Let's be honest... this is procrastination

So, lately, I have been trying to get ready for a visit from Bill's father and sister.  We haven't seen them in 2 years.  Living so far from Bill's family is pretty of sad.  Thank goodness for facebook, though.  They at least get little anecdotes and pictures on a regular basis.

But my house isn't ready for visitors.  And I'm a little stressed.

How stressed?

Let's just say that the other night I had a dream that Child Protective Services came by my house and I had to wade through knee-deep clothes and toys to get to the door. 

Isn't that terrible?

My coworker was working on a new lounge cleaning duty list and my head just about spun off of my shoulders.  All I could think was "I spend my evenings trying to clean up after everyone there, and it just irks me to no end to have to clean up after my adult coworkers, especially when I don't even use the lounge."  But I didn't say anything, because that is called a bad attitude.  Plus, I was cranky.  I had to leave this:


That's where I chose to eat lunch (in peace) lately

Yeah, I went from that to not even being able to park my butt at my desk before I had to take a billing call, so I was crabby.

It happens.

Anyway.

Here's a picture of my Dodo dressing like she's 93 instead of 3:



Those are knee high nylons rolled down to her ankles.  I bought them for a project that I never got around to and she found them and thought they were awesome.  I cracked up when I picked her up from school like that.  Her teacher was pretty amused by it, too.  I think her teacher is convinced we're just a family of nutballs.  I'm not sure why.  It's not like my 3 year old asks me to give her a fake lip piercing.


Oh, wait...

I think I derailed there for a minute.  I was supposed to be talking about cleaning my house, which isn't actually knee-deep in clothes and toys, I swear.  Yesterday I had to do some wall-washing though.  I believe in karma.  I believe in karma because, as a child, I was a terrible about coloring on the walls.  To the point that my parents gave up and just told me to keep it to my room.  So, of course, I have an incurable wall colorer also.  And the bad thing is that she LOVES to wash the walls.  You'd think that would be a good thing, but it's really not.  She leaves the walls drippy and streaky.  It looked terrible.  And Magic Erasers don't work on everything.  Like Sharpie.  And pen ink.  And nail polish.

You would think I never supervise my children, but I do.  The other day when I was reading a Junie B. Jones book, the mom said, "Junie B., do I have to watch you every minute?"  And I jumped up and was like "EXACTLY!  That's EXACTLY how I feel."  I can't even go to the bathroom without Isabelle pretending to be a water fountain.  (This was also the book where Junie B. draws a sausage patty on her arm, so it's probably my favorite one so far.)

So, I'm resigning myself to the fact that I'm going to have to just feel some embarrassment over the state of my home when Bill's family gets here.  I doubt his sister will care all that much, and I'm trying to tell myself that his father did raise three kids of his own, my husband being one of them and I can't believe I'm totally to blame for this whole "paying for your raising" thing.  I've heard some stories.  Like him punching a hole in the wall and chasing his sister with a lawn mower and pretending to be dead when he was in the ER.  He was no saint.  It's no wonder the child is a whirlwind of crazy.

Oh, but I do love my Isabelle.  She makes me absolutely nuts at times, but she definitely adds some bright colors to my life. 

I shouldn't be stressed.  I think I'll get this sign printed and hang it on the front door instead...

Source: flickr.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Be My Friend

I remember, when I was in junior high school, everyone made friendship bracelets out of embroidery floss.  Well, everyone but me.  I tried.  I ended up with a big curly, lumpy mess.  I just couldn't wrap my brain around how to make it work.... kind of like crochet back then.  I only learned to get past the chain stitch about 15 months ago.

I've seen mentions of them crop up recently online.  I'm not sure if they're making a comeback or if they have always been a tween staple and my friends' kids are just now reaching that age for me to notice again.  Either way, I've been thinking about trying to teach myself so that I can eventually teach Olivia.

