Second Yarn Along

 I decided to join Small Thing's Yarn Along again this week.  Not much to show as I haven't really felt *into* any of the projects I've been working on.  I decided to use the yarn I had put aside for a baby sweater for a relative's newborn for something else as I came to the realization that they would not appreciate it as the "olive branch" it was meant to be.  I decided since it was a long shot for me to actually be able to complete a baby sweater that looked anything like a sweater was kind of laughable anyway I may as well just move on and forget about making that particular sweater.  I suppose it was just meant to be.  The other night during my "me" time after my son fell asleep I watched a few crocheting videos and decided I wanted to start a simple hat.  I didn't know for who or out of what yarn... but I knew I really want to try making a hat.  This morning when I read Ginny's Yarn Along post I KNEW for who and out of what.  Having wanted to do something for the people in Japan and not having funds to donate anything monetarily significant... I had been kind of mentally *stuck* on what to do.  My "giving back"  has consisted of collecting together a box of shoes, purses, clothing and random unused house hold items for donating to our local Goodwill (the box is still sitting in my bedroom waiting for an errand that takes us in the direction of our donation center) and plans to give blood during my husband's several day break between Spring and Summer semesters.

With one of my husband's many piles of course work in the background....... I'm currently paging through "Big Green Cookbook" by Jackie Newcent, Rd and taking some mental notes.  My husband purchased it for me for Christmas after reading some great reviews.  I'm not sure that I love it enough to have purchased it.. but it definitely has some great ideas in it.  It would be a TERRIFIC tool for someone who doesn't know how to cook or doesn't know anything about the importance of buying local and organic food.  It also has some nice tips for people trying to cut back their meat intake.  For a family that is already vegetarian (with the exception of our son who seems to choose vegetarian options over meat anyway-- WOOHOO!) it's not much help in that department.  Never the less I am enjoying reading all of the recommendations and paging through the recipes.

The knitting in the picture is just a simple dishcloth... I was itching to work with some cotton (I love the slipperiness of it.) and decided to use up the remaining cotton I had.  Normally I can whip out a dishcloth in 2-3 days but I haven't really felt as into it as I had hoped.  I expect it to be done by next week though. 

A couple more crocheted flowers from yarn scraps my mom found from her days of needle point...  I'd say these flowers were pretty much a flop... but who knows.. maybe sewed onto the right thing they'll look better than I expect. 

(Sorry about the sideways picture.. not sure how to fix that on blogger) Here is the never ending blanket.  I think I was in the same band of color this time last week.  Normally I am able to whip a band of one color in a week but I ran out of the blue yarn I am using and haven't been able to decide what to do about it.  I'm using a cheap acrylic as I started out with a big bag of free white acrylic yarn from my mother's crocheting days...  I honestly expected the yarn to go much farther  but decided when a few skeins disappeared into the first row I was going to have to add a second color to make the white go farther.  At the time I had a gift card to craft store where I purchased the blue yarn (and eventually more white yarn that sadly doesn't match perfectly) but the gift card is down to a dollar something and I can't decide if I want to wait and hope the blue isn't discontinued and stock up on it when there is eventually a sale... or if I want to just give up on this mess of a project....  Giving up seems like the worst possible idea as I would quite literally be ripping out hundreds of hours of work out.... that's right.. hundreds....  I made it SUPER wide (I think over 7 feet) so no blanket hogs can manage to steal the entire thing...Why oh why didn't I just tell my husband I didn't know how to make him a blanket???  It wouldn't have really been a lie.  I highly doubt I would have gotten myself into this if I would have had a clue how much this crappy acrylic blanket was going to cost financially or mentally!