St. Patricks Day and Crochet

Today, in the United States, it is St. Patrick's Day.  It seems that every year it becomes more and more popular as a holiday.  Cities dye fountains and rivers green. There are parades in Savannah, Georgia (even though it is raining) and lots of partying.

Here in Binghamton, New York, we had our parade at the very beginning of March, but a local supermarket had an employee play the bagpipes today. He was gracious enough to let me take a picture of the bagpipes. (One day I'll have to blog about my secret dream of learning to play the bagpipes. Considering that I've never had a music lesson in my life, that should be most interesting.)

Those who are close to me know why St. Patrick's Day is important to me - it is the birthday of someone in my family.  I am making this afghan for that person. I can't crochet for long periods of time any more - it hurts my wrist - but I use crocheting as a project when I travel.

Yes, it looks like camo - my loved one is into camo. I bought most of it in Arkansas during a vacation last September. The yarn is a wool blend, and feels so nice when I work with it.  It keeps my hands busy, and helps me relax.

In March of 2012, I ran the below post.  I am rerunning it today, with some edits, so you can see a couple of other examples of my St. Patrick's Day crochet.

St. Patrick's Day Crochet

I've been crocheting for some 40 years now.  I don't do as much as I used to, for various reasons, (mainly FarmVille and blogging!) but I still crochet a gift or two a year, and I also work on crochet projects when I am on the road, since my loving spouse does the driving.

I haven't really blogged much about it (well, maybe not at all) until now but crochet has been a treasured part of my life.  My Mom wanted to teach me to crochet but rheumatoid arthritis robbed her of her ability to do any needlework by the time I was old enough. Instead, a high school friend taught me, and I've never looked back.  But although she didn't teach me, I still feel a link to my Mom whenever I pick up that hook.

I wanted to share a couple of the projects so I can also get them up on Pinterest.  These are both projects I worked on 20 or more years ago.  I got the afghan pattern from a magazine that no longer exists, I believe.

I have no idea where I got the pattern for the Christmas stocking.  But there is a special reason why the stocking has shamrocks on it...I'll let you guess why.

This week, I'll share one more project I made some years ago.  It's not a holiday project but something I made for my then young son years and years ago.

Do you have a favorite time or place to crochet?  Have you found your online life interferes with your needlework hobbies?