Over the summer, I bought a crochet hook. I thought I had brought it home but then I couldn't find it. Although I didn't need it at the time for a project, I wondered, from time to time, what had happened to it.
In October, the mystery was solved.
The tow truck driver, in changing out our battery, found....the crochet hook.
In the engine compartment.
How it ended up there I have no idea, but it did make for a good story.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.
As my regular readers know, I was going to be accountable for completing a crochet project I first blogged about on November 17, 2022. On January 25, 2023, I told my readers I was underway. And now, I'm holding myself accountable for untimely reporting.
I never reported for either May or June. And now, it's July second.
What is a temperature blanket? I'll explain it more below, if you are interested. For others who have read this before, I'll simply say that each row of the blanket is of a color (see below for the chart) that represents the high for the day. I will have 367 rows (because one day I decided to include the day's low temperature, too), giving a color representation of the year's high temperatures.
Now, for my progress.
As of April 29, 2004, I was up to June 20, 2023.
As of July 1 (yesterday) I was up to July 13, 2023.
I'm not surprised.
I don't crochet that much in summer, especially not the big afghan this project has become. I really can't comforably take it into the car. For a couple of row trips this past May and June, I had another, more portable project, that I was hoping to complete by mid-July. I'm not going to make that deadline, either.
It's more and more difficult to photograph this afghan in progress, too. This didn't get the first few days of January but I hope you get a sense of the project.
I think, for the next progress report, I'll just try to photograph spring and summer.
And now, more technical detail, if you are interested (including some I haven't blogged about before):
For a temperature blanket, you
pick colors representing temperature ranges that make sense for your
climate (or the climate of someone you want to gift the blanket to). You can knit, crochet or quilt it.
Some people make one for a new child or grandchild/great grand in their
family to record their first year of life. Or, you can just make one
for no reason at all, like me..
I recorded the high and low temperatures for
every day in 2023 and my plan was to crochet one row for each day's
high with its assigned color. These are my color picks for the yarn I'm using:
If you are looking for my Music Moves Me post, please click here.
It's the next to last day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, and also time to be accountable. Here's a Yarn for you, so to speak.
Accountable for what, you may ask?
Well....part of my theme is the unexpected. I'm sure you didn't expect a post about me crocheting a blanket. It's not just any blanket, though.
I first blogged about crocheting a temperature blanket on November 17, 2022. On January 25, 2023, I told my readers I was underway. I did start. I even purchased almost all of the yarn over the last year.
What is a temperature blanket? You
pick colors representing temperature ranges that make sense for your
climate (or the climate of someone you want to gift the blanket to). You can knit, crochet or quilt it.
Some people make one for a new child or grandchild/great grand in their
family to record their first year of life. Or, you can just make one
for no reason at all, like me..
I recorded the high and low temperatures for
every day in 2023 and my plan was to crochet one row for each day's
high with its assigned color. These are my color picks for the Yarn I'm using:
Once a month, I blog about my progress. Hence, the above Yarn.
As of today, I am up to June 20, 2023. I still have almost six months to go.
With warmer weather, I crochet less, or not at all. We'll see what the next months bring.
"Y" day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme: Gardens, History, Art, and the Unexpected.
Tomorrow - Z, last but not least.
It's time to hold myself accountable once again for a crocheted afghan project I started last year.
I first blogged about crocheting a temperature blanket on November 17, 2022. On January 25, 2023, I told my readers I was underway. I did start. I even purchased almost all of the yarn over the last year.
So
what is a temperature blanket? You can knit, crochet or quilt it. You
pick colors representing temperature ranges that make sense for your
climate (or the climate of someone you want to gift the blanket to.
Some people make one for a new child or grandchild/great grand in their
family to record their first year of life. Or, you can just make one
for no reason at all.
Below are the colors I decided to use for my blanket. I recorded the high and low temperatures for every day in 2023 and my plan was to crochet one row for each day's high with its assigned color.
