Trying Again

Alan's Quilt is Ready to Gift!

It was spendy, but I think it was worth it to take it to Quilt Expressions and have them complete it. Mary did an excellent job (would we expect anything less?) putting the squares together and making the top. I think it is gorgeous. Enjoy the photos. I think I'll wrap it and put it under the tree (which is not up yet) and let him choose whether or not he'll take it to Iraq. I have the feeling he'll think it's too special and will not want to risk losing it. We'll see.

2 Afghans Completed!

Front and back shots of the 1st afghan

Front and back shots of the 2nd afghan.

Great job Polly!

Alan's Quilt at the Quilt Shop!!

Hey, Ya'll!
As of last week, the quilt is at Quilt Expressions, here in Boise, being quilted and bound. Should be done in four more weeks, or three if we're lucky. I'll take photos and post when finished. I am SO FLIPPING EXCITED to send it to Alan, and he STILL HAS NO CLUE!! I am really glad we've been able to keep it a total secret. How fun is that?! It will be perfect timing to send it off to him, as it is just starting to cool down a LITTLE BIT now. If you want to check out the shop where it is, go to www.quiltexpressions.com

I would SERIOUSLY love to host a gathering of the Cricket's Club here in Boise. We have some really awesome knitting shops and quilt shops. I have LOTS of space and we could just have a fabulous time. Pleeeease?? Ideas for dates?? Love you all!

Here's the 2nd picture

Don't know what happened with that last post, but the picture wasn't there! Here it is!

The Quilt Top is Finished!

I got it done today! Sorry the 2nd photo is a little blurry. Now Juneanne will take it over and get it quilted and bound, then it will be ready to give to Alan whenever she decides! Its pretty neat that it's been kept completely a secret.

Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU so much.

Pol and Mom and Shan and Lucy and Juneanne and all those who are keeping Cricket's Club going- Thank You from the bottom of my heart! I am loving my new job, but as is totally obvious, my time spent on Cricket's Club came to an abrupt halt as I've been adjusting myself and my life to my new little career. I am so grateful to you for continuing to work on our projects and keeping our little club alive and well. This truly is a family effort, and is carried upon the loving shoulders of many. You guys are simply beautiful.
I'm gradually getting settled down more into a more normal routine and working hours, and am of course making more time for my knitting too (Hooray!!). I have a couple lovely squares from Aunt Lucy that I will bring over next week when Chad and I pass through (Pol, save room for one of Aunt Lucy's squares in Fred's Afghan please), and I'll start working on some from me too!
I Love You Guys.

Alan's & Freddie's new blankies!

Here's pictures of the new creations! Polly and her friend Vickie came over last Saturday to help arrange all the squares, then Polly took Fred's afghan squares home to work on, and I'll be putting Alan's quilt top together. Shan did a lot of awesome granny squares! Right now I have here at the house seven squares towards Chuck's afghan. So come on you knitters and crocheters, get busy!

Alan Quilt Squares and Fabrics

Here's all the blocks and fabrics! Juneanne you did an awesome job with the photo blocks! Wouldn't the completed quilt be a great Christmas gift for Alan this year? We have all the photo/color blocks we need except one! I have a pic of an American flag I was thinking of adding, so I'll probably do that for the last block. I don't know about using both blocks of cowboy boots. What do you guys think?

Newest Crop of Squares

Here's the current squares that I have..including 2 that Aunt Lucy gave me last weekend. We should get the rest of them together and see how many we have total!

Rowan Tree Woolery

Val and I visited Rowan Tree Woolery right down here off the good old Wenas Hwy. She sold us really nice wool yarn for cheap! I'm knitting a handbag to felt from her homespun yarn. We watched her spin a little, she was great to show us. Didn't take a picture of that, she didn't seem to glad about me taking pictures. Here's a couple though. The next day Val and I met Polly at the little coffee shop in Selah to show her the yarn. Also, here's a picture of Tommy enjoying the yarn!

Give me a 10 for Best Couple

More Blocks for Alan- by Gwen!

How are everyone's blocks coming for Alan's Quilt? If you haven't done them yet, pull them out and get them done and sent to Mary in Selah, please- I'm setting a deadline for us, please get them in the mail no later than March 31 to Mary in Selah (contact me if you need an exception).

Gwen sent some pictures of the beautiful, thoughtful blocks she has done for Alan's Quilt:


"The cabin is for Alan's love of the outdoors.


The Harley -( the other type of pig) I know that he and Juneanne would someday like to have one, went to a Harley shop with them.


