Coffee-n-Cream; Drop in the Pond afghan completed [Crochet]

Suddenly, time is flying by again and I'm failing to keep my blog updated with all the life goings-on :\

Last weekend, my Drop in the Pond - Coffee -n- Cream afghan was completed.  

In the end, I stopped once it reached the size 52" x 65" -- a substantial throw size.

I'm sure I'll be making this again in different color combinations-- it came together quickly and has an amazing pattern for a geometric minded person! :)

AND, I finally bit the bullet and ordered my own copy of this book rather than hoarding it excessively from the Public Library!  LOL.  I must have renewed it three consecutive times (that'd be 3 months!).

NOT that I'm counting by any means.... but today, I needed to do some final Goal Calculations for some of my Intervention Math students.  TEN weeks of school left.  Whoa.  That equates to roughly SIX weeks before the AP Stats exam.  We are sitting SO good this year with the schedule despite losing 6 days of instruction due to weather related closings.  Two more chapters of material----about 3 more weeks of learning, and then MAJOR REVIEW TIME.  Whew.

Happy Tuesday everyone :)

Technical difficulties no more!

Yes, folks!  That lovely, lovely Daylight Savings "Spring Ahead".

Gotta love it, right?!??!

My parents were visiting this past weekend in order to cheer on Caitlyn and Cassie for their DI tournament.  While out shopping yesterday for some groceries for dinner, Paul and Gpa picked up a surprise Birthday cake for Gma!!!  Respecting a women's right to withhold age information, my mother turns .... "8-squared" next Sunday ;).  We celebrated a bit early with some yummy almond-flavored butter-cream frosted marble cake.  Yummmmo.   The cake topped off a meal of homemade pizza and eggrolls.   STUFFFFFED!

Paul. Oh, bless Paul.

He took care of some errands today;   my van was in major need for an oil change.   I received a text at 8:27 saying...."There was a big mouse nest on the engine."

Oh my.  

Additionally, Paul zoomed over to the ISP to pick up a replacement modem.

We are BACK in business folks :)  As much as I don't want to admit the necessity of having Internet...it truly has become a part of life that makes things easier and more enjoyable!  

 
Yesterday, I made it through about 1/3 of the quilting on Kamryn's quilt before finally deciding to give my back a rest.  7 hours of quilting at the frame sufficed for the day.

Once the evening settled down, after saying our goodbyes to Gma and Gpa, and dinner table and dishes were taken care of, I pulled out my Coffee-n-Cream Drop-in-the-Pond afghan.  I need at least one more cream edge on the bottom, and then..... ??  I COULD be done if I wanted to be.  

I have enough yarn to make it one more ripple taller (top/bottom) and one more ripple wider on each side.  **Shrug**  Dunno. It might be one of those projects I add on to when the mood strikes.

For those of you affected by the time-change, I hope your Monday ran as smoothly as possible!!! ;)

Around here....the weather was B-E-A-U-TEEEEE-ful today!  (Not that I could enjoy it much!)  My windows at school are still snowed-in, so I couldn't open them.  But after school, it was still 53 degrees out.  WOW!  That temp was sooooo refreshing.

Therefore, here's to a wonderfully sunny day.  ((Too bad it's going back to cold, sleet and snow tomorrow)) :/

 Happy Monday!

Crochet -- faster than knitting, but....

I've never knit, nor have any intentions of learning to knit at this point in my crafting career, BUT I hear quite often...."Oh my goodness.  Crochet is so much quicker than knitting."  Meaning:  in the same amount of time, a crochet project grows quicker than a knitting project.  **shrug**  I guess I have to believe those ladies because....I've never knit.  

While working on some new rows (top and bottom in the picture), each row was definitely taking longer than the previous shorter rows  -- obviously.  But, I was curious to know how long each pass of the top/bottom rows took....

Each ripple/chevron color requires TWO passes -- so, each color is taking approximately 25-26 minutes.  Let's just say 30 minutes for some nice calculations....

Each chevron/ripple section at this point takes about an hour and 45 minute.  There are two passes per color and then one final pass of the Aran (7 total passes).  

Each new side of the afghan gets TWO of those repeats...

According to my current pace, in another hour and a half, the top/bottom repeats will be finished as I crochet in the Coffee and final Aran rows.  

THEN---I definitely see another 2-ripple repeat for the sides, which will most likely end up being the top/bottom of the finished project... and those sides will match the length of my current top/bottom portion, so....

