Lozenges Lap-robe

Day 104: As you might expect for someone who knits and crochets as much as I do, I wind up with a lot of tag ends of yarn in a very wide array of colours. Thrifty Scot that I am, these can't just be assigned to the bin. They have to be used down to the last few inches. One of the ways I use up the longer pieces is in "scrap-ghans" where each horizontal row is a different colour, but usually with a unifying colour repeating at regular intervals. Here, seven rows of lozenges are separated by an eighth row in black. The edge of the afghan will also be worked in black. This one is destined to be sold at Mount Rainier National Park's Christmas party silent auction. Proceeds benefit the employee fund which in turn pays for the Christmas party. It's a self-renewing loop!

Building A Better Mousetrap

Day 139: My hands go to sleep quickly when I'm crocheting because my fingers have become slick with age and I grip the hook quite tightly. Invariably, the pressure leaves a substantial dent in the pad of my thumb, and as I work across a long row (the width of an afghan, for example), I have to pause repeatedly to flex my hands to restore circulation. A little slow on the upbeat, I finally realized I had a solution within my grasp (ha-ha): pad the damn hook! A little foam, a little micropore tape, and I'm now crocheting with much greater comfort. Yes, I know they make "ergonomic" rubber-handled hooks and I'll probably pick up a set at some point, but for now, necessity (the mother of invention) prevails.