Friday, the stars aligned and in one day I spontaneously bought an assorted pack of embroidery floss and had Olivia give me a reason to teach myself.  So I did.  It didn't click right away, but it did eventually click.  I even got all cocky and told Olivia I'd teach her once I figured it out.  And I did.

But for her, I didn't use floss.  Floss just seemed a little too fine for her 6 (almost 7)-year-old fingers.  I used yarn for her.  I don't know why I never thought of  yarn before.  It's perfect for younger kids.  It works up the same, it just makes a chunkier bracelet.

I think this is the perfect "gateway" craft for younger kids.  I don't know that Olivia's quite ready to manage a crochet hook and yarn... her fingers aren't quite dexterous enough.  But this will help so much in that department.  I think after she does this for a while, teaching her how to crochet will be much, much easier. 

Want to learn how (or need a refresher course?)...  here we go...

You will need:
approx. 3 feet each of two different colors of yarn
a safety pin and pillow OR a clipboard
scissors

To begin, holding both strands of yarn together, fold it in half and make a knot, leaving a small loop above the knot (this will be for fastening the bracelet)



Secure the knot to a pillow with a safety pin or tuck the knot under the clip on a clipboard.  Arrange the strands in the pattern you would like your stripes.  Above, I chose black, white, black, white (as Olivia would say, an a-b pattern).

The strand farthest to the left is your working strand, the one that you will make the knots on all the other strands.  Pull the second strand taught and bring the working strand over the top of it like so:



Wrap your working yarn under and through the hole and pull the working strand up to create the knot.  This is a forward knot.



There are other types of knots, but this is the basic knot and the only one I'll cover (because I don't know the rest yet!).  Repeat this again on the same strand.  You need to make 2 knots per strand or your bracelet will be all kinky.  After making two knots, move the strand you use used off to the left and move on to your third strand:



Make two knots, move to the fourth strand:



Your first row is complete!  Your working strand should be the last strand now.  You begin again, the farthest to the left again being your working strand.  Continue in this manner until the bracelet is your desired length.



When you are satisfied with the length, separate your strands in two like I have above.



Then I knotted the two strands in each section until I had two tails long enough to tie together (I just alternated the colors making forward knots)...



Secure the ends by knotting the ends like so (I hope this is clear....)



To secure on your wrist, you will pull one tail through the loop on the other end.



Then tie the tails together.  Voila!  A friendship bracelet made of yarn...



Yes, it looks tiny.  My kiddos are asleep right now, but I would bet money that it fits.  They have such tiny wrists.  We're going to keep making more until she's pretty independent with it and then I'll move in for the kill and break out the crochet hook!  So exciting!

Linked to:

How to make a mohawk!

OK.... I had promised a tutorial on my Punky Monkey and didn't quite follow through.  I'm going to make up for it now.  I've already taught you how to make a regular Sock Monkey beanie and the only difference between the regular SM and the PM is you replace the pompom with a mohawk.  I posted a really quick run-through of one of the ways to make the mohawk:  the loop stitch way.  Now I'm going to show you another way, which I think is much easier, but could be a little more time consuming, depending on how well you take to the loop stitch (which was not well for me).

The best thing about this is that you can use this for more than just the Punk Monkey.  You can use this technique to put hair on an amigurumi project... to make a wild mohawk hat out of any basic beanie... to put fringe on a scarf or other project... so it's versatile.  =)

You can use any yarn you like, of course, but remember the effect will be different depending on the yarn.  For mohawks, I prefer a bulky yarn like this:



Worsted weight yarn will work, but you'll have to use much more to make it look full and you'll need to keep the mohawk pretty short to make it spiky.  I also like bulky yarn because you can do other things with it that I'll show you at the end.

In addition to yarn, you'll need scissors and a crochet hook... the one you made the beanie with will be fine, but size doesn't matter here.

