Sunday, April 22, 2007

Happiness Is . . .

According to Charlie Brown, et. al., happiness is finding a pencil, pizza with sausage, telling the time. On my end, happiness is creating something. I feel every bit as daft as Lorelei Lee. I just looove finding new ways to make pretty things. I first taught myself to crochet after seeing a perfect summer bag pattern in Rowan 35. Unfortunately, it was crochet and I had no idea what that was all about. However, this did not stop me for long. I don't believe in starting out slowly. I'd rather plunge in head-first and ask questions later. Despite my happiness with the finished bag, I swore I would not allow myself to drift into unknown territory and rededicated myself to knitting. Alas, here is what happened after I saw a beautiful photo of a granny square blanket on the Internet:


Granny Square #1: Made with some Cascade 220 mostly to test my skills after I impulsively purchased 200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton. The number in the title is deceptive (different color schemes count as different blocks) and I am highly ill-disposed toward the Christmas and Fourth of July themed blocks. However, I am now obsessed. It's the Wisteria pattern and I plan to use this in a baby blanket for my yet-unborn baby niece.

Granny Square #2: I purchased what I thought was an enormous amount of Elann's Sonata yarn to create a crochet square blanket pour moi. Unfortunately, I think I greatly underestimated how much yarn a full-size blanket would take. But I've begun. The plummy color in the center and outer edge of the square is inaccurate. The actual color is more a cross between berry and brick. I plan on using that color for the majority of the piece. Did I mention I am obsessed? Each block is about 6.5 inches and I plan to make 56 squares. I made another of the block patterns today. 2 down. 54 to go. Plus the border. The yarn is a bit stiffer than I'd like, but the colors are gorgeous and I plan to use the blanket more as a coverlet than a snuggly fabric. It will be so vintage and bohemian that I shall wish I lived in a drafty garret overlooking the Seine with only my typewriter and a bottle of absinthe for company.

I also made one of a pair of earrings. I went into a bead store to try and find a sparkly bead I could use as a nose for Penny. Unfortunately, I encountered no appropriate sparkly beads. But I did encounter many inappropriate sparkly beads, some of which happened to be purchased and tucked into my purse. This photo was an accident, but I like the blurriness. The glass beads look a bit like pomegranate seeds. Or do pomegranate seeds look like glass beads?

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