Autumn warmth.....

It is autumn so that means wrapping up to keep warm as a chill enters the air. I had been wanting to make Martha Stewart's Freedom Poncho and decided I wanted to have it to wear now. I found this wonderful chunky yarn in a shop and it was perfect for it. I used this pattern link which I cannot seem to get to work today but want to share in as I think the site is being serviced. This poncho has a large fan trim and a roll neck.

I had 600 grams of the yarn and thought it was going to be enough. I ended up having to hunt for more of it which is not a problem since all the dye lots work together with this variegated yarn. So I went to 4 shops and one had one skein while the others had none. One of the girls called another shop for me but it just seemed to be all sold out. Jos suggested we look in the opposite direction of the middle of little Holland as they might have it in a different area. He was right! They put aside 3 more for me and Jos ran me over to get it last Saturday. I ended up needing 850 grams to complete the poncho.

I also ended up with 150 grams left over. So what to do? I did not want to put it in the already growing basket of scrap yarn. I had also been wanting to crochet my own project basket and here it is......

I looked up patterns online and tried two to no avail. I couldn't make either work well as my bottom waved higher than the North Sea in a storm. *wink* So after 7 attempts, I decided I would try one more time doing a bit of this and a bit of that to see if I could get it to work. It did! I have no idea exactly what I did so I can not make it again but I have my project basket...

I did not quite have enough yarn to get the height I want so I grabbed some solid grey yarn from my stash (yes, I now have yarn stash...lol) and changed my series of single crochet to one row of single and then a row of double crochets. I did this three times and did a last row of single crochet and a fan stitch on the last row to give it a nice edge to turn over. I left the row up on the last photo so you can see the fan stitch better. And look inside...

I already have a new project inside the basket. *grins*

Sorry I have been away for a while. Last week, I kept very busy and then had my scan at the hospital for my eyes. I was convince when my eyes stayed low pain and calm for 2 weeks and 5 days that maybe the disease was not active any longer. But it is awake and calling my name since yesterday. *sigh* Back on medication again but bearing up okay. I see the eye specialist in the beginning of November so will hear more then. In the meantime, the thyroid doctor is thinking he wants an immunologist to look at me. He had been sick over the summer when I should had seen him and only just learned about this development.

I also ended up Monday starting to feel unwell. By the evening, I had a bear of a soar throat. I also had terrible shakes and pain all over. Flu? No...just a bad fibromyalgia flare up due to having a viral bacteria in my throat. All well now and my FM is back to its normal pain levels. I am looking forward to doing lots of handwork over the weekend now.

Happy weekend!