January Mid-Month Check-in

 Welcome to the second half of January!  How are your resolutions for 2023 holding up?  I'm relatively happy with how the year is progressing, although I could be doing better.  But one of my goals is to give myself grace so that I don't give up in favor of perfection.  

• Personal:  Take time daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly to focus on goals and progress.  Take time to do hobbies that interest me. Give myself grace for my limitations. I haven't been doing as much with my hobbies in the past week because I've been too fidgety. I did wash and set my first bobbins of Fairy Tale yarn, which I think I will knit into a beanie.  I got back to spinning on my EEW Nano last night and I forgot how soothing working with fiber and my hands is.  My 2 pairs of socks have been languishing.
• Fun & Recreation: Make an effort to meet new people and spend time outside my home.  Find more ways to have fun that don't involve shopping.  Haven't worked on this yet. 
• Work & Learning:  Get to Senior Tech at work by the midpoint of the year.  Learn how to make videos for TikTok and YouTube. I learned how to post to TikTok after some research.  Still need to review with my boss how I get the promotion. 
• Family & Relationships:  Spend more time with my family... really Connect not just being in the same space at the same time.  Try to find a sense of Community in my local area.  Really haven't worked on this yet.  Still in the same space & time phase.  We did have a game night last week which was fun.
• Health & Wellness:  Follow up with doctors to get my health back on track.  Drink more water or sugar free tea.  Eat healthier.  Exercise 1-2 times a week. Went to the doctor last week and went for my bloodwork this weekend to confirm my levels are good still.  I have to schedule 2 more appointments for a mammogram and sleep study.  Been bringing lunch or coming home and eating leftovers instead of eating out every day.
• Spiritual & Personal Growth:  Spend time each day on Gratitude.  Find some spiritual practice that I can devote time to regularly.  I've been logging my gratitude every day, but haven't looked into anything spiritual yet.
• Financial:  Set up a budget.  Start saving $25 per paycheck.  Do a No-buy/low buy year. Set up an auto transfer to my savings account.  No-Buy on craft supplies is holding up but I did have a slip up one day where I spent a little more than I should at the Dollar Tree buying bins to organize papers.  
• Physical Environment: Clean up the living areas so we can have company.  Spend time outside the bedroom to recharge.   Cleared off 75% of the dining room table to play a game and took down the Christmas tree, but other than that I haven't really worked on cleaning the living areas.  I did bag up and hang all my fine & superfine yarns on the wall in my office/craft room.  

I think the goals for the next 2 weeks will be to work on the office/craft room and get my craft supplies out of the dining room, make those phone calls to schedule those doctor appointments, work on my Craft Yarn Council Instructor Certification Program samples, and spin the rest of my Persian Pink batt on my Nano.  And of course continue my gratitude logging and no-buy.  

How are you doing so far?  What short or long term goals are you working on? Do you ever feel like you have to push yourself to work on crafting, or do you always work on it willingly?  Leave me a comment!  I love reading them!

Project: Declutter Update

 I've decided to hang all the yarn bags on Command adhesive hooks on the wall behind the door in the office.  It didn't come together the way I imagined it would, however.  I think the bags I purchased are just too big.  I am tempted to buy smaller ones, but the no-buy guilt kicked in before I checked out my Amazon cart. I got all the newer yarn that was out in the open hung, then I went searching thru the bins in the sunroom to find the rest of my fine weight yarn and got that bagged & hung as well.  I think I'm at about 90-100 skeins of sock & lace weight.  I've been kind of stalled on my sock projects for the past week with so much other stuff on my mind.  Wednesday was an errand day instead of my stay at home and relax day with the occasional appointment mid-day.  I brought my knitting with me to my mom's house but forgot to bring it with me to the mechanics shop while I waited.  I've been coming home exhausted from work and just sit and stare into space or scroll my social media accounts until I pass out.  Last night we decided to grab Chipotle and have family game night.  I cleared off 75% of the dining room table to make way for that.  My husband, daughter and I played Fire Tower for about an hour and then I spent time updating all my journals.  I decided to write to my penpals and had to dig thru the pile in my bedroom to find my postage stamp binder with address labels and stamps so I could seal them up.  I found stuff I had forgotten I owned, like an Erin Condren Habit Tracker notebook I bought a year or two ago.  I used it for less than 1 week.  I added it to the planner stack.  I listened to War and Peace for a couple hours.  Thandiwe Newton does a great job with narration, but sometimes I just zone out.  I try to catch myself and turn it off when that happens so that I actually hear the whole story.  I debated purchasing Spare by Prince Harry on Audible, but I think I'll wait until I'm done with War and Peace.  Still about 54 hours to go on that.  

