Joint Venture

I'm a wee bit tardy in uploading this post. I try to chronicle my finished works in order, so that my progression of a knitter/crocheter moves forward and not in some random order. The following project was finished before the "security blanket." In fact it was the project which lead me to finally finish the security blanket, as I was left feeling much more confident in my crocheting abilities. So the story goes like this....

While visiting my dad on Easter, he mentioned that he found more of my mom's yarn stash in the house. This caught me by surprise as I thought I had found all of it. He left the table and came back with all sorts of treasures. One of which was a beautiful work-in-progress....a baby blanket.

I know that this blanket was not intended for my child-to-be. Mom had only known for 1 month that I was pregnant before she passed away and during that time she was undergoing her chemo/radiation treatment. She generally felt crap and slept a lot, so I'm pretty confident that this blanket was started long before her diagnosis.

As we examined the blanket my dad asked if I could finish it. The body of the blanket did not look too complicated, but my stomach lurched at the site of the edging. I said that I could probably finish the blanket by the time my child was 20.

Then I looked at the blanket again. I noticed that the last stitched row created a natural scalloped pattern. I started mulling over my options and decided that I would try to duplicate the pattern around the other three borders.

Now you have to know that this was quite the daunting task for me as I've never done a border in my life. Straight lines have dominated all of my previous finished works....and that's not saying much since I haven't finished many crocheted projects.

A couple of days later I picked up the blanket and the pattern and decided to charter into unknown territory. I decided to duplicate the last row mom stitched as the border for the other three sides.

I ended up with this...

The stitch itself is identical, but not quite the same. This mattered not to me as I was crocheting my first border!



A couple of hours later, I was done (dang TV watching always gets in the way.) I couldn't have been more proud of myself.

My girly will be the owner of a blanket started by her grandmother and finished by her mom. What a special gift to pass on to her.

Unfinished Works and Works in Progress

I finally took the plunge and learned how to knit with needles. New obsession - check! My god-mother and I took a beginner's knitting class at the Hawley Street Shoppe in Mundelein, IL. The group was small and I was sad to see it end. Of course I had also just finished reading "Friday Night Knitting Club" and somehow wanted to project the feeling of togetherness from the book onto our little group. Irrational I know. I'm also pregnant, so cut me some slack.

During the four weeks of class, my god-mother and I were able to spend a lot of time together - much more so that we ever have. It felt really good to reconnect with family who you see only once a year. There are those family member's who you see once a year and think..."now that's the reason why I only see so and so once a year." My GM does not fall into that category, I always leave wanting more from our visits. This might just be the year for us to break the chains of our old habits. We're committed to seeing each other at least once a month. That alone is forging a new path in our relationship.

Now that I have a new crafting obsession, I have a whole new group of projects which have been put down on permanent hiatus or are really a work in progress. Take for instance ...


Security Blanket - I purchased a Vanna White book o' projects and found this pattern. I started it before the knitting class. It was easy enough - half double-crochet stitches all the way across. The body of the blanket is finished. All that is left is to weave in the loopy ends and crochet the trim.

Did I mention that I have a new knitting obsession? Yes, this project waits patiently for me to come back to it for finishing.


Dishcloth - I started this project during the my last knitting class. An easy project for a first-time knitter to complete and keep you motivated to keep knitting.

And here it sits on the needle.

I needed a more challenging project - or so I thought.



Fans & Feathers - a project which has kicked my ass 3 times. You'd think I would have given up. Stubbornness really keeps me going. The pattern is easy enough, I just need to pay attention and not drop or add stitches.

I hope to have this afghan complete before I go into labor. Knowing me, I'll be finishing the damn thing while I'm in the throws of labor.



Yet another baby afghan - I started this project a while ago. I had meant to give it to my SIL's sister whose baby is now several months old. It started on my yellow KK loom using the trinity stitch. I've made several blankets in this fashion in the past and thought I could knock another one out. Some where during the process I become bored and put it down.

Where it still sits to this day. Still sitting on the loom.

I then pulled out my trusted knitting board, resigned myself to create a simple stockinette stitch blanket. While the blanket worked up quickly, I realized I was going to run out of yarn - and I have a limited amount. The yarn is out of my mom's old stash, so what I have is what I have. Concept frogged.

The project's next metamorphosis took on the form of the picture you see above. It was also born out of my frustration with the Fans and Feathers blanket. 100 stitches, garter stitch, easy stripes. Nothing to weave in later other than the starting and ending yarns.

I have yarn for two more blankets. Mr. CrazyCat has asked me how many baby blankets could one child need? I responded, "Is there a limit that I wasn't aware of?" The oh-so-patient Mr. CrazyCat just shakes his head and lets me be me....knitting into oblivion.