Thursday, March 28, 2013

Easter Egg Basket Blanket

When I was a little girl Easter was an important holiday.  My father was a minister, and impressed upon us that Easter was far more important even than Christmas to Christians.  We spent a grueling month leading up to Easter, because when you are a minister's kid the liturgical year actually means something, and Lent was my least favorite part of the liturgical year.  Dad always seemed to work more during Lent, which frequently meant that we had to work more, too.  We eagerly anticipated Easter weekend, and on Easter Sunday looked forward to a rousing sing along to our "Jesus Christ Superstar" album and a basket of joy.  In later years it was mostly candy (white chocolate crosses instead of Easter Bunnies, because chocolate gives me migraines and Mom could never stand to watch us eat rabbits). In our youth the basket would contain a lovely Polly Flinders dress for us to wear to church that morning and Wonder Woman Underoos, which we would invariably wear under our Polly Flinders dresses.

Times have changed, though.  Dad is no longer a minister and we don't get Easter baskets anymore.  There was a brief moment this year when I considered decorating eggs, but then determined that this would be an absurd and pointless endeavor.  Instead I made an Easter Egg Basket Blanket (now say that 10 times fast).  following a simple pattern for the eggs and a basket weave pattern for the trim, ultimately the hardest part was adding the grass fringe around the eggs.





Monday, March 4, 2013

Lego Blanket

It's a simple pattern, really. Chain 26 the half double crochet across 24 stitches. On the third row add a popcorn stitch after 4 HDC and repeat across until you have 4 bobbles on that row. HDC across for the next 3 rows, and in the next row repeat the 3rd row. Finish off with two more rows of HDC. Repeat until you think you might go mad, until you think "this has to be more than enough" and then make more.

Lego had not sunken their marketing hooks into my psyche as a child, so I do not share the fascination. I am crestfallen whenever my niece and nephews insist that all they want is Lego. It is so very very expensive. But I admit that I am quite impressed by what they create with it. I support any toy that encourages creativity. Yarn became my Legos long ago, the building blocks of my creative endeavors.  Here is my homage.


This blanket is sold, but if you want to commission one like it click here to go to my Etsy Shop.