yes, I'm still alive...just neglecting my blog

It's probably a good thing I dont have a new dog yet, I'd probably be neglecting it as much as I've neglected my blog this winter.

Not a whole lot new and exciting here. I finished an afghan that I'd started last fall.

We installed a new fireplace in our basement after last fall/winter's exciting little episode with the old fireplace.

and my dad finished a few afghans he was knitting.

and I think that's pretty much it.

The afghan I made is crocheted, and it was the Log Cabin Quilt pattern on the Lion Brand web site. (too lazy to look for the link right now) I used Bernat Berella "4" to make it.

The knitted afghans that my dad made were done with Lion Brand Thick & Quick (wool blend I think?) The one on my bed with my Kindle reading sock monkey was done in strips. My dad just did garter stitch back and forth and just changed colors when he felt like it. No planning to it at all. I dont think any of the colors repeat in that afghan, and he just basically stuck his hand into his yarn stash and pulled up a color.

The other afghan was also done in strips, and it's some sort of a feather & fan pattern. He learned how to knit when he was stationed in Alaska in the 1960s. He ran out of comic books to read so one of the nurses taught him how to knit. She showed him that pattern and he memorized it. I'm amazed he can remember it so many years later.

The F&F afghan was sort of a scrap afghan. It started out that way, and then he ran out of scraps from the first afghan, so we had to go to the store to buy yarn. He would knit 10 repeats (or was it rows?) of the pattern until he had the length he wanted. Then he just sewed the strips together. He put a lot more planning into this afghan than the first one, because he wanted the F&F afghan to look good. I think it turned out great. I almost claimed it, but decided that it would be nice to send to my sibling, so my dad shipped it to my sibling's family.

I crocheted the edgings onto both of his knitted afghans. He wanted them to look a bit more finished, and I dont think he remembers how to crochet. (I think he knew how to single crochet at one point, because one of my first crochet hooks was his! I still have it. But, he might have used the crochet hook to fringe some afghans) I'm trying to teach him how to crochet, but he's better at knitting with two sticks than crocheting with one hook.

I need to get him to teach me how to do the feather and fan pattern. So far all I really do with knitting is knit and purl. But nothing fancy.