The "Lord's Prayer" - Alan's love of Heavenly Father, and his ancestory back to the Wampanaog Indians."


Thank you so much, Gwen, they are wonderful.

Squares, Squares, Squares

Hi All,

I have about 8 more squares done....most are granny squares. They rock, I love how fast they are. Let me know what we are doing next...

Delightful Day!

Three cheers to the Washington Cricketeers! Simply GORGEOUS, despite the mix up on the ordering. What was in that Cranberry juice? And .... murky chocolate? Hmmmm. Well, it seemed to have worked wonderfully. Love to all from the Lazy Idaho Chapter.

Second Afghan Done!! Woo-hoo!!!

This past Saturday, the Washington Division of Cricket's Club gathered together all their crafty stuff in laundry baskets, backpacks, and tragically ugly fabric bags and schlepped it all to the Roarks' beautiful home for some serious crafting. And Woo-hoo, did we get a lot done! Here's a play-by-play:

Mom shows her Too-Cool-For-School crafty hipness as she uses the high-tech light box to trace designs onto quilt squares in permanent marker for Alan's quilt. Other Crickets such as Britney and Polly decided to stay on the somewhat safer side and wield crayons instead.
All this crafting being serious business needing complete and utter concentration and delicate fine motor control, the troops decided they needed a little reinforcement. You know, cranberry juice. I guess it helps a lot. (Umm, I don't know what all that other stuff is.) ;)
But apparently it works! Look at the beautiful squares they made! Color Crayons Rock.
After an hour or two of coloring, we decided to work on Uncle Monte's afghan. Here Pol is joining squares into a row:
And Shan as well, sporting an awesome new tattoo she got for her birthday, proving definitively that you can, folks, crochet and be a BadAss at the same time.
The coloring was too much for Jodi and Britney, who retired to the love seat when the needles came out, and watched the boys play video games. Poor Brit, it seems like whenever we get together the excitement of it all just overwhelms her and she passes out. (NO, she didn't have any cranberry juice!)
I think maybe the dogs did though. Or else they are confused and think they're cats sunning themselves.
I think there's something about video games that diffuses the relaxing effect of lots of yarn and crochet and knitting being in the room, because the boys seem just fine.
Sunday was so warm and sunny outside that Val took the rest of the afghan outside and parked on Mom and Dad's front lawn, and finished piecing it together.


Let's call this shot "The Plan." See all those little sticky notes? On each of them is a column letter and row number denoting the row and column for correct placement of the block. "A2." E5." D7."

Somehow between Val and Pol and insomnia and cranberry juice, these little sticky notes became horribly undecipherable. I don't know if you can see in this photo, but somehow, in the row that Pol joined, row D, the numbers went 2,1,3,4,6,5. And when Val was done joining the columns together, the alphabet went A, B, C, E, D.
Hmmm. We have no idea how that happened. It's a complete and total mystery. (Val would like to point out that she did NOT have any cranberry juice, thankyouverymuch, and that she only messed up two letters and not like, 6 numbers. Pol would like to point out that she did NOT have that much cranberry juice, anyway, and whose dumb "Plan" was it in the first place, Miss SmartyPants? Sheesh!)
Shortly after the above photo was taken (while Val and Pol alternate between pondering the confusing "Plan" mystery, petting the blanket, and discussing baby blanket projects), Val waited until Mom and Pol started sipping on some murky stuff from stemmed glasses that they swore was chocolate (Mmm-hmmm, yeah right), waited until they got a little giggly, then sneakily planted the suggestion that they should take these cool little blue needles and weave in the eleventy-hundred yarn ends on the back of the afghan (which I HATE!). It worked, I didn't have to do a single one, and was entertained at the same time.
Then I did the border on Monday. Wa-La! Woo-hoo! Whoopie! It's Done! Here are some very professionally arranged photos (aka "throw it on this. Now throw it on that") for your viewing pleasure.

The final throw was over Dad, who tested it out and said that it works just great.
Ahhhh..... there's nothing like a beautiful completed project. Let's just bask in this moment for awhile.

Ok. Basking over. Let's get Alan's quilt done!

Uncle Monte's Blocks!

Take a look at this gorgeous rainbow on my living room floor! I have all the blocks for Uncle Monte's afghan- and then some! The afghan will be 5 blocks by 6 blocks, and as you can see, we have 7 extra! Great Job, everybody! And they are beautiful, you can see how everyone's skill has improved so much.

I'll set aside 7 of the blocks to go in Chuck's or Fred's afghan, start whipstitching the blocks together, and post more pics when it starts coming together.

