Sweaterless Sleeves

Sweaterless Sleeves

 

We've all heard of the sleeveless sweater but did you ever consider the sweaterless sleeve as being a thing?  A useful thing at that?

Well it had never occurred to me before my sister (caregiver to my 89 year old mother) asked me if I could make them for Mom for while she is drinking her tea in bed before she gets up to start the dressing routines.  Mom didn't want to have to struggle into a sweater upon first waking up and then back out of it again in less than an hour.

Think about it.  For a woman in her 9th decade putting on and taking off a sweater is...well...calisthenics.

So when my sister suggested the project last Wedensday, I was immediately on board.  When she asked how long it would take to do two sleeves I calculated based on a tube shaped carry sack I'd made a year and a half ago which took me just under a week so I said probably 10 days or so.

But after we finished texting and I was musing on the project feeling the excitement build, I realized that the bottom circle for that carry-sack had taken over 30% of the time and there would be no bottom circles on the sleeves.  This alone cut the estimate down to under a week.  Then I realized I could use thicker yarn and a fatter hook.  More time slashing but hard to calculate. 

Finally, I could use a taller stitch.  Could I have actually just whittled the estimate down to one day per sleeve?  Maybe.

I had to find out but by starting one to see how long it would take me to reach four inches which I estimated to be about a quarter of the length.  Turned out later the length needed to be 18 inches not 16.  But close enough for estimating.

To get started though I had to dig the yarn out of my stash in the portable cloth closet which amounted to an hour long calisthenics routine for me.  

Since I did not remember where in the stack the bag with my yarn of choice was I had to pull out all four 22 gallon and 8 11 gallon zippered bags out and unzip them to remind myself of their contents even when I knew the bag I was after was one of the three 22 gallon ones on the bottom of the pile. 

The yarn I chose was Lion Brand Comfy Cotton Blend in Whipped Cream.

By the time my caregiver arrived two hour later I had two inches of tube and by the time she finished sweeping and mopping (during which task it is best I stay put in one out of the way spot) I had another four inches.  So proof of concept and proof each sleeve was potentially a one day project.  

Possibly even half a day if I hadn't been coming of a months long hook hiatus.  Remembering what happened last July when I spent two long days crocheting a water bottle carry bag for my sister's birthday, I curbed my enthusiasm and stretched my estimate for completion to Sunday afternoon.  

I did not want to suffer a week of inflammation in my hands and elbows again.  That project in July had been my first since Ed died the last week of September last year.  That had been a 8 month hiatus and working that up for sister proved to me I was ready to embrace the fiber art joy again.  But because I had overdone it, I was in too much pain for over a week and by then I was busy packing up all my yarn and projects along with everything else for the move into my new place.

This past week was the first full week since I moved in that my daily routines have been more about daily living than about moving stuff from here to there--packing, schlepping, unpacking, unboxing, placing furniture and appliances, moving large items around the floorspace, moving smaller items from box to shelf to cupboard to closet....ad infinitum.  I'm talking 8 to 12 hour days since late July.  Except for the two heatwaves.

Speaking of the heatwaves.  I got out of the habit of blogging about the moving adventure while it was so hot and then I kept forgetting to take the pictures to go with the stories worth telling.  I'm currently getting the pictures of things as they are now which, except for a few shelves and corners, will look much the same going forward.  I hope to put up that post soon.

Meanwhile to conclude the sweaterless sleeves story:  I finished the second one at midnight last night.  And that included having to take out and put back in 8 inches of the tube because I had increased too much over the elbow and the top section kept sliding down to the elbow.

The 'tall' stich I used was the one I made up back in 2013.  It involves a round of chain loops that can be anywhere from 4 to 9 chains in length.  On the next pass those loops are twisted by the hand not holding the hook and pinned by a single crochet in the top.  Whether or not you put a chain between the twisted loops is optional.  Depends on how lacy you want it.  The effect is a row of cursive Ls with a space between so I call it my LOL stitch.  There have been other times when I thought I had made something up only to find it in a book or chart or blog or on line somewhere as already having a long history.  For this one it has been nearly a decade and I still have seen nothing like it elsewhere.

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Sunday Serenity - Accomplished

Smiley Turtle

This is the crocheted turtle I made for my sister's birthday.  It was begun for Christmas.  I had the two African Flower motifs and the head crocheted by early December but then stopped work on it to focus on a large sweater I was making for her.  Then I could't finish the sweater because I ran out of yarn and the colorway was out of stock for months. I also had a scarf in the works at Christmas and thought it was done all but the finishing touches but when I picked it up earlier this week I discovered I'd accidentally decreased a whole mesh section half way through and had to undo and redo that half.  Now I'm having trouble with getting the fringe even because of my visual issues and I may have to go ahead and give it to her with ragged looking fringe so she can trim it even herself.

Swimming Turtle

That left me with the turtle as the only item far enough along with hope of finishing in time.  I had been estimating a solid four to six hour day.  It took three six to eight hour days.  It was all the fiddly tasks needing 4X reading glasses and the frequent breaks due to eye strain.

This was made with size 10 cotton crochet thread with five colors counting the green for the head and extremities.  I'd done the motifs in four colors so that left eight tails each needing tucking and then the two motifs needed sewing together and stuffed and the opening for the stuffing sewed.  Then the head stuffed and sewn on.  Then the tail and feet each crocheted, stuffed and sewn on and each of them took multiple tries as I kept loosing count and having to take it out to the end of row 1.  Then the button eyes needed to be sewn on and then the smile.  And more tails to tuck!  My least favorite task in crochet.  After I got the smile on I discovered I'd put it on what was supposed to be the top of his head.  Sigh.  No way was I going to take it out and do it over.  Not at 2AM.

To give you an idea how small he is, his head is about the size of my thumb.

Hat Tip to Jayda In Stitches for the pattern and tutorial.  Tho she did hers with size 4 worsted yarn.

Log Cabin Afghan

The Log Cabin Afghan I made for my nephew whose birthday was Monday.  The colors are Burgundy, Forest Green and White in Caron Simply Soft.  Below is a close up of the braided loop border that I 'invented'.  I put that in quotes because I don't know for sure it's not in anybody else's repertoire or pattern books it's just something I came up with back when I was still doing only bookmarks.  I do it with two rows of six chain loops staggered around the edge with the single crochet's of the second color done in the blank stitches between the ends of the first color.  Then I take a very large hook (K or bigger) and pull the second loop through the first and the third through the second and so on around.

For the last several rows and the edging I had to sit on my bed to work as the weight of it was pulling it off my lap or just messing with my tension.

But at least I finished this one ahead of schedule--in the wee hours of the 1st.  Leaving what I thought was plenty of time to finish the three items for my sister's birthday yesterday.  But between the sort project, Mom's excursions to ER, eye fatigue and my typical miscalculation of how long a task is likely to take, I ended up with only one finished tho a second one is very close.

Braided Loops Edging

So these birthday projects are part of the explanation for why I had such a poor showing on my ROW80 and Camp NaNo goals but only part.  There was also the major sort project I started Friday the 3rd the day Mom left to spend ten days at my brother's. That gave me the chance to spread my sort project out on her bed without needing to have it put away by Sunday afternoon.  I worked hard on it right through Tuesday. See bottom section for pic and details.

hen Wednesday I had the restart issue discussed in that ROW80 check-in and added to that was the news Mom was exhibiting signs of a stroke and they were taking her to the ER. We were relieved when they did not find evidence of a fresh stroke only the damage from the 2008 stroke. Then Thursday I started work on the scarf for my sister, discovered the issues with it got to the point where I gave up fussing with the fringe and picked up the turtle kit.  That became my near total focus for two full days and I was just getting my head back into it Saturday afternoon when news came that my brother was returning to the ER with Mom as her condition was worsening.  She was unable to get out of bed without help that morning.

So my attention was split between the turtle project and messaging back and forth with my sister who was at the beach with girlfriends and who was messaging and phoning back and forth with our brother all afternoon and into the late evening when they decided to keep Mom overnight for an MRI as the CAT scan was still showing no evidence of a stroke but the symptoms were still screaming STROKE.  So the Doc was thinking the new damage might be masked by the old damage and an MRI might give them a better picture.  So they checked her in that evening and actually did the MRI before bedtime and by 9pm I knew there would be no further messages before morning so I could focus on the turtle again.  I finished it at 2AM.  The second night in a row that I fudged my new bedtime by several hours.  I do not fudge the wake up tho as it is important not to let the wake up time creep or the bedtime cannot reestablish itself and the endless feedback loop will bring all my recent health and well being accomplishments crashing back down around my head.

I was already noticing the evidence of sleep deprivation yesterday afternoon: rising anxiety, impulsiveness, poor judgement, memory deficit, focus deficit, mood dives, impatience, scattered thoughts, silly mistakes.  So I'm determined to get myself in bed by sundown even though I won't get to address any of the writing goals today.  Efforts would be sub par anyway.  I may get to do some of the read/study goals if I lay down soon enough.

Tho I suppose I could count this post as it is enough like the journaling concept to make no difference.

At least I won't have to clear Mom's bed off as I had been anticipating all week. She was supposed to come home this evening according to the original plan before the ER visits.  But that is a blessing I could do without.  Late this afternoon the doctor confirmed she has had another stroke in the same location as before and they are going to keep her for a couple more days and then probably rehab.  If they are unable to help her regain what she has lost this time everything is going to change here and I'll probably have to re-calibrate my goals.  She is currently unable to get herself out of bed or dress herself.  And it takes her two minutes to answer the question 'Are you too warm'  with 'I - I - I - I --- think --- so.

A Round of Words in 80 Days
Round 3 2020

The writing challenge that
 knows you have a life

Camp NaNoWriMo July 2020

2020 Round 3 ROW80 and July Camp NaNo goals check-in:

* Sleep 7.5 hours Daily Minimum --  Unsatisfactory

* Move/Breathe/Meditate 15 min Daily minimum  -- Satisfactory effort

* Storydreaming with note-taking tools at hand. 15 min Daily MInimum -- This is a technique I learned from Robert Olen Butler in the book From Where You Dream. -- Unsatisfactory

* Read Fiction 30 min Daily Average --  Above and beyond

* Read/Study Craft 15 min Daily Average --  Above and beyond

* Social network activities 30 min Daily Minimum (writing Joystory posts doesn't count only social reaching out like reading/commenting on other blogs, guest posts and posting to fb, twitter, pinterest etc) -- something I've a strong resistance to.  --  Above and beyond

* 30 min Daily minimum engagement with a scavenger hunt though all my creative writing files including Joystory looking for better than shitty first draft scenes, sections, stories, poems and essays and edit, organize and make hard copies. --  Unsatisfactory

* To prep for self-pub: Gather all my poems into a single Scrivener file. Minimum one poem per day until all accounted for.  Adding new ones encouraged. --   Unsatisfactory

* Personal Journaling 45 min or 1000 words whichever come first Daily Minimum -- This is the heart of the writing challenge.  The preceding provides the structure and the nutrients that nurtures and honors the work which I've learned over time must exist to ensure that this becomes more than just dabbling.  --  Unsatisfactory

Sorta Sorted

This is the sort project on Mom's bed as of this evening.  It represents huge progress since the 3rd but also since New Years.  This week I passed a major milestone in having sorted though every jumbled box, bag, drawer, cupboard, nook, cranny, closet in my areas of control in the upstairs rooms. Now, with similar and alike stuff all gathered into one place I can take those bags and boxes and do fine tune sorts of individual categories which will seldom require spreading out on Mom's bed for more than a few hours if at all.  The final step after individual categories are sorted is to calibrate the size of each group of items' home base and designate the location and any necessary container.

At that point a lot of the items I'm holding onto for now can also go away as they are either containers for sorting into and out of or prospective home containers for items or project kits.  Some of that is already happening as I progress.  Most of that pile of boxes seen in the right edge of that picture is already redundant.

I still need to do the same for the stuff in the garage and the stuff in the basement.  The garage will be easy as it is all stuff that was sorted and packed in preparation for the hoped-for return to the Rogue Valley to rejoin Ed which morphed into the hope to join him in his new apartment across the river but that's not going to happen and now I need to go through it all to separate His and Hers and repack.  The basement area was the sort project I abandoned when Ed moved up here in 2016 and I'd already removed to the garage most of the useful household items and what remained were items most see as garbage but I saw promise for upcycle craft projects. Or as tools for the sort project itself.  With the practice I've had at letting go of stuff these past few months that shouldn't take long to complete.

I'm getting better and better at letting go.  The sort project has become my therapy as it is helping me sort my mental and emotional stuff as I sort my physical objects.  And it is giving me something to OCD on to replace the tendency to OCD on Ed.  I've nearly broken the habit of keeping a running narrative in my head of all the things I plan to share with him in our next chat.  I've nearly reached peace with the understanding there will be no more 'chats' no more casual sharing of thoughts and emotions, pitfalls and triumphs.  Future communication will be utilitarian for the purpose of separating our respective belongings and proceeding with the legal divorce.