Since it's Saturday, my day off (hooray!), I haven't been able to sleep (boo!).  Yesterday I accidentally took my night time pills in the morning and realized a few minutes later when I became very drowsy that I'd taken my med that helps me fall & stay asleep.  Since I took it in the morning, I didn't want to take it again at night and tried to sleep on my own.  I was up every 90 minutes or so all night.  Very frustrating.  And not good for the bags under my eyes either.  Sometime this morning I need to go to the blood lab and have some 21 tests run before my follow up appointment with the bariatric department on Tuesday afternoon.  I haven't been there since about 3 years post-op because I thought, Hey, I'm skinny, I'm a success, what do I need them for anymore?   Well, apparently eating McDonalds and little else for the past 6 years leads to malnourishment and vitamin deficiencies.  I'm hoping my iron is stable so I don't need more infusions, because those were quite expensive out of pocket.  I've been taking multivitamins and some other supplements which I hope are enough.  

After the lab, I have to stop next door to the YMCA and have Jo re-join.  Somehow her membership lapsed a year ago and we've been scanning her in and she's never been confronted that her membership wasn't valid.  For an entire year, almost every Friday evening, Dan & Jo go to the Y and scan their barcodes and they let them both in.  Finally, a more experienced employee was working the check-in, and she stopped them in December.  So I have to get that set back up so she can walk the indoor track like she prefers, of course on the opposite side of the city.  We have a local Y within 3 miles she refuses to go to. 

We will probably get lunch after that and then come home and I can get to decluttering.  I need to work on the bedroom and the office today.  And do laundry.  I have a horrible habit of doing a load of "work clothes, underwear & pjs" frequently, but leaving my non-work clothes I wear on Wednesdays and Saturdays in a pile in front of my closet.  I'm sick of walking around it.  I hate doing laundry because I don't like going in my basement, so I usually get Dan or Jo to run it for me.  Yes, I am spoiled that way.  

Tomorrow I work early (8-4:30pm) with some of my favorite co-workers, then I don't have to be back to work until 2pm on Monday afternoon and even later (4pm) on Tuesday afternoon.  So I need to sit down and schedule myself time to get some tasks done instead of sitting in bed, scrolling TikTok, watching Youtube, and window-shopping Amazon for 8 hours.  Lol.  There was a time that I slept right up until I had to get in the shower and leave for work.  Now that I have the right medication to help me sleep and keep me focused, I feel like I can actually accomplish things with my days.  Cleaning still doesn't happen automatically, but if I make myself a list I usually accomplish quite a bit. 

How about you?  Do you have issues keeping everything in your house orderly?  Do you listen to audio books while crafting?  I'd love to hear!  Leave me a comment!

Project: Declutter

 In keeping with my goal for this year to improve my physical environment, I put on the schedule to post about decluttering today.  When I saw this topic on my calendar, I was filled with dread.  I hate decluttering.  I am a hoarder.  I have ADHD.  My executive dysfunction is in peak display all over my home.  However, I know that I must work on it if I ever hope to have a better life.  

Why do I hate decluttering?  Because people tend to equate "declutter" with discarding.  And, I hate to throw things out.   Not trash - I'm not that kind of hoarder.  But "Stuff" is triggering.  I buy things for a reason.  I spend my hard-earned money to purchase things I like and want.  The idea of throwing them out (or donating, or selling, or recycling) freezes me where I stand.  I can't do it.  And usually there's no reason to.  But I have legitimately outgrown my office/craft room.  So it's time to get rid of some stuff.  The question is, what do I let go of?  

My current goal (according to my husband) is to clear the dining room of my Cricut, Silhouette Cameo, printer, and laminator.  I brought my cameo downstairs to make some planner stickers in November or December.  Then I bought a new printer since my "sticker printer" I bought a year ago was a piece of trash that kept disconnecting from wifi and printed poorly.  (Did I get rid of the problematic printer?  Of course not.  It's still taking up half my desk in the office.)  Then, I watched a video on how to make floating tabs for my planner and dug out my laminator from the office and brought that to the dining room as well.  I had a lot of stuff down there, so I bought another 3-tier rolling cart to keep my supplies and unused equipment on.  I was inspired by all the videos and Black Friday sales on Cricut, so I bit the bullet and bought an Explore Air 2.  So I added that to the dining room table. In order to use it, I had to move my Cameo from the table to the bench seat, of course.  Along with the Cricut, I bought more supplies which came in a sizable box.  The box went on the cart, but I honestly don't even know if the machine would fit there when not in use because I haven't tried putting it away.  I have a mountain of half used vinyl rolls from Hobby Lobby from making my mom & I different things with Iron-on in December.  Some are on the cart, some are scattered on the table.  It's a complete disaster down there.  

