Not the Afghan

Note: This was the post I was intending to put up Thursday evening when I discovered Blogger was down. Blogger remained unavailable for posting until sometime Friday morning. It is actually Friday evening as I write this tho I've changed the date stamp to reflect Thursday night.

I took the pics for this post after dinner last night and had an ambitious commentary to go along with them that I was writing in my head has I set up the shots and prepped the pics in the photo ap. Most of that has fled my mind now. Along with the ambition.

The theme is the crochet that is not the baby afghan that has been monopolizing my time and attention since Xmas.

Clockwise from bottom left corner:

• the box on its side with a wad of wadded up bookmarks spilling out is all the bookmarks off the hook since October awaiting their tail-tucking and blocking
• just above it the box containing bookmarks with miscellaneous size and types of thread mostly on the small size (less than 4" w/o ribbons or tassels)
• at top are the larger ones, mostly size 10 cotton thread, all blocked and tucked and awaiting wardrobes
• the box below that is full of the ones made from the original pattern taken off the bookmark (seen laying across the top) I found in one of my Dad's books after he died in 2005 and which Mom reverse engineered and taught me to make in 2009, starting this craze now two years going. I had been trying to keep two or three of each color in my thread collection in the box but have not kept up with the new orders of thread since last fall.
• to the right of that box is the one containing the fully dressed bookmarks all beribboned, bedecked and bedazzling
• below it is the box containing two of my extra long patterns, the mini-scarves awaiting their fringe and the others awaiting tassels
• in the middle outside the boxes are the bookmarks, the snowflake and the dishrag all made since Xmas, all representing new patterns and new stitches and new techniques I've been practicing.

Do you pick up on another theme here? I'm not so good at finishing.

Which is why I've had to be such a slave driver on the afghan in order to be sure my nephew receives it while he is still a baby!

Now that I've got so many stitches and techniques in my repertoire I doubt there will ever be a whole box full of a single pattern again. Most of those spread out in the middle there are not off patterns created by others but rather patterns I'm creating myself by applying what I've learned.

Except the snowflake. That was off a pattern found in The Crochet Stitch Bible. It was my first attempt at working in the round. I fell in love with the concept. They're like mini doilies and I'm a sucker for anything mini. I can picture myself filling one of those boxes with snowflakes. Just not all exactly alike. I've been collecting free patterns for them online and am anxious to start making them.



The snowflake motifs can be used as Xmas tree ornaments or other Xmas decor, singly or in strings. They can be turned into a tablecloth or bedspread by sewing dozens of them into a pattern with various connecting stitches. They can decorate the front of a greeting card. Oh and let's not forget bookmarks!