For an explanation and links to backstory see the ROW80/Camp NaNo Goals post.

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Finished Crochet in the Month of May

Crocheted Circular Collar Tunic Top

Actually this one was finished in December for my Mom's Christmas.  It ended up in the same laundry load as the rest of May's  finished items because I was using it as a model for the one pictured below and it needed a wash after all the handling and dropping on the floor it endured.

This was an original design.  Inspired by pictures of other projects I saw on social media but I sculpted it by trial and error rather than following any of the patterns.

They were both made with Lion Brand Comfy Cotton.

Crocheted Circular Collar Tunic Top

This one was made for Mom's friend who helps in her care when she spends the weekend at my brother's.  I began it in early March and finished it in mid May. Mom is returning for one of her weekend visits for the first time since mid March today.

I want one of these myself now but I won't allow myself to start it until I finish at least one significant WIP  including finishing touches and one item pulled from the 'all but finished' bag pictured at bottom of this post.

Crochet Bag for Travel Blanket

This was the travel blanket bag I made inside a week in early May that inspired the getting stuff finished project that ensued.  The post I wrote about it is linked in the caption

This was made with Lion Brand Cobo in magenta.  The mesh was created with double crochet alternating with single chain with the DC made into the DC below rather than the chain space.

I want to make several of these for myself now.  For WIP kit bags and water bottle/thermos bags but I've made rules for myself about starting new projects that involve finishing something of similar size/complexity plus something out of the 'all but finished' bag.

Crochet Striped Winter Scarf

This scarf was begun in 2014 to go with my favorite winter jacket, a sky blue, quilted nylon with sleeves and hood that could zip off so I could wear the vest even in spring and fall.  It was a size 3X though and after I lost the weight down into 1X territory, my sister said I looked ridiculous in it and it was dangerous as it kept catching on door handles and other things I walked past.  I eventually agreed and gave it away.  A couple of years later she got me a sky blue fleece jacket and that inspired me to get back to work on this scarf.  I finally finished the crochet a year to year-and-a-half ago and stuffed it in the 'all but finished' bag.

This was made with lace weight baby acrylic.  I can't remember the brand.  I'm especially pleased with this one as I invented the stitch I used.  At least I have yet to see it represented in any of the thousands of crochet images, tutorials and patterns I've looked at in the years since I devised it.  I call it the LOL stitch because it looks like a line of cursive Ls and Os alternating.  I make the stitch by creating a row of six-chain loops on one pass and on the next pass I twist the loop before stitching a single crochet in its top.  I've been thinking of putting together a photo tutorial for it.  I don't know how to do video tutorials yet but am thinking of trying to learn.

Crochet Infinity Scarf

This is an infinity scarf made from a single cake of Lion Brand Mandala.  It's made with rows of two-chain loops with single crochets inserted in the loops.  I made it ruffle by increasing the number of loops every few rows as I worked out from the middle.

Crochet Winter Hood

This hood began as a scarf but I miscalculated how much yarn was in the partial skein given me by someone.  when it became clear that it would not reach a proper length for a scarf I set it aside for years.  When I encountered it in the 'all but finished' bag in my scavenge hunt for quick things to finish, I remembered it was really in there to be frogged as soon as I could do it without feeling too bad about it but while I held it I got the idea of turning it into a hood by adding the white edge with the frou frou rabbit tails.  It was the only other velour yarn I had and also a partial skein from the same friend.

That velour yarn is soft to the touch and for that I enjoyed working it but it is chunky and much too warm to wear for Washington winters.  Besides I have no coats or jackets in any shade of green.  This is a very dark green and looks very Christmassy.  But I doubt I'd ever wear it and I don't know anyone who might like it so not sure what I'm going to do with it.  Maybe points to the possibility that having my own Etsy store is now a viable concept as several have suggested lately.

Two Crochet Cloche Hats

These two Cloche hats were made with Patton's Grace.  I'm chagrined to say that I finished the crochet on them nearly two years ago and started wearing them without tucking the tails.  I hid the stitch saver under my hair.  So they didn't spend much time in the 'all but finished' bag but were rounded up in my scavenging for quick things to finish.

Torso Sized Trash Bag Full of Fiber WIP Awaiting Finishing Touches.  Many for Years.