Why don't I just clean it up?  Because that stuff belongs in my office, which is currently overrun with bushels of miscellaneous other crap.  Most recently, I decided to bag each skein of sock yarn or skeins of lace weight for shawls into individual clear plastic drawstring project bags.  I bought 100, I've used probably 60 so far, and I'm nowhere near done with it.  I haven't figured out how to store or display them yet.  I would like to maybe hang them in my office as inspiration to finish a project so that I can choose another skein for the next pair of socks or shawl.  So they are all over the office.  I had half of them in a basket, but it was teetering on top of a pile and crashed over sometime in the past couple days.  

The closest I've gotten to decluttering in there was throwing out a few mostly-done sweaters that I had no idea of what pattern they were.  I got rid of some yarn I knew without-a-doubt I wouldn't use (Pomp-a-Doodle was such a bad idea).  I threw out a knitting loom that had pegs broken off of and that I'd already purchased a replacement for.  (The replacement is in it's box in the living room where I dropped it when I walked in from the store with it back in August or September.  I HAD to have it right away, then lost all desire to use it.) Again, trash isn't a problem - I will throw that out without issue.  Or if I know I'm not going to deal with it like those sweaters.  All that work down the drain, but I knew I wasn't going to invest the time to figure out how to finish them.  But when it comes to organizing what's left, I get overwhelmed.  I think that the right bins or boxes or jars or shelves are going to make a difference, so I decorated the room with a ton of cube shelving and closed cabinets with shelves on top.  And inside some of them there are organized bins or jars or other organizing tools that are in use.  But a majority of the cubes are empty and 2 of the cabinets I think are empty or have unnecessary stuff in them that I should probably go thru and discard.  

So this week's goal is to get to decluttering the office so that I can put together my new yoga ball chair and fit it at my desk, and empty out the cabinets so that I can make use of them to store the stuff I actually use.  The January goal is to get the dining room table cleared off and all my vinyl crafting stuff back into the office. Wish me luck! 

January WIPs

 For January 2023, I'm working on the following projects:

    WYS rainbow striped vanilla socks, cuff down, Two-at-a-time on 1 circular, Magic Loop style.  This is at the knit forever stage, so I can take it with me when we're running errands in the car on the weekend or when we go out to dinner. 

    Stroll Tweed royal blue tweed vanilla socks, cuff down, Two-at-a-time on 1 circular, Magic Loop style. I've shaped the heel and now I'm at the gusset decreases that require some concentration, so I can only work on this when I feel like paying attention. 

    Worsted Boxy by Joji Locatelli in Manos del Uruguay Rios Aquamarine.  I've just gotten thru the body to the underarm where I split the front & back and am just working the shaping for one side.  Again, it requires some concentration and I'm not really in the mood for it, so it's been languishing in my tote bag. 

    Craft Yarn Council Certified Instructors Program for Crochet.  I'm stuck on a sample of popcorn stitch that no matter how many times I try to work it out, my stitch count never seems to be right.  But I will keep working on it until I get it finished. 

I'm also making plenty of shirts and car decals on my Cricut.  I'm on chapter 20 of War and Peace.  And I have about 8 more bowl cozies to sew for 2 people who requested them.  

What are you working on this month? 

No-Buy/Low-Buy 2023

So, as I've mentioned, I'm doing a No-Buy/Low-Buy year in 2023.  Why?  Because my finances need CPR, I have too much STUFF, I've literally outgrown my craft room, and I need a reset in my life choices.  Enter No-Buy.  I first learned of this concept from a YouTuber Cinzia DuBois in her channel Lady of the Library a few years ago.  In the past I had tried things like "yarn diets" that were popular in the early 2000's in the crafting community, but Cinzia was taking this to a "whole life" level of no buying.  And this year it seemed most appropriate since I've gotten careless with my spending as of late. And again, I have so much stuff and not enough time to use it, so it seemed like a great time to give this a try.  Should be easy, right?  Famous last words, especially for a hoarder with OCD, who spends money to soothe oneself.  

