On My Needles......

Or in this case, on my crochet hook. It has been years since I’ve done any crochet, and when I first picked this up, I remembered why. I was trying to use a basic metal crochet hook. It was slippery, I couldn’t seem to get a firm hold on it, and when I did, the hook wouldn’t hook the yarn. My fingers were getting cramped from holding the hook, and my mood was getting really bad since I was getting so frustrated. Fast forward one day and a visit to my local yarn shop, and the problem was solved. They sell ergonomic crochet hooks these days. Way too expensive, but oh so worth it, as long as I do lots of crocheting with this particular hook. The whole reason I was so set on getting back to doing crochet was these adorable booties. They are from a pattern called Crocodile Stitch Booties. 
They are not for the faint of heart, and probably weren’t the best choice for starting back at this. However, I have never been known to do things by half measure, and if I’m going to start doing something, I’ve been known to jump in all the way, with both feet, and sometimes nearly drown. It has taken three or four evenings of working at these to get this far. They’ve been ripped out several times, and figuring out the instructions has been a challenge. These are the newborn size. I think there will also be a pair in the larger size, since they are just so cute!! I’m linking this up to Judy’s On the Needles.
In between doing these, I’ve been working on other projects. I have a customer quilt on the machine that is getting feathers around the borders. I love doing feathers, but my head has to be in a certain space before I can get them to come out evenly. I wasn’t in that space yesterday, so I decided to start making a sleeper for our grand baby-to-be instead. Turns out my head wasn’t in the space it needed to be for doing that either. I cut out two pieces backwards, and had to re-cut them, wasting precious, expensive and cute little baby girl knit fabric in the process. Yesterday was redeemed though, by dinner out with friends and a Cheryl Arkinson trunk show. One of her emphasis points last evening was to just take your fabrics and give yourself time to play. Earlier this afternoon I sort of took that advice, but I inserted a step into it, being get out my EQ7 program and play, before cutting into fabrics.
Last summer during all our travels throughout Ontario, I was struck by green, all the various shades and values of green, all hanging out together and getting along quite nicely up against the background of the sky. So, during our visits to various quilt shops on our travels, I picked up green fat quarters, with plans for making a quilt using greens and the various shades of grey and blue for the sky. This is what I’ve come up with. It’s an 8 inch finished block and uses 6 inch and 2 inch triangles. I have both those sizes of dies for my Go Cutter. I just might start pulling out fabrics and start cutting this evening. I’m thinking of calling it Northern Tree Line. This is one of the photos I took during one of our hikes that kinda inspired the colour pairing. So, stay tuned..... will she or won’t she start this in the next few days?