Ribbed Crochet Throw Blanket

I recently finished crocheting this blanket for our living room. It incorporates the various colors in the room, plus helps tie in the bold red dining room wall (upper right corner of pic).

I love stripes, so I did stripes. But man, does it leave a lot of ends to be weaved in!

I used the back loop single crochet stitch. Real super easy and creates ribbing, giving your work a little extra thickness.

The yarn I chose was Impeccable which is sold exclusively at Michael's. Colors were black, white, southwest (multi) and cherry for the border. I like Impeccable yarn because it's soft, washable and a little on the thick side. Maybe plush is the word?

I love the way this turned out. It looks PERFECT in my living room! But doing single crochet takes longer than double.....so I kinda wish I had done double. Something to think about, anyway.

I chose to begin and end with white, because having the red border run along the long edge next to white matches our dining/kitchen colors. I didn't want big, thick lines of black and red together. (It makes sense in my head.)

I have no idea how many chains I started with. I simply chained until it was as long as the long edge of another throw blanket I have. It measures about 63 inches (without the border).

The pattern I did for the stripes goes like this:

• White - 4 rows
• Multi - 10 rows
• Black - 4 rows
• Multi - 10 rows
• White - 4 rows
• and so on....ending with 4 rows of White

Like the black and red, I didn't want the black and white together either.

Oh! I needed 6 1/2 skeins of the multi yarn, 1 1/2 of each black and white, and 1 skein of the red.

I needed a lot more than I thought. I'm no good at estimating how much yarn I'll need for a project. Thankfully this particular yarn is readily available.

My cat is enjoying it!

Linked up with Saturday Show & Tell.

A crochet hat so easy even I can do it

I finally crocheted a hat!

Turns out the trick is counting your stitches so you know when you've completed a round.

Or don't count at all, just keep going and worry about filling in the last round at the end.

Well, that and some actually correct instructions.

Have you all heard of wikiHow? Well, that's where I got the directions I needed to crochet a simple beanie hat.

And then.....as it turns out, I didn't do my hat exactly as instructed.

I have no idea why. But whatever, because it turned out just fine, thankyouverymuch!

I used
1 skein Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn
Size H crochet hook

How I did it (this hat fits my 12 year old daughter)
1. Chain 4
2. Slip first chain to form circle
3. Single crochet 10 into circle
4. Two single crochets into each stitch around (increased to 20 stitches)

5. Single crochet 20 around

6. 1 single crochet, 2 single crochets, 1, 2, 1, 2...around (increased to 30 stitches)
7. Single crochet 30 around
8. 1 single crochet, 2 single crochets, 1, 2, 1, 2...around (increased to 45)
9. Single crochet around and around til you run out of yarn!

You can count each stitch so you know when you start and finish rounds. You can join the rounds or do the super easy spiral thing.

You can do more or less increases depending on the size of the head you are crocheting for. Forty-five stitches was good for my daughter's head, and 50 seems to be good for me. Basically, you keep increasing until your work covers the crown of the recipient's head.

Rolled

Slouchy

Please let me know if this post is helpful to you. And if you make a hat the way I did, let me know how it works out for you!

Tweetness

Hopefully you recall that back on November 13 The Sarcasm Goddess published a guest post from me in which I used the words vagina, bacon and legwarmers, per her request.

If you don't recall, you can read it HERE.

But the topic of this post is what transpired in among the resulting blog comments and tweets.

I said in my guest post that I didn't understand why legwarmers were making a fashion comeback.  To which SG replied:

I asked:

Does she actually think I would lie?  I accepted the challenge!

One person was not a fan:

And another was simply confused:

OK.  See how @chicktuition mentioned colors?  This was my next question.

I tweeted SG, asking what color she thought the legwarmers should be.  She said pink and purple and tried to convince me she had held a twitter poll and that's what everyone decided.  We argued back and forth a bit, and then this:

Finally, SG stopped being ornery:

PUNK and purple?  That sounds fun!

Yesterday was the first opportunity I had to get to the craft store for yarn.  I went with Jessica who likes to say things to me on Twitter like:

I tweeted SG that I was on the job!

And this is what I bought!  Can you believe it?  There's pink, purple AND green there.  Am I good, or what?

By the way, Jessica wants it noted for the record that she would not make me use such obnoxious colors.  She's just sayin'.

This has been your first installment of the "Saga of the Legwarmers".  Stay tuned for the next update.

Oh, and if you'd like to witness every detail, go make sure you're following all the ladies mentioned herein...forthwith!

Oh, the Guilt!

A certain little pink birdy got to choose the topic for Monday Listicles this week and she chose 10 guilty pleasures.

I hate guilt.  Guilt sucks.  Mom guilt.  Survivor's guilt.  Religious Guilt.  Childhood Omnipotent Guilt.

And why, may I ask, is it necessary to feel guilty about things that make us happy?

Pfft.  Whatever.

1.  So there are my favorite food items, such as coffee, caramel and wine, which I already named in another Listicle.  It just so happens that that post is one of my most popular simply because it includes burritos!

2.  Then there are my favorite TV shows, which I just recently told you all about.  I think my most favorite is Grey's Anatomy.

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3.  I suppose I should probably count Blogging as a guilty pleasure, because it's not something I have to do, it's something I want to do and love to do.  I also suppose social media in general is a guilty pleasure.  Again, what-ever.

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4.  Having a huge stash of yarn!

This is an old picture. I have more.

5.  Caramel Apple Spices and Mochas from Starbucks.  Peppermint mochas in December.

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6.  Coloring my hair probably falls under this heading.

7.  Cinnabon Caramel Pecanbon, which I hardly ever get.

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8.  Just because they're so expensive, pecans, walnuts and cashews.

9.  I love going out to eat!  Not only do you not have to do the cooking or cleaning, but it also tastes great.

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10.  Being a stay-at-home mom.  Yeah, I feel guilty about this sometimes.  And yes, it is a pleasure.  I have the utmost respect for working mothers, whether they have to work or just want to.  All mothers have a lot on their plates, but moms who also hold down paying jobs?  Lots more.  I feel blessed to be my kids' primary caregiver (yes, even when they're driving me nuts; it's very confusing) and to never miss a thing.  Being my kids' full-time mom is a gift I guess I owe to my bad eyes.  Ironic, hu?

My beautiful babies.

OK, so there's a list of guilty pleasures for you.  BUT, I think we should all try to feel a lot LESS guilt over the things that bring us pleasure.  Instead of guilt, feel humility and gratitude.  Give thanks, share and enjoy.    I challenge myself, and you, to do so!

"Americans know entertainment, but they don't know pleasure."

~ Luca Spaghetti, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert