More to say

First off, today’s Mystery Pattern instructions:

UK: 10. Tr 2 in every dc around, in B. Sk 3 ch and sl st in A under tr in A. Turn.
US: 10. Dc 2 in every sc around, in B. Sk 3 ch and sl st in A under dc in A. Turn.

Second, today it’s my turn to do the Freeform Game instruction:

March 10:

Do a series of fans to represent your full name, with slip stitches to the width of one fan for the spaces. E.g. “John Michael Smith” would be 4 fans, some sl st, 7 fans, some sl st, 5 fans.

I need to catch up with pictures from the last few days on the Freeform, plus I have a book review to post, but I’ll get this up now, and aim to have more for you later.

Weekend laziness

Not that Sunday is the weekend, here, of course, but I still got up late.

Anyway, today’s instructions are:

UK: 7. Ch 2 in A, ch 1 in B. Tr 2 in 15 dc around, in B. Sk 3 ch and sl st in A under tr in A. Turn.
US: 7. Ch 2 in A, ch 1 in B. Dc 2 in 15 sc around, in B. Sk 3 ch and sl st in A under dc in A. Turn.

Let’s see, today’s Freeform instructions aren’t up yet, so I’m perfectly justified in just showing you what I did with yesterday’s: (from top and bottom)

Repetitious

Day 5 is a good bit like day 3, but I’ve reworded it slightly to hopefully be more clear. If the two ends look different, day 5 is probably right. Sorry about that!

UK: 5. Tr 15 in B in corner below, sk 3 ch and sl st in A under tr in A. Turn.
US: 5. Dc 15 in B in corner below, sk 3 ch and sl st in A under dc in A. Turn.

Again I haven’t yet done today’s Freeform game instruction, but I can show you what the altered part looks like now, after yesterday’s…

Tomorrow’s instruction will be up late, after Shabbat.

Further instruction

Day 4:

UK: 4. Dc in A in every tr around and across.
US: 4. Sc in A in every dc around and across.

To clarify the clarification from yesterday’s instruction: the sl st should join to the 2nd tr/dc across, not the one at the corner. Those 15 tr/dc should form a three-quarter circle, around the corner. Sorry for any confusion!

I haven’t looked at today’s Freeform CAL instruction yet, but will hopefully have pics later. I might even talk about something other than crochet then too, but it’s not certain!

Not up so early (or late)

Day 3’s instructions go as follows:

UK: 3. Tr 15 in B in corner, sl st in A under tr in A. Turn.
US: 3. Dc 15 in B in corner, sl st in A under dc in A. Turn.

I’m going to try again to upload the pictures from this year’s Freeform CAL…
Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3: (2 pics, because the first is slightly blurry but shows the ruffles well, and the second isn’t blurry and shows how the yarn shines.)

February Ends…

And I complete a full month of daily blog posts, for the first time since 2008, if ever! And that’s just the right time to tell you that NatCroMo begins tomorrow, and with it my Mystery Pattern!

As with the past two years‘ Freeform Games, I’ll be posting all the instructions to one daily updated page, as well as on Ravelry. This year, though, I’m also going to put them into blog posts, for the convenience of those using RSS or similar. For those who like the freeform game style, there’s a group one taking place over on Ravelry too, so join in there!

Knowing my life

I’m wondering is the Stashbuster Scarf big enough that I should finish it, and use my bits of yarn for some more scrumbling. I finally sent of my pieces for the Pink Project off to Australia last week, and now Sidhechilde has reinspired me with some of her fabulous freeform work. (All Ravelry links, I’m afraid. If you’re interested in the crochet you really should sign up.)

Besides working on that scarf this morning, I also spent a bit of time with Irish Crochet Lace: Motifs Collected and Described by Eithne D’arcy so might mix some of those motifs into whatever I work on next.

172. Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer

Not entirely sure why I reread this, as while it’s gripping, it’s also disconcerting. Rather better than the run of the mill End Of The World Disaster Stories (and why are they ALWAYS American?) the most thought provoking thing is that many of the signs of panic and trouble are happening anyhow. This book was only published last year, and $5/gallon for vehicle fuel doesn’t look like it’ll be unusual for that long. UK petrol prices are calculated in pence per litre, so not instantly comparable, but they have always been much higher.

Food prices are going up and deadly strains of diseases are becoming more common. I could go on, but the book is an interesting take on how one family tries to look after themselves, and in the process draws their line of family (who they will help and support) very close indeed in the bid for survival. Those who try to do otherwise are seen as doing their job, and not to be emulated.

I hope we won’t generally come to that in this world.

NatCroMo pictures

This is where mine is up to, but really I wanted to show you the gorgeous pictures Sidhechile sent me. Each of them appears with one of the figures she makes. I heartily recommend checking out her Etsy shop.

Beautiful, no? The others are also fabulous (and very varied), but you’ll either have to join Ravelry or wait until it comes out of Beta to see them. Some people have blogged some of their progress with it. Share did so here and here. Tara has here and here. (Those are the ones linked on the Ravelry pattern page. There are lots more that I’ll try to link to once I’ve packed and travelled!)