Crochet Blanket Started

 Hi all -

For some reason, last week really flew by! Part of it was probably the Big 12 tournament. Without work, I was able to watch every game! And every game was exciting!! Kansas made it into the final, but was beat by Texas in the last game. But it didn't affect their bid for March Madness -- they are still one of the number 1 seeds for that tournament. That fun starts this week! I did get my new back-up disks set up and my first set of backups made so I'm ready to use my new computer operationally. The next big task is to do my taxes. Yuck! This will be the most complicated return I've had to fill out since Google has several compensation methods, but it should be my last complicated return so I just have to get this one over with.

On the project front, I started my crochet blanket project. One of my goals during retirement is to learn to crochet. I've done a little crochet in the past, making a couple of projects from a Craftsy class, but that was several years ago and something like three small, simple patterns so nothing stuck. Jimmy Beans Wool has a blanket club each year where you can make a knit or crochet blanket through the year. For about $25 per month, you get a skein of yarn and another piece of the pattern and by the end of the year you have a blanket made. I liked the crochet blanket (it's not a mystery club so you can see the blanket before you buy it) and I figured that doing all of the stitches each month required for a blanket would be a good way to become semi-proficient with crochet. The crochet pattern is the Juni Throw designed by Katy Petersen. It's one of those classic wave patterns, using different stitches each month. I watched a couple of beginning crochet classes from Craftsy to remind myself of how to do things and then got started on the first month. I started by making a gauge swatch:

Juni Throw gauge swatch

A gauge swatch is a little thing that you stitch up to make sure that your stitches are the same size as the ones the designer made when writing the pattern. You want to try to make your stitches match the stitches of the designer so that your final project is what you expect. If your stitches are too small then you could end up with a blanket that doesn't cover your lap. If your stitches are too big, you will get a bigger blanket, but you could run out of yarn before you can finish it. When you make the gauge swatch, you compare your stitches to the designer's and can then use a bigger or smaller hook to adjust your stitch size. I used a slightly smaller hook than the one suggested in the pattern. I don't normally check gauge for smaller projects and for things that aren't worn, but thought it would be a good idea to check it for my first big crochet project. Once I had gauge I was ready to start on January's skein and pattern. Here's what I have so far:

Juni Throw progress

I was moving along really well (I thought), but when I got to the end of my latest row I was one stitch short of what I should have so I will need to pull out stitches until I figure out where I made my mistake and then start over from there. But I'm learning a lot and it's getting easier, so it's all good! Here's a close up of what the stitches for this month look like:

Juni Throw close-up

I think the stitches are looking good so far and I'm excited to make progress on this. I have the February skein and pattern ready to go when I get January finished and the March installment should arrive today. I'm hoping to catch up on these and then work on this each month when the new installment arrives.

Before starting to work on my crochet blanket, I was doing some organization and ran across a fairly large leftover ball of colorful yarn and decided I should make something from it. I picked the Lemme Hat designed by Laura Nelkin:

Lemme Hat

I was a bit afraid that the colors would hide the texture of the knitting, but I think it looks pretty good. There still is a good amount of this yarn left, but not enough for another hat so I'll be saving it for either a scrap blanket or maybe some colorwork. Color changing yarn like this is fun in colorwork because you get an interesting shift in the colors without having to keep changing yarns (which also means more ends to weave in).

Finally, I also started a simple knitting pattern that I think will be a good thing to work on while watching basketball games. It's the Mo' Better Cowl designed by Aunt Ninny:

Mo' Better Cowl

This is a really simple pattern where you just knit around in a circle and then graft the ends together so you end up with a cowl that is a complete circle. The yarn was another skein that was languishing in my stash. It's really light and fluffy and has a green sparkle twisted with the yarn. I don't know if you can see the sparkle in the picture, but it's subtle and fun. This yarn is a bit more difficult to knit with because it splits easily and has an uneven thickness, but it really is beautiful when it is knit up!

That's everything I've been working on. I'm still getting used to retirement, but I think I really like it! I just have to get used to not having that regular paycheck and I have to figure out what I can afford to spend and what I have to give up. But I'll get that figured out with time. Until then, I'll enjoy March Madness and the glimpses of nice spring weather we're starting to see!

Nancy