The No-Buy Rules:

• No Yarn

• No Fiber

• No Fabric

• No Stationery

• No Eating Out Alone

• No Clothing (except blank shirts/pants to use Vinyl on)

• No Makeup

The Low-Buy Rules:

• I can purchase replacement items of things I have completely used up, if they are necessary.  

The Permissible List:

• Patterns for yarn/fabric I already own

• Eating Out with Friends or Family

• Medical Expenses

• Subscriptions with no physical products

• Groceries

• Manicure every 3 weeks 

• Anything I want with birthday money or gift cards I might receive.

I'm logging this in at least 2 places in my planner stack to make sure I stay accountable to the challenge thru the entire year.  In addition to following these rules, I also want to save at least $25 per pay period.  It's not much, but it's more than I have been saving, and I need to start somewhere.   

Now, even though Cinzia warned against it, I couldn't resist buying a few things in the last week of last year in preparation to go cold-turkey on the crafting purchases especially.  I definitely have more sock yarn than I will be able to knit thru in a year now.  And I stocked up on some good quality vinyl and iron-on for future Cricut/Silhouette projects. 

 Have you ever attempted to limit yourself from purchasing a specific classification of products or everything in general?  I'd love to hear your stories in the comments! 

2023 Goals and Planner Stack!

 My Word of the Year for 2023 is "Resourceful" and that's because I've decided to get my finances in order this year.  Top priority is sticking to a no-buy/low-buy year.  No buying craft or stationery products, clothes (except blanks to make t-shirts and jogging pants with iron-on vinyl), makeup, or eating out by myself.  I am allowed to buy patterns for yarn or materials I already own, maintain subscriptions for services that don't include physical products, groceries, meals out with family or friends, and my manicures (every 3 weeks).  The low-buy is mainly that I can replace things I use up once they are gone, not just because it's on sale.  I already had to stop myself from stocking up on Bath & Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel lotion today because I have a tube of body cream I haven't even opened yet.  Use it up, Wear it out, Make Do, or Do Without.  

I used the MakseLife worksheets to figure out my other goals for this year.  I strongly recommend checking out their website for the free printables if you have a planner already or can't afford the hefty price tag for one of their planners.  It breaks your life down into 8 categories and you rate where you are now and where you want to be by the end of the year.  Here are mine:

• Personal:  Take time daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly to focus on goals and progress.  Take time to do hobbies that interest me. Give myself grace for my limitations.
• Fun & Recreation: Make an effort to meet new people and spend time outside my home.  Find more ways to have fun that don't involve shopping.
• Work & Learning:  Get to Senior Tech at work by the midpoint of the year.  Learn how to make videos for TikTok and YouTube. 
• Family & Relationships:  Spend more time with my family... really Connect not just being in the same space at the same time.  Try to find a sense of Community in my local area.
• Health & Wellness:  Follow up with doctors to get my health back on track.  Drink more water or sugar free tea.  Eat healthier.  Exercise 1-2 times a week. 
• Spiritual & Personal Growth:  Spend time each day on Gratitude.  Find some spiritual practice that I can devote time to regularly. 
• Financial:  Set up a budget.  Start saving $25 per paycheck.  Do a No-buy/low buy year. 
• Physical Environment: Clean up the living areas so we can have company.  Spend time outside the bedroom to recharge.  

Some of these goals may seem easy but they are things I've been struggling with for years, so I have them written down and public so that everyone can keep me accountable.  Don't be afraid to call me out.  I need the guilt trips sometimes.  That's how I was raised in the 80's and 90's by my Italian mother.  

2023 is a New Beginning!

Welcome!  It's 2023 and I've decided to give my blog another go and social media some attention.  Towards the end of 2022 I found that I really like interacting with the social media communities surrounding crafters and people dealing with mental health issues and neurodiversity.  I started watching TikTok and found a great YouTuber with a Facebook Group that I joined and enjoy.  So that got me thinking that I used to be online and interacting with a lot of great crafters and other folks in the 90's and early 2000's, and I miss it.  So, for those of you who are new here, an introduction:

My name is Shannon and I am 45 years old (for 6 more weeks, at least), and live in Rochester, NY.   I am the mother of 2 grown daughters, Jo is 20 and Autistic and lives with me, and CJ who is 18 and lives with her father in SC and is going to college there.  I finally married my husband, Dan, in 2021 after being together 7 years.  I work full time as a Certified Pharmacy Technician, having started in January 2020, just before the Coronavirus Pandemic hit.  

