Never-Ending Spiral Granny Square

:: more owls to come,

but i did some crochet today that i want to keep track of ::

Recently, my friend Mo and I were discussing various patterns for afghans. We both love the look of granny squares but hate the endless weaving in of ends.

I was thinking how nice it would be to make some sort of spiral, which would eliminate the constant starting and stopping of colors. Sure enough, Mo had seen such a pattern on Youtube.

Nice idea. But I didn't like the way the colors didn't all start in the very center. So tonight, I sketched out how it could work, and then tried it with some yarn scraps.

It worked! And I like it!

Then I thought surely I can't be the first. And, once again confirming the idea that there is nothing new under the sun, I found the technique by searching for "spiral granny square" instead of "neverending granny square." Here is a video, by SmoothFox, that shows how to make a spiral granny square afghan with four colors that just keep going and going and going.

Now I want to know, can it be done with eight colors? I will figure it out, but not today...

Sleepy Owl

I slept for five hours today. (Perhaps I should be going to bed hours before midnight instead of hours after.)

So it's a good day to show Sleepy Owl, who, due to her lowered eyelids, was also dubbed Exasperated Owl by one of the girls. : )

Accessory: little stuffed teddy bear, made by Sophie and me; bear is attached with hook-and-loop tape

Snowy Owl

In honor of the snow outside, and the man and three girls who didn't have to go to work or school today and played in it instead.

Accessory: blue scarf, knitted by Sophie on a 8-prong knitting nancy but going back and forth, instead of around in a never-ending circle so that we ended up with a flat strip instead of a tube.

Lovey Owl

Accessory: little felt envelope that can hold teensy love notes.

Sophie, asking about the initials on the envelop: "What's S.W.A.K.?"
Me: "Sealed With A Kiss"
S: "Oh, cool!"
Sometime I'll have to tell her about how a less romantic, more literal lover signs it:

S.W.A.L.C.A.K.W.S.

which means

Sealed With A Lick Cause A Kiss Won't Stick

(Mama, remember when you told me about that? I was probably Sophie's age.)

* * * 

P.S. Sorry if you already saw this. I managed to delete the original post when I meant to click edit! 

Overrun by Owls

Time to break the six month blog silence. And since my old way of blogging (taking lots of pictures, writing lots of words, spending lots of time) doesn't seem to be working anymore, time to try something new.
One photo--right off my phone, a few words, a few moments of my day, and done.
By this weekend, these owls will all have gone to new homes. It's been lots of fun making them with the girls, picking out fabrics, deciding on the little touches. Hmm, I think I'll introduce each one over the next 12 days...