Man, this is an interesting summer.

I don't know how things go at your house, but here at Under Construction the last six weeks have been extremely busy. Is there some phrasing to denote something worse than extremely? Because if there is, that's the word I want. Things have just been crazy.

Carrie has finished Grade 12. Watching her apply for university, be accepted for university, audition for the theatre program. These things should have made me feel old. But they didn't. These were just things that she, my baby, needed to do in order to progress to the next phase of her life. They just were things that she did.

The prom, on the other hand, is what brought home to me that she is pretty much grown up. She had her hair done, she donned the great party dress, the red shoes, the gloves. And grew up right in front of my eyes.



She also borrowed my camera to take to the prom with her. There are better shots on the camera at home, but they do make her look very grown up. Extremely grown up. (Sob) She was just a little, wee girl yesterday. I swear it!

In any event, with the camera off at the prom and a slight delay in getting it back, I wasn't really able to get photos of the knitting done in the meantime. But there has been knitting. Most of it is at home, awaiting or being blocked. But there is one piece here at the store:


This is the Betty Salpekar block from the Great American Aran Afghan.

When I started this afghan, I knew there would be difficult squares. In fact, I had heard that some knitters even took a whole month to finish some of the squares. I figured that since I do a lot of knitting at the store, that I'd have plenty of time to finish the squares. Two a month ought to be possible. And it HAS been possible ... right up until this square.

This square is knit in three main pieces: the centre portion, the cabled border, and then stitches picked up for the garter stitch edging. The centre part is a real humdinger. It is complex and challenging ... And when you finally figure out what the heck you are doing, you feel SO accomplished and professional.

The cabled border is a delight to knit. I love watching the corner turns develop. I just couldn't "ooh" and "aah" over it enough. Simply fascinating. This is how the border around the entire afghan will work. And it will be fabulous.

Having finished this square, I now feel confident that i will be able to finish this afghan. Possibly even this year, even though I do have nine more squares to knit. Eight squares will be from the pattern book; the ninth square will be a simple square with garter-stitch borders, and the year and my initials worked in reverse stockinette. At one per month, plus the border ... yeah, it can be done by the end of the year. The question is: Will it?