In Shades of Purple

Whew, we’re finally thawing out a little here!  The temperature outside is no longer in the negatives (it’s a balmy 9 degrees right now), and by this weekend when it’s supposed to hit the 40s, everyone will be in the park wearing shorts and t-shirts.  (I’m not joking!)

In the meantime, though, I got some work started on an afghan that I’ve had in mind for a while.  Last month, while I was selecting colors for this year’s Block-a-Month Crochet Along, I had a difficult time trying to decide which color scheme to use.  There were two color combinations that were just perfect, but I knew that if I held myself to doing two of the same squares but in different colors, that I’d lose interest fast.  So I let one go.  Or so I thought.

Because after I completed this month’s squares (more on that coming tomorrow!), I thought to myself that I didn’t have to use the squares in the group, but could just randomly make my own squares just browsing through different patterns.  And that’s what I ultimately decided to do.

You see, while my BAMCAL afghan this year is going to be a Christmas gift for my sister next year, I also wanted to make a Christmas afghan for my mother.  Now my mother has an unhealthy obsession with the color purple (I say that only somewhat jokingly!).  The Caron Simply Soft line has quite a few shades of purple, and every time I see one of them I always think to myself how much my mom would love those colors.  So I picked some up and am starting a second sampler afghan that I will aim to have done by the end of the year as well.  I must say, it’s a little more daunting selecting the patterns myself, but my first two were successes, and I have high hopes for the rest!

The first square, called Oh Starry Night.  It was part of a mystery square back in December, and although I didn’t join in for that crochet-along, it still turned out quite nicely done afterward.  It’s a free Ravelry download, and my project page is here.

The second square, called Firenze, is another free Ravelry download, and you can find my project page for this one here.

The only other thing that is striking about these purple squares is the difficulty involved in photographing the purple and getting the colors to come out correctly!  With all the grey skies we’ve had around here, the purples don’t come out at all.  So I’ve been waiting for brief glimpses of sunlight, and when they come, I am scrambling around, trying to get everything in place for a photo in direct light.  It’s rather humorous.  Someday I will master my camera!  Maybe I’ll add that to my list of New Year’s resolutions!

Stay warm another day, friends~ Mellie ★!