Next time I post pictures of finished items pulled out of this 'all but finished' bag I'll take another picture of it to reflect it's diminishing size instead of borrowing the photo from the post about the finished project that inspired the ongoing finishing spree.

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Finishing Joy

Crochet Bag for Travel Blanket

Earlier this month my sister asked me if I had any pink yarn or thread in my stash. 

Well, duh, yeah. 

With several individuals on my potential giftee list having affinity for either pastels in general or the pink/red spectrum, I had accumulated some.  Not quite as much as the blue which is mine and Mom's favorite or the purple which is Carri's but still a significant selection.

She was asking because she'd bought a travel blanket for a friend on discount that was missing the carry bag it was supposed to come with.  Carri showed me her own travel blanket in its bag and asked if it was feasible to crochet a carry bag for it and about how long it would take and how much I might charge her for it.  She was hoping to see this out-of-town friend in person sometime in May.

I spent the next couple hours pulling my stash bags out from under my craft table and going thru them looking for possible yarn and thread in shades of pink or colorways featuring pink.  After dinner that evening I had Carri look them over and she settled on the Lion Brand Cobo in Magenta which was very close in color to the blanket itself.  It was a good choice for its fiber content of cotton and bamboo blend.

Before I went to bed that night I had crocheted the bottom circle and the first two rows of the tube.  The bottom took me several false starts before I got the right starting number of stitches in the center so that it continued to lay flat until it reached the required six inches across.  Turned out to be twelve.

The next morning I added several rows of the mesh--double crochet, single chain, double crochet--before I was needed for Mom's shower.  I showed it to Carri and told her then that instead of cash I wanted her to take me yarn shopping at a discount store she had messaged me photos from last summer and to one of the branches of the Fort Vancouver library system where I could sign up for a card and for having items mailed to me because of my disabilities preventing me from traveling to pick them up in Woodland. 

Both excursions would have to wait until after the need for quarantine on behalf of Mom is past.  That might be longer than the official shelter-in-place protocols remain in place since our 88 year-old mother is extremely vulnerable to the effects of the virus.

By Wednesday evening, May 6, I had finished it, including all the finishing touches like tucking tails and adding the elastic headband for a drawstring.  That was five days since I began after dinner on Friday and finished shortly after dinner on Wednesday. 

Little to no work got done on either Saturday or Tuesday as those are Mom's shower days for which I'm on duty in the bathroom with her for three hours followed by another two hours making and supervising lunch.  That means it could easily be a three day project. Even less if I super focused. But that super focus is a power of mine I must use with care as it tends to push out all other activities from my life--reading, writing, researching, videos, socializing, chores, self-care, eating, sleeping...

I was eager to start another one or two or three for myself.  I pictured them as carry bags for crochet project kits that will hang on my wrist while I work.  Or as bags with shoulder straps for my coffee and water thermoses.

But I knew I needed to rein in that urge as I've got dozens of WIP.  In fact the bags containing WIP are beginning to rival in volume the bags containing unkitted yarn and thread--somewhere in the neighborhood of 66 gallons each. 

I've been working steadily at finishing projects since I began the holiday rush last fall and resisting starting anything new until I finish a significant number of them.

The real story here is that of the thrill I got from starting and finishing one project inside of a week.  It felt so exhilarating I even asked myself is Joy actually experiencing joy? 

If so, I concluded, I  needed to finish more projects more often.  Then it occurred to me that I had enough projects scattered among my WIP bags with from under an hour to under six hours of work to complete that I could finish something every day for a month or more.  Starting with this large trash bag containing things I crocheted for myself and never got around to tucking the tails and other finishing touches like buttons, bows, belts, tassels etc.

Contained in this bag is also a few things that I didn't make myself including kit bags that need minor repair but it is over 80% yarn and thread crochet WIP.  Sitting in Mom's recliner it takes up significantly more room than her torso and head.

Instead of starting a finish one a day agenda tho I decided to return to the project I'd interrupted to do the bag for Carri's friend.  That was a sweater identical to the one I made Mom for Christmas for her friend who lives with my brother's family where Mom spent weekends before the quarantine protocols kicked in. 

We had implemented shelter-in-place on account of our elderly Mom in mid March about a week before our Governor Inslee instituted it statewide.  And about two weeks after I'd targeted the sweater for Mom's friend as my next focus.  I'd hoped to have it finished by the end of March.  I just finished it a few days ago. 

