Procrastination blanket bingo

Many years ago, more than fifteen to be (somewhat) precise, I had a thing for crocheting. This obsession lasted long enough for me to finish two fairly nice blankets that I still use today (we won’t count the ugly potholder prototypes). I also managed to finish about two-thirds of another blanket, with the intent of giving it to my sister when it was finished.

My mistake? Telling her about it before I lost interest in finishing the damn thing. She never let me forget it.

So I’ve been carting around a blanket fragment for my last two house moves, in the course of which I lost the pattern. It’s not the most complicated one in the world — it’s a simple Vs-and-shells deal — but that didn’t help me want to pick up the whole thing again. In the meantime, I pretty much forgot how to crochet entirely.

My brilliant move? Going to visit Lauren. Watching her work on several knitting projects in timesharing fashion (one project for home, one project for the car…) inspired me to figure the whole silly thing out again. It helped that my sister’s birthday was approaching, and I was determined to surprise her with the finished article.

So while I hung out at Lauren’s place one evening, I clumsily re-taught myself how to do the basic crochet stitches, working from a wonderful book she loaned me, and over the next week I stitched away, reconstructing the pattern by staring at one of my completed blankets at home.

The result?

Blue crocheted blanket in Vs and shells

Blanket detail

When my sister received the package, her reaction was: “Oh, is this my potholder?” Snarky. But, I thought, the outcome wasn’t too horribly bad for a project whose schedule slipped into a whole ‘nother decade.

After this I really got the bug — both literally and figuratively. I found myself fighting a cold a couple of weekends ago, and couldn’t sleep. So I dug up some old yarn and a new pattern and made this overnight.

Testosterone-soaked scarf

I tried to make it as masculine-looking as possible, because my intent was for Eli to wear it. He seemed appreciative (but so far I haven’t seen it on him!).

I’m not sure what new projects I’ll pick up now. Unlike KnitBot, who has talent and hoarded yarn to spare, I have no yarn stock worth the name (and, uh, not much talent either). I suspect that the key is having some excellent yarn on hand and then running across an irresistible pattern. Actually, I’m thinking it would be cool to work in thread rather than yarn — lots harder on the eyes and fingers, but really pretty.