100F (38C) and above - Fruity Stripe (shades of pink - a variegated yarn) I didn't have to use it.
As of yesterday, I finished June 2.
It's becoming more and more difficult to take a picture of this and I don't know what I'll do for April. But I'm sure I'll figure something out.
I'm working on June 3 now, which will be carrot orange. Then, more yellow.
I need to up the pace, though, because I don't like crocheting in warm or hot weather. And it will be true spring weather one day, right?
Look for my next report at the beginning of May, as April will be my Blogging from A to Z month (unless I can think of an afghan post that begins with "Y" or "Z").
I'm making progress with my 2023 temperature afghan.
I first blogged about crocheting a temperature blanket on November 17, 2022. On January 25, 2023, I told my readers I was underway.
For accountability purposes, I told you, my readers, that I would report every month on my progress. Here's my report for February.
To recap: A temperature blanket uses colors to record highs and low temperatures (more on that later) over a certain period of time. They can be used to record temperatures for a year, perhaps a calendar year, or the first year of a baby's life (to be presented as a birthday gift). Some knit these, some quilt these. Some make scarfs or sweaters. The variations are endless.
So, in other words, Nature determines the colors and patterns of your work.I recorded the high and low temperatures for every day in 2023 and my plan was to crochet one row for each day's high using its assigned color yarn as follows:
100F (38C) and above - Fruity Stripe (shades of pink - a variegated yarn) I didn't have to use it.
On January 30 (my last report), I was working on the row representing May 3 2023.
So, as of today, March 5, I have gotten up to: (drum roll) May 21, 2023.
January is on the left and the most recent is on the right. The last row is yellow; if you see some red on the extreme right it was part of what I was trying to rest the afghan against when taking its pictures.
It's going to be fun figuring out how to photograph the afghan next month because it is getting big.
I'm racing against time in a way right now, because I normally don't crochet during the warm months. I don't want it to languish.
Let's see how far I get by the end of the month.
I promised you periodic updates on my temperature afghan for 2023 (yes, 2023) to keep me working on it. As promised, here is my end of January update. Well, it's my almost end of January update.
First, a refresher on what a temperature afghan is. You don't have to crochet it, and you don't even have to make a blanket.
A temperature blanket uses colors to record highs and low temperatures (more on that later) over a certain period of time. They can be used to record temperatures for a year, perhaps a calendar year, or the first year of a baby's life (to be presented as a birthday gift). Some knit these, some quilt these. Some make scarfs or sweaters. The variations are endless.
So, in other words, Nature determines the colors and patterns of your work.As a reminder, here are the colors I am using to represent the high for each day.
As of of December 31, 2023, I had gotten up to April 6, 2023.
I am working on May 3 now, and you can see that big stretch of Kelly Green (54-66 F) at the top. I have several more rows of that green.
The cold weather certainly helps-I rarely crochet in the hot weather.
I'll be back towards the end of February (hopefully) to report on my (hopefully) continued progress.
Many people make New Year's resolutions. They will become Better People. They will stress less, laugh more. They will be kinder. They will lose weight. They will drop bad habits. Maybe they will even participate in Dry January.
Me? I usually don't make New Year's resolutions, but this year of 2024 will be an exception.
I WILL FINISH MY 2023 TEMPERATURE BLANKET BEFORE THE END OF 2024.
Maybe.
A definite maybe.
I first blogged about crocheting a temperature blanket on November 17, 2022. On January 25, 2023, I told my readers I was underway. I did start. I even purchased almost all of the yarn over the last year.
So what is a temperature blanket? You can knit, crochet or quilt it. You pick colors representing temperature ranges that make sense for your climate (or the climate of someone you want to gift the blanket to. Some people make one for a new child or grandchild/great grand in their family to record their first year of life. Or, you can just make one for no reason at all.
Below are the colors I decided to use for my blanket. What I did was record the high and low temperatures for every day in 2023 and my plan was to crochet one row for each day's high with its assigned color.
