O Christmas tree

I put up our Christmas tree!  It's pretty small this year.  And flat. 

December was approaching, and people were ramping up the same "Your baby will pull a tree down on herself and get hurt and ruin Christmas" speech they've been giving since I was pregnant last Christmas, and I was just not feeling like finding a place for our tree this year.

Cody and I talked about putting a little 4 ft. tree on our table, but then we wouldn't have a table to use.  I thought about putting our tree on top of the coffee table, but then Evelyn started pulling up and I realized she'd be able to reach the branches.....and then pull the tree down on herself and get hurt and ruin Christmas and maybe even--gasp!--mess up some of my ornaments.

Neither idea seemed appealing and I didn't want to spend a month pulling my nine-month-old away from something so pretty when she didn't understand why she couldn't eat it.  But I didn't want to skip having a Christmas tree altogether, even though a small part of me is still burnt out from when I had a tree up for the entirety of 2010 just because I felt like it.

(Looking back, that was a bit much.  I'm not sure why I did that. I don't think I'll do it again.)

So last week, I was nursing Evelyn and thinking, because I have a lot of time to think while I do that.  I was considering some cute papercraft version of a tree on the wall when I realized that I have a lot of granny squares.

As in, two decades' worth.

Any time I have spare yarn, I usually make a few granny squares just to stockpile them.  And then there were the squares I made for Evelyn's afghan before I changed my mind and did something different.  And then there was my stash of green yarn and.....well, you can see where it took me.

Evelyn fell asleep, and I pulled out my existing granny squares and started making designs in the floor.  I realized pretty quickly that rows of 1 square, 3 squares, 5 squares and so on would make the tree pretty big and I wanted to keep things small and simple and relatively free of fuss.  So I picked my spot on the wall and took some measurements, and set to work on crocheting a few more green granny squares for rows that increased by one.

I finished up at work the next day and laid out my design:

Then I sewed the squares together with the weave stitch, and sewed the rows together.  I even added a little brown square at the bottom for the trunk because I think I'm so clever.

On Saturday, I pinned the tree to the wall with push pins in each outside corner of the tree because we're totally not getting that security deposit back after everything else we've pinned to the walls.

I realized (too late) that the wall would have the outline of a weird triangle after I took down our tree (because I said I wouldn't leave a tree up year-round ever again, remember?), and I started to feel like this was silly.  

Then I took pictures of the tree anyway:

Then I pulled out our ornaments and decided which ones would actually make it to the wall.

I thought I'd feel some regret at keeping some things put away.  Then I remembered that Cody is one of the least-sentimental people I know, I'm tired of these ornaments from last year, and Evelyn is a baby.

Then I felt fine.

Evelyn, meanwhile, played with a Christmas bracelet made of bells.  It was festive.  Then she ate dry cereal.

Then Cody came home and we chatted for a little while before he glanced over, smiled, and asked "Is that our tree?"  Yup, dear.  That's our tree.

Crochet scarf post (or an attempt thereof)

A disclaimer: I know how to crochet.  I promise!  But I was taught when I was around 8 or 9.  When you're 8 or 9, your grandmas can just sit you in their laps and say "You do this [shows you] and then you do like this [shows you the next step] and there you are!"  And, indeed, there you are!  You can crochet!  And then you spend the next 20 years not bothering to look up the terms for what you're doing and when you attempt to write a simple post about a simple scarf pattern, you must frantically refer to the page on learning to crochet from the Lion Brand website in order to make sure you're calling the stitches by the correct terms.

A second disclaimer: I am tired and a little distracted, so you may need to should absolutely check out the learning to crochet page in order to make sure that I haven't fed you a whole mess of misinformation.

Without further excuses, here are the instructions to make this scarf:

Crochet a chain stitch for 16 stitches.  Hold and crochet 3 more loops (like you would when starting a half-shell in a granny square) and crochet a double stitch in a stitch, and repeat.  Crochet one more double crochet stitch and skip over one stitch.  Crochet double 3 double stitches and repeat until the end of the row.  Then crochet 4 stitches to make a loop, connecting the chain to the end of the row. 

See what I mean?  That's how you make the start of the scarf.

Turn your work and make a single stitch along the loop for 3 stitches. 

That's how you get the edges of the scarf.  (Circled badly.)

Chain stitch 3 stitches and begin crocheting half-shells to the end of the row.  Do this a million times, or until the scarf is long enough for your tastes.

 This is a pattern that measures around 4 inches wide.  I used medium weight yarn and a medium-sized needle--either a size I or J. 

 I've also used chunky yarn and a fat needle to get a fat and chunky scarf that I've inexplicably never photographed.

I've also used this pattern with sock yarn and a tiny needle (I think it was a C) as well.  You should have to have a longer chain when you start.  I like this scarf because it's lightweight. 

And that!, as promised, is my scarf post.

And there you are.