First, cut your yarn into about 40 (more or less depending on fullness and size of hat) 6 inch peices.  I just wrapped it around my hand and cut.  It doesn't need to be exact because you'll trim it later.



To make sure you're mohawk isn't crooked, fold your hat in half like so...



During the process, you'll want to make sure you check that you're not straying... it's easy to do.

You will insert your hook behind the post of a crochet stitch along the fold.



Fold your yarn in half and pull it through the stitch, making a loop.



Wrap the strands around the hook



And pull it through the loop, and tighten.



For my hat, I did two per row, stopping about 2 rows before the end of the taupe section of the hat.  That's it... super easy.



If you like how this looks, just give him a little trim and you're finished.  But... you could always pull apart the strands of the bulky yarn to give him a little kink to his mohawk...



You can also take an old hairbrush and brush the yarn (gently), giving him a really wild look.



Just take heed and use an old hairbrush that you don't normally use, or you could have red yarn fluff in your hair tomorrow... 

And another little reminder:  if you are making this for a baby or small child, the yarn could pose a choking hazard if it were to come loose (as would a pompom or tassels, etc.), so do use under supervision with small children.  But you knew that already.  =)

If you have any questions, just let me know and I'll do my best to clarify!  Now go get punky!

Monkey hair and snags

I had a request today for a tutorial on the hair on my Punk Monkey.  I had promised a tutorial on all my monkeys and never finished them up.  Slacker ;)

I have made my Punk Monkey hair two different ways.  The first way I tried was making a strip of loop stitch and sewing it on. 





I'm not even going to pretend that I could teach anyone how to loop stitch.  I barely figured it out myself and it's not my favorite stitch, for sure.  Here are a couple of videos that I watched to teach myself...




This one shows a slightly different technique, and depending on how you hold your yarn, it might be easier...

As with learning any new stitch, just practice and be patient.  I'm not very good with patience, and I almost gave up.  I persevered, so I bet you can, too.  ;)

Once you get the stitch down, you just make a simple rectangle.  Make your chain as long as you need it to go across the light part of the hat and then you will single crochet across.  Turn and alternate rows of loop stitch and sc until it's as wide as you would like, fasten off with a long tail and sew it onto the hat.  Remember, you have to alternate loop rows and single crochet rows or you'll have loops on both sides.  ;)  (I'm all about the wink tonight)

The second way I make the Punk Monkey mohawk is the same way I make my mohawk hats...


only not quite so wild, although that would be cool, too. 

I don't have any pictures of the process, so I'll work on making either a Punk Monkey or a Mowhawk Hat this week to get some.  Either way, the mohawk process is the same, and pretty easy, if not a little tedious.  But worth it.  I, personally, prefer it to the loop stitch method.

So, look for that soon.  I promise.

I seem to have hit a small snag in my Stained Glass Window afghan.  See, I want to keep the colors close to the pattern, because I like it and I haven't seen another color scheme on Ravelry that I like as well.  The pattern is written for Red Heart Super Saver, which I don't like to use. It's too rough.  I started with I Love This Yarn (Hobby Lobby's brand) and my plan was to find the Red Heart color and match it up with a ILTY color.  Except they don't carry any of the right colors in the store I go to.  I can order them online, but I prefer to compare the colors in my hand instead of figuring them out on a computer screen.  I'm kind of stumped for now.  I'll figure something out.

Oooh, and look at this...

Source: yarnyinspiration.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

The blog it links to has apparently vanished, so there is no pattern, but it seems like something I can figure out.  It's kind of like a polka dotted Babbette!  It will be Olivia's afghan.  She approved.  She also offered to wash the dishes from now on so that I have more time to crochet so I can finish Zoe's afghan and start hers.  Yeah... we'll see.

A Happy Picture

Today, the girls and I went to go visit some friends of mine and their kids.  For one reason or another, nothing worth getting into, we haven't all been together in over a year.  It was a good visit, watching the girls play and braiding and brushing hair, talking with adults.