I backed off crochet in April in favor of reading and discovered or re-discovered another old thrill:  finishing novels in less than a week after starting them.  In fact after I'd collected a significant number of finished titles across my devices and reading aps I set about counting them and discovered there were over fifty titles and the ratio of fiction to NF was better than three to one.  But that's a topic for another post.

Shortly after the read-a-thon in April though I began to gravitate back to crochet for a bit most every day with the focus on that sweater for Mom's friend and I knew that I needed to keep my focus on that until it was done because focus for me is a fragile thing.

Yes, fragile.  in spite of having just described it as nearly a super power of mine.  The fragility is in keeping the balance between flitting like a butterfly from shiny object to shiny object creating WIP and other clutter that takes over my space and the hyper-focus that can take over my life like bindweed a yard.  The difference is between owning the focus and being owned by it.  This issue is part of my autism spectrum profile.

But when I finished it the other day, including tucking the tails just hours after taking the last stitch, and handed it over to my sister to be laundered she informed me that she had just done the gentle cycle load so it could be a week or more before there would be enough items to warrant another load.

When I suggested Mom's sweater also needed washing since I'd been using it as the pattern, had handled it a lot and dropped it on the floor where it picked up fuzzies and who knows what all else, she said the two together would balance the load so she might consider it but I told her to hold off a couple days while I collected nearly finished WIP with similar fiber content to see how many of those I could add to the load inside of a week..

Last night I handed over three hats and three scarves after about three hours of effort.  All of them I'd made for myself.  Several of them I'd been wearing without having tucked the tails; even with the stitch savers still protecting the last stitch.

I decided to wait until they were all back from the laundry before getting pictures.

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Friday's for Finished--Six Off the Hook Since August 1st

Two Scarves

This post is about the crochet projects that have come off the hook since the first of August when I was able to break the ice on my WIP stash after getting that 2012 Secret Santa Quilter's Tote ready to enter in the Clark County Fair.

For the foreseeable future I hope to post reports on finished WIP every Friday.  Maybe soon that will include writing projects but for now I will focus on fiber art, my sort/organize projects.and any other significant task accomplished.  I will pick another day to feature one or more WIP as I continue to paw through the dozens put on ice while I focused on the Quilter's Tote and those I begin as the holiday season progresses.

Skinny Scarf Close Up

 This skinny scarf was requested by my sister for her friend's birthday over two years ago!  She was going to pay me for it.  When I found it in my stash, I quickly finished it in about two hours.  When I gave it to her she was surprised as she had forgotten about it.  I told her she owed me nothing because of its lateness.

This was an original design.  I made several of them in the year before I started this one.  Essentially I sculpted it as I went.  I wanted it to spiral so I started with a foundation chain of the approximate length I wanted and then started chaining six and single crocheting into a chain about every four chains.  On the return pass I put the single crochets in between the first 'row' but on the back side of the chain.  On the third pass I again put the single crochet between two of the others but this time I started alternating top and bottom of the chain which caused the twist.  I think I may have switched between top and bottom of the chain less often than every other single crochet.  I seem to remember that I put several on one side before switching to the other again.  On the forth and fifth pass I switched randomly between four, five and six chain loops with the single crochet in the loops of the first layer and also randomly moved over a row clockwise which emphasized the twist.

The yarn I used was Buttercream Rainbow Boucle in black and white and shades of grey.  But since the color change was so slow not much of either black or white ended up in the scarf.  I fell in love with this yarn while working on this scarf and went looking for more only to find that Luxe Craft has discontinued it.  I got two skeins over three years ago at  a January inventory reduction sale at Joanne's.  The other skein is Blues and Teals and is currently on my Martha Stewart loom as my second loom knitting project.  It's a large tube that I'll make into a garment.  A dress if it's long enough else a tunic;  I plan to do the same thing with the grey scale skein.

Stripped Scarf Close UP

 I started this scarf over two years ago for my husband.  I finished it for his birthday in late September.  It is made with Plymouth Diversity sock yarn in a white and browns self-striping colorway that is very elastic.  I loved this yarn and have a scarf for myself on the hook in a grey/black/white ombre.  This yarn has been discontinued as well.

