Imperfect Pandemic Crochet

I've been crocheting for over 50 years.  Except for one stitch, I'm also self taught.

At this point in my life, I am doing "chewing gum for the mind" type projects, which are projects that don't challenge me in any major way.  I'm done with challenges (at least for now).  The pandemic has given me, from time to time, enough of a challenge, thank you.

Which brings me to this throw.  There was a Facebook group for people who signed up for a crochet summit I took (and paid for one year access to the patterns), and some of them posted pictures of projects. Of course, they all look like they belong in a museum or a state fair competition.

Not so the throw I'm about to show you.

I was working on it back in December, when I blogged about frogging and how crochet taught me sometimes you just have to start over.

Now, the throw is finished.  I took a photo of a section of it.  The left side is the edging.

Here it is.  Confession time: I actually finished it the beginning of February,2021, and thought, "should I show this to people?"

It definitely isn't my best piece of work ever.

Today I am taking a leap of faith that you won't laugh, or (if you are a crocheter) run screaming in horror.   "Nothing matches!" you might be crying, and if you are, well, you are right.  And there is a reason (see "pandemic", above.)

I decided to show it to you because crochet teaches many lessons.  One is living with imperfection.   So, this throw is imperfect.  The question is, what happened? 

I had bought some yarn way back when I started this project and then, at a later date, I realized I didn't have enough.  I couldn't find the original color because it had been discontinued, so I took a chance, based on memory, because I never took some of the original yarn to the store to match it.  My bad.

Early last year, the store (a major crafts chain) closed.  Of course, the yarn was their own store brand yarn. 

Then, the pandemic struck and stores in New York State closed.  When they reopened for curbside pickup (May? it's a blur now), it wasn't the same trying to figure out yarn colors and textures online, and when they opened for inside customers, I wasn't ready for that for a while.

I started working on the throw again late last year and realized, midway through, that the two yarns didn't match.  By then, as mentioned above, the store had gone out of business and it was a store brand.  I looked on eBay and couldn't find the original yarn color (the bottom of the throw) there.  So I kept on going with mismatched yarn.  

By mid-January 2021, it was time for a border. Now, I faced still another problem.  What should I use for the border?  I didn't have enough of the second color (the color on the top) for a border.

So I did some online research and found a brand of yarn whose thickness, softness, and what it was made of more or less matched the defunct store brand and which I could buy locally.  I went into the store (another craft chain) to try to get something that would work to tie these colors together.  And I did it in a bit of a rush, not wanting to expose myself unduly.

I didn't quite find what I wanted but there aren't that many yarn stores around here.  So I ended up with something that didn't quite match, either.  That yarn became the border.

Fortunately, this wasn't a gift.  So I figured, if I am lying on the sofa watching TV, it really won't matter.

Nobody's perfect.

Right?

You know what, though?  It was winter.  And we are close to winter again, now.

The throw sure is warm. And soft.  I've been using it as a second blanket on my bed (doesn't cover my spouse, who isn't always cold like I am).  

Not everything needs to be pretty.