I had to get a picture of all the kids.  Once we had them all on the couch, it was worth noting that it wasn't a circus with all these kids in one place, believe it or not.



From left to right, we have:

• Some neighbor kid I don't know, but didn't have the heart to tell him to get out of the picture
• Skylar (11... I hope I got that right... these kids grow too fast)
• Isabelle  (5)
• Abby (5)
• Gabe (8)
• Alex  (14)
• Olivia  (6)
• Zoe  (3)

Only two boys in the whole group (if you don't count the neighbor kid LOL).  Abby and Isabelle are only 3 weeks apart age-wise and they used to play together as little babies.  Olivia has always called Gabe her boyfriend, but shhh - he has a girlfriend at school.  From what I was told, he was pretty excited about us coming over and he chastised me for it having been so long.   ;)  Hopefully it we'll get over there again in the next couple of weeks before Skylar and Alex fly back to Guam, where they usually live with their dad.

It was definitely good to get the girls out of the house, because they were very calm and good over there.  They've been terrors all day at home.  Well, Izzy has.  Olivia has been a major couch potato and Zoe's whiny.  

Alex was jealous of Olivia and Izzy's skirts... the ones I made from two pair of corduroys.  Maybe before they leave I can find a pair that fit her at a thrift shop and then make her one.  It won't be two-toned unless I can dye it.  We'll see... I need to do something crafty.

Now that I'm feeling better (thank you for all the comments - it made me feel a lot better) I'm in the mood to do some major cleaning.  Bill's sister and their father are stopping by here on their way to CT from CA in two weeks and this house is a wreck.  I might not have a ton of time to be all that crafty, but I will get seriously cranky if I do nothing but clean.  I'm not incredibly domestic, unfortunately.  Cooking, cleaning... not my favorite things by far.  It's time to crack down on chores around here so I'm not stuck with all of them, like I normally am.  And now that the girls aren't home all day long, the house shouldn't get quite so upside down like it has been all summer.

Not myself

I don't think I've touched my crochet hooks in almost a week. 

I even went a couple of days without reading.

I'm just not feeling very spunky lately.  And that's an understatement. 

My body is rebelling against me letting stress get the better of me.  A little bit of a domino effect.

Just a little reminder to take care of things, take care of myself.  A kick in the pants. 

I just need to straighten my little dominoes back up and be more careful of not tipping them off again.

C'est la vie, of course.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to hold a pity party. 

You gotta feel like crap sometimes to appreciate feeling good.

I didn't actually cry...

... but I got awfully teary-eyed a few times.

Today was the girls' first day back at school!  I had to go to work this morning, but I took a long, early lunch so that I could take them to school.  I left a little early, in case they needed help getting ready, but they were ready long before I got there.  They were just a little excited.  =) 

I insisted on taking pictures before we could leave, though.  Of course.  The pictures kind of suck because I forgot to change my camera settings.  That's what happens when I am in a hurry.



My First Grader, Miss Olivia!



Entering Kindergarten, we have Miss Isabelle!



I couldn't resist.  The upside down sign and the tummy showing.... I mean, couldn't you just squish her?



That's a little better.  She's not in school yet, but Mother's Day Out doesn't run through the summer, so it was back to "school" for her too!

All together now...



Olivia and Isabelle were so excited to be finally going to the same school. 



Poor Dodo is all alone now.


(seriously, she doesn't mind LOL)

Are you ready to go?



I'll take that as a "yes."

The hardest part for me wasn't taking Isabelle to Kindergarten for the first time (she was off and I was forgotten as soon as she got in the door) or seeing Olivia looking a little lost in her new classroom.  It was watching Zoe walk into MDO without her big sister.  I'm just so used to her having Isabelle near by.  Not that it bothered her.  She's just my baby.  I assure you that when she starts Kindergarten that I will be a mess.

The girls were pretty confident, but they did have a couple of worries...



