Thursday, February 11, 2016

Be Electrific Day and Afghan CAL Progress

Be Electrific Day

Thank you, Thomas Edison, for being an inventor and dreamer.  Can you imagine a world without electricity?  

This fall, a severe thunderstorm knocked out power in parts of Rogers Park for about 12 hours.  It started in the afternoon, so I wasn't too concerned because power outages are rare and not too long in the city.  When it was time for Archie's evening walk, the power was still out in my block, but some of the nearby blocks had power, so I still held out hope that there would be power before dark.

I realized that I was horribly unprepared for a power outage.  For some reason, I thought that the burners on my gas stove would still light without electricity so I could light candles with the burners.  That is not true.  I didn't have any matches.

An hour later, I decided that I'd have to venture out to gather some basic supplies for the night.  At Walgreens, there were having a buy one get one free sale on industrial flashlights, so I napped the final two.  I bought a Diet Coke as a treat.  The checkout line was long and it looked like people were stocking up for a long power outage, which didn't make sense to me because we were at a Walgreens that had full power and it was only a couple blocks away from my place.

I overheard several people ask the clerk when power would be restored.  He had to repeatedly state that he didn't have that answer to that question.

After stopping by a local Mexican restaurant for steak tacos and to figure out the flashlight batteries while waiting, I went back home to eat by flashlight and read a book (not on my Kindle, which was not sufficiently charged).  It is so quiet when there's no power!  

The electricity came back on around 3 AM and all was back to normal.  One of the first things I did was plug my phone and Kindle in to recharge.  

Be Electrific

Back to the day . . . what does it mean to be electrific?  It's a pretty great word that should be used more  in motivational circles. I take it to mean be exciting, look to make changes, don't be afraid to stand out and take a chance, spark new ideas, inspire yourself and others through your actions.  

Afghan CAL Progress



It's week five for the Crochet with Me CAL from Beatrice Ryan.  Week one was gathering materials, so the number is a bit misleading.  So far, I'm liking the stitches and my color selection of white, red and black.  This week, most of the crocheting was a repeat of a prior week and I assume that will happen in upcoming weeks too in order to create a good design.  This CAL is designed by one designer, so the end result should be a nicely flowing afghan.

The one issue with some of the stitches is that they need to be pushed to the right side so the faux bobbles show up.  That's kind of annoying, but I don't know how to fix it . . . and it even says in the instructions that the faux bobbles need to be pushed forward.  


This As-We-Go Stripey Blanket was a CAL in 2013.  I had not intended to start this project, but I saw someone else's completed blanket and loved it, so here I am!  This is the first quarter of the blanket.  Colors change about every row and there are a number of special stitches to add interest and texture to the blanket.  Since I was starting this with the complete pattern revealed and I don't have a lot of large quantities of "stash yarn" (hooray!!), I purchased all the yarn up front.  


Finally, the third installment of the Wonder Crochet Blanket CAL was revealed last week.  Every two weeks, six new rows are designed by a different designer.  I'm alternating between blue and orange so that the different designer's sections are highlighted.   The CAL seems to be giving fellow crocheters the most difficulties because of the frequent usage of uncommon stitches.  I'm enjoying the process of trying out new techniques.  

Confession:  I think I'm going to jump onto one final CAL that started in January and runs through September.  It's one hosted by a blog in the UK called the Everything is Cool and Groovyghan.  It's another mystery reveal-as-we-crochet afghan, but will be different because it uses a variety of different sized pieces to assemble the afghan.  I haven't bought the yarn yet . .. . still contemplating . . . stay tuned.  

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