Forgotten Projects

I am at Brother's house this weekend. Sis-In-Law is out of town.

I was getting ready to get in the shower this morning and realized I didn't have a towel. I went out to their hall closet to grab one, and saw this:



It is the red afghan that I made Brother for Christmas one year, before he had even met Sis-In-Law.

I had forgotten that I had made it until I saw it there this morning.

Frankly, I was surprised that he still had it. It isn't that great of an afghan, comparatively speaking. I was still a starving undergrad when I made it, so it was lovingly crocheted out of cheap acrylic yarn from Wal-Mart (which was my only option at the time due to geography and budget). I shudder to recall the many hours of Law and Order reruns I watched on TNN while making it.

It has held up shockingly well, considering that it has crossed the country several times, been washed often, and used.

It also has gotten me to think about other "forgotten" projects. I think Sister still has her blue afghan that matches this one. I think I gave a creamy colored one to my aunt in TX, too. But there have been a lot of beanies, scarves, dishcloths, and coffee cup cozies handed out over the years. Many that I can't quite remember...and now I'm wondering how many are still in use/existence...

I am also wondering now how many of the things I cherish have been completely forgotten by those who gave them to me...

Interesting.

Super Knitter...CROCHETS!!!

Fact: It is faster to crochet a baby blanket than it is to knit one. (I don't crochet often...but like to since I have a WICKEDLY COOL CROCHET HOOK!!!!)

When Blessing was a baby, or rather before she was born, I crocheted a spring green baby blanket for her. Actually, to be technical, I crocheted a spring green baby blanket and put it in the gift stash until SOMEBODY had a baby to give it to. But BFF loved it, and asked for it, and so received it. (In addition to a custom designed quilt and sundry other gifts...the advantage of being my BFF is you get TONS of handmade stuff.)

Now that BFF is expecting again, I needed to crochet another one. I discussed in a I'm-trying-to-be-sneaky-but-you-know-good-and-well-I-am-making-you-something sort of way what colors BFF wanted to do the baby's stuff in. To my surprise she said she wanted the same green that Blessing's blanket was.

This posed a conundrum. I don't like to do the same thing twice, but unfortunately I am pretty much a one-trick pony when it comes to crochet.

Solution: Instead of the double crochet pattern I used on Blessing's, I did a giant granny square. Also, instead of a solid green like before, I used a variegated green that had bits of blue, turquoise, and purple in it.

I brought the blanket with me to Denver as a preliminary gift, and can put off the quilt until this summer!

Getting Ready for Aunt-hood

This weekend I went to Sacramento, to Brother and Sis-In-Law's house, to help them get the baby room ready.

Since they are adopting, they don't know what gender their baby will be, when it will arrive, or what it will look like. Those are a lot of unknowns for a knitter like me who does not deal well with uncertainty. What am I supposed to knit? What color should it be? When is my deadline? AAAH!!!

Baby will be my first niece or nephew, so NOT knitting something is not an option. Neither is waiting until Baby arrives, because NO niece or nephew of mine is going to go a day without a hand knit demonstration of my love!

I am overcompensating. I have yarn to make a girl sweater and yarn to make a boy sweater. These will wait till after the arrival. I have also started a crocheted receiving blanket.

Until then, I am falling back on my old standby...BURP RAGS: