March On!

It is March. A couple weeks ago, we had a fairly deep freeze and significant snow...

Followed by some promise-of-spring weather,  where I knit outside on my lunch break, in nearly-60-Farenheit-degrees,

with sunshine on my shoulder and warm gusts of wind strumming background tunes on Ol' Glory, just above me. It was delightful!

Aaaaand now it's winter again, as we all knew it was bound to be, because it is March, which did not come in particularly like a lion or a lamb. Hot Cocoa season lasts a good long time in Ohio! 

So all bets are off for April, and that's ok. I've finished an afghan, 

and made good progress on my new sweater in mystery yarn, 

and I'm ready to March On! to spring holidays and birthdays, including mine! But first, let's turn those clocks forward tonight, in the US and in my state! 

Enjoy that extra daylight in the afternoon, and don't be late for church tomorrow! 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

I Can't Count

I won't [count], don't ask me...🎶 

Well, I WILL count, but I won't be very good at it. If knitting and crochet have taught me anything, it is that I can't count consistently. I am 57 years old, I have successfully navigated 13 years of public school and 2 years of college, and I'm no slouch at math. But yarn apparently brings me to my counting knees. My latest example is this lovely crochet afghan...

I'm working on this as a gift for an educator, which is a really fun idea I found online! It will look like a sheet of notebook paper, and I hope to also embroider a note on one side before the end of the school year. Super-cute idea, right? But, if you start with 132 stitches and some math for the proper ratio to match an 8½' x 11' sheet of paper, then notice later that you only have 121 stitches, well panic sets in! 

Not for you? Well, how nice for you.

Let me tell you that panic set in for me on Thursday, and I counted, and I counted, and I counted those stitches some more as I sat there with my friends. I thought I saw the place where I had started to accidentally miss stitches about 12 rows back, so I figured I could add in stitches gradually to get back to 132. I took a deep breath, and I started to do just that. I added those stitches very confidently until it was time to go home.

Friday morning, with another 12 rows and about 8 stitches added back in, I counted again. This time, I used some removable stitch markers to help me keep track of smaller sections of stitches as I counted. Guess what I found? That's right...

One-Hundred Thirty-Nine stupid stitches! 

I sat there, and I counted, and I counted, and I counted again. As it turned out, my stitch count was only off by ONE back there, when I started adding stitches back gradually. Smack-My-Head, which I did repeatedly as I pulled back row after row of double crochet, balling up that yarn to work with again as I went. I spent all day yesterday, including my lunch hour (it was lovely, I sat outside...in February...in Ohio...weird but lovely), trying to just work back to the place before I started ripping back...

By the end of the day, I was finally past that spot, and my stitch count was correct. I don't know what will happen this weekend exactly, but I do know that I will certainly mis-count something along the way. It is inevitable, because I just can't conquer crochet counting. Or maybe I covet counting calamities. Who knows? But when I put this yarn down, do you know what I won't do for you?

That's right. 

I won't [count], don't ask me...🎶 

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit (and count) in Good Health!