I'm Trying Something New to Me...

Hi friends,

I hope you are doing well. It's Girl Scout cookie selling season and the girls and I have manned (or should I say womanned?) a couple of booth sales this weekend. Wasn't sure if they would work out given the dire predictions for massive amounts of snow forecast that never materialized in our neck of the woods. It snowed and is pretty dang cold, but not near as bad as was forecast. Well, except maybe the cold part. It's about 12 degrees outside right now. Brrrr. But you didn't stop by to hear me talk about the weather. 

I've started a type of project I've never done before. It's called a crochet-a-long and my friend, Erin, told me about it. She is doing it and encouraged me to try. Basically a gal is releasing a crochet pattern for a 12 inch sized block twice a month for the year. At the end of the year you would have enough blocks to join together to make an afghan. Here's the link to her blog, Moogly You can also go to her blog and copy the pattern and if you are a member of a website called Ravelry (it's free to join this site) you can join the group and get tips on the techniques and share what you are creating. You can also get answers to any questions. I honestly wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it and in fact the 4th block pattern has already been released and I just finished block 1. But, who cares really, right? I liked the look of the project so I thought I'd give it a go. So that is my trying something new to me. 

I was having a very difficult time coming up with a color combination I liked. I had some yarn and I bought some skeins of colors I liked and thought would look good together. I tried coming up with my own color combination and started and tore out my work about 4 times and just about gave up the whole project in frustration. I don't know why I have such a horrible block about figuring something like this out, but I do. So, I decided to follow the order of colors that the gal who is releasing the patterns is using. I'm not using the same yarn, but her order of colors is pleasing to my eye. My order was looking like yuck and even my girls concurred that my selections didn't look that great. 

I'm using Red Heart Super Saver yarn. Mainly because I like that there is no dye lot number. What that means is when I run out of yarn, I can get another skein and know that the colors will look the same. This way I don't have to have a ton of yarn sitting around should I not finish the project or whatever. I can run out and buy it as needed. My colors are from the center out: Perfect Pink, Lemon, Spring Green, Turqua, Medium Purple, Soft White. I've read that some people don't really like Super Saver because they think it doesn't wear well over time. I have two afghans my mom made for Steve and I over 20 years ago and they are in great shape. My experience with this yarn is always positive. 

Okay, enough gibber jabber. Here's Block #1

 I learned a couple of new stitches with this pattern, which is always fun. The braided look is called Jacob's Ladder. To make the stitch used to create Jacob's Ladder, I learned to do a quad treble crochet. Basically this creates a long enough stitch/loop to make that braided look.  Which sounds a lot harder than it is to create. I really like the texture this adds to the block.

Back: Erin, Jeanne

Front: Jessica, Amy

Here we are at Erin's. We drove down to her house for a visit the Friday before Valentine's Day. Thanks for sending me this picture, E!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I know my posting is pretty sporadic these days. It's not for lack of desire, believe me. I do appreciate that you keep checking in. 

Have a great day! :)