Monday, December 3, 2007

Why you shouldn't decide to do a DIY Holiday the last week of November...

I rather dislike giving presents that really have no function or just doesn't fit into someone's life style... Like I have a rather nice porcelain picture frame from a friend's mother that is quite lovely, but it happens to be covered in Irish proverbs and a whole lot of shamrocks. Which would be fine, if I was Irish. But with a long incomprehensible Polish last name, it some how doesn't really fit me or my home decor.

Two of my really good friends have gotten engaged to wonderful guys, and I wanted to make them some thing special for the holidays... and a really late engagement present. Suddenly it struck me - nice soft warm crocheted throws! Function, style, and the DIY aspects of it all made sense.

Too bad I only got the yarn last week.

A whole week, and you might think I have gotten somewhere... alas no. Apparently I have been having a pattern issue... or rather a pattern interpretation issue. I started one pattern, a simple sc/tc combination worked in rows across. Sounds simple, but I could not get the foundation chain right for the life of me. Tried it like 4 times, nada. Couldn't get it to add up right. Fine...

So I switch to a granny square pattern... looked really nice, but it did have one main issue... the pattern itself was not symmetrical. Which when I finished a block, it looked great, but the nonsesicalness of it not being even was driving me up a wall. I mean, why on earth was it not the same on both sides?!I did it like 4 times, and still made no sense.

On to the third set! I went to my trusty favorite block book, 200 Crochet Blocks, which I should have just done in the first place. Did a couple of demos in the yarn I'm using (Lion Brand Color Waves in "Pebble Beach" and Red Heart Casual Cot'n in "Black Grape" - not the greatest stuff to work with, but hey, I'm cheap!) and found 2 blocks I like so I can alternate them.

So I have 3 3/4 blocks done. Out of 40. I think these might be more New Years gifts... or even Valentines Day at this rate. Sigh... but should be making more progress that I have some idea of what's going on.

3 comments:

Amy said...

Holy Blog Post Batman!

If you teach me how to crochet, I'll help you during christmas

themamajama said...

Do I get posting privileges or am I confined to comments?

You could combine knitting squares with the crocheted ones.

themamajama said...

So did the elves help you and what did you get to Santa to put in the sleigh? Are you considering what wasn't finished is a head start on next year?