Block-A-Month

Some very important ladies (you know who you are!) introduced me to http://www.ravelry.com/. If you crochet or knit, or wish you could, check this site out. It is an entire community of people who are interested in this art/hobby. Patterns, groups to chat with, a place to list your stash, list your needles - lots, lots, lots of good "hooky goodness".


Ravelry has a Block-of-the-Month group where every month there is a pattern presented for making a 6 inch block and a 12 inch block. It is from the Janaury pattern that these blocks are made:

This pattern was the 12 inch block. The pattern calls for a specific yarn type but I had yarn, not yet earmarked for a project. So, my gauge is just 50% off. Meaning that I ended up with 6 inch blocks! Personally I was glad, because it made it very easy to still come up with a 12 inch finished Janaury project. The blocks look like they have a bit of a slant. Looking at the posts from other Ravelry group members, most have the same slanty look.

I am using a merino wool from Valley Yarns and it is sooooo soft and nice to work with. I intend to use the same colors for the block patterns that turn up for the rest of the year. In picking the colors, I brought in some of my quilting skills. In quilting, it is important to mix light, dark, and medium values. So in picking the colors for these blocks, I made sure I had light, dark, and medium in each block. It will be interesting to see how this makes up over the year.

Want to join me in the block-of-the-month? Go to the Ravelry website and join, if you are not already a member. Then shoot me an email and I tell you my "name" on Ravelry.

I've got to go crochet away!!!

So little time....

Has it really been over a month since I posted anything?? I've felt busy, but wow!

It seems time getting away from me may be a theme for this new year, 2010. When I took this picture, (on the 15th!!) I knew it would have a place for all to see. The boys and I, along with another family took a walk in the national park that is not too far from the house. It has been so blastedly cold; but the 15th was a wonderfully warm day (I think it got into the 50's). The snow and the ice on the stream was so pretty, but the melting did make for a rather muddy trail.

When my friend and I were trying to figure out a good spot to be outside, I chose this park for the hiking. A few other parks came to mind, but they all had creeks that the boys had played in before. I didn't want the water to tempt. It was a warm winter day but still not good for water play.

You see my friend taking a picture of the boys? Please notice the placement of my friend, the boys and the stream. My great plan for no water play did not work! The boys did play in the stream. For the most part we had no wet feet, however. We had a nice walk, the boys had a great time playing, in and out of the water. In the picture above, the boys are looking at this really neat ice formation shown below:

While we were at the park, we also sat in on a rock talk that was being given to a school group. So we were treated to a little info about the ground we walk on, literally. I was also able to get a few National Park Passports for our Grand trip later this year.

It was so neat to be out and about and in light jackets.

Well I have a few more photo's to share, but I will reveal over the next few days.