I cannot think of a subject today.

I have been so busy in the last month that my head is starting to spin round backwards. I do have photos. I just have no time to edit and post them. And that's been getting in the way of my posting anything, but I'm starting to forget things about my crafty projects, so I need to get them down despite the lack of photos.

First, I finished the afghan I was making for the afghan for Afghans Mother's Day drive. It's packed up with a baby sweater I made for my daughter when she was a baby and she never wore and I think 7 hats for adults and babies and will go out in today's mail if I can make it to the PO in time.

Second, I'm taking part in a crap yarn swap over at swap-bot.com. It's a two part swap. You send some crap yarn from your stash--not necessarily crap but something that has been in your stash for ages and you can't figure out how to use--to your swap partner. Your swap partner then uses that yarn to make something for their swap partner. My shipment of yarn arrived on Saturday from my swap partner and a) she sent me a ton of stuff and b) it was, for the most part, fairly awesome stuff. There were a couple of hanks of novelty yarn (ok, I will classify that as the crap. ;) ), but in addition to that, there were 2 different balls of mercerized DK weight cotton, and a hank of ANGORA/WOOL blend! Hi! Angora!!

So, I looked at it all and there were some yarns that clearly would work with some and some that would work with others, but nothing was coming to me idea-wise as a way that I could use everything. I went to my downstream partner's info page and tried to get some inspiration there and was coming up empty.

And then it hit me. I had a couple of hanks of crap yarn in my own stash that I'd been struggling to find a use for. (It didn't go to my swap partner in the first phase, because if I had sent her all the yarn from my stash that I didn't know how to use, she would have gotten a very, very large box.) So, I went and got those two balls, which, incidentally were black, mercerized cotton, and double stranding it with the hank of black Bernat Soft Boucle that came in my package, I started knitting a stockinette rectangle. And, immediately, I was really, really happy with what I saw. The mercerized cotton toned down the boucle-ness of the boucle and makes it look much more sophisticated. I don't want to say what the rectangle will eventually become, because there aren't many people in the swap and it wouldn't be all that hard for my downstream partner to find my blog. So stay tuned on that.

It occured to me, also, that 2 of the other yarns that were sent to me could be used to create a motif of something that my downstream partner says she's very into. So I found a free pattern to make said motif in thread and I'm going to upsize it to work with the yarn I have to put on the project when it's done. I think this is going to turn into a project I'm sad to see go. I'm so glad I signed up for this swap, because I would never, never, never have bought two of the three yarns I'm using in this project, but the premise of the swap made me work with what I got and I think it's going to be something really great. While I was digging around to get the yarn out of my own stash, I was already looking at what I had with more appreciation.

And finally, my Dad is arriving for a visit on Saturday. The Tile Guy messed up the tile in my shower stall right before he left town and so we had to rip it all up and my husband will be redoing it after work throughout the week. And, Wednesday we start framing in the play room to turn it into a bedroom and the carport to turn it into a dining/homeschool room. I need to purge the playroom and figure out how to arrange furniture so that it's out of the way, but our house is livable. While all this is going on, the deadline for the swatches for the book projects are fast approaching. I'm hoping to have all the swatches for one of the projects done by tonight, another project done by tomorrow providing the yarn arrives, and then spend two days each on the swatches for the last two things. My life can be very boring and mellow for months on end and then WHAMO everything will hit at once like this. So, bear with me, but I know right now that I will be MIA for the next few weeks.