Vanishing Act

Well, I managed to finish my spur of the moment baby blanket project last night--just in time to give it to the proud mother-to-be at her shower today. She loved it!

I had something of a setback on Thursday morning though. I had gotten up, fed the baby, showered, got all of my internetting done, and was sitting down with a cup of tea to watch Jeopardy! and settle in for the long haul on this blanket when I came to a nasty realization: my crochet hook had disappeared. It should have been sitting on top of the blanket where I had left it the previous evening after stopping for the night--but the hook was nowhere to be seen. I have my suspicions on who vanished my hook (*cough* Tony *cough*) but I still have no idea where it went to. I spent a good half hour crawling around the house, looking under, behind, and in things trying to figure out where the hook had gone, all to no avail. Heck, I even checked the litter boxes! By the time my mother in law arrived (she was coming to visit the baby and give me a little break), I was almost in tears I was so frustrated. I still have no idea where that hook could have gotten to, but I ended up caving in and making an emergency run to JoAnn's, baby and MIL in tow (she was rather amused by the whole thing and remains convinced that I will one day find the hook while rearranging furniture) to buy a new hook. Actually ended up buying two, just in case.

Needless to say, since Thursday night, I have been very careful to make sure I put the hook away out of sight when finishing my project for the evening. Hopefully the culprit won't give a repeat performance!

Anyhoo, after all that hooplah, here's the finished product:

I am pretty proud of how it came out, if I do say so myself. I used a pattern I have in my stash called "Linked Loops"--I wish I could reference the source, but I have a photocopy from a book someone had given to me and the name of the book isn't on the photocopy, unfortunately. But here is the pattern, if you are interested:

• Chain a multiple of 4 plus one.
• Single crochet in second chain from hook and next three chains (4 sc).
• *Chain 12, single crochet in next four chains.*
• Repeat from * to * across (do not chain 12 after final four sc).
• Rows 2-4: Chain 1, turn. Single crochet in each sc across.
• Repeat rows 1-4, changing color on each row 1.
• Before starting the final row, pull each chain loop through the loop below it and sc final loops into last row across.

Here's a closer look at the loops. It comes out with a nice cabled look.

I will note that I did do the stripes in rows of six rather than four, so my "cables" are probably a little tighter than you would get sticking strictly to the pattern.

But wait, that's not all! After finishing that blanket, I was finally able to finish my second sock, huzzah!

Here is the completed pair:

And the lovely foot model showing them off:

The pattern for these was Easy Does It by Janet Rehfeldt from Crocheted Socks! 16 Fun to Stitch Patterns. I used Lion Brand's Sock-Ease yarn in Taffy.

I will note that due to my incompetence, I did deviate from the pattern. In the foot I used the long split single crochet stitch instead of the extended single crochet stitch. This, of course, means I will be making another pair of socks with this pattern soon, actually following the pattern. :o)

Well, that's all I've really got for you this week. Up on my plate now is assembly and completion of the Flower Box Afghan (already begun) and then next up is a set of Christmas stockings for my family. Good times.

Hope you all have a fantabulous week!

C