BRIGHT pink shawl

About a year ago or so, I was given this BRIGHT pink yarn to make scarves with.  But it was so BRIGHT that I had a hard time getting motivated.  Besides, I had plenty of yarn in my stash already so I kept putting it off.  Finally, in light of the challenge to use up some yarn that had been languishing in some deep dark recess somewhere, I decided to buck up and do something worthwhile.

If it had only been a single skein, a scarf would've been the easy answer and I would've been done already.  But 3 skeins just seem to need a bigger project.  After some rooting around on Pinterest, I stumbled into a blog called "Laughing Purple Goldfish" which had a "Simple Triangle Shawl" pattern for free.  Seemed like the ideal project, and I could send it to the rehab center with Mom's quilts and the other shawl I've already finished.

Here is the finished product:

One-skein wonders

These two scarves are my response to a challenge from Linda at Linda's Crafty Corner.  Since I joined the stash-busting challenge for the year 2014, I'm determined to drastically reduce the excess here.
The challenge was to take that yarn that you regularly pass over in favor of something else and put it to use.  Since I have several that qualify, but none of them really work well together, I figured it was time to divide and conquer!  The blue one is done in my version of a grit stitch, and the brown one is from a free pattern I picked up at Michael's awhile back.  Both were simple enough, but the brown one used up the yarn faster.   Both are one skein of yarn.

First Shawl, ever

In early February my 91 year-old mother fell and pulled some abdominal muscles.  She spent 10 days in a rehab facility which was not the most pleasant of experiences, but she did it with grace.  While there, she noticed several residents who complained of being cold all the time, especially around their necks and shoulders.  She promised to bring a pile of homemade quilts (lap-sized) back once she was able.
I thought about it for a while and then decided that I could crochet a few shawls to go along with her quilts.  Shawls, in my mind, are better than a quilt because they target the shoulder/neck area, and aren't quite as heavy.  A scarf might do the trick, but it would have to be fairly wide to cover both neck and shoulders, so I decided to meld the two.  This is the result:

The pink and blue variegated yarn I've had for over a year and couldn't find anything in my stash to go with it, so it sat.  Then Mom gave me the dark pink when I was over the last time and it fit.  Good thing too because I'm not all that fond of the dark pink on its own.
Need to weigh it so I know how much stash I burned and then it can go to Portland with us when we go over for spring break.  YES!

Two stitches learned

The purple hat is my first attempt at crocheting a hat AND reading a pattern.  The mint green scarf is my first scarf done by pattern.  It was fun, but takes much more time than the freestyle I'm used to.

And so it begins.....

Like many things in life, its hard to know where to begin.  Hey - I got the page up and running, that should count for something, right?  Perhaps I should start with an explanation of the title.  Yes, that would be good.

"Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle", a poem from junior high that brings rememberances of happy summer days and continues to roll around my in my brain almost 40 years later.  Not that I've ever tried watermelon pickle, mind you.  I'll stick to Hermiston watermelons picked up at the fruit stand as we pass through Hermiston itself, thanks.  I'll just borrow a portion of the title because it seems so fitting.

Each day that I live is full of gifts - some created for me, some created by me, some meant to share and others to hold close to my heart alone.   This space is set aside to celebrate these gifts.  What shape it takes on remains to be seen.  For now, I'll close with this thought:

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."  
                                                                  Ephesians 2:10 NASB