UT SOBs

Happy Monday after a wacky Holiday weekend!

The Schavis Team spent two very long days - Friday and Saturday - painting the office of our favorite chiropractor and it totally kicked our butts.

DH started the symptoms of a bad cold late day Saturday and was prone from the time we got home late Saturday evening until early this morning. Dutiful Wife that I am, I was forced to stay put near him all day yesterday -- you know, in case he needed anything.

So, since I was too busy to send an entry, I'm first going back to the sky outside my palace window on Friday morning:

What a sight it was and the air was "colder than Blue Hell" as my Mom always says. Not a real pleasant temp for schlepping all the painting equipment to our job. But we pushed ahead -- DH, Jamie and me -- and we finished probably 95% of the job. The 5% problem came from the fact that the paint wouldn't cover in one coat. Oh, we didn't anticipate that glitch. So that put us behind, and then we ran out of paint, and then the local Home Depot couldn't mix the same color as the Home Depot from the next town over -- even though it was a Glidden factory shade from the chart (DUH!) and they also couldn't mix from a scan of the sample (DUH!) -- and so we didn't get finished.

We did cover all the "public" areas so they could open for business today, and we will finish the last bits when we go back for the next phases of the job: Wallpaper removal and repainting the last treatment room, and remodel of the bathroom.

So that brings us up to Sunday. I hear that it was very warm yesterday, but as I said above, I am a Dutiful Wife and did not leave my Darling Husband's side all day (heh, heh).

We (re)watched "Fools Rush In" (LOVE IT!) and another movie that I can't remember, and I worked a stitch or two from time to time.

The project of my affection yesterday was an afghan requested by Texan Nephew No. 2, Mark, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, where they call the student fans, "SOBs"

... or at least they do on the web site, from which I snitched this photo.

After searching many options, I decided on Berroco's Shades of Blue Blanket pattern, but of course in the UT orange and white. I'm using cast-iron Red Heart Super Saver for durability. The blanket is worked in seven panels of two types, cables and bobbles. I started with a cable panel:

... and a close-up of the cabling:
The pattern calls for a length of 51 inches, but I'm thinking I'm go to at least 60, cuz Markasaurus is a right big boy and I want him to like it. You see this all started with him asking if I thought that Granny might make him another afghan in the UT colors. I broached the subject with her, but found that because of bad eyesight she has "retired." What a shame as she turned out tons of crocheted zig-zag beauties that so many people still treasure. (As a matter of fact, DH spent his sick time under a gigantic black, white and red lovely yeseteday.) Anyway, I asked her if she would be offended if I attempted to fill Mark's order and she gave me the go-ahead. So here I am! Luckily I have a good bit of time before graduation, because ya'll know how fickle I am with my knitting projects. Truly, I'm finding it hard to finish even this first panel because I want to try the white bobble pattern -- I've never done bobbles before!

Tomorrow: a look at my interpretation of bobbles.