It’s 88º (31.1ºC) outside and 78º (25.55ºC) inside.
It’s Summertime hot outside and
comfortable on the inside of our house.
I walked into the living room and found my little furry
Shelibean taking a nap wrapped in my crocheted blanket.
I guess he was a cold little fellow underneath all that fur. lol
Here’s wishing you an amusing week.
I hope everyone had a good week. We’ve got colds here at my home. I’d hoped we were over that for the year, but oh well…
Blackberry winter has arrived. The temps get down into the low 40’s. That’s not too awful, but we got spoiled real quick to sitting outside enjoying the 70’s and the 80’s tempperatures. It’s annoying that we need the heat on again.
My Basil isn’t doing well, most of it got bit back from the cold. I usually don’t have a problem during Blackberry with my porch garden. I guess where my basil was sitting there must’ve been an extra cold spot or something. Bummer dude!
The Baby Bunny living under our porch Something keeps chopping our Gerber Daisies to pieces. I’m going to surf around and see if I can find a deterrent. I don’t want to hurt whatever’s doing it, but I do want it to stop.
I started a new crochet blanket project with my shades of purple yarn. I didn’t get very far on it before I got sick. So, I’ve put it away until I’m well again.
And so it goes for me at the moment.
Time to go back to bed and wait for the cold to pass. 
Here’s the colors for my next project. Even though they may look more like blues in the photo, in real life they’re 3 shades of purple. I’m not going to say what I’m making or if I’m going to make more than one item because I haven’t totally decided yet. There might be a crochet hook involved and/or a knitting loom. The only thing I’ve decided for sure is that these are 3 of the colors of yarn I’m going to use. You’d be surprised how hard it was to find 3 shades of purple in one brand of yarn. I thought I was going to have to order the yarn online and get different brands of each color plus pay monster shipping fees to get some, but thankfully I found this brand with 3 shades at a Hobby Lobby store. ~happy dance~
I’ve never used ‘I Love This Yarn‘ brand before. It’s a soft acrylic yarn with a nice spring to it.
My Bff knows a lot about yarn and she suggested I make a swatch, and wash & dry it, to get a proper-sizing on the yarn.
That made sense to me, so that’s what I did.
I didn’t think to look on the yarn band for washing instructions until after I had washed and dried my swatch. Then my Bff reminded me of the manufacturers directions on the band when I sent her a photo of the after-wash. She said she usually gives the recipient of her creations a copy of the directions from the band. My Bff has the most awesome ideas.
I used a single crochet, double crochet and a crazy stitch to make my swatch. I figure these are 3 of the main stitches I’ll probably be using. I washed and dried it like it was a regular piece of clothing. I’m happy to report that the swatch washed up really well. Shrinkage was minimal and the yarn didn’t pill.
I splurged the other day and bought a couple of afghan crochet hooks. (I saw the hooks and my ECD kicked in. lol ) I’ve been wanting to try Tunisian crochet and it requires a long hook. I haven’t tried to use these yet. I’m busy with other things, but someday I’ll sit down and give them a try.
Here’s a link that might give an idea about the Tunisian technique.
Tunisian crochet on Pinterest
Have you ever used long crochet hooks?
Have you ever tried the Tunisian technique?
My apologies on this photo, the sun went behind a cloud as Sheli posed perfectly and I took the photo. The dark blur sort of in the upper left side is a bumblebee that has taken up residence on our back porch. Sheli was watching it fly around.
This is my finished crochet project that I mentioned the other day, a 56 inch x 44 inch blanket.
I got the idea for this blanket from my Blogging Buddy Charlotte. I’ve always wanted to try this pattern, but I didn’t think I could do it. Then Charlotte posted a beautiful baby blanket she crocheted by this pattern. She said it was calming work and not too difficult. She gave a quick and easy explanation of the stitches. It clicked hope in my heart that perhaps I could do the stitch and make something pretty too.
I spent 30 minutes trying to make the pattern work for me, but I’m not skilled enough for free-hand on such a lovely stitch, so I went and looked up a pattern… well, I found some, but I couldn’t make them work either. I felt like such a gourd-head.
I was about to give up when I saw a link for a vintage pattern supposedly written as it was in 1899 and 1917: How To Crochet The Crazy Stitch. I thought it couldn’t hurt to check that out… wow, I took right off following the pattern… now what does that say for my mentality? lol The only change I made to the pattern was, instead of using the 3 double crochet that it calls for, I used 2 double crochet. The 3 double crochet made it look too bunchy.
There’s a few patterns on that page for the crazy stitch. The one from 1899 calls for treble crochets.
Sheli fell in love with our new blanket of course. I let him pose with it while I took photos.
The first person that used this blanket was my grandson, he snuggled underneath it to watch movies this weekend.
It’s a nice size blanket and not too difficult to make. I think it went quite quickly, but then I love to crochet.
I echo Charlotte’s words that it’s “Calming work”
Thanks Charlotte for inspiring me once again. I’ve really enjoyed making a bright new blanket for my family to enjoy. ((hugs))
Joys Of Creating 