Yarnification

It’s been a while, so I thought I’d post something or other, but I still have no pictures because I haven’t actually finished anything. Soon, though, I hope.

I’m making actual progress on the beaded shawl. I finished the interminable starting chain and the even more interminable first row of 499 double crochets (which entailed jotting down what stitch I was on every five stitches and losing count anyway and having numerous ADD moments where I’d start recounting the stitches, lose track, start again, lose track again, lather, rinse, repeat, until I finally hit on the idea of sticking a safety pin in every 25 stitches while I counted), and now I’m into the beading rows and things are moving right along. I only moved the progress bar over there up to 30%, but I might be closer to half done—it’s going that much faster now. All there is at this point is chain stitches, chains around the beads, and the occasional single crochet. And a good thing, too, because I need to crank out a few more things for my mom’s kitchen gift basket in enough time to ship it to her.

Eventually I’ll forget what the beginning of this project was like and start talking about making something similar. At that point, I’ll need someone to smack me upside the head, ok? Well, maybe not. I definitely don’t plan to do something this tiny and time-consuming at the same time as so many other things, all with a holiday deadline, though. Maybe next year I’ll get started earlier. (Yeah. Right.)

I’ve also been making the men’s hat from Cozy Crochet for Don. It’s a gift, so it’s theoretically a surprise, but I knew he wanted hats and he knows perfectly well that I’m making it for him. (Anyway, I don’t think he reads this blog. He already hears plenty about my projects from me on a daily basis.) I’m planning to make two—a black one in acrylic, which I’m probably three quarters through with, and a gray one that I’m planning on making out of Wool-Ease. I’ve been working on it right in front of him, but that doesn’t give much away since it’s just a rectangle right now. I figure I’ll do the finishing in secret so he won’t see the finished product until he unwraps it.

My scarf is on hold at the moment while I work on the hats. It hasn’t been that terribly cold yet, so not too big a deal. I’ll need one by January, but even if I don’t get back to working on it until after the holidays, I can probably finish it up in a couple of nights.

Now I just need to finish something, anything, so I can post pictures! It’s so satisfying to put up finished pictures.