Motorcycle Madness and the V-Star Afghan

A few months back I wrote about the Yamaha V-Star afghan I was making.  Friends of mine ride a V-Star and wanted a personalized afghan.  After doing everything I could think of to get out of doing it without coming right out and turning them down, I created the graph.  It looked pretty good, if I do say so myself. 

I started the actual crochet work in June and picked away at it through an incredibly hot and humid summer. 

While working on the blanket took up my free time, I was also busy at work and being a member of a bike club, I spent time at meetings and riding in general. 

For the last few years there have been some ongoing problems with my bike.  Of course part of the problem is that it’s a 41 year old bike, but only part of the problem.  About three years ago I had the misfortune to run out of gas on one of our group rides.  Another rider happened to have a gallon in his saddlebag and helpfully dumped it into my tank.  We rode to the nearest gas station and I filled my bike, offering to replenish the biker’s spare tank as well.  I can pinpoint this moment as the start of my problems.  As I was filling my tank at the gas station, this biker was telling me he’d been carrying that spare gas for months now and he was glad to finally use it. 

EEK!!!  Months?  After sitting for months the gas would have gone punky.  Sure enough it caused problems with my bike.  For a variety of reasons I didn’t ride much that year and not at all the next season.  This season I convinced my husband to put the carbs from his bike onto mine since he wasn’t riding anyway.  It was like having a new bike.  I rode as much as I could. 

One day I was riding home from work, and as I turned onto the road that would take me to my road, I released the clutch and a bolt or something popped off the clutch and my cable came free.  Uh oh.  Since the engine was still engaged, I kept going, making sure not to go too fast.  As I approached my road, I decided to make the turn and then let the bike stall.  Our area is very hilly and I did not know how I would have managed on our dirt road if I were going downhill and a deer jumped out or something.  I called my husband and he came to my rescue.  He’s been riding for 50 years so it was a fairly simple thing for us to bump start the bike and get him rolling.  I followed in his car.  He speed shifted the bike and got it home and into our driveway.  He fixed me up with a new clutch cable and I was roadworthy once again. 

Last month I was heading out on the bike to attend a biker club meeting.  My husband and our young son left a few minutes before me heading out to the dump.  I hopped on the bike and started to the highway, but never got there.  About five kilometres from home I heard a noise and the bike started sputtering.  I figured I was getting low on gas and quickly turned on the reserve.  It didn’t help.  The bike kept sputtering and finally just stalled.  I coasted to the side of the road and hopped off the bike.  I looked down and gas was spewing from one of the carbs.  Yikes! 

I quickly turned off the gas and stepped away from the bike to assess the situation.  Knowing that my family were still on their way to the dump, I pulled out my cell phone and left a message at home.  Despite this being modern times and that we live rurally, I am the only one with a cell phone between the two of us.  So I estimated I’d have about a half hour wait.  I called my club and told them I wouldn’t be there.  I didn’t want to leave my antique bike on the side of the road and walk home.  I also didn’t want to walk 5 kilometres in biking boots. 

Fortunately my phone had a full charge so I opened my reading app and started reading a book while I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After the first hour and a half, I tried calling again.  Then after two hours I called again.  Finally, after almost three hours, I got my son on the phone.  He told me they’d just gotten in.  He went outside to tell my husband I was on the phone.  I briefly told him what the problem was and a few minutes later he showed up with a new plug and some gas for me.  It turns out that he and my son were on their way back from the dump when the truck ran out of gas!  When I went with him to retrieve it, I measured how far they’d walked.  Our 11-year-old son walked 5 kilometres before just pooping out.  My husband left him with our dog sitting on a big rock near the road.  He jogged the rest of the way home – a further two kilometres – to get the car and pick them up.  They had just all gotten home when I called.  I figured it was meant to be that I not be on the road that day. 

With fall now upon us, I was able to devote more time to working on the afghan.  Cooler evenings meant that I was not roasting under the blanket as it lay on my lap while I worked.  I finished it a few days before Halloween and finally got to hand it over to my friends on Halloween when they came to the club party.  They were thrilled.  She cried.  It’s all good.  

