The Granny Square is a utilitarian way of using up yarn. Generally, when many people think of a Granny Square afghan they think of lots of smaller motifs joined together in bright colors. The Granny Square, which is a simple shell or fan stitch – three double crochets with a chain stitch then three double crochets again with a few chain stitches at the corner can be used to make a block as large as you wish. This is a pattern that I can almost make in my sleep. It’s versatile. The best part about making one large Granny Square…

The number of completed items grows weekly and I have tried a couple of new patterns. No difficulty sleeping, no difficulty crafting, just a lack of motivation to do a whole house purge that I thought I was going to do. It was ambitious, I admit. The slide show features three months’ worth of work from the first day I began working from home in March until today. There were other projects that were started before sheltering in place began not featured. I thought I would have a well organized and completely purged home by now, especially after three months…

March 13 when we left the office, we thought it was only for two weeks. Then we were told to shelter in place. Two weeks has become more than two months and we are still working remotely with no clear end date. Being able to continue to work  remotely and receive a paycheck is a blessing. I had met with a new friend who gave me some yarn the day before the initial two week working from home period began. We had coffee and talked about what was going to happen. There was a lot of speculation but we didn’t…

Multiple projects going at one time keeps the love of crochet alive for me. The mystery balls are still in progress; right after finishing an afghan in multiple shades of purple, I started another afghan. Yet, as I look for new color combinations for scarves and sets or to incorporate into afghans or the mystery balls, there are some amounts that are too much for the mystery balls or not enough for an afghan or scarf. Enter the humble hat. A hat may be functional or stylish but it is also a necessity in the Midwest. The cold and sometimes…

Last Saturday, after exercising and showering before my busy Saturday of reading on the couch, I went shopping in my yarn stash. I found some yarn for hat and scarf sets and other small projects… AND… I found some pound skeins of black yarn. Along with the bag of odd balls that my friend’s family gave me and the ones I already have, I could make the multicolor afghan I’ve been thinking about. Although, instead of measuring the lengths of black, I will start the afghan with two rows of black and then continue working with one of the balls…

Crocheting is something I do everyday. Now that I am sheltering in place, I do more of it especially since I have more time to watch movies. My commute time has dramatically decreased and during long webinars and meetings crocheting makes me focus on what the speakers are saying and not zone out (plus, it makes the time pass faster). Not everyone can work from home. Find something to keep yourself calm. Some people bake, sew, do puzzles or write. It’s not a contest, everyone can go at their own pace. Use crochet or other craft as therapy to help…

Like many metropolitan areas I’m going to be working from home for a few weeks because of COVID-19. I’ve been planning and have much of what I need, I bought toilet paper when it was on sale several weeks ago, because it was a really great sale and I have a lot of food in my freezer so I’m good. There are at least two bags of coffee beans in my cabinet, as well as lots of tea and hot chocolate. Now is the time to work on some additional projects that I have wanted to work on. One is…