My January Blues

 Hello!  I don't know about you, but I am super happy to see the beginning of February.  January and I are not the best of friends:  this year I tried really hard to fill those five and a half (!) weeks with stuff to do.  I think I did pretty well;  I did a lot of home puttering and organizing, and as you have seen, quite a lot of crafting.  In fact I did so much that the month did not seem as long as it usually does.  Win!

It's not new that I am trying again to work down my stash of yarn.  When I make The List of projects to complete I often get overwhelmed by too much choice.  As I didn't want to suffer January in a dither of indecision,  I gave myself a boundary:  I could crochet whatever I wanted as long as I used blue yarn.  Once that desicion was made, the list of projects became much smaller and I looked forward to picking some.

I started with this lovely shawl by Deanne Ramsay, the Three Springs Shawl.  I had purchased the most delicious yarn in September by Riverside Knits.  I guess I was enjoying myself a little too much as I hooked away:  my tension was very loose and the shawl was working up larger than it was supposed to.  I ended up leaving off quite a few of the lace repeats at the bottom, which meant I could not showcase the gorgeous teal yarn as much as I wanted.  I might have enough of it left over for a smaller scarf, so it will get used somewhere.

Next I wanted something quick:  this Ocean Breeze Scarf pattern by Oombawka Designs was just right.

I used the same Red Heart Super Saver Ombre (True Blue) as the pattern, and it turned out just right. I really love the gradual shade changes in the ombre yarns:  they make for very soothing, yet un-boring  stitching.  Instead of tassles at the end I made pompoms with my Clover Pompom Maker.  Have you tried those?  They are so much fun!

I didn't think the coldest month should go by without making some socks:

  I used this beautiful shade of Sundance Soleful Shades yarn to make mine.  These come up a few inches over the ankle:  I basically worked them until I came to the same shade I started with, so when I started the next sock they would match up.  I have never worked with this yarn before and I really like it.  It is very soft and the colourway is so pretty.

I was hoping to stitch up quite a bit more smaller projects, but my attention was caught by this:

I NEEDED to have a snowflake blanket in my life.  Actually it is more of a lap blanket, but that's all I need to have when Libby and I are sitting by the fire.
As you can see we have a lot of the real thing outside!

I used this potholder pattern to make the squares.  A continuous, flat braid join holds them together; and two simple rows of double crochet borders it all.  The white and royal blue yarns are Red Heart Supersaver, while the turquoise is Craftsmart from Michaels.

So those are my January Blues.  Definitely preferable to the other kind, and a great way to work through my stash but exercise a little bit of discipline at the same time.  I had thought about working with a single colour in February (hello pink!): I still have to decide.

Thanks for visiting!