The stitch or pattern I used is one I made up and have yet to find it in any pattern or stitch collection so i may actually be unique unlike the half-double that I 'invented' about two months after I started crocheting in 2009;  My mom had been teaching me to crochet to replicate a bookmark I found in one of Dad's books after his funeral.  Mom was still aphasic after her stroke so the lessons were mostly me watching her demonstrate the stitches.  That bookmark included only double, single and chains;  Of course I soon discovered that the HDC was just as common;

So the stitch or pattern I might have created is simply a six chain loop attached to the row below with single crochet.with one or two stitches between;  For the first row of loops that would be into whatever stitches are in the row below.  Every time I've used it so far I've made a foundation row of single crochet;  The first pass is the loops and on the second I twist the loop with my left hand while I insert the hook into it for a single crochet;  I then add a chain for every chain between the legs of the loop.  On the next pass the legs are stitched into that chain space.

I call it my LOL stitch because the twisted loops look like cursive lowercase Ls.  When I do it with four chain loops they look like cursive lowercase Es.  I still call it LOL.

This stitch is great for scarves and blankets because it creates a spongy effect with lots of trapped air which allows it to create more warmth than the lacy look would lead you to expect.  It also works up really fast and is one of those stitches and patterns that you can work while thinking about something else.  Even while watching videos. 

Some might call this monotonous or mindless but I find it allows me to become mindful when I'm stressed or anxious.  It is also nice to pick up when I'm too tired to work on something complex.  Thus I call it meditative.

Two Towel Holders - Buttoned

 My sister asked me to crochet some towel holders for her.  She was picturing them crocheted directly onto the towels but I came up with this concept.  It is not unique as I found examples of it on YouTube after I started picturing it in my mind.  I didn't follow a pattern;  I did what I call sculpting.

I guess everything on this page was sculpted except the self-striping scarf.

The smaller one was the first and was a riff on one of my bookmark patterns.  I used size 10 cotton crochet thread in orange which is the counter color in Mom's kitchen.  Not because she loved orange but because they got a good bargain when they installed them in the late 1970s.  She softened the loudness of the orange by using lime green, yellow and turquoise in as many objects in use and on display as possible.  Hence my choice of yellow for the second attempt after the orange one proved to be too small. 

We're still looking for another use for it in the kitchen as the orange belongs nowhere else.  I'm thinking maybe attach a pen to the loop and mount it near a notepad.  I'm always looking for something to write with in that room and tho there are lots of pens and pencils in there they are never in plain sight and never where they were last left.  Well at least not by the person who is looking for them.

The yellow one is actually Lilly's Sugar and Cream yellow and white ombre.  This one works great and she's asked for another.

Two Towel Holders - Unbuttoned

The buttons I used are from Mom's vintage collection that she inherited from her mother and which I've confiscated.  There are buttons in there from as far back as the early 20th century if not earlier.  I've blogged about them many times.

Two Hats

Both of these were made for myself.  The top one was the first project on my Martha Stewart loom and was my very first loom knitting project. I finished it within days after I started it in mid August. It was supposed to be a beanie.  It is a bit of a mess but I've decided I can wear it when I feel like looking comical. 

It ended up with a brim because my early rows were much looser than the rest and when I crocheted the edge onto the cast on row it added to the diameter also.  Besides that issue pins had popped off several times and I didn't catch the right loop when putting them back in and did not realize that until the runs showed up after the rows showed up below the rim of the loom.  I repaired the runs by using a crochet hook and in one bad case used the brim yellow to crochet a chain thru the fabric around the pucker created by my repair.  It looks like a patch.  Thus I call it my Hobo Hat. 

It was too small for me when it first came off the loom but after I cut my hair a couple of weeks later it fit OK tho a bit snug.  I may give it to a child with a sense of humor.  It could be part of a Halloween costume.

The hat below was also sculpted rather than following a pattern.  Itcan be worn as a beret, a beanie or a hairnet.  I began it over two years ago and kept messing up the increases and would take out rows as soon as the distortion became obvious.  Sometimes that was many rows.  Once I'd even put the shell edge on thinking it was done only to discover that edging had made it look like a shower cap or one of those hats the girls wore to bed in Little House on the Prairie.  Not what I wanted so I took it out all the way to palm size.

The final result was arrived at by dropping the usual increase method and using stitch size with tension and number of chains and every once in awhile would double the number of loops while decreasing their size by half or more.  All of that is near impossible to see in this picture.  I should have had it on a higher contrast surface for the photo shoot.

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