That'll be....seven more hours of crochet on this project to that point.  

How big did I want this to get???

LOL.  That's a bit too much mental math to take on right now.  

I want to get back to my project, so I'll think more about that then.

But first...some lunch.

Does this count as "slow" stitching, Kathy??? ;)
See what other ladies are doing with "real" slow-stitching this Sunday (2/22/14 Slow Stitch Sunday).  I'll keep puttering on my crochet-stitching....

Coffee-n-Cream Drop in the Pond progress [crochet]

As of yesterday morning, my Elizabeth Ham's Drop in the Pond afghan project has reached the published crib size, but I truly love this pattern, so I'm goin' bigger.  I tripled the amount of yarn required for the crib size, so I may not be able to quite double the size of each size, but we'll see.

Gotta love how math shows up so much in the crafts we do.  Did you know.... if you double the length of the original sides, the AREA of the new project actually increases by 4 times the amount?  Or if you triple the length of the original size, the area of the project increases to 9 times the amount?  ;)  There's your math lesson for the weekend.

For the crib size, this pattern has used almost a full skein of Red Heart Super Saver Aran, and still have about 1/4 skein left of Buff and Coffee.    Hmmm!  Maybe I will be able to double the side lengths of the original project.  I have at least 4 times the amount of yarn called for :)

AND, going back to the original product requirements:  Imagine using three coordinating 'baby' colors with the pattern;  what a simple, AMAZING baby shower gift!  Only three skeins of yarn.  Ya can't go wrong.

The nice by-product of a crochet project growing.... it eventually doubles as a work in progress AND a blanket :)    

The drift on our deck grew in size from all the blowing on Friday.  So, we (the girls and I) tackled it yesterday afternoon.  Oh.  Lordy.  Parts of it were nice to shovel, but MOST of it was so compact and covered with 'warmed' melted-snow top layer.  YUCK!  For an hour, we were mostly shoveling snow-bricks!!!!!  I was slapped in my face with how out of shape I've become;  I haven't run since.... August??  September???  LOL.

So yeah.... I'm finally jumping on the "I'm done with Winter" bandwagon! ;)

Happy Pre-Monday everyone!

LOVING my new crochet project! [Crochet]

Inspiration hits at the craziest times!  And in full-force!

I was out perusing Ravelry Sunday morning, and found this pattern: Drop in the Pond afghan [ravelry link].  There are currently 331 'projects' listed under the link.  I bet I spent a good hour looking through ALL of them, and looking through them AGAIN!  LOL.  There simply was something about this pattern that truly was scah-reaming at me to "make me, make me, make me."

I LOVE this pattern.

And....the moment I finished up the Baby Sage afghan yesterday, I started burning through the yarn for this new project (THANKS for buying the yarn during your Sunday shopping spree, Mom!).  If you have made a Granny Square before, the pattern is SUPER quick and easy to pick up.  

I will be making this a few rounds larger than the printed pattern.  Red Heart Supersaver yarn is being used.  Although I wasn't originally a fan of the Supersaver, it's starting to grow on me.  Recall Candace's afghan (the first afghan where I used Supersaver).  It is thoroughly used and loved and holding up so nicely -- plus, I like the heaviness that the Supersaver provides.  Once it had been washed, it softened up sufficiently.  So yah.... I don't mind the Supersaver anymore.  Besides... the cost is extremely friendly!

Speaking of weather...
((Okay, so we WEREN'T speaking of weather, but it DOES seem to be a topic of conversation with people lately....))
We're expected to be hit with yet ANOTHER snowstorm this Thursday.  Ask me if I'm really surprised anymore at the amount of snow that is coming down this winter!  LOL.
Despite the 5 snow/cold days we've had so far, we HAVE NOT needed to alter our school calendar.  (yet).  If we have one more snow day (Thursday???  Friday??? If we get the amount in the forecast, it's a possibility), then days will start getting tacked on to the end of the school year.

**shrug**
What'cha gonna do?

Truthfully, for whatever crazy reason.... I haven't been hit the Winter Depression (yet).
Sure, sure... we've had record LOW (CRAZY LOW!) temperatures this winter
Sure, sure... we've had record snow levels this year  (the mounds on the side of the roads are getting crazy tall!)
But.... I dunno.  I'm still "okay" with Winter right now.

......
.....
ask me again at the start of April though....

;)
Happy Tuesday