Fiddlesticks

There haven't been a whole lot of patterns in this year's Crochet-A-Day calender that I've absolutely loved. However, the one for this past weekend caught my eye. It's called the Peek-A-Boo afghan. Imagine in your mind (providing you haven't lost it like I have) tiny squares of white framed entirely by blue. I really liked that afghan. I liked it enough that I actually bought the yarn it specified (Lion's Brand Wool-Ease) and did a GAUGE SWATCH. For an afghan, will wonders never cease? Of course I changed the blue to rose because blue reminds me of my ex mother-in-law but that's a different story. Now, I ask you, does this look like tiny squares of white framed by rose? NO. It looks like big ol' blotches of white with specks of rose. This is NOT the effect I wanted. However, I have posted a poor, pitiful "Help Me" on Crochetville and hopefully someone will tell me either (a) I'm doing the pattern entirely wrong, (b) the pattern is wrong or (c) they airbrushed the picture of the afghan to make it look nicer than it actually is. OK, maybe answer (c) is a bit far-fetched but I want my afghan to look like the one in the picture!

Amber asked today how long I was going to be running the "Made In Canada" contest and how often. The answers are (1) until I get bored with it and start another contest and (2) I plan on posting a question on a random day each week. So each week you'll have a new chance to win. And perhaps learn something new at the same time. Please remember, you can only win once in a 4 week period. This is to take into account that I am a night owl and usually post late at night. And since I'm on the West coast this gives the people on the East coast a better chance of winning if they log on first thing in the morning. Which isn't fair to my West coast friends. I'm just trying to keep everybody happy.

Speaking of winning, Raquel was our winner today simply by knowing that Queen Elizabeth the Second is on the Canadian penny. And for that she wins three skeins of Plymouth "Encore Worsted Weight" yarn in pink heather. This is another personal favorite. It's 75% acrylic and 25% wool and each ball is 100g / 200 yds.

And now it's time for bed because I'm exhausted.