I had to admit to myself that bright colours just aren't my thing, so I went to Michaels. I bought Patons Decor in much more muted shades. Yeah, it's mostly acrylic, but it's dirt cheap, the colours are nice and it's at least got some wool in it. I'm finally happy. I have crocheted, ripped and re-crocheted so much, trying to find a decent stripe combination with the other yarn, that I could have had about a fourth of the blanket done by now. At least I've ended up with something I really like.

My birthday was nice! First I had my spinning class on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. I learned that I'm definitely on the right track, which has given me a lot more confidence. The best part was hanging out with a bunch of people who were all spinning! Later that evening my friends popped in to hang out for a bit, which was fun even though we were all so very, very tired. I was so tired that I actually failed to get loaded.

On Sunday afternoon my family came over and my sister gave me a little stovetop espresso maker and milk frother. I have been having lattes every day since. No chance of falling asleep now...I'm so coffeed up I don't know what to do with myself. David (her fiancé) gave me a little sampler of all kinds of Starbucks latte syrups and stuff. You totally want to come to my place for a coffee and some very, very fast conversation. I may or may not seem a little tense. Don't be afraid!

My Knitpicks yarn finally showed up, so I'm ready to get started. I've got 9 colours, but after playing with them and trying to come up with an attractive combination of stripes, I decided I don't like the green in there. The other 8 suddenly look so much nicer. I haven't decided if I'm going for a random stripe pattern, or a particular sequence. I've got the initial order planned out, and once I've completed one pass with each colour, I'll decide what to do then. I have no idea how wide to make this afghan!

Continue reading "Afghan Colours and Birthday Plans"

As it turns out, I'm in very good company with that crochet project I mentioned the other day. There is even a massive crochetalong that I only found out about a few days ago! And just like them, I started coveting this afghan when I first saw it here and here. I'm not joining the crochetalong because sometimes I can barely be arsed to post to my own website (although lately I'm on a roll), but I've been visiting often because there are so many gorgeous photos to look at. This one is my absolute favourite. I'm going to make a queen-sized one too, one of these days, but not now.

I ordered a few balls of superwash, each in a different colour, from Knitpicks last week and I'm still waiting for them to arrive before I can start. I'm a little nervous about the colours; I picked bright ones. So not like me.