Thought it might be time to revive the blog because I’ve made a lot of resolutions for this year. That is, if you consider resolutions and intentions to be the same, which in some respects, I do. A few years ago, I resolved/ intended/ AND carried through on the resolve to get rid of a lot of my stash… and within a year, somehow had a whole lot more. I’d say “through no fault of my own” – but of course, I was… um… materially involved. This year, my approach will be a little different. I will FINISH PROJECTS. Yes, really. Doesn’t mean I won’t start new ones, but I will also finish what I begin, including much that’s already been begun. And I’ll be keeping track. You are welcome to keep track with me, and please do share your own success stories.

So for the year’s first completed object, here is an afghan, which I was given four or five years ago, maybe longer ago? as uncompleted pieces. The crocheter, who had done a beautiful, consistent job at creating the squares, had apparently declined to either work in or sew in the ends. There was an odd number of pieces, and no indication of how they were meant to go together. So after some thought, I sewed them together in the pattern you see here – and crocheted a border, and carefully washed it (a few of the colors ran just a little). This past Sunday, it was raffled to benefit our local fire company’s expansion fund. It netted $68 for the fund, not as much as hoped, but not too shabby, either.

Sunday was preceded by Saturday, when I was a vendor at an area wool day. I’d dyed a lot of roving to bring, and it occurred to me right before the show that it might be nice for potential customers to see how the roving spun up, so I took two colors and spun them into yarn, just enough, I thought, to knit these fingerless mitts. Which I did.

Today I had to take Bill to the doctor, and grabbed the fuchsia yarn, plus some similarly colored mohair. Some years ago I’d started knitting a bag I intended to felt with the fuchsia, but stopped midway through. I pulled that out and started the hat while we were waiting. Finished it late this afternoon.

Meanwhile, while visiting with friendly family who dropped in, I picked up this ball of cotton (sugar and cream) I’d gotten some years ago as an uninteresting ecru, and then dyed in these slightly more interesting colors. Several months ago I came up with my own pattern for crocheting sturdy washcloths – here it is. CHAIN 30 SC in 3rd CH from hook. *DC in next stitch, SC in next stitch, continue from * across That probably leads you to finish with a SC. If it does, CH 3, skip first stitch, *SC in next stitch, DC in the one after that, repeat from * across. If you ended with a DC, then CH 1, SC in that first stitch, *DC in next stitch, SC in next stitch, continue from * across. You get the idea. You’re making a single crochet above the DC in the previous row, and a Double Crochet above the SC in the previous row. Continue until you’ve got a square. If you run out of thread, a rectangle is almost as useful (though maybe less useful as a gift). Optional: SC around the whole square, and /or crochet a round of reverse SC around the square. Three or four of these, tied up with a ribbon and some interesting soap are an appreciated present.