Random yarny makes...

It seems I accomplished very little (yarn-wise) early in the week, and then suddenly had a burst of yarny enthusiasm the last few days.

This past week in Our Happy CAL Place on Ravelry, some of us made these cute Heart Pocket Note Holders.  When I first saw the project I knew I wanted to make one to hang above my kitchen calendar to hold pens that I use to write stuff down with:

   

I feel kind of silly loving something so kitschy.  But I do!

And see how well it coordinates with my calendar, 

and it fills the purpose I envisioned for it perfectly:

By the way, the flower pattern was found here.  It is not part of the note holder pattern - in case anyone is interested.

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And then yesterday a new CAL was offered up for these Bowl Cozies:   

Now, let me be clear...  my bowl cozy did not turn out at all like it was supposed to.  Mine did not take on a bowl shape, though to be honest I only made mine single layered, so that is possibly why.  While single-layered is satisfactory for "insulation", mine was pretty floppy and ultimately useless.

Not wanting to give up, I looked at others' projects and noticed that someone else had pinched in the corners so I gave that a try.  That did make it cozier and I look forward to giving it a try in the microwave soon.   The pattern worked out correctly for more people than not, so don't let my flub dissuade you from giving the pattern a go if you like the idea of one of these things.

And being the last Sunday of February, I counted up my knitted (and one crocheted) dishcloth made this month.  Ten new cloths added to the gift/use some day box:

  

To see what other YOPers are up to, 

visit our group on Ravelry.

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  22.53/100 skeins

A sweetheart of a blanket...

A short and sweet post this week 

to show my finished Sweet Heart Blanket:

I love how when the blanket is stretched a bit 

the shell stitches look like columns of hearts.  

Sort of.

What do you think?

At any rate, I'm please enough with how it turned out, and I'm super glad to be finished  - and to be finished second guessing my color selections!   

In case anyone is remotely curious about the pattern, it was found in an old book I own called Weekend Afghans.  The pattern name is Corn on the Cob (because it was originally done in a bright yellow).  

But I like Sweet Heart Blanket much better.   😊

This picture shows all six colors.
(The lightest pink doesn't show in the first picture above.)

And now... on to other projects!  

To see what other YOPers are up to, 

visit our group on Ravelry.

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  19.56/100 skeins

My fickle sweet hearts...

Here today with a very short progress report on my Sweetheart Blanket.   After much second guessing, ripping back, and re-crocheting, I've probably (in terms of effort) made this blanket over at least two times by now.  

Oddly...  as tired as I am of crocheting this blanket, I really do like the design of it.  I keep imagining various other color combinations, but I dare not start another before this one is finished (or, I suppose, given up on).  Bottom line is I know I don't have a perfect gradient of colors in my stash for making an ombre like I'd like.  And in retrospect, I wish I had just gone with some fun colors (as opposed to shades of pink/red), but seriously...  I've come too far to just give up, I feel.

Wish me well as I add the last two colors and finish this project this week!

To see what other YOPers are up to, 

visit our group on Ravelry. 

Just to prove spring did not actually arrive early last weekend (when I was sitting outside on my deck in shirt sleeves crocheting), this picture more accurately depicts early February in central Indiana (taken this afternoon 2/10):

But no complaints here.  Tomorrow is supposed to be in the high 40's!   And Tuesday in the 50's!  Before it turns cold and snows again...  How many times can I say what a crazy winter we're having?!?

Can you see the hearts?

With all the fussing around with yarn I did this week (and nothing but time on my hands due to the frigid weather and no where I had to go), I have surprisingly little to show this week.

During February in Our Happy Cal Place we're making baby/child/lap blankets.  So early in the week I pulled out various blues and teals from my stash, intent on making an ombre blanket.   I even started several ripple-patterned blankets, but for one reason or another each one of them got frogged before I got very far in. Either my counts were off, or I wasn't happy with my yarn - I tried two or three different days to make it work, but I finally decided it just wasn't meant to be.

Giving up on that idea, and needing something that didn't require many brain cells (because I had used so many up on my failed teal ombre blanket) I finally just decided to pull out my last jumbo skein of Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Big! yarn (that name makes me giggle every time) and start making a simple C2C (Corner to Corner) baby blanket. I'm maybe a third of the way finished:

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Now, I had earlier pulled aside some shades of pink and coral to make a second blanket, but the CAL for that (in the Red Heart Lovers group) had a definite start date of February 1st.  So there was no working on that early.  But Friday finally arrived and I've gotten this much done on a child-sized blanket I'm calling Sweetheart Blanket:

 Do you see the hearts?    

No?

Let me turn it around...

Do you see them now?

How about if I stretch on the fabric a bit?

For some reason, when I saw this blanket in a book (and it was a yellow blanket, mind you) I saw hearts.  I thought crocheting it in shades of pink it would be undeniably a blanket of hearts.  But today I'm not seeing hearts.  Not unless I squint my eyes and cock my head a little to the right.  Then I can almost imagine hearts.

Ah well..  it should be a fun experiment with color, anyway, as I've not tried making an ombre blanket before.  Honestly, it won't be a true ombre since (I think) there will be corals in the middle, but I'm hoping it sort of approximates ombre.  Sort of approximates works for me at this point.

Check back next week to see my progress!  And to see what other YOPers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry!

I feel a little silly with this snow-background graphic today.  After temps in the negatives °F last week, today we're in the mid-50's!   Ahhh.... Midwest winters are nothing if not interesting.    It's tempting to imagine it's spring, but snow's in the forecast again after this week so I'm not packing away my winter graphics yet!

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  12.5/100 skeins

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Mid-Sunday afternoon I had to come back and add this.

Just four days after the polar vortex had us braving (or sheltering from) near record frigid temperatures, it has warmed up to 64°F  and I'm sitting in the sun, on my deck, in shirt sleeves, crocheting.  It's almost too warm to have this blanket on my lap.

On February 3rd!   Outside!!!!

I know cold weather and snow will return, but today I'm saying, "Good Riddance, Polar Vortex!  I hope I don't see the likes of you again anytime soon."