About two weeks ago, I posted a long (LONG) list of things that I would like to get knit this summer. Most of them were afghans. Something about living in the Northeast, where winters can be unpredictable at best, neccesitates having afghans and other warmth at night. The girls, and truth be told, the Flyer too will tell you that if I would only give in and turn up the thermostat a little, we wouldn't need the extra layers. But, in addition to the whole morbid fascination with the great Hereafter that Lola chatted about a few days back, our mother raised us to tolerate the cold. I think I've mentioned that at our grandparents' farm, we - Lola, the Other Sister, and me - would sleep in one full-size bed in the winter not because we loved each other so much, but because we were afraid that we might freeze to death otherwise. Frost on the bedroom walls will do that to a person.

So, back to the afghans. I have about three currently in pieces of some kind or the other. The girls will each get one as a lap blanket for school in the fall. Why a lap blanket? First of all, dorms are notoriously hot . . . hotter than they can even realize in, which will make Veronica happier than I can put into words. But a lap blanket also because I just can't knit any more on these projects without going batshit crazy. The only two that will make it to full-size afghans are the Great American Afghan and the Rambling Rows Afghan. Thankfully, only one of those has been started: the GAA. It started out as a class at the knit shop and one that I resisted for a good, long while. I know myself - monogamy is great in marriage . . . not in knitting. However, now that the class is over, I am forcing myself to finish the damn thing, one square at a time. Tricia taught the class and sent out notes for each meeting, so I am simply ticking my way through the order that she established for the afghan (albeit not in January like the current square was intended). For some reason, most of the squares that are finished have been light gray, but you can see other lovelier shades in the completed pile. I concentrated on shades of green, aqua, gray, and a few shades of gold to balance it out (thanks, Joanne!). If I continue in this manner, I just may have an afghan to keep me warm come November . . . but don't quote me on that. The lovely Olive's Afghan? The Tuesday knit night group decided to knit an afghan for Erin, who is getting married in August. We (fine, me) created this elaborate story about knitting for a raffle in Ohio and got Erin to knit a strip for her own afghan . . . hopefully she has forgiven us.

The girls have pretty much been out of school since last Thursday as they don't have to take finals. Other than three days worth of graduation practice, they are done with the whole high school thing. The Flyer and I have been cleaning and weeding and cleaning and weeding for the past two weeks now. There are muscles in my body that I long ago thought ceased to work. Every day brings a new project that I forgot about and a matching bruise, which serves as a reminder that I am a crap housekeeper. One of the good things that came out of this whole cleaning binge was Freecycle. Several items in the house were still in good working order, and once listed on our local Freecycle group, went really quickly. If you haven't given it a try, I highly recommend it.

The family begins trickling in on Thursday afternoon when the Other Sister flies in from Nebraska. After that, it should be wine and beer for four days straight with liberal amounts of food and tears. I told Lola that I think I need to get a good long crying jag out of the way this week . . . but something tells me that it might be an impossibility as I have my end-of-the-year field trip, awards ceremony, and grade level field day this week . . . the girls may be done with school, but I am about a week and a half away from channeling my inner Alice Cooper and shouting, "School's out for summer!"
Ava (who promises to post more about the class with Annie Modesitt)
PS - I'll get my own personal final playlist up sometime soon, and while I love the Marshall Tucker song "Heard It In a Love Song," it won't make the list. The group is in town for the newly created Pocono NASCAR fest for the first race weekend . . . and it's a traffic nightmare.