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Check out my article on Mamanatural.com!

• The Dark Side of Stationery
• The Universe Strikes Back.
• Bruises or Royalty?
• My Sweet Swing Denial.
• Four months later and still counting my blessings...

When I noticed a strip of yarn in my son's handmade blanket had gone awry after washing a few times, I thought I could fix it. I thought it would be a simple task burdening me of barely 1 hour. It'll be easy, I said. I'll have fun with it, I said. Can you guess I was a smidge wrong?
I began by cutting the strip of yarn out of the blanket itself, taking care not to snip any stitches from the other colors in the blanket. Unfortunately, the yarns I chose only corresponded to one another in color family, which consequently earned me one rogue yarn that was meant for handwashing alone. As you can probably tell (if you're familiar with crochet), none of the stitches are visible in this strip anymore.
Then, I took my small scissors and carefully pushed them into the chain holes above the dark blue stitches and cut. It's important to note, I used the basketweave stitch in this blanket (1 SC, ch 1, 1 SC, ch 1 repeat), which left a convenient chain (CH) hole for cutting. Even though the yarn was fused together, it was pretty easy to get them apart. Should you follow my example, please be careful when cutting!! You'll see my bandaged finger in upcoming pictures from overzealous and reckless cutting.
Once the stitches are cut, I began snipping apart the individual stitches to remove the light blue yarn....
...which I put into a bowl for crafting later on with my son.
This is where things got tricky. I repeated the snipping the chain process for the opposite side, however, I had to be very careful about removing the light blue, because these stitches were loose and a bit more vulnerable to damage than the opposing side.
Once both sides were free of the fused yarn, I began laying down a ground row of basketweave stitch into the dark blue side.
After one row of basketweave was complete, I took a very, very, very long piece of yarn and began weaving the two sides together with a tapestry needle. I went through one grey basketweave stitch, then through the vulnerable aqua of the corresponding side's stitch. I'm fairly certain the official name is whipstitch, BUT I'm probably wrong! Anyway, it worked well.
Slowly, PAINFULLY slowly, the blanket came together. No one would ever know there was a line put into the blanket that didn't originally belong, unless they crocheted as well. Once finished stitching, I tied off the grey, weaved in any loose ends, and mended the grey border around the blanket in a similar fashion, although shockingly less intense as this process.

So, when all was said and done, I felt accomplished at having completed something entirely out of my league and skill level. What were some of your most difficult projects? Did you finish them?

Labels: baby, blanket, crochet, personal

When I noticed a strip of yarn in my son's handmade blanket had gone awry after washing a few times, I thought I could fix it. I thought it would be a simple task burdening me of barely 1 hour. It'll be easy, I said. I'll have fun with it, I said. Can you guess I was a smidge wrong?
I began by cutting the strip of yarn out of the blanket itself, taking care not to snip any stitches from the other colors in the blanket. Unfortunately, the yarns I chose only corresponded to one another in color family, which consequently earned me one rogue yarn that was meant for handwashing alone. As you can probably tell (if you're familiar with crochet), none of the stitches are visible in this strip anymore.
Then, I took my small scissors and carefully pushed them into the chain holes above the dark blue stitches and cut. It's important to note, I used the basketweave stitch in this blanket (1 SC, ch 1, 1 SC, ch 1 repeat), which left a convenient chain (CH) hole for cutting. Even though the yarn was fused together, it was pretty easy to get them apart. Should you follow my example, please be careful when cutting!! You'll see my bandaged finger in upcoming pictures from overzealous and reckless cutting.
Once the stitches are cut, I began snipping apart the individual stitches to remove the light blue yarn....
...which I put into a bowl for crafting later on with my son.
This is where things got tricky. I repeated the snipping the chain process for the opposite side, however, I had to be very careful about removing the light blue, because these stitches were loose and a bit more vulnerable to damage than the opposing side.
Once both sides were free of the fused yarn, I began laying down a ground row of basketweave stitch into the dark blue side.
After one row of basketweave was complete, I took a very, very, very long piece of yarn and began weaving the two sides together with a tapestry needle. I went through one grey basketweave stitch, then through the vulnerable aqua of the corresponding side's stitch. I'm fairly certain the official name is whipstitch, BUT I'm probably wrong! Anyway, it worked well.
Slowly, PAINFULLY slowly, the blanket came together. No one would ever know there was a line put into the blanket that didn't originally belong, unless they crocheted as well. Once finished stitching, I tied off the grey, weaved in any loose ends, and mended the grey border around the blanket in a similar fashion, although shockingly less intense as this process.

So, when all was said and done, I felt accomplished at having completed something entirely out of my league and skill level. What were some of your most difficult projects? Did you finish them?

Labels: baby, blanket, crochet, personal

Amanda is a seasoned musician of 15+ years, focusing primarily on vocal performance and opera. In her spare time, she crochets hats for children and scrapbooks. Writing has always been a secret passion, as well as vocabulary. She is currently in the process of writing three novels and pursuing an English degree.

As a first time Mother, Amanda is also learning the ropes of peaceful parenting and organic cooking. She is a cloth diapering enthusiast (addict) and a firm activist for Greenpeace and feminism.

Movies and literature have remained a passion for Amanda since childhood. Her favorite book to date is "Self Reliance and Other Essays" by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Her favorite movie, on the other hand, is impossible to name. She loves far too many movies to make a choice.


1. What does MTC stand for?
A lot of things! MTC can be whatever you like it to be, but I happened upon it in a very personal way. For that reason, I won't be sharing the exact meaning, but I will secretly delight in throwing my own enigma variation in your lap. The cheesy musician has finally stepped up to the plate; pause for crickets and stunned silence. Seriously though, make it into whatever you'd like. Make The Cake, Music Theory Champ, Master The Coffee, Moving Tomorrow Colin, ... Be creative.

2. What do you do for a living?
I am a seasoned writer and aspiring novelist. Which basically means I collect an income of oppression and angst. Hey, oppression and angst are pretty tasty - you should try them on for size sometime. I am also a stay-at-home Mother of one and resident Beethoven (testy temperament with a large heart).

3. What's your Son's name? Can we see him?
I will not be sharing his name. I'm sorry! I definitely want to post pictures of him, but in moderation. As a protective new Mother, I want to keep my baby from internet trolls for as long as humanly possible. One day he'll stumble onto the otherworldly internet, but that day will hopefully be many years from this point. I will refer to him as Mr. Moo, so keep your eyes abreast for future references!

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