100F (38C) and above - Fruity Stripe (shades of pink - a variegated yarn) I didn't have to use it.
So, as of December 31, I had gotten up to (drum roll) - April 6.
This is what 2023 (as of April 6) looked like on December 31.
At this rate it will take some two years to complete the afghan. A confession here, I did much of the work on the afghan during road trips. There were several from my home in the Southern Tier of New York last year: in February, to Greenville, South Carolina, in June to New York City and Long Island for a wedding, in July, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, and, in September, to Bennington, Vermont.
Am I going to have to schedule several more road trips to work on this afghan?
Meanwhile, my spouse wants me to continue posting high and low temperatures on our calendar in 2024. It was educational doing it in 2023.
After all, 2023 was a most interesting weather year. The weather in winter certainly wasn't anything like the late 1980's when I first moved to this area. I can remember snow in December piled high with the city of Binghamton wondering where their snow removal people could put it.
2023 was also a year of many memories. Wouldn't it be nice to have a completed 2023 afghan to celebrate on December 31, 2024?
Wish me luck keeping my New Year's resolution.
I've blogged several times about a year-long project I embarked on at the beginning of 2023 (actually, the planning started back in 2022.) I am crocheting a temperature afghan, a blanket that will record the high temperatures of the year 2023 in color.
A temperature blanket uses colors to record highs and/or low temperatures over a certain period of time. They can be used to record temperatures for a year, perhaps a calendar year, or the first year of a baby's life (to be presented as a birthday gift). Some knit these, some quilt these. Some make scarfs or sweaters. The variations are endless.
My first two updates:
Now, it's mid July, and I'm up to March 15. Yes, beware the crochet Ides of March. But it's progress. At least I'm no longer stalled in February.
See all that turquoise? We had a lot of Turquoise (see temperature chart below) this past winter.
These are the colors I am using, based on a crochet chart developed
by a yarn manufacturer for New York City and are in F (sorry, Celsius
readers).
100F (38C) and above - Fruity Stripe (shades of pink - a variegated yarn) Let's hope I don't have to use it. So far, our high this year has been 94 F (34.4 C)
Maybe, by the next update, I would have caught up with spring. I don't mean calendar spring; I mean Southern Tier of New York spring.
In the meantime I decided there was no reason to beware the Crochet Ides of March. Instead, I will celebrate.
Thanks go once again to the quilter displaying her temperature afghans last October at Salt Springs State Park in Pennsylvania at the Susquehanna Art Trail for talking to me at length about her work. You started me on an interesting journey.
Before I begin: Two days ago, the smoke from the Canadian wildfires returned to our area of upstate New York. Yesterday morning, the sky was yellowish and you could smell the smoke. And we are hundreds of miles away.
My heart goes out to our Canadian friends. People on the West Coast have faced the fire hazard for years now, along with those in differing parts of the world. Who will be next?
And now, to today's post, which is also (in a way) connected to weather.
I've blogged a couple of times about a year-long project I embarked on. I am crocheting a temperature afghan, a blanket that will record the high temperatures of the year 2023 in color.
A temperature blanket uses colors to record highs and/or low temperatures over a certain period of time. They can be used to record temperatures for a year, perhaps a calendar year, or the first year of a baby's life (to be presented as a birthday gift). Some knit these, some quilt these. Some make scarfs or sweaters. The variations are endless.
Now, it's June, and I haven't done an update since March 7. That may be because I find myself stuck in February. The below photo shows the afghan with rows as of February 23. But I will finish this afghan. I am still recording temperatures.
These are the colors I am using, based on a crochet chart developed by a yarn manufacturer for New York City and are in F (sorry, Celsius using readers).
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
I hope, next update, to have more rows to show you.
I couldn't have picked a better year to crochet a temperature afghan.
A temperature blanket uses colors to record highs and low temperatures (more on that later) over a certain period of time. They can be used to record temperatures for a year, perhaps a calendar year, or the first year of a baby's life (to be presented as a birthday gift). Some knit these, some quilt these. Some make scarfs or sweaters. The variations are endless.
So, in other words, Nature determines the colors and patterns of your work.
This year has been so unusual (both in temperature and in lack of snowfall) and you'll see what happened as a result in a minute when I show you what Nature told me to crochet for January 2023, where I live in the Binghamton, New York area.
On January 1, I started to record temperatures. I also did some reading up and found out there's a large temperature blanket community out there. I avoided some mistakes through reading their experiences but made some of my own.
The picture I am showing you at the bottom of this post is the afghan showing the month of January, 2023, recording high temperatures only. Yes, I'm a bit behind but I don't work on it consistently.
My errors
1. I researched the approximate number of stitches I would need to use. But because math isn't my strength, I made the blanket wider than I wanted. I decided not to frog it (rip it out). I'll just live with it. It will just cost me some extra yarn to be purchased.
Also, I realized right away that if I did rows for both high and low temperatures, I would end up with one huge afghan. I had to decide on low temperatures only or high temperatures only. I made the decision to record high temperatures only with one exception - February 4, which had a low of -5F (-25.6 C) and a high of 19F (-7.2 C). Both high and low will be recorded for that date.
2. It's a little ripply - in other words, it doesn't lie flat. I think it may have been because I made the foundation chain a bit too tight. I'm hoping it will straighten itself out. I feel like this is a beginner's mistake but again, I decided not to frog my work. It won't keep me any less warm at night.
3. It's a little harder than I thought it would be. But I am not minding at all. My spouse, who loves weather and picking colors, has participated in these selections and recording while I am doing all the crocheting. It's become a team effort.
Perhaps only where I live, there's a shortage of crochet hooks and yarn. At the store I purchased yarn at, I was told that there has been a strong surge in crochet lately.
Although I've been crocheting since the fall of 1970, there is always something new to learn.
These are the colors I am using, based on a crochet chart developed by a yarn manufacturer for New York City.
Before I begin today's post, I want to apologize to my readers who haven't heard from me lately. It was a combination of a computer issue (now hopefully fixed), a problem I've had intermittently with commenting on some Blogger blogs, and a problem I had with one of my email accounts (now hopefully fixed). I will need to catch up with visiting your blogs but it may not be today.
And now:
Some people like to collect vintage cookbooks.
I, from time to time, can't resist vintage crochet books or magazines, especially if they are from the World War II era or the 1950's.
I have no idea where or when I bought this 1948 Women's Day Annual Crochet Paperback book, but I uncovered it while doing a tiny bit of decluttering recently.
It's in good (well, in my opinion) condition. considering it will be 75 years old this year. It is stained, with wear, but it is all readable. Apparently, these sold for 10 cents back in 1948 (yes, before my time) and I found one on eBay (sale ended, no longer available) for $9.74 plus $3.75 "economy shipping".
A lot has changed in 75 years, but crochet, in some ways, is still crochet. Of course, the projects in this book reflect the fashions of the time.
As far as patterns, there are a lot of doilies in there, plus mittens, gloves, a sweater, and more. I didn't look to see if the patterns are available for free online.
The inside page announces that this is Women's Day second annual Crochet Annual. It mentions The Spool Cotton Company, a company I had never heard of. I read online that they merged with Coats and Clark in 1952.
Coats and Clark, which also has an interesting history, still exists, as does Women's Day. I remember both quite well from my childhood in the late 50's and early 60's. My Mom brought home both Women's Day and another women's magazine, Family Circle, each month. She purchased them at the local supermarket.
I have been putting off (and putting off, and putting off) decluttering because so much I own has memories attached to this.
I definitely will not be giving away this paperback.
Do you like this kind of collecting?
My year long project is underway!
I have been in a crocheting drought for months. After 50 plus years of avid crocheting, things had slowed. I needed something to restore my mojo. Last year, I found a project.
