Under Color Crochet

  This is not your grandfather's camouflage! 😋 Or is it? 😁 I absolutely loved making this sweet piece, and it is comfy cozy enough for any grandfather to appreciate. Plus, those soft colors are perfect for grandpappy dreaming. Even softer: the chenille yarn is positively luxurious! And so fun to work with, I love how it feels so fluffy and works up so fast. The yarn company calls this yarn "Naptime," and that is a perfect label for chenille. It has a medium weight given, but I feel like it borders on light weight. Each strand is quite thin by itself, and that can be beautiful. For example: Hippie Fringe , Clouds and Sunshine,   Sage and Sand .  And a beautiful bonus of Sage and Sand: New Orleans Winter . But this time, I wanted something a bit more bulky. So, I combined four strands at once, each a different color. And, yay!! The camouflage of unicorns emerged like magic. 😍  I do love mixing colors, and several times I have made classic camouflage items for my A...

  Pillow talk! 😎 I had so much fun making this pillow. Camouflage colors (from leftover yarn of a fave previous project, that Frank now likes to call Baby Camy ) on one side, and earth tones (of the giant granny square leftover from The Beast ) on the other side. This is my first attempt ever at pillow creation, and it is not perfect... but it maybe gets a passing grade... almost. 😋  I didn't follow a pattern, because I already had the giant granny square ready to go for one side. I figured I could stitch something together for the other side, and that should make for a perfect pillow. I decided I didn't need a pattern... hmmm... maybe next time I should take a look at a pillow pattern. My leftover-granny-square method is probably why there are plenty of puckers on this pillow. 😁 I figured this lumpy pillow could maybe be used as back support, or a foot rest. But it is now getting actual sleepy-time head use. Frank claims he doesn't mind the plumps, puckers, and imperfec...

  My brother, Frank, wanted a blanket for the couch... big enough for a serious nap. He does already have this throw I made in Camouflage Colors, but it isn't quite up to snuff for a winter snooze on the couch. (Frank likes to call that camouflage piece "Little Cami.") So, I started working on an upgrade for him, and whew! This took me a while. A little throw just isn't gonna do it this time. The new piece had to be long enough to cover his toes, and pull over his head. Also, needed to be wide enough to drape over a whole Army guy, but only just wide enough for the couch. Plus, of course, it had to look good in the living room... darn, no sparkle, no ruffles. I knew what I needed to do: granny squares made manly. This is a Manny Squares blanket.  I know my way around big projects. I've made a few here and there. 😎 Like, say, oh, maybe something kinda like Ruffle Monster or  Granny Square Greatness . 🤩 But I knew this napping-on-the-couch piece had to be just a...

  I absolutely loved making this throw. One, because it was the perfect project for those cold Wisconsin evenings. Two, because Mom was still with us when I first started making it. That means, this piece is my final crochet connection with her. And three, because it was a birthday present for my brother. I knew he would like it, but I did not expect him to love it as much as he does.    Mom was there to see the early stages of this endeavor. I think I was just a few rows into it when I first brought it over to her place one weekend in January, 2018. She immediately loved it, even in its scrappy early stages. We sat together several times while I worked on this. Like all our evenings together, we watched tv, and chatted, or reminisced, and told stories, until eventually we’d just turn off the tv and sit in each other’s company. I would work on crochet, and she might flip through a magazine, or work on a sudoko puzzle. And every little while she would take a sip of her Die...