In addition to suffering my entire life from depression, I also have anxiety, OCD and ADHD.  I suffer from PTSD when it comes to telephones after my 15 years working in a call center.   I am a hoarder due to my OCD.  My executive functioning is way behind.  I have auditory processing delays.  I wasn't diagnosed as having ADHD until I was 29 years old.  I discovered the term "auditory processing delay" when my Autistic daughter was diagnosed with it when I was about 28 and was so relieved to have someone finally explain why I'd always said I had a hearing problem but kept passing hearing tests.  I'm just a bag of neurodivergent traits.  In the past year I seem to have finally gotten on the right combination of medication to be happier & more content with my life.  The rest is the hard work I have to do myself, like decluttering my hoard and following thru on my projects.  That's where ya'll come in.  I need accountability partners and my audience will become critical to my progress.  

Now, you probably aren't here to read about my mental health issues, so on to the good stuff.  I am a yarn and fiber hoarder, and a hobby addict.  The biggest things I tend to buy are yarn and knit/crochet tools.  But in the past year I got back into spinning fiber into yarn.   Last November I upgraded some parts on my Babe Production Spinning Wheel (babesfibergarden.com) and splurged on a TON of fiber that I did not spin yet. Like I'm known to do, I get burned out after my exuberance wears off.  So, a huge basket with pounds and pounds of fiber has been sitting in my living room waiting to be spun for over a year now.  I got an e-spinner for Christmas this year from my husband. It's an Electric Eel Wheel Nano 2.0 from www.dreamingrobots.com.  So far I've spun up some of my merino/stellina blend that I bought last year and it's gorgeous.  This weekend I will ply it into some yarn that I have no plans for as of yet.  

Now a little background on my yarn crafts...  in 1999 I decided that I wanted to crochet and knit.  I had only ever learned how to chain with a crochet hook when I was little and my mom let me play around with a hook and some spare yarn.  She's not a crocheter... she had started blankets for me & my brother when we were little and she never finished them.  She couldn't tell me how to do any stitches.  So I got a book from a big box store and some yarn and hooks and I taught myself crochet.  But I really wanted to do the two-handed knitting thing really badly.  So, again, I bought a booklet from Walmart and some needles, sat on my bed and tried to cast on ... for HOURS!  Literally hours I spent trying to figure out how to cast on. There was no YouTube back then.  Most people didn't have digital cameras, so websites about knitting tended to be just plain text, and newsgroups were where you found your knitting community.  But eventually I figured it out.  I started knitting and had to pay such close attention to what I was doing that I realized it was helping with the massive tension headaches I was suffering from.  So I kept going.  Nevermind that my "purl" stitches were actually "knit thru the back loop" for a while, I kept trying and learning.  On my own.  In 2002, when my first daughter was born, I decided I wanted to learn to knit socks.  While I'd been pregnant for her, I began hoarding yarn... I bought an overflowing cart full of yarn to make everyone I knew a crocheted throw for Christmas.  Although I did eventually finish crocheting 8 of them, I think that left me with yarn for about 6 more in my stash.  When I got into sock knitting, I started hoarding sock yarn from Lorna's Laces.  That first pair of socks took me 9 months to knit and were really too small.  I'm not sure what happened to them.  Sassy Stripe yarn - pink and orange striped.  I also went thru several sets of size 1 Brittany wooden needles because my hands were hot & sweaty and I knit with a death grip on them, so they were all bent and flexible from the abuse after a short time.  At this time, I had a blog, a digital camera, and a good relationship with several newsgroups online.  I was knitting and sharing my progress, learning from the community and improving my skills.  Then, in 2003, my co-worker unintentionally outed me at work with my blog and my frustration with my coworkers and I lost my job over it.  I had to delete my blog.  I spiraled into a depression and was pregnant with my 2nd daughter at the time.  I knit my first attempt at 2-handed color work with a sweater pattern by Philosopher's Wool  and made sweaters with my Ultimate Sweater Machine. And of course, I kept buying yarn.  I kept starting projects but rarely finished them.  That sweater from Philosopher's Wool is still unfinished somewhere in my parents' basement.  In 2004 I got a job in a call center and had money flowing again, so more yarn.  I tried repeatedly to put myself on yarn diets, as was the rage on the blog circuits of yarn people.  I decided that I could buy books and tools but no more yarn.  So, in came the knit and crochet books.  So, yeah, I have quite a library of my own now.  A couple years later, I got divorced and the depression took over again.  From 2006-2013 I was morbidly depressed.  In October 2013, I had gastric bypass surgery.  I lost over 100 pounds in 9 months and was re-introduced to Dan, who I went to high school with, at our 19 year reunion in 2014.  On our first date, where we were meeting at a bar/restaurant for "drinks," I brought my knitting in case I actually had alcohol and needed to wait before driving home.  LOL.  Luckily, neither of us are drinkers and we spent 5 hours chatting and no alcohol was consumed.  Exactly 7 years from that first date we were married (finally).   In between, I had moved into his house and when his brother moved out, I turned his old room into a yarn room.  Not to be confused with my Happy Place room, which is where I have my desk and all my Silhouette and planner and office supplies. No, the big yarn room is where I was originally taping my podcasts.  I made a whopping 3 episodes before my older daughter moved back in with me.   Then the yarn room became Jo's room, and that's where my podcasts died.  

