I'm obsessing again over yet another hobby. Crocheting is taking over my life. DH even commented on it last night. He's used to my obsessions. He reminded me that I have quite a few cross stitch projects, nice, expensive to kit up cross stitch projects in various stages of completion. I plan to finish them, a few I really need to get finished before either May 1st or June 1st. One is a priority as I'm losing my framer and this piece must be framed to match it's companion currently hanging on my wall.

Last night I picked up Erika Knight's Simple Crochet. I love so many of the designs in the book and she uses kitchen twine quite liberally throughout the book. I love these boxes pictured in the book. They are single crochet and she shows three sizes, one 6in x 6 in x 8 1/4 in tall, another one is 10 3/4 by 4 1/4in x 3 1/4in tall and another one 11 3/4 x 8 1/4 x 4 3/4 tall. I was thinking that the third size would be nice for holding various charts for WIP, or making it 11 3/4 with 3 1/4 in sides and use it as an inbox or a place to toss all those random papers that clutter up a desk. I also love these raffia placemats. Who knew you could crochet with raffia? OK I'm not that great at thinking outside the box. I try but my attempts at unguided creativity usually end up as unsalvageable disasters. When not using kitchen twine she uses DK Cotton by Rowan in retro colors that I love. Can't help it, I'm just too groovy. I dig those pinks and oranges together. My question is, what is the difference in the DK cottons and the kitchen cotton? Since I don't have a wide variety of yarn choices around here and touching and feeling to compare is not an option I'm curious as to the differences. Maybe the DK is softer than the kitchen cotton?

I've known how to crochet since I was pretty young. One of my aunt's mother taught me to crochet when I was about 8. I've picked it up off and on over the years. I also have a cousin that always had something either on the knitting needles or the crochet hook, always. When I started back crocheting a couple of years ago I picked up Leisure Arts New Crochet Basics which is a great instructional guide for basic crochet stitches. I'm constantly referring to it. I used to say I was a self-taught crocheter because I just couldn't believe that those lessons I learned so long ago could still be floating around in my head but when I pick up a pattern and start working it, it all comes back-if it's a simple pattern that is. I still have to check out my basic stitch guide, I just don't have those stitches in my head, but once I start crocheting it's like I've been doing it forever.

I can't wait to attempt a few of the projects from Simple Crochet. My only complaint with the book is that the one throw I wanted to make, the main reason I tracked down this book, there's not that great of a picture of it. Every other project in the book is photographed really well, this throw, you just don't get a good idea of the pattern from the pictures in the book. More of a glimpse at what the project might look like.

I did choose some colors for my 63 Squares Afghan. I'm going to use Red Heart Blueberry Pie for the edging instead of the recommended ecru and I will also crochet a few squares in this color but not too many because the variegated thread will hide the pattern of the stitches. Then I decided on Red Heart Windsor Blue and Med. Purple since these colors show up in the Blueberry Pie, and then it still needed "something" for balance so I bought a skein of RH Lt Blue and a skein of RH Country Blue and will either use both or make a final decision on which one I like best. DH likes the Lt Blue, DS#1 liked the Country Blue. He said it blended better, DH said the lighter added more contrast. So where am I at with this decision? I'll just use both. LOL

Moral delimma of the day:

It was in our local newspaper that they are going to build a new super Walmart less than 5 mins from my house. On the one hand this is great news! No more road trips just to buy groceries so I can also buy fabric, DMC, yarn or CDs and slip them in with the groceries so that DH doesn't realize I'm buying stash. Yes I'm that sneaky. When you're buying $150 worth of groceries who's going to notice an extra $10 here or there? So where does the moral dilemma come in? I hate urban sprawl. I enjoy being in the middle of nowhere. I hate seeing trees plowed down so that I can buy cheap laundry detergent. We also just got a second grocery store which was great because we needed the competition as our original grocery store was really taking advantage of locals, raising prices, knowing they were the only game in town. So why do we need a Walmart? It'll put our hardware store out of business. Why go to Ace when you can get things much cheaper, 5 mins away, at Walmart and also buy some fried chicken and get your tires rotated and the oil changed? It's convenient but it's also just wrong for our community. Just my opinion of course.