Afghan

While I have less yarn in my stash (only one blue tub) compared to most crocheters and knitters, it was time to thin out my stash.

READ: save money, but fulfilling the need to keep my hands busy to keep from going crazy.

How does one get a yarn stash?

Well, sometimes it's because you crochet tighter than the gauge for the project resulting in extra yarn. Or the bigger the project the greater the chance of erring on the side of too much yarn, especially when one is trying to keep a particular colored lot number.  Or you calculate 1 1/4 skein of yarn for a particular project, which means you have to buy 2 skeins.

Over time, extra yarn builds up. Luckily, I tend to like certain colors that work well together. Unless I happen to crochet a baby afghan there will not be any pastel colors in my stash. I do have some odd leftover yarns: a red from making a  couple of 'shark' hats, and camo from a baby hat and booties.

Yes, I have made this pattern before. Many times. The dark flower is a deep purple, not black. These gloomy days don't provide adequate lighting to take a picture. I added another row of seven which made 42 squares for this afghan. Finished size 54 x 64 inches.

Catching Up

Sorry for the quiet blog last week. I know it's hard to believe, but I really couldn't think of anything to say!

I wanted to write a blog titled, DON'T BE STUPID, but I thought it had too much negativity going on with the connotation of the word stupid, plus the negative of don't. This blog popped into my head when I received a generic thank-you note for judging a contest by the contest coordinator. The note was in Arial 10, while my name was in TNR 12. The whole point of that blog would have been to keep the font the same. I would have felt a little better about my judging efforts if the coordinator had taken the time to use the same font. As it is, I didn't feel appreciated or special because it was too obvious that it was generic. 

This goes for sending queries to editors/agents. Keep the font the same. 

Look, editors/agents are well aware that you are sending out mass queries. You'd be crazy not to, but have a little bit of professional in the manner you query them. 

• remember to change the addressee's name
• find out if you are querying a male or a female (Mr vs. Ms)--and yes, I have screwed this one up
• make sure you are using their LAST name instead of their first name in your query--ditto on screwage.

In other words, double check everything before hitting the send button.

On Saturday, my daughter had her first Long Course swim meet since last year. It was a mixed meet with under 12's swimming along with the seniors, which meant my daughter swam a couple of events that don't even count for her age group (50 breast and 50 back), but it's a good practice. Long course is a relatively short season, but it's intense. If you've watched the Olympics, you've seen the distance that the kids swim in Long Course. Just stand at one end of the pool and look. It's a long way to swim 50 meters, without the turn. 

She did well, qualifying for Age Groups with 100 Free and 200 Medley. Both of which were BB times. She had a good swim with the 100 Fly (a B time), but was still a few seconds from qualifying with OAG's.

The one thing I noticed with the long course swim, is that the stroke technique is pinnacle. If you swim a 50, there are no turns, just a dive and a sprint. With a 100, there is one flip turn. So if you lose time, it's due to small issues with your stroke. 

I told her to swim hard, but I don't think she swam 100% all out in all the events, maybe 80%. The indicator is how hard she's breathing when she gets out of the pool. Breathing hard = gave it her all. Not breathing hard = 80% effort. 

Just saying. 

And, I hate to say it, but I'm not surprised that the pool guys still haven't plastered our pool. I've lost track of all the times I've heard, "You're next on the list." for the last THREE weeks. With the Oklahoma wind blowing dust, pollen, and tree crap around, this is what our pool looks like now. They had to chip the plaster away from around the fixtures and the tile, along with putting holes everywhere. Believe it or not, they had acid washed this three days ago in preparation of plaster. 

Once they plaster the pool, we can't swim in it for a month. I'm starting to wonder if we will be able to swim in it at all this season! 

I'm almost finished with this next afghan. It was made from a bunch of my leftover colors, with the exception of the border, which is dark green. I'll see how it looks when I finish piecing it together and crocheting the border, but I'll probably donate this one to Brenda Novak's Auction. Since it had so many different colors, I have to put it on the floor to see if I've managed to mix it up enough. 

I try to post more this week, but I'm finally writing on the Mystic Elements stories and want to crank out as many words as possible. Another goal I have for this week is to update this blog, fixing my links, and updating the blurbs on the stories now that I know what the stories are all about! 

That's it for today. Later, Peeps!

Flower Afghan

*To Gnome Me is To Love Me is still free on Amazon--click on the picture to the right*

I had a ton of yarn from my last project, so I had to find a pattern that would use most of it up.

This was it.

Red Heart's Flower Throw

I used a medium weight yarn, which caused the gauge to be smaller and a little more flimsy. I added one row on the width and two rows on the length. This gave me a dimension of 50" x 62". Since this was unstretched, the afghan looks a little wrinkled. Over time, it will loosen up.

Time to focus on my writing.

Later, Peeps!