Anyway, here I am, knitting socks and sweaters and crocheting afghans and spinning wool. I'm in the midst of trying to become Craft Yarn Council certified as an instructor in Crochet.  Relaunching my blog and adding social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok).  Embarking on a crafting No-Buy year.  And, hopefully, making some friends along the way.  

If you found me, I would really appreciate it if you'd leave a comment with what crafts you're into and where you're from.  And please follow me on my other socials - myshannanigansdotcom on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook & Youtube and my_shannanigans on Twitter.

 

Vision Board for 2023

 Here’s a sneak peek at what I’m working on for 2023! 

Taking Stock of my Hoard

​Last night after finishing my Granny afghan I was too wired to sleep, but didn’t want to wake D or Jo, so I decided to go down to the family room and inventory the two huge totes of yarn I have in the corner!  OMG!  In case you were unaware, a characteristic of ADHD is that you lack item permanence.  Quite literally, out of sight, out of mind!  I have so many cool cakes of yarn I had forgotten all about!  Including the Caron Anniversary Cakes which are massive!  How does someone forget 1000gm cakes of yarn, let alone 5 of them?! Or superwash wool hanks in a color called Roy G Biv?! 

Of course I had this epiphany after I got a door buster ad for Joanns where I could get the Red Heart Super Saver Ombré yarn I’ve been wanting for a low price of about $6.19 a skein including tax. So of course I ordered it in a rainbow of 7 colors and in order to potentially use it for the Study of Ombré Afghan pattern I had to get 2 skeins of each.  So another 14 skeins are going to be joining the stash later today.  

I’m not sure what my next project should be.  Perhaps the Yarnspirations Farm Fresh Market Tote made from a cake of Caron Cotton Lava Cakes?  Just kidding, I’m already on row 1!

Granny Squares Galore!

​I finished my granny square afghan tonight/this morning.  It’s massive!  Like a bedspread for a king sized bed-massive!  I downsized from my original plan of making it 16x18 squares down to 14x16.  The squares were blocked to 5” square. But then I did the Join-as-you-go method of connecting them with contrasting black yarn and that added additional inches. Then I learned of the block stitch border stitch pattern and tossed a few rounds of that on after it was all stitched together. So, yeah, massive.  It weighs about 9-10 pounds according to my bathroom scale. 

All in all, I used 3 pounds of black Caron yarn for the joining and border, plus 21 colors of various brands of yarn (Red Heart, Caron, I Love This Yarn and Big Twist) to make up the squares and the color pop in the border.  I used an H 5mm hook from Hobby Lobby that I love. I started crocheting the squares on July 2nd.  I started joining them together on July 19th.  I made 16 squares of most colors, fewer with the smaller skeins and leftover yarn from the temperature blankets.  I have 70 squares leftover to use in my next scrap project.  I also generated about 2 cups of yarn tails I trimmed from all the squares I used.  I spent most of today weaving and trimming those.  Next time I think I will weave the center (starting) end before I join them, then pay attention to putting the ending tail towards the back of the work.  I don’t mind the weaving at the end of the project but it was cumbersome with such a massive project and some tails on the front and some on the back of the work.  

Now I need to take a short break to catch up on other things before I dive into my next project.