Trying to organize my projects (and actually finish some of them) finds me grouping them into categories: short-term, long-term, simple and involved. Some of the simple projects are great when I am indecisive or tired, and don’t have the energy to think through multiple steps. Last weekend the 14 napkins were the right project – double hemming them took some time but not much thought, and I caught up on some longer podcasts without falling asleep.

One short-term project that is on the list now is not a simple one: designing a dust cover for a specific piece of shop equipment. It is an odd shape, and I’ve drawn the side pattern with the unusual silhouette, but the construction is giving me pause. It won’t be moved a lot, but the shape has a couple of strain points, and I am contemplating whether putting a seam at those points will strengthen them, or if just using some kind of reinforcement is better. A strip of twill tape might be enough, but it might work best inside, so it doesn’t become a ridge that collects dust. There is also a request to put elastic at the corners to help hold it in place, and that will either need to be sewn on the inside or placed inside the hem/casing, which would be tricky to keep flat when hemming. If my stash includes sew-through elastic, adding it after the hem would be easier.


Two long-term quilt projects are moving along little by little. A big part – the quilting – of one happened last week when my scheduled work was finished early. Yesterday the binding was pieced and pressed. The other quilt needs sashing and borders cut and sewn on, the backing pieced, and then it goes into the queue for the next available quilting slot.

I was able to get into an American Sewing Guild retreat at the end of March, and yesterday I spent an hour or so cutting out pillowcases for Ronald McDonald House, which is the ASG’s national project this year. The fabrics I chose were directional, and they had to be cut in two pieces rather than just WOF, so the prints would not be sideways on the pillowcases. I had a border print with bear cubs leftover from a block swap, and four yards of a cheerful country landscape with farmhouses and cows. I have a couple more projects in mind for the retreat, both simple and complicated.

Crochet Jinx Begone!

I’m finally over the crochet jinx. There were actually two early projects that were successful, and just one bad one. The project wasn’t that bad, but the size was way off and it was very embarassing.

When I decided it would be nice to crochet a scarf and matching beret for my new Mother-in-law, of course it was to be a surprise, so I didn’t ask her about it. She walked her dog several times a day, so it was a practical gift, soft and washable. When I grew up, lots of women had very oddly colored hair. I never suspected that she wore a wig, and that a snug-fitting beret would pull her wig off. She did use the scarf though.

After that, the only other project I attempted with crochet was to assemble some afghan strips that my Mother had done years before. She must have lost her momentum when she discovered that they weren’t the same size. The project involved removing the box from her closet (so full that she didn’t notice, but her cats did, as they had been “nesting” in it), washing all the fur off them, and then unraveling the strips to be the same width. Fortunately they had been crocheted with short rows, so this was easy to do. The strips were joined together with the unraveled yarn into a usable blanket. My Mother was astonished!

Another reason why crochet was set aside for a long time was the fact that my knitting was criticized by a fellow bus commuter. She was quite the craftswoman, had taught sewing and considered herself an expert on all things crafty. I knit continental style, and use the middle finger of my left hand to help place the working yarn, and it drove her nuts! I had also asked my sister for help with a technique around the same time, and since she knits English style, she could not grasp what I was doing at all. It drove my knitting underground for a long while. I kept at knitting by myself, on and off until I was able to join a group at a local yarn store that met weekly, working our way through The Knitter’s Handbook. That was my first exposure to knitting with others, and boosted my confidence a great deal. We learned some simple crochet stitches too, and that sent me to playing with some simple crochet patterns.

My current crochet project is a simple ripple afghan. I was sure it was way beyond my skills, even though I had been happily working on three inch sock yarn granny squares after watching a video from the library. I had a collection of yarns that had been started as two other knitted afghan projects that just weren’t working. Working on this little afghan is very satisfying—using up yarn that was unhappy twice, and learning that just going though a crochet pattern line by line is really very easy and fun.