When the weather gets warmer, I start to work on crochet blankies!

 Back asswards, that's for sure, but there is something about those longer days with clear bright sunlight that makes me want to crochet.  I have a bunch of unfinished crochet blankies and one knit blankie that I started last summer and put away in Oct., and I dug them out the other day.  They are all going to be blankies just because the thought of making a full cover for a queen size bed or a big afghan is more than I can handle.  I get bored very very easily, and besides I love startitis, so small lap covers these are all going to be.

So, here's the first one:  this is done with Encore DK weight which is my favorite blankie weight.  Easy on my wrists, and yet it doesn't take forever.  OK, it takes forever, but not as in fingering weight forever.  This one is just chugging along.  It's a perfect size for a lap cover, and it'll get finished when I'm totally bored with it.

Then there's the Linus blankie that I started for the Linus project.  It's a good thing that those babies have lots of other blankies available to them because at the rate I'm going, they'll be parents of their own babies by the time I'm finished.  I've decided to do a row/day in the hopes of finishing it before my grands have their own grands.

Here's the African flower one that I started at the end of July last summer.  This one is a keeper.  I love the colors.  Not practical, but then it is totally machine washable, and if it gets dirty, then it gets dirty.  I did those 6 hexies while I was visiting the MN relatives, and then put it away.  When I dug it out, I thought:  hey, this is pretty.  Might be nice if I finished it some century or other.

Here's the Ten Stitch Blankie that I'm doing in Silk Garden.  This one is knit and is a pure pleasure and great mindless TV knitting project.  You just motor along on it.  I might finish it one of these days.

It seriously needs a good wash and blocking but you get the idea.

Every year around this time, I wander into Michaels looking for the ultimate cheapy yarn, and get sucked in by some, come home, start a grannie, and then dislike it.

This is so not calling me.  In the skein, the colors just sang together, but here they look blah.   Ah well, it cost me very little since 2 of the skeins were on sale.  And anyhow, this is worsted weight, which I don't like to work on, so why I bought it in the first place is anybody's guess.  Give me good old DK weight, not worsted.
I don't think I'll do any more on this.

I have 2 lovely shawls that I can't show you plus one in process, and I can't show you that either.  They are all for the Light & Dark Lace Club and are mystery shawls.  You'll see them one of these months.

The skinny yarn sweater is proceeding very slowly.  I'm sooooo sick of it.  I've done the whole thing in lace, including the sleeves, and I'm tired of the pattern big time.  I'm going to do 3/4 sleeves with a bit of a ruffle on the bottom of the sleeves just to finish it before the end of time.  One sleeve is almost there, and then I'll do the second one, put a finishing touch on the neckline, wash and block it, and then that's that!

On the Mommie front, she seems to be aging very quickly now.  I swear that there is a change in her from one week to the next.  I've hired her morning companion to help her out before, during and after dinner, getting her ready for bed, and that's a very good idea.  I do wish Medicare covered some of this.  It's so much cheaper hiring an aide than paying for a nursing home.  And she's at home here with her own furniture and apartment.  The staff is the greatest staff in the world!  and I mean that with all my heart.  They want to keep her here until she passes away, so that's our goal.  But she is so fragile and old.  She's so much older than she was on her birthday on Nov. 4.  Clearly she's winding down, but I still bet that she'll make it to her 97th birthday.  For all her fragility and fuzziness, she's still one tough old lady.  The physical therapist came yesterday morning to see her, and she refused to get out of bed.  Christina and Evelyn are the only people who can get her up; she fights with everyone else.  It's pretty funny and shows that the core Mommie is still in there.

Thanks to all of you for your lovely encouraging words about elder care.  It's really, really hard, and she doesn't even live with me.  I still think I'm blessed to do it, though.  I love her to pieces.

Have a good weekend, everybody.  Maybe our snow will melt?  Of not.

Field Trips

Masala Dosa!

The Hubbo and I love to do 1 day field trips, and this weekend we did 2 of them. It really felt as if we were on vacation for those days. Friday, we went to Nyack, which is a little town on the Hudson River. We were there a number of years ago and were not impressed. I suspect that we didn't really explore enough, but this time we just loved it. Nice yarn shop (nope, I didn't buy. Like I need yarn!), lots of restaurants, pretty shops, the whole works.

From there we went on to a local Christmas Tree Shop. For those of you unfamiliar with the CTS, it started out as a little shop on Cape Cod, then expanded into a bunch of little shops, and then finally became the mecca for all things inexpensive, seasonal, and necessary for one's happiness. Where else can you find really pretty paper napkins at a cheap price? And stuff. More stuff than you can imagine. Nope, no Christmas trees, but lots of goodies like different plastic laundry baskets, cheapy china, great food bargains. I bought a bunch of napkins in autumn prints, and of course the best ginger cookies around, Anna's Ginger Cookies!

And then we ended up having supper at a dosa house not far from home. Dosas are these marvelous Indian pancakes filled with a spicy potato mixture. They are huge! We loved it so much that we went back on Sunday with DD#1, ate more dosa and then had uttapam. We were in serious Indian pancake heaven.

Part of the fun of the dosa house was the TV program. Bollywood MTV, with Tamil subtitles. As if we can read Tamil. We can't read Sanskrit either. But the music and the dancing were so infectious that it didn't matter.

And then on Saturday, we trained into the city to the Rubin Museum, which features Himalayan art. Wow! And afterward, walked back to Penn Station via 6th Ave, which had a multi-block street fair going on. Such fun.

And as a topper to a grand weekend, the Benster, Little Lili and their dad came out to visit on Sunday, and were joined by DD#1. It was so much fun!

Projects finished and in the works: Sorry, knitters, I'm still in this major crochet mode. I actually finished another crocheted scarf, and of course, promptly began another one. This is a serious sickness without a cure, I'm afraid.

My green crochet scarf. This is the most mindless, delightful fabric, easy and pleasant to do.




Here is the brand-new red scarf. Those neat little vertical ridges are done with post stitches, which I learned how to do. Easy, much easier than the instructions would have you believe.



Yet another ripple scarf.




A bit of progress on my granny ripple blankie.



pendie - I used to think so too, plus the bad old 1970's crochet was really ugly, so I ignored it from high school on. and nobody used doilies, so that was that. Then my sister, the evil enabler, started crocheting a few years ago, and she sort of got me into it.

What I love about making scarves is that they are fairly quick, take one skein of sock yarn, and give a lot of charm for not too much work. Plus they are very portable. I crochet on the train, sometimes in the car, when waiting for the movie to start, in front of the TV, etc, etc, so easy and portability are high on my list.

I'm going to post some of the crochet patterns as I go along. They are all in the public domain, and are so basic that I don't want to charge for them. And here's the best thing: you don't have to commit to making an afghan or blankie!

itsJUSTme - Nah, I think you should buy yarn whenever you wish if you can afford it. I do worry about folks who buy when money is tight because they feel they will never see that yarn again. So that's why my answer: there's always more yarn.

Me, on the other hand, live in yarn craziness. I have so much of it, and can't bear to part with my favorites either. One of these years, I'm going to destash!

Scrabblequeen - Tee hee.

KV - We're lucky that we have 2 places where we can get dosa. Just writing this makes me want one!