A Someday Blanket: Crochet Finish

Howdy y'all! Back again with the last finish from the end of 2017 *finally*. Long before I became Little Black Cat Quilting, I was just Jennifer. And I loooooved to crochet. I learned when I was pretty young, but I feel like I hit my stride in late high school and college. During college, I had a group of friends I would often crochet with and I loved making fiddly little toys and such, even making some patterns of my own!

This project was started with the most hopeful of intentions. I was engaged and had big dreams for the future - happily married, kids, white picket fence - the whole nine yards. I picked up this yarn on the clearance rack when I worked at Hobby Lobby one summer (I miss that employee discount still! LOL) and started crocheting this lovely curved chevron. It was slow going with the baby weight yarn and tiny hook, but I loved going through a few rows when I had the chance. I didn't mind slow growth because there was no rush.

At a point in my marriage when things were going south, this project was hidden away, stuffed in a bag and buried. I was terrified of having children with my then-husband. The very thought gave me the shakes and nearly made me sick. Children are a gift from God, but I prayed to not bring a child into the situation I was in. Thankfully, that prayer was answered. :)

Digging through my craft supplies after moving back home, I unearthed this unfinished baby afghan. The sight of it left a sour taste in my mouth. Standing in the garage, my bare feet aching on the cold concrete floor, this afghan reminded me of how alone I felt. There was no sweet baby girl waiting to be wrapped up. There was no pregnant belly stretching my shirt in expectation of this project. Instead, I was single and living at home. I was as far from my dream when I bought this yarn as I had ever been.

And yet...I brought it inside and placed it beside my usual spot on the couch. I started chipping away at it in the evenings, row after row. Sometimes working on it made me sad, tugging at my gut in the cruelest way. But I reminded myself it was a Someday Blanket. Someday it would have a home. Someday it would wrap up a daughter or niece. Or, when I'm ready to let go, it will wrap up a baby in need of yarny snuggles. Regardless, reminding myself that this little afghan is a Someday project instead of a Right Now project helped ease those last stitches into place. And I'm proud to say I even smiled when the last yarn end was weaved in.

Can One Person Make a Difference?

Happy Monday y'all! I worked the weekend, so today is technically the beginning of my weekend which is why I'm so peppy! My goal was to not get too wordy on this blog, but this post required a little story time for me to get to my point, so please bear with me.

Back in February when my neck of the woods was being pummeled by snow, I was snuggled up in bed in our spare bedroom. I was nice and toasty, most likely with a full belly, watching the snow fall. I remember being so glad that I wasn't outside again; I had stayed outside after getting off work one night to shovel our cars out of the snow drifts. And then I got thinking about the people who didn't have a warm bed to snuggle into like I did. Or a roof over their head to protect them from the below-zero temperatures and blizzards. I felt enormously thankful, but also, kind of sad. And then I wondered if I could do anything to change that?

Little Black Cat was in a photobombing mood today, so all of the pictures have him in it. :)

Since graduating from college, I've been plagued by the thought of I'm just one person, what can I do to change anything? I laid there a little bit, rolling all this around in my head. I couldn't shake the nagging feeling in my mind or my heart that I couldn't just let the issue drop. And that's when it hit me. Maybe I could make a little difference? And so I jumped out of bed and scrambled for the computer, researching (aka Pinterest-surfing) and came to my answer. I could craft a difference!

Just a few of the scarves I have ready to donate.

So I started that night. I made baby hats for the NICU and started a scarf that would hopefully keep somebody less fortunate warm in the blistering cold. I made a goal to make things all year long to go towards different charitable causes because, let's be honest, my yarn stash is *deep breath* too big. I try to make at least 1 baby hat a week, but if I'm settled in for the evening, I can crank out a few depending on what size I make! I've been using this free pattern. After I make quite a few, I'm planning to give them to one of the hospitals in my area if they will accept them. If not, there are organizations I can mail them to. So no matter what, I can do some sort of good and make a small difference hopefully. :)


What about y'all? Do you craft for charities? If so, what do craft and for who? I would love to hear about it!

-Jennifer