I researched, reading several blog posts on temperature afghans, which are afghans crocheted (or knitted) in stripes. Every day represents the color of that day's high. Many people start on January 1 and the blanket represents a year of weather (mine will work that way) but people will, for example, do this for a newborn child or grandchild, a gift for their first birthday.
Some people make other items - shawls, or (as one reader suggested to me) scarves. Many make quilts. A quilt I saw in October gave me the idea, originally.
I bought my initial skeins of yarn. These are no dye lot yarns, so if I have to buy more, the color will be (more or less) the same.
After January 5 the weather became more seasonable, but still above normal I'll be using a lot of Turquoise and some spring green after January 5.
We'll see where this goes. It will actually take more than a year, because I have a year of temperatures to record in the blanket and I don't work on the blanket each day.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
Last year, I blogged about going to a craft exhibition and being introduced to the concept of temperature quilts - quilts that are made with strips of color corresponding to certain temperature ranges.
What a temperature blanket (it doesn't have to be a quilt) does is track the low and high temperatures (or only the high temperatures - a lot simpler) for each day of a given year. You assign different colors for temperature ranges. For example, you can assign lavender fabric to represent a temperature range of -15F to five above zero F. Medium blue can be for six degrees F to 20F. Light blue 21F to 32F. Green for temperatures in the 40's, and so forth, until the highest temperatures, say orange for 81F to 90F and red for 91F to 100F, are reached. It rarely gets about 100F here in the Southern Tier of New York, but we can dip below zero F on occasion..
The more volatile your climate is, the more colorful the blanket is. If you live in a climate that has fairly steady temperatures, you can decrease the range that each color is used to represent.
Here's an example of a temperature color chart. And, here are links to some patterns (crochet and knit).
I don't quilt but I have crocheted a lot of afghans in my life. So how about a temperature afghan? Recently, I decided I would try it out. It turns out that there is a wealth of temperature blanket
Many people start their quilts (or afghans) on January 1 and continue through December 31 of a year. I hadn't chosen colors yet, but decided my spouse (who loves to watch the weather) could record the highs and lows for each day from our outdoor thermometer.
Some people will create a temperature blanket for each grandchild for the year they were born in. What a lovely idea! (no pressure, dear son....) You can use Weather Underground or a similar site if the gift recipient doesn't live in your town or city.
If we had started late last year, we would have had a lot of low temperatures (our low was three above F one day). But, the past few days, it's been unusually warm. In fact, yesterday, it got up to 60 F (15.5 C). Our snow has just about all melted. But a warm winter weather pattern can lead to heavy rains and flooding here, too, so I am keeping my fingers (and crochet hooks) crossed.
So, if I go ahead with this project (I have to dig to see the yarn I have on hand and assign temperature ranges) it may be recording quite a year. "Dig" is the right word. I've barely crocheted these past couple of years, except for finishing up a couple of blankets I started to work on before the pandemic. I don't even have crochet hooks at hand, for possibly the first time in my life.
Will I carry through on this project? We'll see.
I don't need another afghan, but when did that ever stop me?
A recent blog post from a skilled knitter and crocheter showing the first sweater she made way back when, inspired this post.
Back in the fall of 1986, I was working as an office temporary and, between assignments, I was looking for something to do. So I got a couple of Christmas books out, which included some crochet patterns.
I made a tree skirt, which I still use.
I could wish for being able to do fine crochet like that back years ago. No more.
I use these Christmas coasters under some of my home decorations.
I'm not sure I made this in 1986 - it may have been in the late 1980's, though. It's a Santa head and originally was supposed to fit over a 16 oz coffee can. They haven't made 16 oz coffee cans for years, so I tucked a large mug in it - it just doesn't look the same. Don't laugh! I call it "Scary Santa".
My hope for my readers is a happy holiday within your tradition, and if you are going through a hard time right now, please know that you are not alone.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for a holiday week #WordlessWednesday.
I am in the longest crochet drought of my life.
