I got a taker on the blanket! Two of my three hopes have been realized (plaid and pleasing colors; no yarn that puts on airs). Here’s an approximation of the plan:
I grabbed the colors from the swatches online. I would have been happy with that blue-leaning teal, but remember when I said greens don’t photograph well? When I opened the box and saw real life was much more emerald-leaning, I shrieked with glee.
Since I don’t have a pattern, I used the power of mathematics to estimate the quantity of yarn to order. I recalculated after crocheting the first band. I maybe could have added an extra row to each green section, but there would have been absolutely no margin for error. I’d be screwed if one of the skeins was light or I had to do a lot of joins. Better to have a whole skein unnecessarily purchased than to be 1 foot short of what I need at the end.
I invested in some tension rods and room-darkening curtains to help get me through migraine season, during which the sun blasts through the windows of my “office” like a floodlight. It has, of course, been overcast every day since I hung them, but the option to control exposure to an irritant is awesome.[efn_note]For contrast, please refer to the yellowjackets finding their way inside from their home in the eaves and the indifferent landlord who left me a can of Raid (partially used) as a “solution.”[/efn_note]
I’ve been exceptionally down about my living conditions. In search of an emotional Band-Aid to decorate a corner of that gaping wound, I dug through my Never Unpacked in Case I Have to Vacate in a Hurry moving boxes and hauled out the most frivolous thing I brought the last time I had to vacate in a hurry.[efn_note]One of the irises had a price sticker on it: $7.99 in early 1990s dollars. Times 20, plus a huge glass vase half full of decorative marbles? Maybe my sense that this represents a massive whack of money I would never, ever waste on replacing it explains why I couldn’t leave it behind.[/efn_note]
It forms a pretty wall between me and a lot of unsightly mess. (A portion of unsightly mess has been removed digitally via expert application of a gray blob.)
I just noticed the other fake flower arrangement in the background, so mine seems to be carrying a bouquet. The floral version of Porky Pig carrying a plate of bacon.[efn_note]Upon further consideration, a vase of cut flowers carrying a smaller vase of cut flowers is more a parent-child vibe than cannibalism. In my eternal quest to make things dark, however, I must note none of the flowers are the same between the two arrangements, so flower-napping is one possibility.[/efn_note]
