Following the Thread

(This was supposed to have pictures, but it seems the site is having issues because it wouldn’t even get the pics off of the disk.  I’ll try to add them later.) 

 Well, I finally finished my grandma’s granny square jacket; it was a pattern out of the October 2003 issue of Crochet Fantasy (not that mine looks all that much like the example after I got done altering it to my own specifications).  I had little money when I began it so I raided the stash and decided to use a lot of the unused Red Heart acrylic.  I know, that makes some crocheters and knitters cringe, but it really is the perfect choice.  My grandma’s memory is really bad nowadays, she’d never remember how to take care of anything more delicate.  This way, she can throw it in with her jeans and it will come out as nice as when I finished it, it doesn’t stain or shrink either.

The colors are reminiscent of her life in Chester.  The Clay and Terracotta colors look like the red dirt; the Green is the trees, the Yellow and Burgundy are the colors of some of the flowers in her garden and the same with the Berry color which is pretty close to the ripe raspberries she used to grow.  The black makes a nice contrast to the brighter colors.  I decided to put one frog clasp on it as a closure.

I also finally did a little freeform crochet.  I could have used another square as a pocket (she needs someplace to put her tissue), but I decided to just make a bit up.  The pocket is made up of several units.  A tri-color spiral, a piece of linear stitches in several different stitches, a couple leaves, a flower, and even though you can’t tell, there is also a raspberry.  It turned out cute, even my non-experimenting mother liked how it turned out.

One more change I made was the trim.  My grandma is not overly girly, she used to hunt and fish with grandpa, but she does like a little bit of femininity.  Since I used dark , non-girly colors, I decided to make a scalloped edge on the bottom of the jacket and sleeves, giving it just a little bit of girliness.

She liked it, but that doesn’t mean she’ll ever use it.  I sewed her a quilt for Christmas and it sits folded up on the shelf in the closet.  She doesn’t even remember I made it or that she has it.  When I tried putting it on her bed, she took it off after a couple days, she says she was too hot.

Oh well.  I have actually found that most of what I make for people goes unused, but I keep making it, mostly because I like making and giving people things.

I joined a skein exchange through Interweave press, though I can’t for the life of me get the button for it put on this blog, but I’ll keep trying.  I got the information for my secret pal, and she prefers natural fibers and doesn’t like novelty yarns.  Egad, I hope she likes what I send because I’ll probably spend more on her skeins than I ever spend on my own.

Oh, hi Brandy!  She’s the person who got my information and will send to me.  I’m so excited.  Hee-hee!I could probably go on, but I think I’ll leave the rest for another day.

Blessed Be!