Granny Square tutorials

I found this blogger's site last year I think it was.  Her tutorials on joining granny squares of same sizes, as well as joining squares of different sizes, are thorough.  There are lots of pictures and coupled with the explanations, you'll be doing this in your sleep in no time.  Thanks for the great tutorials!

things to make and do: granny square tutorial part 3: joining squares of the same size

Getting crafty now

Twelve years ago my husband agreed that we could have one child.  We made this deal after he'd had six months to consider whether he wanted children.  After all, he was already in his 40's at the time and children may not have been on his mind.  So after he said yes to having one, I decided it was time I finally learned to crochet so I could make stuff for our little one. 

A friend of my mother is left-handed (like me) and she agreed to show me the basics.  I trekked to the city, picked up my mother and we went to visit her friend.  A few hours later I had the basics - chain stitch, single crochet, double crochet and finishing off.  So I bought some books, some hooks, and some yarn and set off on my new adventure. 

I've made many things since those first few months.  I've managed to increase my skill and speed to the point where I feel I can make just about anything. 

 A lovely ripple afghan - my first blanket made - that I made for a friend who was having her first baby.  The ripples are graduations of pink, white, and green.  It's made with two strands of white held together, then drop one at end of a row, pick up one pink and drop other white at end of row, pick up second pink, then reverse until back to a row of white/white.  Same process with the green and keep going. 

A doily from a pattern called "Circle of Friends".  I kept this one for myself.  I want to make some more for some of my dear friends, but the pattern is flawed and I'll need to write down how I fixed it.  I showed this doily at the local fair and won first prize with it.

 After three boys, my friend was assured this one was a girl so I made a pink blanket with giraffes on it.  Her daughter carried it everywhere and when she started school, I made a small facecloth sized one with one giraffe on it for her to bring along.  

Another baby afghan, but this time made for my brother and his wife's new little one.  This is made with a variegated yarn (two strands together) in a waffle pattern. 

 
When my niece announced she was expecting, I made this cute little tumbling bears afghan from granny squares.  Very time consuming to sew it all together.  I think if I make this one again, I'm going to crochet the squares together. 

When my same niece as mentioned above was a little girl, I made this "southern belle" Barbie for her.  It's made from peach coloured thread with yellow trim and accents.  My original plan had been to make one for each of our nieces (four at the time) and when this one took me three months to finish (working on it constantly) I nixed the other three and this was the only one completed.  I subsequently sold the pattern book on ebay to eliminate temptation to make it again.



Of course there are lots of other things I've made like Christmas wreaths for some friends, a Lord's Prayer wall hanging for my dad and step-mother and countless dishcloths and potholders. 

These days, since I am still off my feet, I've been working busily with the hook and yarn.  I've made a bunch more potholders for my foodie friends, a rainbow coloured tablecloth for my dad and step-mother, some lovely doilies, and several large granny-style squares. 

The granny squares are part of a swap I'm involved in.  Several years ago while searching online for free patterns, I stumbled across a website where I could sign up to participate in swaps.  The idea is that you pick one being done in colours you might like (my first was "stained glass" using multi-coloured yarns edged in black).  The swap organizer posts details like colours to use, size of square and date to be done by.  You send them an email to sign up and at the start date you receive a note telling you how many squares to make.  For example, you might have to make two squares for each person in the swap and each square has to be eight inches.  If there are 20 people in the swap, you make 40 squares - two for every participant, including yourself.  Send your completed squares to the organizer together with the money for her to return the box to you.  She sorts out the squares so everyone has some of everyone else's and then sends your box back filled with squares from everyone else. 

Getting that box in the mail is like Christmas.  You open it up and excitedly tear through it to see what you got.  Lots of times swappers will include a little note about themselves together with a pattern too.  It's fun.  I've done five of these swaps now.  You put all the squares together and voila, you have an afghan. 

Check out the site here... http://www.knitting-crochet.com/swapclub/index.html ... it should open in a new window for you. 

Well I'm off again.  Still have a few projects I'm working on and my latest swap of "the greens" - 12" squares in green.  Cheers.