New Beginnings...

Let me begin this post by hoping for you all that you have a great 2019.   I'm content to have wrapped up 2018 and be moving on to whatever is in store for the new year.

Speaking of wrapping up...  I was able to complete some projects this week that were begun in 2018, and I began some new projects.  I'm not sure which excites me more.

Okay, okay...  I'm probably most excited about finishing my second Spicier Life Blanket this past week (pattern here):

While these "Spice" blankets are really fun to make, and I don't even mind all the end-weaving, the most challenging part of making these  is dealing with how the different stitch patterns behave throughout the blanket (making for a wide variety of widths among the many rows).   I try to minimize this problem by using different sized hooks, and then before crocheting the borders on, I pin these blankets out hard, and give them a steam blocking (taking care to not touch the hot iron to the yarn).  

It's also very easy to second guess my colors the whole time I'm crocheting, and wish I had followed someone else's plan, but having finished four Spice blankets (two different designs) I've yet to be unhappy with any of them.

Seriously... who wouldn't love lounging under all these cheery colors?

And I can't help but smile over so many happy stitches and the pretty border.

Okay... I suppose that's enough of that.  Thank you for indulging me.  😊  

On to my new projects...

Yesterday I wrote about starting a Temperature project.  If you're at all interested, you can read the details here, but I'll just be brief today and explain that this will be a one-month (at most, two-month) project and I'll show a progress picture here each week.   While I'm only doing a short-term scarf/shawl (using this pattern), others in Our Happy CAL Place on Ravelry are making year-long blankets and scarves.  Consider yourself invited to join along if something like this sounds interesting!

This is 6 days into my Temperature Shawl:

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Another CAL at Our Happy CAL Place is a Shawl/Poncho... CAL going on during January.   Jenn from Jenn's Crafty World made this cute Lace Edged Poncho (and is wearing hers in this video).  I love Jenn's multi-colored yarn, but not having anything that cute, I decided to work with my stash of Lion Brand Heartland yarn.  

Haven't gotten very far, but this seems to work up fast:

The only other thing I did this week (yarn-wise) was to finish up a little knitted dishcloth - the likes of which I've shown many times here already.  Unfortunately, it only used up a half a skein of yarn.   But that little 1/2 skein got counted in my yarn used total!

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And with that, it's now time for my final report of how much yarn I used up last year.  After tallying up my yarn used on projects I began in 2018 and finished this past week, I got really close to my 100 skein goal.  

Get ready for it ...  

Drumroll ... 

2018 Yarn Stash-Down Results: 

 94.8/100 Skeins !!!

I was (sort of) hoping my Spicier Life Blanket would push me past the 100 skein mark, but honestly...  I'm super happy to have come this close.  And as of this writing, I have boxed up 6 skeins of yarn for donating - to bring my total destash to 100.8 skeins.  

I plan to keep on keepin' on with this de-stashing business.  In 2019 my goal will again be to diminish my stash by 100 skeins (and hope I can actually do more than that).   I don't know that I will give myself a moratorium on purchasing yarn, but I will definitely be selective and any yarn brought in will mean I'll need to use up that much more yarn to reach the "100 skeins" goal.

On that note, I am reminded of the 10 or so balls of cotton thread I bought last summer to make doilies with.  Considering that, I actually did use up more than 100 skeins.  One hundred and five skeins, if I'm figuring correctly.  So that's nice to know.

With it being January, I'm filled with enthusiasm and great expectations.  Let's hope my enthusiasm is warranted, and my expectations are met come December of 2019.  😉

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

Temperature Scarf ...

Editing this post to say that the Temperature project written about below was ditched.  I leave this post here since I did give it a go, and later posts show my progress toward making my decision to stop.

A few days ago I spent some time figuring out how to do a 1-month temperature scarf/shawl.  It was not as easy as I thought it would be.  But never one to shirk from taking a simple crochet project and making it complicated, I set myself to the task.

Let me explain my reasoning for even doing a temperature scarf (instead of a blanket).  The main reason is because Our Happy CAL Place is hosting a Temperature CAL this year and I didn't want to miss out on the fun.

But not for one minute believing I had the fortitude, commitment, capability, okay... discipline to intentionally make a blanket slowly over the course of the year, I knew jumping into making  a Temperature Blanket was something I should, without hesitation, say no to.  And I did.  For about 2 days.   Then there was talk of some making temperature scarves and that idea appealed to me, but I still didn't think I could keep interest in it over the course of a year.

Then inspiration struck!

I would make a temperature scarf over the course of one month.  Thirty-one days.  I can do anything for 31 days!  When I first thought of this, I imagined a pretty scarf where the colors might shift subtly because January doesn't change all that much normally.  I mean, it's cold.  It's usually snowy.  And it's cold.  There's just not much else to say about January in Indiana.   I could probably make a scarf in 3 or 4 colors!  And I could spread those colors out over the say, 40 degree range we might have - having each color represent a 10 degree range.  Yep.  Simple.

But with New Year's Eve being unseasonably warm (by 40-some degrees), I decided to look at the weather forecast for the month on January.  I saw that the first half of the month is predicted to be unseasonably warm, but by the end of the month we may get colder than normal.   My 40 degree range suddenly became possibly a 60-70 degree range!  And I was likely to end up with a scarf that was divided in half into two completely disparate color schemes.

So much for a pretty scarf.

Okay... so giving up the idea of subtly shifting colors or even anything that might approach "pretty", I decided to just have fun and embrace a variety of color.  After giving it some thought, I also concluded that to get anything interesting in a 31-day period I should make my temperature increments very small. I kept whittling down the increments until I landed on something that I think will provide some interesting variety - increments of 3 degrees Fahrenheit.

I know...  that sounds crazy.  And if making a temperature project over the course of a year, that would be crazy.  But over 31 days???   I figured I could do this with 18-20 colors (knowing I likely won't actually use all those colors).  

Searching my yarn stash, I was both thrilled and embarrassed that I had that many (actually more) colors of one brand of yarn in my possession,  so I can do this. With 20 colors, I will attempt to make a Temperature Scarf using this pattern.   And not that I think anyone is actually still reading about this funny idea, but here is a breakdown of the temps and colors I plan to use:

Daily High (degrees Fahrenheit)

Below 10 °F Black Canyon 
10-12° Great Smokey Mountains 
13-15° Lake Clark 
16-18° Hot Springs 
19-21° Kings Canyon 
22-24° Olympic 
25-27° Isle Royale 
28-30° Yosemite 
31-33° Cuyahoga Valley 
34-36° Glacier Bay 
37-39° Biscayne 
40-42° Joshua Tree 
43-45° Badlands 
46-48° Kenai Fjords 
49-51° Sequoia 
52-54° Redwood 
55-57° Danali 
58-60° Bryce Canyon 
above 60° Yellowstone

Snow - Mt. Rainier

And I've concluded that using https://weather.com/ is the simplest and quickest way for me to find the high temperature for each day.

So...  with all that explanation over with, I've begun my first temperature project.  This may be the most fun thing I've done to date, or it could very possibly be the ugliest.  Depending on my feelings about it come the end of January, I may just continue into February and make it into a a shawl.  Or it could make a trip to the burn barrel.

We'll see!

Here's what I have finished on January 5th:

I'm pretty sure, when all is said and done, I will conclude that this wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had, and there are probably better ways to go about making a 1-month temperature scarf.  But I'm committed to a plan now.  And I'm looking forward to seeing what this ends up looking like!

If you want to join the fun, pop in to the Ravely Group, Our Happy CAL Place.   You need a free Ravelry account to access this link.