NatCroMo: A Retrospective

The entire month of March was a flurry of crochet related activity in honor of National Crochet Month.

The second Saturday in March typically is sheep shearing day at my friend Joanie's farm. I usually attend this if I'm not planning on going to New York Sheep and Wool Festival in the fall.

I also discovered Vine just in time for National Crochet Month, and while at Joan's farm, I did video clips of the entire process:



The professional shearer that comes out annually makes very quick work, and before you know it, the entire flock was done on the inside of about 1.5-2 hours.


There were several more Vines I managed to capture, however, I'll leave this last one as the final one regarding sheep shearing day itself.


I snapped some other Vines related to NatCroMo too, and you can access them by checking out my profile on Vine.

Though not necessary, Joan gave all of us some goodies. For me it was two hanks of some yummy alpaca yarn in a weight that she knows I prefer hook up. 
 
 I also managed to finish up a shawl for a my great-aunt, who is undergoing chemo for a relapse of breast cancer she thought she beat 20+ years ago. (I believe there's a Vine or two of the hooking process.)

 I also managed to START AND FINISH this pullover sweater I hooked up for Joanie, too. Very proud I got this started and finished all in the same month, and that it was National Crochet Month, too!

 And while I was "cooking with grease" among other projects, I managed to FINALLY FINISH this Tunisian entrelac baby blanket (done in "around the world" style). I started this project in 2010 or 2011 with the intended recipient being my husband's cousin's first baby. Well. THAT baby is now five years old! Luckily for me and my momentum, that cousin is pregnant with Baby #2 (due sometime early this summer), and I finished the blanket with the hopes of giving it to Baby #2.  I ran out of the brown, and luckily for me, WEBS had it on close out in a close enough shade tofinish up this project. A few more rows of the entrelac, then I squared it off, "grannied" around, then did a 5DC shell to finish. Ends woven in, and it's been steam blocked and it awaits its destiny!

I also managed to record a few Vines regarding exercises to help avoid or ameliorate RSI (repetitive stress injury), too. 

And on March 30th, I was back at "The Mount" in NYC for a sonogram (and thought I'd have another biopsy but no change from the previous sono--so no biopsy) and while there, I was attempting to finish up a top down constructed top for myself, but I had to keep frogging it due to the stitch count being off, and having problems getting the lace pattern to cooperate with me and the necessary increases through the yoke--otherwise, I would have had a fourth project to show off for NatCroMo.  I had gotten to about row ten each time and had to frog it back. Very frustrating!

This is using the same yarn as was in the baby blanket (Provence Cotton) and since it was on a close out at WEBS, I tossed roughly 1200 yards into my shopping cart:) And no, I'm not using a pattern, as part of my process is the problem solving, puzzle solving aspect, and there's a bit of trial and error with my top down sweaters.