She can't write her name yet.  She was convinced she wouldn't be let in the door until she could.  I told her she was just fine, that's why she was going to school.



She was worried that Daddy was going to miss them.  I told them he'd be asleep and wouldn't even know they were gone.  Izzy hoped that he would at least dream about them.



Well, this one was fine.  She's an old pro at it now, you know.

I'm happy to report that everyone had an excellent day.  Olivia was on a green circle all day (the best of the behavior colors) and Isabelle was on a 5 (the best behavior number).  Isabelle said that the lunch ladies were mean to her and wouldn't let her play outside long enough.  I guess recess is her favorite subject already.  =)

Oh, and I don't plan on dressing Olivia and Isabelle all matchy-matchy every day.  Not that they'd mind...

Don't knock it

When I was grocery shopping yesterday, I had the stuff for BLTs on my list and decided to splurge on Texas toast for them.  I don't always do that, because it's hard for us to finish off a loaf of it before it goes bad.  But when I saw the bread, I had a craving for French toast, and I like mine made with Texas toast.  So, despite the fact that Mr. Bill was out all night on call and would be sleeping through breakfast, I went ahead and made some.  It was actually better this way, because the way I eat my French toast grosses him out and it's a running commentary on the fact until I'm finished.

I like peanut butter on my French toast. 

He can somewhat handle the fact that I put peanut butter on my pancakes and waffles, but I guess it's the egg component of French toast that makes it especially nasty to him.

I don't care.  It's yummy.

I get it from my Daddy.  My dad eats some pretty bizarre stuff at times.  For example, he enjoys onion sandwiches.  I can't bring myself to try that, because I don't like raw onion and I always feel like I smell like an onion when I do eat it.  But yeah, slap some onion slices between some bread and my Daddy is happy.  He'll also roll a banana up in a slice of bread and eat that.  He salts his apples.  And he always puts peanut butter on waffles and pancakes and French toast.  He couldn't stand pancakes until someone introduced him to peanut butter as a topping.  He's taken those little cups of peanut butter to restaurants before.  I've only found a few people who admit to eating it like that, but I know we're not alone. 

Is there anything you like to eat that people think is strange or gross?

How to dampen my excitement

Long story short... school shopping.

Man, that was way more fun when I was the student and my mom was paying for it.  It could have been less painful if I hadn't had to take all three kids with me.  But I did.

I feel like someone is stabbing my head with ice picks right now.  Excedrin better kick in soon.

We started the afternoon off by going to get Isabelle's hair cut.  I hated how the chick cut it after Izzy went all choppy choppy on it.  It was OK if Iz would put barrettes or a headband in her hair, but she is iffy at best at keeping things like that in her hair.  So I had my work buddy cut it.  She's really good at cutting the girls' hair.  I should have taken Iz to her to begin with, but my friend was recovering from surgery and I didn't want to bother her.

Here is Miss Iz now...



The other side is still a little choppy, but there was no way to fix it without her looking like a boy, but at least 75% of her head looks super cute now.  That's really the best I can hope for with her, I suppose.  LOL

After grabbing some dinner, we went off to finish off our school shopping.  Right off the bat, we had drama.  The kids have to have mesh or clear backpacks and for some stupid reason, they have a huge wall of everything but that.  Just a tiny section of pink or black mesh backpacks.  And tonight, there was only one pink one.  I needed two.  I promised Olivia that we could decorate the black one to be girly, but she was flailing around, wailing about the unfairness of it all. 

I'm so not a drama queen.  How on earth did I spawn one?

I told her we'd see if there were any more around the store and deal with it at the end of the trip.

The actual supply shopping was uneventful.  But then we went to get shoes.

I hate shoe shopping.  I own the bare minimum, which is a pair of sneakers, my Chucks, and a few pair of flip flops.  I don't need anything else.  I don't go anywhere but work and to the store.  So I don't get all excited over cute shoes.  Olivia does.  Maybe she was switched at birth.

