Some Crocheting For Myself

I don't normally crochet what I would label as "clothes" because I haven't found many crocheted items that I have liked enough to wear.

But then I saw this crocheted scarf cowl pattern in a friend's magazine, so I decided to give it a try.

And I quite like it.  It is very cozy around the neck, keeps me warm on these chilly days.  (My midwest relatives probably think I'm silly when I say we have chilly days here in northern California, but we really do!  It's all relative.)

The pattern is so simple, too.  Just eight rows of double crochet, using four strands of yarn at once.  The first one was so easy, I decided to make another!

This one is a much brighter color, and I found some awesome large buttons for it.

What Happens To All Those Baby Afghans?

Here are a few more baby afghans that I've made recently.  

Now I'll tell you what I did with them.  I gave quite a few of them to Project Santa here in Gualala, California.  Project Santa helps a lot of poor families at Christmas time.  Food, toys, presents, clothes, and yes, afghans.  I took 10 afghans to them, then I took over 6 more the next week.  I'm glad there are people who will be pleased to receive my little baby afghans.  And don't worry about me.  I still have a lot of them left.  I store them in little nooks and crannies all around my house!

HST Quilt

I've been having some trouble with tendonitis in my right wrist since a little before Christmas.  I was doing way too much hand embroidery and crocheting.  One evening as I sat watching tv and embroidering yet another Christmas ornament, my wrist was feeling pretty sore.  But I didn't stop, because I like embroidering!  I really should have stopped, because it didn't feel better the next morning like I thought it would.  What a bummer!

So this has really put a crimp in my hand sewing and crocheting.  Plus a lot of other day-to-day activities.  I've been discouraged and bored.  I've been reading many, many books while I sit and ice my wrist.  (I've resorted to using my left hand for my computer mouse!)  One day I just needed to

do something! 

This is the little basket that I was using to store my sewn HST units, now empty.

 I looked at my little plastic basket filled to bursting with HST units.  These have been made in the past six months or so from my Bear Patch Bits samples that I receive every month.  You see, I've been receiving my Bear Patch Bits for several years now, and needless to say, I have about a gazillion 5" squares.  I had decided that I really needed to do something with them, as my plastic shoebox was getting too full.    So I paired up many, many light/dark squares and sewed them into half square triangles.  I really love making and using HSTs.  

This is how I store my Bear Patch Bits, which is not bursting at the seams anymore!

So the day when I was bored and couldn't do any sewing, I decided to put these HSTs up on my design wall, arrange them, and play with them.  I did all of this with my left hand, too!  This is what I created.  I apologize that it's not a better picture, but there's a table in front of it, so I had to take the photo from the side.

This exercise made me really, really happy!  I just love walking into my studio and seeing this up on the wall.  It's so bright and colorful.  Just to be clear, these are not sewn together yet, just placed on the design wall.  And I covered most of the design wall.  When I had gotten this done, I counted up the number of HST units that are in this "quilt."  Because I didn't fill in the upper right hand corner, there is an odd number:  255 HST units.

Now to let you in on a little secret.  There are still 349 HST units sitting on the table ready to be put together into something too!  Maybe I went a little overboard on this project!

The "leftovers."