Thank you everyone!

2nd Afghan in Progress

I just gathered up all the blocks from the east side of the mountains and shipped them to the west side to Val's house. She has enough blocks to put the afghan together that we're going to send to Uncle Monte. So we'll look forward, Val, to seeing a picture of your progress!

Blocks from New Mexico!

Hi everyone! I wanted to share a photo of the blocks Aunt Lucy and Aunt Alice made and sent for Uncle Monte's afghan. Cute, huh! Alice's are on the left, they are knitted and accompanied by a note that says, "Fred's Better Half." Alice's crocheted blocks are on the right, accompanied by a note that says "Chuck's Bitter Half." ;) They are such a kick in the pants!









Thank you, Alice and Lucy, for the blocks!!

Vanna's Choice Sale- Michael's

Hi everybody! Just wanted to let you know that Vanna's Choice is on sale January 20-26th at Michael's for $2.00 a skein (that's $1 off)- that's the lowest I've seen it go, so now is a great time to stock up for our next two afghans- for Uncles Fred and Chuck!

We'll be making Fred and Chuck's afghans the same way as Monte's, so refer below to the Project #2 guidelines for the instructions. Lots of 10 inch squares!

Vanna's Choice is also great yarn for washable baby knit or crochet items, if you have any plans in the back of your mind for gifts for our little Cricketeers who are on their way or other little peoples.

Want to browse through free knit or crochet patterns? The Lion Brand Website has a huge database of great free patterns. You'll have to create a log-in with them, but it is worth it. Also, try out Knitting Pattern Central or Crochet Pattern Central- more patterns than you could ever use.

GREAT IDEA!

Hello, All!
Wahoo!! Welcome Aunt Lucy & Aunt Alice!! So much fun, this is. I think the raffle is an awesome notion. Dacia has a friend who is the grand-daughter of the owner of Knit Wits, here in Boise. I think I shall gather those of us who have interest to go have some lessons this Spring. I'm feeling awfully left out of the afghan-making. Sniff sniff. I am a bit overloaded right now, so it will have to wait just a bit longer for me. I hope Grandma Knit Wit will have some suggestions for people with difficult hands, because I would really love to be contributing squares instead of just a bunch of "way to go" words!

A call from New Mexico!

Guess what? Aunt Lucy just called me, and she is sending 4 blocks that she and Aunt Alice made, for Uncle Monte's afghan. Isn't that exciting? Yay!!! Thank you Lucy and Alice!! It was so fun talking to her on the phone.

I think that may mean that we have enough blocks to start assembling Monte's afghan. I'll post pics of Lucy and Alice's blocks and then put them in the mail with mine over to you, Polly, as soon as I get them. Get your black yarn ready!

For you knitters and crocheters, don't put down your needles or hook- we are going to continue making blocks for afghans for Uncles Chuck and Fred with the same specifications, Vanna's Choice yarn in 10 inch blocks. Whose should we do first, Chuck's or Fred's?

Lucy also had a neat idea, I thought, for a future project. We are so numerous that we can't really make a quilt or afghan for everyone, but she thought that having everyone contribute to a quilt and then have a family raffle to raffle it off (all proceeds going to Cricket's Club for future projects) would be neat. I thought that was a cool idea. What do you guys think?

Blocks Update!

Hi everyone! I wanted to post some pics of the blocks I have done so far. The first is the block I've made so far for Alan's quilt- it's a Native American Warrior shield. The next two pics show how I traced the picture onto the fabric- I taped the printed out picture under the block onto a glass cutting board, then held it in my lap over a lamp (which is actually a scented wax warmer!). Remember to leave 1/4 inch margin on all sides of your blocks when coloring, because that will disappear when they are sewn together!














The next pic is the blocks I have done for Uncle Monty's afghan. The two on the top right are knitted, the rest are crocheted. I love knitting more than crochet, but crocheting is definitely faster! The Granny square block was really fun.

The Tuxedo below is Moo, my official Cricket's Club Yarn Discipliner. She makes sure that all the yarn knows its proper place, which is in her claws, under her paws, or under her sleeping belly. Here she's taking a test nap on a shawl I was knitting, and looking decidedly displeased at being disturbed by the Flashy Box. Sophie, the Tabby, prefers to not work as hard as the Moo, but she loves the Flashy Box, and takes her job as Cricket's Club Glamour Shots Model very, very seriously.











Post pics of your blocks here (or e-mail me pictures and I'll post them for you), and let me know if you have any questions!
-Val