She wanted red glitter ballet flats.  I told her she had to have sneakers.  More flailing.  Then, of course, when she gave in, the sneakers she wanted didn't have her size.  It took a while, but she finally found something that would satisfy her need for glitter in her size that was a pair of sneakers.  The other two found their shoes in 30 seconds flat. 

Our elementary school students have to wear uniforms.  It makes no sense to me, because the middle school and high school don't wear uniforms.  When I was in elementary school, I didn't care what I wore.  I have pictures to prove it.  It wasn't until middle school that I cared.  So the whole uniform concept would make more sense to me if it applied to the older kids and not the younger kids.  But whatever. 

Zoe was devastated that she was only getting a lunch box and shoes and the rest of the items in the cart were for her sisters.  So, I thought, why not let her have a back-to-school outfit? 

Bad idea.  She goes to Mother's Day Out and, of course, doesn't wear a uniform.  So her outfit was just regular clothes.  Her sisters wanted a "regular clothes" outfit, too.  More drama.  I ruined Isabelle's entire day (she told me so), and it was just the end of the world. 

It was truly one of those "can't win" situations unless I was going to shell out even more money, which just isn't in the budget this week.

Really, much more fun when my parents were the ones footing the bill  and all I had to worry about was what character I wanted on my lunchbox.

But it's over, except I'll still have to pick up more uniforms over the next few weeks.  I was scraping the bottom of the barrel selection-wise since I opted out of the tax free weekend madness.  What we have right now will get us by until then.  And I will go alone.  I don't care what I have to do to make it happen... I will be alone.

Jenny Pinny

Well, 4 rows down on Zoe's blanket.  That's the 1/3 mark!  Yay me!  It might not take me 5 months to do this.  =)



That's a good thing, since Olivia's already put her order in for her blanket.  I'm not sure she'll get what she wants, though.

Source: ravelry.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

She wants it to look like this.  Unfortunately for her, the pattern isn't in English.  Maybe I'll try to figure out something similar.  With bigger squares, preferrably.

My kids love Pinterest.  My husband likes it, too, despite the fact that he says he doesn't see the point in it.  It doesn't stop him from standing and looking over my shoulder at it or even browsing by himself if I leave it up.  The girls definitely like to look at all the pictures.  I keep an eye on them when they do... there are some things on there I'm not ready to explain to a 5 year old.  But for the most part, Pinterest is pretty clean, and they can't read swear words yet.  ;)

Yesterday, I was looking to find some ideas for school lunches, since the girls go back to school next week.  I found a lunch box for me...

Source: None via Jennifer on Pinterest

How funny would it be to take that to work, since I work in a surgery center?  I mean, we don't do transplants or anything, but it still cracks me up.

Olivia started looking at the stuff that came up with my search for lunch box ideas, and she is now fixated on fancy bento boxes.

Source: None via Cat on Pinterest

Like that's ever going to happen.  My crafty and artistic endeavors do not carry over into the kitchen.  They'll be lucky if I take cookie cutters to some cheese or their sandwiches.  I might be able to handle some homemade ice packs:

Source: thekitchn.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I think some cute colored ice packs would be much more fun than those blue blocks we have.  And we do have a vacuum sealer, so I don't have to worry about a ziplock popping open.

I'm so excited about school starting.  You would think I was the one going.  I was such a geek, I loved school.  Olivia is worried that her new teacher will be mean.  Isabelle is excited, but it's hard for me to even really accept that she's about to be in Kindergarten.  I don't know what I'll do in 2 years when Zoe starts. 

On my mind tonight

Or as a friend of mine likes to call posts like this... brain barf.

I found this picture on Pinterest today...

