Thwarted At Every Turn

Today my friend Kerry and I went to the monthly meeting of the South Bay chapter of the CGOA. At least, that's what I think they called themselves - the meeting started at 9am. On a Saturday. Umm ... what? There are very few people I would agree to do something with that early on a Saturday morning. Kerry is one of them.

But I'm glad I went; I met a lot of nice ladies who are FAR more talented than I'll ever be. I even met Mary Jane Wood, the co-author of "Crocheted Socks! 16 Fun-To- Stitch patterns". I had planned on bringing my copy along for her to autograph but uh ... I forgot. Did I mention the meeting started at 9am?

However, I did remember to bring my Little Star afghan which I'm making for Project Linus. I was sure I'd memorized the pattern so I left it at home. I was wrong. Was it dc3, ch2, dc3 or dc3 ch1 dc3? I had not a c-l-u-e.

Fear not, I'd also brought along the yarn and the PATTERN for a preemie ripple afghan. When will I learn? It is unlikely you will ever see a picture of a completed ripple afghan in this blog. I am "ripple challenged". I don't know why, it's one of those mysteries of life. But I was determined to crochet SOMETHING. So I had the brilliant idea of making a 12" square for charity. All I had to do was pick a lovely stitch from my stitch book, chain a 12" chain and voila, a beautiful square! My square was ... 14".

Was it any wonder I had to come home and have a brownie and a cup of tea to steady my nerves? Don't these look good? They ARE. Made from scratch even. With not one, not two, but six squares of Baker's semi-sweet chocolate. I made them last night to replace the disgusting ones I made on Thursday. Why is it when you've got one egg and one cup of flour left in the house the recipe you decide to try turns out like CRAP? Another mystery.

So after replenishing the chocolate level in my bloodstream I did what I always do when I begin to doubt my crocheting abilities. I made a hat. To be specific, Dot's UBW (ugly but warm) hat. If you've never made a UBW hat, you don't know what you're missing. To find out what you're missing, just click the link on the right that says "Crochet By The Hook" and you'll be whisked off to Dot's blog. Where you will find so many wonderful hat patterns you will be speechless.

Lily says, "Hey Mom, where's MY hat?"