A fairly productive week...

Last week went fast!  Busy with productive things and socializing, but still plenty of time to craft. That's a pretty perfect week in my estimation.

The strawberry plants finally got uncovered, and the garlic I planted amongst the strawberries last fall appears to be thriving.  

I'm thinking some garlic cloves must have not sprouted, though, as I only have about 50 plants (between the strawberry bed and another small spot in which I planted about half as many as above).  For some reason, I thought I planted around 90 cloves.  Or maybe I'm dreaming that.  To be completely honest, I don't get great sleep, and I've been having a lot a weird dreams lately...

I've dreamt weirder things than planting 90 cloves of garlic, that's for sure!

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And look at what bloomed this weekend!

The amaryllis my neighbor gave me last Easter, I brought out of the garage into the sunroom in February to bring it out of dormancy.  It was so top-heavy, I scrambled to find something to hold it up before it toppled right over.

We crafty folks are resourceful.  

To the non yarn-crafty reading this, that is a 

knitting needle serving as a stake.

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A friend and I got together for a couple of hours one afternoon and mod-podged spring/Easter eggs - using flower designs cut from pretty tissue paper. 

It was messy, and I'm not sure I ever want to do it again, but  the finished eggs are kind of cute:

The eggs were inexpensive ones from Hobby Lobby, and are probably even more deeply discounted this week - in case anyone reading is inspired to do this. The eggs I bought are made of a ping-pong-ball material, packaged in a half-an-egg crate.  

If my friend wants to get together one more time to finish the job, I'll decorate the last three of my dozen...  Otherwise, those will be donated to a thrift shop and I'll be happy to call this done.  I've concluded I'm better at mod-podging flatter objects.

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At some point, these Tunisian-stitched hotpads were finished.  Made with a sturdy cotton yarn, they are a decent thickness for hotpads:

The one below (crocheted with a softer cotton yarn) is a little flimsier, so it will likely become a washcloth:

I like these a lot.  And they are not the least bit hard to make, but my arthritic thumbs grew pretty weary holding the long Tunisian hook in one hand, and the cloth in the other.  I think I'm done doing Tunisian crochet with cotton yarn.  

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And lastly, having recently enjoyed making some dishcloths using the moss stitch (aka linen stitch), I gave making moss stitch granny square cloths a go, and I am a little bit in love.  These fast projects made with colorful yarns are fun to make, and hopefully will be fun to use:

The orange one on the left was made with a sturdy kitchen cotton (like Sugar n' Cream or Peaches & Cream). The others are made using Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton Yarn in various prints.  This soft cotton yarn makes super drapey cloths, and the cotton "prints" work well in this stitch pattern.  

Though, the perfectionist in me did finagle a bit to get the colors to go 'round and 'round in a pleasing way, instead of congregating on one side, as they tend to do if you change directions each round.  Changing directions with each round keeps the squares from skewing.  To overcome the colors' tendency to pool when doing this, I did a lot of snipping and magic-knotting. In fact, I'm something of a pro at this now.  I've never before trusted the magic knot, but I figured dishcloths that will get abused and washed many times will be a great test of its reliability.

The video tutorial below is, by far, the best one I have found for making these:

I hope those of you who observe and celebrate have had a meaningful Lent and Easter!

A spring-weight blanket and Easter eggs!

I've been a monogamous crocheter this week and I'm glad to say I finished the blanket I've been working on before my self-imposed finish date of April 1st!

The blanket pattern is from the book Weekend Afghans by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss.  I like the pattern so much this is the third blanket I've made using it.    It's a nice feminine blanket that is airy and light.  What I really love about it, though, is the pretty edge the pattern makes along the length of the blanket...



and a nice scallop on the top and bottom edges...

And now with that completed, I'm chomping at the bit to begin the Mandala Madness CAL that actually started a week ago - so I've got some catching up to do.   I may also start The Midwife Blanket as it's been calling out to me for some time now and having recently seen a pretty edging I want to try on it, I almost can't wait to start...

But first we celebrate Easter today.   First thing this morning we enjoyed Easter breakfast at church followed by worship and a baptism.  And now it's home for a bit of a rest before preparing for sons and guest(s) to come for a supper meal and some games.  Yesterday my 20 year-old son and I colored and decorated eggs.   The activity was almost contemplative compared to younger years when dying eggs carried a level of excitement with it.

We'll see which egghead is the hardest in a game of egg wars later (a tradition from hubby's childhood family).  Then it's into an egg salad with these babies. Mmmmm.

A happy, joyous Easter to you!   To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit this week's thread on Ravelry.