Acrylic is Scratchy

Babies everywhere it seems. Most women close to me either have one, are within nine months of having one, or are going to be conceiving one within a year’s time (so I’ve been informed, I guess, in order to brace myself). What better reason to crochet!!!

I took a hankering to the stroller blanket and matching hat in Happy Hooker. It was juuuuust enough to challenge my crochet skills. That would be the skill of keeping a perfect square. I don’t know why this is so hard for me. I mean come on now. But inevitably I end up with a trapezoid. With the Allyson hat that was easily remedied by sewing it up on the level and then making the funky end the part that was scrunched up and turned inside out. But for this project I had to pay attention because there was no scrunching and turning and faking it.

So acrylic, eh? Well, yes. I love the feel and softness of the natural fibers. But if you want a saturated blue and a brown that don’t occur in nature, it seems to me that 100% acrylic is the way to go. Am I wrong? Please tell me the way to brightly colored natural fibers! So with some JoAnns craft store 1/2 pound rolls of “yarn” I got through the project in no time at all. The hat was particularly quick. And it got a sighing awww when I gave it to the mom. It was the aww of a new mommy who gets three hours of sleep at a time.

Apartment Flowers

I think my apartment complex is cute. And that’s part of the reason I live there. It isn’t a pillbox-like complex that towers four stories. It was built probably in the 40s (based on carbon dating of the tile in my kitchen) and was last updated in the 60s (gold formica in the bathroom). I greet my neighbors by name, and spread local gossip with them. It’s nice. It’s homey. And when I walk from my car to my front door, I walk through an doorway created by a defunct wooden fence and a rosebush. These roses bloom once a year. For three days. They burn out so fast, I’ve discovered, because they are under light twenty four hours a day. Just opposite is a security light that turns on as soon as the sun goes down. So there is no night and day for the bush. It’s always day. I look forward to spring when these flowers bloom, it’s one way of marking time.