A new project...

It's been a little bit since I've shared anything I've been working on because, frankly, having a desire to hand-craft has been hit or miss in recent weeks.  

That said, in early January I offered (and a friend accepted) for me to make a gift for her of a crocheted blanket.  I gave her free reign to tell me what colors she would like it in - with yarns that are available to me locally, that is.  

She had a vision...  An ombre blanket with shades of brown to beige.  Now shades of brown and beige aren't really my bent, but I also didn't think it was a bad idea.  So I gathered some options, and together we picked out shades of yarn that will hopefully fade nicely from dark to light, and make a respectable looking blanket. 

I started this before I landed in the hospital three weeks ago.  Up to that point, it took some trial and error to get the size right.  And I needed to decide from the outset how many colors I would use, and how big (tall) each color section would be.  I (thought I'd) finally settled on five colors, each approximately 14 inches tall, which would make a blanket around 72 inches long.  

And, I did some crochet tests with colors, and order of colors, and finally landed on the five colors I would use.  And wouldn't you know...  today, I'm once again second guessing the colors. and how many colors to use. 

Here are the options:

Five shades

Six shades

I hate all this waffling, especially after being sure (for most of a week) that five shades would be enough.  And an odd number always sounds good to me.  But when I see how large 14 inches is, and thinking this might look better with more shades, I think six shades is a respectable idea too.

Using six colors will mean ripping back and restarting the second shade earlier.  But that's a small price to pay if it looks better in the end.

Feel free to weigh in.  The colors above are pretty true (on my screen), but that second skein from the left is slightly darker  than it shows in the picture.  So it works best in the order I've placed these colors.

Once I make my final decision, I'm hoping I can knock this out in just a few weeks.  

~~~~~

On the health front, biopsies on the two most suspicious thyroid nodules have come back as benign.  What a relief that is.  I felt I was holding well onto the most likely scenario - which was that the nodules were benign.  And that my bigger fear (a metastasis) was unlikely.  But until I saw "benign" on a final report, I didn't fully realize how preoccupied I was with it all.  I think this simply goes with the territory of having had cancer.  I'm grateful to not be plagued with worry about it coming back, but boy...  does the possibility ever rear its ugly head when you're least expecting it!  I know that not everyone will understand that, but if you feel what I'm saying, I'm happy to validate you.

I'm also very happy to say I now feel free to kick to the curb the niggling worry that hung around in the back of my mind the past two weeks.  

I'm feeling good.  I'm movin' on...  

Thank you for prayers and encouragement.