Having said that, I hope that you won't run away if you don't crochet, because this isn't going to get (too) technical. Or (I hope) boring.
A couple of samples of my work.
 |
| Crocheted in 1976, part of an afghan I still use on occasion |
I have crocheted since the fall of 1970. One of my high school friends, who also went to my college, showed me something (probably a crocheted vest, which were popular at the time) she had made. I was already shopping for one of these vests and found that already made vests were a bit beyond my budget.
I decided to learn how to crochet in order to make one of those vests. (If you look on Pinterest, you'll see various crocheted "vintage 1970's vests" - that's what I was trying to make).
I asked my friend to teach me how to crochet. She taught me one stitch, and I was on my own to teach myself enough to make the project.
Basically, my crochet is self taught. I know I don't do certain things correctly, but I don't care.
The stitch the friend taught me is called the slip stitch.
The slip stitch in crochet has very little height. You use it to join
work, to edge a work, or to travel to another part of the row (other
than the beginning, which you might need to do if, for example, you are
creating an armhole for a sweater). But what I found is that if you
crochet an entire project in slip stitch (say, a scarf) it had an
interesting texture and was also elastic.
I used to spend a lot of time crocheting. I would crochet while watching TV, while my then young son was playing, or during work lunchtimes. I wouldn't crochet in the summer but our long winters were perfect for crochet. I've just never blogged about it much.
 |
| I made this for my young son around 1994 - part of a racecar flag afghan |
I haven't picked up a
crochet hook in over a year. And, I have all this yarn my spouse keeps
bugging me about. "Can't you use it?" he asks me. But I can't work up the
ambition to crochet, with maybe one exception.
In October, spouse and I visited Salt Springs State Park during a Susquehanna County Art Trail event in Pennsylvania.
 |
| Salt Springs State Park |
There, a woman was displaying her quilts in the Visitors
Center. Several of them were what she called "Temperature Quilts".
She had quilts for 2020 and 2021. (No pictures).
What a temperature quilt does is track the low and high temperatures (or only the high temperatures - a lot simpler) for each day of a given year. You assign different colors for temperature ranges. For example, lavender fabric represents a temperature range of -15F to 5F. Medium blue 6F to 20F. Light blue 21F to 32F. And so forth, until the highest temperatures, say orange for 81F to 90F and red for 91F to 100F. It rarely gets about 100F here.
So if your town's high temperature for January 1 is 10F, you insert a strip of medium blue. If your high for July 15 is 93F, you insert a strip of red. You end up with a blanket containing stripes representing the temperatures of each day. The more volatile your climate is, the more colorful it is.
You can even insert a stripe for news commentary. The Salt Springs artist had a black strip for the day Pennsylvania shut down due to COVID.
I was so intrigued, I looked up crocheted temperature afghans and there is a lot of information online.
Although
I would have to do some math (not my strength), the concept intrigues me. When I
read, on one of the sites explaining temperature afghans, that you could
make an interesting blanket by using the slip stitch, I was (no pun intended) hooked.
Will I go through my yarn and try to figure out how to make one of these? In my New York State climate, it would be fairly colorful.
We'll see.
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.
Crochet has been teaching me lessons for the past 50 plus years.
50 plus years...I wonder at that sentence, and think of the freshman (as we were called back then) girl going to a commuter college who admired a crochet vest made by a fellow student she knew from high school.
S. was talented. She had taken a denim jacket and embroidered the back into a work of art, complete with an overarching rainbow. And she crocheted, something that my mother had done once. She had never taught me before she died when I was in eighth grade, possibly because of her rheumatoid arthritis.
But now, S. was offering to teach me to crochet. I took her up on her offer, and she taught me the chain stitch and the slip stitch. (No, you don't need to know what these are to enjoy this post, I promise you.) I self taught myself some other stitches.
Crochet
was love at first chain, and I've been crocheting ever since.
I don't remember my first project, a scarf made with the chain stitch. It was awful. Of course it was, no one ever achieves perfection with their first project, or even their 5000th.
