Projects that can't be ignored

Since I last posted I've been working on more scrunchies and scarves and I also pulled out this shrug project. I finished it yesterday and here are the pictures for you all to see.

I just love this shrug, it's so soft and cuddly. The pattern was very easy, from the book 100 Crochet Projects by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss. I have to say those two are some fantastic designers. I've worked more patterns they have created than any other designer who crochets. Their instructions are always clear and there are very few errors in them. I highly recommend the book, and the two women's patterns. I made the shrug entitled Simply Shrug. I used Red Heart pounder worsted weight acrylic in Light Purple held together with an eyelash yarn I picked up a few years ago when Target was clearancing it out ($.25 a ball!) in a purple that is just a shade lighter than the acrylic. I am thrilled with the way it turned out and very grateful that someone was willing to model it for me. It's definitely a bit too small for me to model. Now I'm intending to make one like it for myself. I did make a couple of changes to the pattern, for purely aesthetic reasons, nothing that affected the pattern itself.

There are so many wonderful projects in that book alone I don't know how I'll get to every one of them.

Spring is now three weeks away; I know I'm ready for it. I'm sure many of you are sick of winter and feeling the same way. Even though we haven't had much snow or even all that much cold here, it's been wet, wet, wet which made for a miserable, muddy winter. Hooray for Spring, please hurry with all your sunny days and new growth. I think it's probably a tossup for me as to which I prefer more, spring or fall. Though all the seasons have their good and bad points, for me, there's something really special about spring, all the trees budding out, flowers springing from the frozen tundra and even the rain in spring somehow feels different. Of course, fall is a fabulous kaleidoscope of color and crisp smells and it's as compelling as spring, but the difference for me is that spring brings hope while autumn is a harbinger of death and decay. The death of season, the death of summer, the passing of yet another year.

This past year I treated myself to a hairpin lace loom large enough to work some of the newer fashion projects. I made a few items with it, intent upon learning how to do it well enough to work a particular project I had in mind. Well, that fell through, I did try the project in a test run first, with a less expensive ribbon yarn and just didn't like the end result enough to use the more expensive ribbon yarn I'd purchased to use. I ended up using the ribbon yarn in another project which I was quite pleased with. I've made nothing else with the loom either. I do have a few more projects in mind using the loom. Something to look forward to as I plod along on all these unfinished PIGS I have vowed to clean out this year. I've been very diligent about getting them done and I'm proud of myself for my stick-to-it-ness. Of course, being so proud of myself I just have to reward myself for it as well and so, even though I haven't done that yet, trust me I have it stored away in the back of my mind. I am just waiting till I get a few more of those projects cleared out first.

The Skipping Stones afghan is one of those PIGS that is almost complete, just waiting on a trip to Wally World to pick up the extra yarn needed. I have plans, pattern, and material bagged to make a crucifix as well. It's going to be a gift for my mother on her birthday this year. I really need to get off my duff and get that going because I've never done anything like this project before and her birthday is only a couple months away. If I run into trouble with it I certainly want to have enough time to work through the problems and get it done.

I have vowed that once I get everything caught up I'll not let myself get so behind again on projects. I have vowed that once I start a project I won't put it away, I'll plug away at it until it's complete. I have every intention of doing this, but I won't chisel that in stone either. LOL
That's a sure fire way to throw a cog into the wheels!

Ok, off to finish this scarf, and then perhaps the doily I set aside (yet again). I needed a break from it once I ran into a problem with the pattern and now that I've been given a suggestion on how to resolve the snafu in the pattern I need to focus on it again. It's four rows from done! Four seems to be my magic (stalling) number. Seems each project I work, once I've gotten to the point where I'm four rows or rounds from completion I end up putting it up. A year later I find it in a bag, stuffed in the back of my project closet and so this year I resolved to change that and having changed the arrangement (meaning I took all the projects out of the closet which is a back of the mind mentality for me) and put them all into my line of sight (in the rolling cart right beside my favorite crochet chair) they're all sitting there in that cart taunting me to come finish them up.