and afghan squares all crocheted together and all finished with a crocheted border.

Afghan measures roughly 4.5 ft x 5.5 ft

My own square is the pink one on the very bottom edge 3rd from the left side and is of Ella Rae worsted weight yarn made in Romania. Knitted in diagonal garter stitch which guarantees a perfect square with very little casting on and no binding off at all.

Ta se nios teo na an diabhail Irish language It is hotter than the devil

Ni raibh se ro-chompoirdeach la ina dhiadh la...bhi se nios teo na an diabhail. Rothe agus rothais dom. Ta suil agam go mbeidh se nios fionnuaire agus nios tirime De hAoine.

Nil fonn ar bith orm cniotail a dheanamh ag an am seo. Afach, b'fheidir go dtiocfaidh fonn orm oiche Deardaoin a chniotail aris le mo ghrupa cniotala.

Ta mata banchorchra na gcat agam a aththosnu. Sin a chaoi, thosaigh me e, agus ansin, bhi fadhb le mo mheir mar gheall ar an meid sin chniotala. B'eigean dom mo chniotail a stopadh le coicis.

Bhfuel, fan go bhfeicfidh me oiche Deardaoin an gcniotail no nach gcniotail me.

Translation:
It was not to comfortable day after day. It was hotter than the devil. Too hot and too humid for me. I hope it will be cooler and dryer on Friday.

I don't want to knit at this time. However, maybe I will want to knit again with my knitting group Thursday night.

I have a lavender cat mat to restart. That is the way it is, I started it and then there was a problem with my finger because so much knitting. I had to stop my knitting for 2 weeks.

Well, I will see Thursday night whether or not I knit.

finished laptop cover and its liner

Here is what it looks like finished with wooden button in front acting as closure and here is a pictorial sample of the Chinse silk brocade liner that went into the inside of this bag. Unfortunately, this digital camera shot does not give a good close-up view of the beautiful cable knitting on the front and back of this bag.

This shiny silk brocade liner has a nice bamboo leave design woven into it.

If using this bag for a laptop cover this silk liner facilitates sliding the laptop in and out of this bag.

A kitten named Blue

This kitten named Blue by a good knittng friend of mine named Debbie stayed at my house for a few days until Debbie could get ready for him and his good health was vet-verified. She then took him into her home and her 2 other cats ('Scilla-'Scilla and Toby) have come to like and to accept him.

These 3 kitties all sleep with Debbie (mycatsmy kids) at night and all are very happy indeed.

She is both a great cat-mom and a great friend knittng and otherwise as well.

She has been knitting for a long time and is has been a great help with my knitting.

Anyway, Blue and her other kitties enjoy the cat bed I knitted for them (seen under projects in skein123 or on my blog "The Yarn Guy".)

New Yarn Projects

Working on a cable-knit laptop cover (pattern "Aran Pocketbook" from Bags - a Knitter's dozen). Shown on the left is a detail of the cabling of this laptop cover.

got the cabling all done front and back and now onto a triangular flap f0r the front of the bag. That part done by Wednesday of next week all purling and a p2tog decrease in every row until down to 8 remaining stitchesThen work on getting the remaining point of the flap ready for a button hole. Then knit the bag's strap.

Then block the bag, sew a lining into the inside of the bag and then sew the strap into the base and form the sides with the strap.

And then to sew a button on the front.

When this is finished, I will gift a 12" x 12" square toward an "oddball" afghan made of squares that of which no two squares are alike that is a collaborative effort.

Then onto knitting a flat " 24" x 24" cat mat" with no sides with a pastel fun fur yarn and a similar color of medium-weight yarn "knitted together as one" for a lady with 2 cats that will likely use it.

Three Tables Full of Knitters at this Cafe

That is typical for a Tuesday night I was told to see three tables full of knitters, so full that people had to draw up extra chairs and wedge themselves in at the corners of these table any way they can dodging plates of food and wine glasses etc and knit all at the same time.
I get just about 6 knitters at the most on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month that I hold my knitting group. We sometimes have to join 2 tables together.

This place is called Adega Wine Cellars in downtown Silver Spring, (MD suburbs neighboring on DC) my town for the last 9 years. This downtown area has around Adega has seen a huge change that ended in about 2000 and was onc of the crowning achievements of the administration of our previous county executive Doug Duncan a true visionary for renewal. This and the revitalization of the Strathmore music hall in neighboring Rockville, which now has concerts again. He contributed a lot to making our county a great place to live. This area is very attractive now in a downtown that was stagnating and a bit decayed. This area of several blocks was demolished and blossomed anew with 2 cinemas and a stage for plays, endless great dining choices including Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, parking garages, apartment buildings close in to all this vitality, Pier One, a gym and pool, Whole Foods Market, hardware store, fashionable clothing store for women, convenient hardware store, Adega Wine Cellars (where you can have wine by the glass or buy the whole bottle, full cafe style menu and table space ideal for knitters, scrumptious deserts) Baja Fresh for great freshly made Mexican food.

This area is always popular but is jam-packed with people on Friday and Saturday nights dining out, grocery shopping at Whole Foods Market and going to the movies.

Goodness Gracious, How Could I Misspell "Ravelry?"

Sorry, I suppose not enough tea, coffee or Solmate bought from My Organic Market aka. as MOM (From "sol" Spanish for "sun" and mate as in yerba mate....) causing tendencies such as turning Ravelry into "Raverly" and other such terrible things. I love Ravelry, really do, keeps me away from even my favorites Will and Grace on TV, and Vicar of Dibley on DVDs...

(Yerba mate....a South American plant made into a tea traditionally sipped from a "bombilla" or gourd with a straw placed in it......this slightly carbobated and delightfully fizzy drink Solmate derived from that gives energy "without the jitters of coffee" according to the label.... Prefer the lemon-lime flavor, somewhat less bitter-tasting than the original Solmate)

Oh well, now that my blog is now tuned to Ravelry I trust my friends in Ravelry will chuckle over "Raverly", my oh my, did he actually spell it "that way?"

Anywho, on to my morning stimulant.