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

Small things...

This was a quiet, yet profound, week with the burial service for my father-in-law on Thursday.    While his funeral service over a week ago was lovely, Bernie's burial brings a level of finality that we hadn't been able to experience until now.  While no one would have planned these two services to be separate (weather was in control of that), it actually made for a very personal and deeply meaningful graveside service having it on a separate day.  I hope you'll read the short post I wrote about it yesterday.

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While I'm continuing to crochet away on two Spicier Life blankets, they really don't look different enough to post a progress picture.   Maybe next week.

But I did squeeze in two smaller projects.  I'm hosting a CAL this week in the Our Happy CAL Place, and to fit into the theme "Kitchen & Bath" I found a pattern for this cute Turtle Washcloth:

What a fun washcloth for a child, or a kitchen in the woods, or even a potholder - if made doubled.  If doubled, I suggest only doubling the center shell part.  And then joining and finishing the turtle's legs, head and tail with a single layer of crochet.

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And then I decided to join in last week's CAL and made a bookmark (using this pattern for the stem):

 Using this pattern, sport weight cotton and a size G hook, the rose turned out crazy big.

But I sort of LOVE it!

To see what other YOPpers are working on, visit our group by clicking on the graphic below.

I've got a plan! Again.

The response to my squares last week was interesting. I was intrigued that anyone liked (even, more intriguing to me was that a couple of people preferred) the square I disliked the most.

In the end, though, while I appreciated the kind comments and suggestions, and though I liked a couple of the color combinations I had worked up last week, I knew I wouldn't be satisfied working with those sweet colors for a year's worth of blocks. So I went back to Ravelry and looked at more examples of finished blankets made with various types of blocks. I concluded that what excites me most is not the carefully selected and perfectly tended color schemes (as beautiful as they are to behold), but rather, my heart always does a little flippity-flip over the really colorful blankets -- blankets that are crafted with bright, often riotous, sometimes dissonant colors.  They don't just make my heart happy, they fascinate me.  I need to study these blankets some more (to understand better how and why the really spectacular ones work), but I've decided this kind of colorful blanket is what I truly want to create in my first BAM CAL (that's Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long, in case I haven't mentioned it before).  Even if mine doesn't turn out spectacular, I want to try my hand at making one.

I think, in my heart of hearts, what I really want is to make a true "scrapghan", but I don't have enough scraps to actually do that so back to my stash I went.

In my previous searching through finished blankets, it occurred to me (or maybe I actually saw) that Lion Brand Heartland yarn would make a nice looking blanket - with its slightly heathered look in a good number of different colorways.  I had some skeins of Heartland in my stash and with a sale at Jo-Ann's (plus another discount coupon =^)  I pulled together some colors that I thought might work:

Hmmm...   Well, that's a start to some interesting color combinations, but honestly...  I don't think I care for the construction and design of this square much.  It's flimsy and floppier than I think I'd like to have in this blanket, but I'll keep it in case it comes in handy.

Then I made this:

Oooh...  Oooh yeah. 

First off, I love the design of this square (it's called Floral Dimension).  While I was going for something of a fall mum effect with these colors, I'm hopeful that some other (non-autumn) colors will work alongside this square (in a "scrappy" sort of way).  If I end up with a year's worth of autumny colored squares I can't imagine being unhappy, but I'm holding out hope here at the beginning that I can work in more colors - colors that aren't (at first glance) natural companions of the colors above.

So!  Rather than an actual color scheme, I guess I have a yarn theme for my blocks.  Using the Heartland yarns as my inspiration, I will plan to use various colors of heathered worsted weight acrylic yarn to make my BAM CAL squares this year.  And we'll just see how varied the different squares actually get - and we'll see if they actually go together.  I definitely feel like I can play with these (and more) colors for the next 12 months.

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And for some instant gratification, yesterday I decided to whip up these little Crocheted Stars:

Mine are made with Paton's Grace 100% cotton and a size F crochet hook, so they turned out really small (2 1/5 inches from point to point). The pattern was offered up in Our Happy CAL Place for last week's CAL Challenge and what a happy, easy challenge it was.   :)  

To see what other Yoppers  are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.