Now that we've got this blocking thing down pat, I decided to have a go at my old green merino afghan I made up about five years ago while we were in the UK. The wool is lovely and soft, but is showing a little pilling after five years of service. I must have stuffed up the tension when I made it, because the sides are wildly uneven - so when I fold it up, the edges are all crooked.

After the success we had with the blue ripple afghan on the weekend, we ruled some more lines on the cardboard and pinned out the green one. It was a bit of a stretch initially to make all the edges square, but with a bit of steam the stitches eased up a bit and everything fell into place. Mmmmm ... there's that wet wool smell again!! Just magic - the old green thing has a bit of life in it yet! Absolutely converted with this blocking idea now .

A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to enter something in the Puyallup Fair, which is held next month. I didn't realise, however, that the competitive entries were due to be submitted this weekend ... leaving myself only about two weeks to decide on a design and complete it. Nothing like setting yourself a challenge...

Found a wonderful yarn shop in Seattle that stocks a wide range of different wools, yarns and ribbons ... the sort of place I could wander around for ages, and spend a lot of money in . I found a nice brand of pure wool that felt wonderful to the touch. So for the last two weeks I've been spending about 15mins a row, 4 1/2 hours a skein to finish this thing in time. Today I finished - and the last day to submit entries is tomorrow!

The last thing we had to do was block the finished piece, to take all the wrinkles and curls out of the design. Andy chopped a large bit of cardboard from our collection in the garage waiting for recycling, and we trawled the craft stores looking for some blocking wires - no luck there, so settle on some florist wire as a substitute. Then came the process of weaving the wires around the edge of the piece, and pinning it into place ...

After pinning it out, Andy made a few passes with a steam cleaner I'd bought several months ago. Not much good as a bathroom cleaner, but it definitely did the trick on the afghan! Apart from the smell of wet wool in the kitchen, I'm very happy with the result - just like a bought one. We'll drive down to Puyallup tomorrow to drop it off, then I'll have to wait until the end of the month before I can pick it up again. Phew!

A little while ago I was surfing around on the web and found a website for the Crochet Guild of Puget Sound ... and I thought to myself, "Self, you've never been a Guild member before!". Even better, the monthly meetings are held in a shopping centre only a couple of miles away so I didn't have an excuse not to go .

I got in touch with the website administrator, and I attended my first meeting tonight. Everyone loved my 'accent'! Tonight's meeting was a workshop, Justine demonstrated a quilted square made in four colours but all done in one piece - rather tricky, but it helps when you know the secret!

I brought my golf club covers and my tartan afghan along for 'show and tell' and as a way of introducing myself. Both items were well received, and a few tried to get me to demonstrate the tartan effect at a future workshop. I also volunteered to help out at a crochet demonstration and teaching session in Bothell next month ... should be interesting. I've only ever tried to teach Mum how to crochet, and the jury's still out on whether that was a success or not! 

(dig a hole, grab some more ... )

Finally got around to finishing my latest project - an American Flag afghan. I had started this one back in May when Mark & Mary were here, but lost interest when it got to the finishing off part - whaddaya mean, I've got to change colours in the whipstiching?! So much for having it done by Independence Day .

Anyway, I found some motivation in the last couple of weekends, and managed to finish the last of the tails tonight ... the finished handiwork is displayed in the gallery!! Now I just have to figure out how to block something that big ...