I have to remember that now, because, for the first time ever, I clicked on a Facebook ad.
I could say The Devil Made Me Do It. Anyway, the ad was for a Crochet Summit. And it was FREE.
Yes, I know. Online nothing is ever free. But I went ahead and signed up. It's five days, April 5 through 9th.
This summit is five days of free classes in crochet, some for beginners, some not. And yes, the summit is free. But the catch is (drum roll): each day's classes (which are prerecorded so they are all available the day of the class, starting at 9am Eastern time, are only available (along with any handouts) for 24 hours.
If you don't have time that day, you're out of luck. Unless....
Unless you pay $59 for a VIP pass. Then you have a year to watch and you can watch an unlimited number of times. 40 some odd classes (ranging from 30 to 60 minutes in length), plus 19 crochet patterns. That's a lot to absorb, especially if you work part time, which I do. I don't get vacation time, either.
Now, I'm not complaining. There are a lot of people who have found ways to make things free by offering upgrades for an extra charge. I have no problem with that.
I have never taken advantage of You Tube crochet videos and so I don't know what my experience with the classes will be. I now have the list of classes and patterns and it's not going to be like drinking from a fire hose - a number of the projects don't interest me.
Right now, I'm not upgrading. But we'll see.
More about my crocheting later this week.
Have you ever participated in a hobby "summit"?
Today is the first day of December. The sunsets are almost at their earliest, the cloud cover where I live is almost continuous, and the crocheting urge is upon me.
It's also time to be colorful, to decorate in bright reds, white whites, and holiday greens.
I decided to continue with a project I abandoned late last year - a blanket in Christmas colors (white, pink, red ombre) that wasn't coming out the way I wanted. I did some calculations in my mind and decided I could not fix it.
Meaning....
It was time to frog it. But I couldn't do it last year. I had a lot of time invested. Time would have to pass. And then the pandemic hit. Months passed before I got the urge to crochet again.
A couple of weeks ago, it was time.
In the world of knitting and crocheting (and cross-stitch, too, as I recall from years ago) "frogging" is tearing out part or all of a project - so named because we "rip it. rip it".
So a-frogging I went, to the horror of my spouse. He's seen me rip out row, but never an entire project.
"Sometimes, you just have to start over", I explained.
I downloaded a free pattern from a website that is a social network for crocheters, knitters, and fiber artists. I rarely visit it although I've had an account for several years.
I wanted something easy. Instead of the blanket in Christmas colors I had originally planned, I decided to downsize the project to a throw.
 |
| Just a section of the throw |
It won't be ready for Christmas, but here it is so far. It's easy, it looks good with the super bulky soft yarn I had bought from a crafts chain store which is now out of business, and the pattern is working for me. Chewing gum for the mind. Just what I need in the evenings.
It's taken me years to get to this point of acceptance.
It's part of a lesson I learned years ago from crocheting. Sometimes, it is just better to rip out your work and start over. It's a lesson that sometimes applies to life, too. The old doesn't work. It's time for something new. And, it's not a good idea to have other unfinished projects lying around. Life is too short.
I have a whole winter ahead of me.
This is taken from a post from the summer of 2013, when my best friend from childhood was a couple of years into her fight for health and life.
And finally, some hats and scarves.
We have the cliche "lemons out of lemonade" - this is about as lemony as
you can get.
And now she's gone - five years ago, today. I was able to visit her and her husband in Brooklyn four days before but I can never be sure she knew my spouse and I were there.
In her last two
years, she showed the full measure of courage, but she fought a foe that
was strong, and unrelenting. Her memory lives on in those of us who
miss her. On days like today, especially, I miss her. She was a 4th grade teacher, and she taught me so much.
One day, perhaps, I will understand why she was taken from us too soon.
One day, perhaps, no one will know the meaning of the word "cancer".
May she rest in peace. May her memory continue to be a blessing.
