Winter crochet projects this week for Creative Idea Friday...

Hi everyone! I hope your wintry January's are moving along nicely. :) I know that I'm in the minority, but I actually like January, gray skies and all. Part of it is that my wedding anniversary is in January, part of it is that I enjoy the cozy feeling of deep winter. Speaking of wedding anniversaries, Mike and I celebrated ours on the 8th (16 years!) and as is the thing this year, it was different than usual. Romantic takeout, cocktails at home, and watching of The Crown marked our anniversary dinner this year, ha ha! But you know, it was absolutely delightful!

In other deep winter news, I've been hard at work on crafting. I started a baby sweater for Allison!

This is a Baby Surprise Jacket, one of my favorite baby patterns of all time. You knit what appears to be a blog, and when you sew 2 small seams, voila! It's a baby sweater. :0 It's moving along quite quickly, hoping to have a finished sweater to show you next week! 

But onto crochet, as that is our main theme for this week! I was listening to the We Crochet podcast this week (which I highly recommend, btw, if you're at all interested in crafts. I listen to their sister podcast, Connecting Threads, even though I don't sew, and really enjoy it!) and they got me all excited for a specifically crochet winter focus. The newest edition of their magazine includes a winter themed collection called Wintertide that I am really jazzed about now:

We Crochet Magazine, Issue 5

I do love projects that are themed after winter, as distinct from the holidays. I love holiday projects too, but they are different to me: there are holiday themed items, and then specifically winter themed items that have a cozy, warming feel, and often inspired by winter colors like blues white, and purples. Needless to say, this magazine is in my cart over at We Crochet. :0

Blankets are one of my favorite winter projects, because they keep you warm *while* you make them, so they do double duty! Each New Year, I am inspired by the Attic 24 blanket CAL (crochet -along) and despite having plenty of blankets in my house, I could not resist this year's edition, especially given our continuing pandemic situation. It's the perfect project to work on while snugged up at home! This year, the theme is a Meadow inspired blanket:

Attic 24 Meadow Blanket CAL

And aside from weaving in ends, I completed part 1 this week!

Once you get the stitch pattern down, this is a great and soothing tv watching project. If you're at all interested in crochet, I encourage you to give this a try! I would say it's advanced beginner level, and Lucy includes a step-by-step tutorial with tons of pictures, so you can do it, I know you can! Any yarn you like will do, but Wool Warehouse has the special yarn packs with the colors the designer picked specificaly for this blanket. Even with the current delayed shipping situation (and Wool Warehouse is in the UK), I got my pack within 2 weeks, which I think is amazing speed! But obviously you could also approximate these colors at your local craft store with a nice soft acrylic in worsted or dk. She just released part 2 of the colors today (it's week by week, but you can catch up super easily and work at your own pace!) and I'm sooooo looking forward to working on this over the weekend!

I've also been busily learning to play my finger cymbals, but that's a post for another day. 🤣 How are you doing this week, dear reader? What projects are you working on this January? Sending you lots of hearts this winter!

A fresh new year start, and soothing winter crochet -alongs...

Happy New Year everyone, I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season.

*hugs*

I did, it was very relaxing. I pretty much spent nearly 2 weeks in my pj's, knitting, drinking tea, and watching a Little House on the Prairie marathon. 😂 I really needed the down time, and I loved it. The fall was unexpectedly quite stressful, as I've written about before, and spending the time at home unwinding with Mike and the kids was just awesome. We also got to spend a lot of time with my parents, which was absolutely delightful. Now that it's the new year, I'm feeling all refreshed and excited to go on my goals for dance, faith and family! I'm starting off by taking a workshop next weekend that focuses on acting and stage presence for dancers - should be interesting, eeks! :-0

In other news, I'm terribly excited to be participating in another crochet -along (abbreviated as CAL in craft land ;-)) with the Attic 24 blog. She does one each January - March, and releases the color sequences a week at a time. This year's edition is called the Dahlia blanket:

I've participated in these CAL's the past two years, and the experiences have been so fun and soothing. I love being a part of a larger community, and there is a group on Facebook called "Hooked on Attic 24" dedicated to these CAL's and it's so lovely to be joined in there. The winter is a perfect time to have a giant blanket project going, and I love the challenge of finishing up the stripe sequence each week. She does offer options wherein you can pick either the varied color sequence that she favors, or a colorwash version wherein the colors fade into each more, or a mirroring stripes option. She puts together yarn packs each late fall through Wool Warehouse, but obviously you could use any yarn you like and either try to match up the colors, or come up with your own color scheme. It's such fun! The first sequence came out today, and I have to admit that I got up with an excited feeling in my stomach to go print it out. :-)

Do you enjoy having a community that goes along with your hobbies? Anybody tempted to crochet a blanket with me this winter? ;-)