Thursday morning random

* Worked more on the knitted blanket last night. I have 9 of 14 repeats done, so I guess I'm getting there.

* The next thing I want to start blanket-wise is a ripple-style crocheted blanket. I have a bunch of DK yarn (one of those cake things - Lion Brand's "Cupcake). The pattern I downloaded from Ravelry, from HanJan Crochet.....I tried to start it yesterday (foolishly) in the hope of it being a simple carry along project for while waiting at the doctor and it didn't go well.

For one thing; the number of chains to start with seems too few by a good bit. That's easily fixed if you know the repeat length (you just increase by a few repeats) but if they're off on that....what else might they be off on?

I really want a pattern where, once I get it set up, it's not complicated counting, or ideally, it's no counting. One of the things that slows me down a lot on a lot of projects is having to keep close count as I'm often working on these things when I'm tired and am trying to divide my attention between what I'm working on and TV or surfing the net.

Anyone have a favorite ripple blanket crochet pattern (ideally as an online/ravelry pattern, I'd rather not buy yet another book....pattern need not be free but a book often runs $20 when patterns are closer to $7. And then you have to store the book). It doesn't HAVE to be specifically for DK weight as long as the repeat count is given (so I can add more repeats as necessary). Ideally one that has less counting/paying attention or where you can at least tell where you are in it when you get going.

* I did buy two more cakes of Cupcake in that colorway ("Cherry Blossom") just in case I needed more yarn. Not the same dyelot but I doubt with a stripey yarn it matters quite as much.

* I also picked up my most recent quilt (Actually, did that late Tuesday afternoon after the tree guys got done). The quilt shop finally got it done - I took it in in April, I think. (They normally don't take that long but one of the two owners was sick for quite a while and her sister - who does the quilting - had to handle the shop, and so couldn't do the quilting during that time, and then one of them was gone to Market, I guess). I knew it was going to be delayed and I told them that was fine, I wasn't on any deadline.

So at some point I need to bind it. (I am trying to shut up my jerk brain which is going on about "better do it in the next two weeks!")

* I told them that soon I'd have another quilt to take in (I have this one that's been ready for a couple months, and I even have backing ready to go for it (extra wide backing, so no seaming). The young woman working there (don't know if she's the quilter or not; I have a hard time telling the sisters apart) said that they had things pretty much back under control but I'm also sure with a big quilt that it will take longer.

(Maybe I take it in in the next couple days, as a promise to myself that there WILL be a "future me" to pick it up - and yes, I am still dealing with bad premonitions about the thing coming up)

Really what I want to do is finish the Tabula Recta one and get it in, but I suspect that will be much longer, given how many pieces it is, so it probably makes sense to take that nine patch one in and get them started on it.

* I'm still working on the quilt in the frame. I have a few candidates for the "next hand quilted quilt" when it's done but that will also be a while, because I still have quite a bit to do on this one, and I have to still figure out what to do in the border squares (which are just plain. The four patches I am doing with big cross-hatching but I'm thinking of doing something a little more elaborate in the border squares.

* I've also tentatively promised myself that the reward for going through the whole thing will be a couple more pairs of those Hot Chocolate brand shoes I like. (Yes, they're kind of silly, but the more sedate designs mostly work with some of my work clothes). I might even try a pair of the platforms - I can't do the heels, they're too high for my screwed up hips and ankles, but the platforms are lower and don't have the same "slant" as the heels do....and I've had some shoes in the past that approached a 2" heel...the heels on the pumps there are 4", which I could not do.

* But yeah. I'm tired today. This week has been a month - both Tuesday, with dealing with the downed tree limb and being stuck and home, and yesterday, with the whole consult thing.I really just want to sleep more but I know I can't. (I woke up at 3 for the bathroom, took forever to fall back asleep, woke again around 5, slept a little more....but wound up getting slightly after 6)

I think I'm going to take today off from working out even though I took yesterday off, too. (Well, maybe after piano lesson I go out and cut brush if it's not too hot). I kind of hurt. I think I just tensed up a lot yesterday - first, when I missed the turn into the medical building and had to make what felt like (but probably wasn't) a 10-mile loop back (because of the one-way streets) and then just tense over....well, everything. My shoulders hurt.

* Maybe I do something fun this weekend. I don't know what. It's supposed to get hot midweek next week. (And I have bell choir practice midmorning Saturday, can't forget that. We play Sunday at church and we're still a little rocky on the piece. It's a complicated piece and we're "ensemble ringing" which means each of us (there are four of us doing this) has about six bells apiece we have to pick up and put down at different points. We're doing the Gaither song "Get All Excited," which is also complicated in that it has some "weird" accidentals in it.

(Then we take a break for August, and I guess the whole choir reassembles in the fall)