Dahlia #2...

 I have finally finished my flowery-colored Dahlia Blanket!

I think I remember expressing intentions of finishing this by the end of 2024, then January of 2025.  For some reason, though, l temporarily lost interest. But in the last week, my crojo returned as mysteriously as it had disappeared, and I have finally finished this blanket of many (supposed) Dahlia colors.

Even though my interest waned for a little while, overall it was a pleasure to crochet.  And I am also very glad to be moving on.  

Using a variety of worsted weight yarns, mostly from my stash, I approximated a lot of the colors the designer (Lucy at Attic 24) used.  Lucy tends to make her colorful creations in Stylecraft DK weight yarn that comes in a huge range of colors.  Where I didn't have similar colors in my stash, I worked in colors I thought would play with what I did have.

I finished the border according to the pattern, but finished the last round with a crab (or reverse single crochet) stitch.

I really like this neatly rolled edge as a fun border on a blanket of playful colors.

And that, dear reader, is all I've got for this YOP update.  

It looks like we've got several storm systems crossing the U.S. this week and next weekend - with snow and ice for a lot of people, and maybe tornadoes for some.  I knew it was too much to hope that our recent warm weather last week meant winter was wrapping up.  I hope you all stay warm and dry!

All the colors...

I am loving this latest blanket I started using the Dahlia pattern again:  

Pulling colors from my stash that kind of approximate the designer's colors, I'm pretty pleased with what I'm getting.

There are fifteen different colors.  I followed the order the designer used for the first layout of the colors, but I'm winging it from here on out. The fun colors make me almost giddy.  Eager to see how each new placement of a color interacts with the colors already laid down keeps me crocheting until my eyes get blurry.  I'm in crochet heaven.  

And all those yarn ends?  I'm good with those, too.  I think sewing in all those colorful yarn ends will be almost as soothing to me as crocheting this two-row repeat pattern.  

And because of that, I'm planning on packing whatever I have crocheted of this blanket and toting it with me one day this week where I have somewhere to be and expect to have hours with nothing to do but wait. Sewing in yarn ends sounds like the perfect way to pass the (I have no idea how many) hours. 

Here's what's going on...

After having a spot on the side of my nose (at nostril level) carved on three times in the last two years by my dermatologist, I was finally referred to a Mohs surgeon this past August.  Online, the doctor I was referred to looks like he has loads of experience with mohs surgery, and is everyone's choice.  I'm hoping that is why my procedure was booked 8 weeks out.  And that was two weeks after my derm carved on me.  Ten weeks I've been waiting to get this done.  Almost a fifth of the year!  That seems kind of crazy, but what do I know...

Anyway, all those weeks have finally passed, and the day is practically within my grasp now.  I am both relieved at the thought of getting this procedure behind me, and anxious at the same time.   A fair amount of my anxiousness is because I know how painful are the first shot(s) in the nose. After that, I shouldn't feel a thing.  There's other stuff about it I'm trying to keep out of my mind, and I have been mostly successful at it, but with the countdown ticking in my brain now, thoughts of this procedure (and what kinds of repair - or not - may be on the other side) keep niggling their way in.

Hopefully, I'll be back here later in the week reporting that I came home from this thing with just a bandaid and feeling silly for even mentioning it.  If I come out with more than that I'll console myself with having something to write about.  

Prayers most appreciated - that I can keep the niggling thoughts tamped down, and that this surgeon gets all of the cancer cells.  I would truly love to not have to keep repeating the nose carving...

Blanket weather...

With cooler temperatures this past week, and me being able to tolerate a large yarny project across my lap, I pulled out a nearly completed Dahlia Blanket and finally crocheted a border for it.  It was some time this past spring when I crocheted the last row of this blanket, and had to put it away because it was just too warm to continue working on it.

Crocheted with worsted weight yarn, this has quite a bit of heft to it.  I like sleeping with a window open on cold evenings; Greg likes pulling a crocheted blanket on top of the covers to keep him warm on those nights.  In fact, he was using this one until I squirreled it away.  He asked where it had gone to, and I told him we couldn't use it until it had a border.  In reality, it was perfectly useable, and an argument could have been made that it didn't need a border to sleep under.  But he didn't argue.  And now finally, I'm happy to have the whole thing finished, and I think Hub is looking forward to once again snuggling under the warmth of this one.

It wasn't my intention, but this blanket turned out huge, covering the top of our queen size bed.  It probably hangs over the edges now that it has a border.  Hub may be sleeping with this doubled up over him as I won't be able to tolerate the heat generated sleeping under it.  

I departed from the pattern at the end and made the final round of the border in a crab stitch.  I've come to love the simple, but pretty "rolled" edge this stitch creates on a blanket.

I may or may not jump into making another blanket from this pattern.  The thing that pulls me toward it is that I have some fun bright flowery colors I pulled aside last spring to make a second one.  

I also pulled aside some neutral colored yarns to make a completely different blanket with - so I have options.  I'm not sure what I'll do next, but at the moment, I'm kind of feeling up for another colorful one.  But first, I need to take stock of how much yarn I used on this one, updating my personal yarn database on Ravelry.  This record-keeping is a hobby unto itself.  Then I want to put the leftover yarn away from this and hat making, and neaten up the room and closet where I store my crafty stuff.  

Meanwhile, I'm watching videos of "slow stitching", making needle books, and collage books - combining all those things into one, even.  And then there are new cross stitch patterns calling, "Pick me! Pick me!"  All the while, unfinished stitching projects wait patiently for my attention.  Like a "kid in a candy store with eyes bigger than my stomach" I want to do it all.  But I need to consider realistically what has staying power for me.  And probably finish something I've already begun.  I'm sure this is a common problem for crafters.  I'm curious how you focus in and discipline yourself to do just one thing when a bunch of things vie for your attention.  Or...  maybe you've got a system of working on different things in some sort of rotation.  

All I know is I get to this stage where I've finished a thing and my hands are itching to do something new and everything looks equally appealing.  The overwhelm of that state leaves me unproductive for a bit until I just finally dive into something.

Watch this space to see what crafty project catches my attention next!

Can't Help Overthinking...

Sometime in the last month or so, I started making a sort of scrappy Dahlia Blanket (another pattern designed by Lucy of Attic 21).   I've pulled from my massive stash of unused skeins of yarns as well as scrap balls leftover from past projects to make this colorful blanket. I have hopes of burning through a lot of yarn by the time I'm finished. 

Random stripes of various colors is not completely in my comfort zone, but I'm trying to not overthink this.  

At the point the picture above was taken, I was seriously second guessing the noisy colors I had chosen.  I tried to console my busy brain by thinking, as long as I don't weave in the ends, I can always change my mind and reclaim the yarn for something else.  And change my mind, I did.  Over and over again.  

The first time I changed my mind was early on, but after about 20 rows were completed.  I decided more white rows interspersed among the random colors would look a little more, I don't know... intentional?  balanced?  Yes!  I needed a balance between something that looked intentional and random. I fought the idea of ripping out most of those rows and crocheting them all over again, but once I did, I was relieved.  It did look better.  Or so I thought.  And then before long, once again, I wasn't sure.  But at this point, I'm committed to my intentional randomness, and am starting to feel more confident it will be a cheerful, fun blanket.  

I'll be over the moon happy if it turns out anywhere close to whimsical (which was what I was originally hoping for when I picked out all these colors), but after so much angst, I'll settle for not awful, and to be done with it already.  Hopefully, it won't be much longer before I'm out of my misery and the verdict is in.

Until then, some amount of overthinking will, no doubt, continue.

It's what I do.  

It looked better at this earlier stage than it does now. 

But it gives me hope.