Killing Time, Granny Style

I have a dilemma.

I don’t want to start any long-and-involved projects before the baby gets here, but I also don’t want to sit around twiddling my (granted, Miss Piggy-esque) thumbs together & doing nothing.

I want to have a transportable project available to take with me to doctor’s appointments and hospitals to combat the “sitting around being bored” syndrome, but I don’t want to have to take a pattern with me, nor do I want something so involved I’ll have to stop counting and/or rip out a row to get back on track the next time I work on it.

Translation:  I want a project I can work on for five minutes, put down for three days, then pick up again & still be on track.

Solution?  Granny Squares.  And rectangles.  And pillow cases.  LOTS of them!

...a pillow case for the baby's room...

...a girlie granny throw made with alpaca homepspun...

...green-and-white-and-blue cotton WIP...

The problem is that granny squares projects work up quickly.  Like, Oh-dear-I-just-sat-down-and-now-I’m-out-of-yarn-again quickly.  Lucky for me everyone I know seems to be stocking up on babies, so I’ve got plenty of Welcome to Earth projects to keep me busy.  I’ve also used up my entire stock of scrap yarn – I started an awesome ALL-THE-COLORS granny quilt that will likely take years to finish (it’s an experiment in asymmetry…we shall see how my brain copes with the lack of perfection):

And, since I discovered that the amount of arthritis/swelling/pain in my fingers doesn’t subside even when I DON’T make lovely yarny things (and likely won’t subside again until baby gets here), I switched to some back post/front post double crochets and kept hooking – I made another pillow case:

And a throw blanket for Nina & Fraidy Cat, made entirely of scrap yarn from my Dr Who Scarf, which the kittens refuse to snuggle (because the box from our Roomba is a much more appropriate cat bed, obviously).

...handmade blanket-in-a-basket = definitely less comfortable than a cardboard box...

 

I’ve got enough yarn to finish one or two more projects… think it’ll last me until baby boy arrives?

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88 is a LOT.

Here, my friends, are 88 granny squares all yarned together.

That’s right! My super secrety project was an awesome granny quilt for my friends Dennis and Holly (the ones with the chickens, don’t you know), who are either about to get married or just got married (depending on when you read this post).

Isn’t it happy?

perspective: cell phone + kitten

And because we all know I think wrapping paper is one of the most wasteful things ever:

Congratulations, Dennis and Holly!  I hope you enjoy your 88 awesome granny squares for at least the next 88 years!

Stained Glass Awesome

*whew*  I made it back to Crochetlandia.

I also worked up this awesome stash buster, which started like this:

 

NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY GRANNY SQUARES!

And ended up looking rather like a stained glass window:

 

Groovy, man.

I love how patchworky and rustic it looks… I think the fuzzy dark blue yarn (left over from my granny sweater, dontcha know) really adds to the effect. I don’t usually like things with this many different colors, but for some reason I really like this combination.

Anyway, it’s not big enough to be a blanket, but the only color I’ve got left is the dark blue.   Maybe it’ll be the front of a pillow or something.  We’ll see.  In the meanwhile, Nina thinks it’s the perfect size for her.    =)

 

Smells like a nap to me!