Source: google.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

This is going to be me when I get old.  (for the record, I am totally coveting her turquoise jewelry.  hardcore)  I actually really look forward to getting old.  I plan on not giving a hoot what anyone thinks when I get old.  I will dress like a crazy person.  I will be strange and eccentric and a constant source of embarrassment to my kids and grandkids.  Because I can.  =)

Shortly after I found this picture and was thinking about all of this, I got a text from my best friend out of the blue.  It was a picture of the DVD of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.  What on earth does one have to do with the other?  We went to go see this movie when it was in the theater.  After it was over, and the credits were rolling, we heard some ladies cutting up in the back of the theater.  As we passed, we noticed that it was a pair of elderly ladies.  It was the funniest part of the evening... seeing these old ladies goofing off.  We vowed that we will be just like that when we get old. The movie is kind of a symbol to us that we'll still be friends when we are old and that we will just as crazy then as we were in high school.

And even though we've had some rough waters the past year or so, we apparently still have some kind of brain connection going on considering the timing of her sending me that picture right after I saw the first picture.

The other thing that has been on my mind is this developing dream I have of having some kind of fiber arts-related job.  The vague idea is to have something like a place where people can go to learn how to crochet or knit or spin...  and to hang out with other people.  Kind of a crocheting lounge.   It's all very vague right now.  I don't have a clue how to make that profitable.  I just love the idea of teaching people these "old lady" crafts.  It used to be something everyone knew how to do and now it's so rare for a younger person to know any of it.   I'd love to try to get high school kids interested in it.   And not just fiber arts, but sewing, too. I think it's important for people to learn how to make things, for the sense of accomplishment, the discipline, for just so many reasons, really.

Like I said, it's not any kind of concrete plan or anything.  I just keep dwelling on the quote I saw about the things you do in your spare time are what you should be doing for a living (sorry, I'm not digging up the actual quote right now).  Heaven knows I don't love what I do now for a living, and I don't see having an etsy shop or anything like that being profitable enough for me to actually make enough money to quit my job.  But I'll keep on dreaming and maybe some more things will gel in my head and I will come up with something.  Maybe I'll just be a crazy old lady pushing old lady crafts onto youngsters.  ;)

Afghanorama

I haven't been posting anything very crafty lately, because all I've really done lately is work on my afghans.  Yup, it's plural.  I've been plugging along with Zoe's afghan, but decided to start on another afghan while we were out of town.

My new afghan is a thank you present for the person responsible for getting me on the cruise I'll be taking at the end of January.  And it's not the person I thought it was.  The actual person seems to want to remain anonymous, however... she spilled the beans to my sister.  So, I'm making this afghan on the down low, and will give it to her to let her know that I know and am very grateful.  It's the Stained Glass Window afghan that I've been dying to make.



I'm making all 12 squares at once, one color at a time, so that I can buy the different colors as I go and not try to handle 8 different skeins of yarn at once.  I'm at a standstill until I can get to Hobby Lobby later in the week to buy the next couple of colors.  It uses the overlay crochet technique, which I've been wanting to try out.  It's pretty fun and challenging.  I have a much more detailed overlay crochet pattern I want to try that uses embroidery floss, so getting familiar with the technique with worsted weight yarn is going to help out a lot.  I'll probably hate giving this afghan away.  I guess I'll just have to make two.

Zoe's blanket's progress isn't very visible at the moment.



When I got the row that started with the green color, I made all of the flower centers for the row, but I was in a very green mood and made all the squares green.  I decided it would be a good thing to get an idea of how many squares I would be able to make per skein, so I could have a better idea of how many I'll need of each color.  Two skeins of each color will be sufficient, until I decide how to do the border, but I'm leaning towards yellow and white on that and will still be OK with 2 skeins apiece there, also.  I think.  I'll worry about that later.

That's all that's going on right now.  I am not inspired to work on much else at the moment.  It's too hot to work on shawls or hats...  and I'm not feeling the amigurumi vibe at the moment.  I will just cruise along with the afghans until the summer decides to chill out and maybe then my creative juices will flow again.