Knitted socks complete, it was time for a new knitting project! I could have chosen to knit up the rest of the sock yarn in my stash first, but I’ve had three skeins of Caron One Pound yarn calling to me from my knitting basket for months. They were just begging to be knitted up into a cozy blanket.

I love making quilts and love having them draped over the back of the couches, arms of chairs, and the quilt rack we found at a garage sale for cheap and hanging on the walls of our home but our kids have always preferred snuggling up under knitted afghans. And, I must admit, so do I.

Having made several afghans in the past, I knew making one would be quite a time commitment. I also knew that any pattern utilizing the moss stitch would be an even bigger time commitment. Knit. Purl. Knit. Purl. Knit. Purl. Repeat over 200+ stitches. UGH!

So I was definitely not choosing any pattern that involved moss stitch.

Except that’s exactly the kind of pattern I chose.

And not just a row or chunk of rows of moss stitch amid chunks of all knit rows or all purl rows as I’d done in the past. Nope. Here’s me, a glutton for punishment apparently, doing the ENTIRE thing in Irish Moss stitch because I liked how it looked.

Heaven help me. I’ll be still working on this thing when I’m 80.

I’ve chosen blue, cream, and rose pink for my colors. (Not the blue you see above. Those are just markers so I know if I flub up the pattern.)

Also, may I present, as our daughter calls them, our pervert-proof curtains, another project I worked on this week:

There’s quite a story there.

You see, for the past 21 years, we’ve lived in the middle of nowhere. Except it’s the middle of nowhere with neighbors. We have one neighbor to the north and a neighbor across the pond. Now I’m fairly certain that the people who live across the pond cannot, unless they have superior eyesight and an amazing set of binoculars, see into our upstairs bathroom, and, up until a few years ago, we never worried about the next door neighbors being in their backyard. Then a, shall we say more mobile (as in younger) person purchased that house. I still wasn’t worried.

It wasn’t until this past week, as I was heading toward the bathtub au natural, that I got worried. As I went to step into the tub, I spotted a flashlight beam bobbing around in the dark next door. It was our neighbor. He was taking his puppy out to go potty.

I immediately ducked down below window level. Then I peered over the edge and watched as he headed toward his basement door. I’m sure my cheeks were flaming with embarrassment. Probably ALL my cheeks, if you get what I’m saying.

Could he see anything? I don’t know. I sure hope not, because that will make things very awkward when I next run into him when we’re out walking our dogs.

Did I, almost immediately, head to the store for some curtains? Yes, I did. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything the right length. We did, however, find a nice pair of sheers at Walmart for less than $20 that I could shorten.

It’s never dull out here in the middle of nowhere.