making my own cheer

Thanks for the great vacation suggestions! I've done a lot of NE travel and we are thinking of heading south a little bit...maybe Colonial Williamsburg? Any thoughts on neat places to see in PA as we drive? Please keep the ideas coming!

It's soooooooo dark right now, and cold! You can sense the seasons struggling to change, but Old Man Winter is desperate to hang on. Now we've got a rain/snow mix thing happening, though the temps are more moderate. AJ was able to play outside today, pushing wheeled toys up and down the driveway. He got a skuut-type bike for Christmas from my in-laws, which needs to be assembled, but when I looked in the box today, there are no instructions. Par for the course with my in-laws. They rip the tags off everything, never give a gift receipt, and I'm guessing they opened the box with the balance bike and somehow managed to misplace the assembly instructions. I guess Hubs and I will have to spend an evening trying to figure it out ourselves.

Anyway! As I was working on the endless laundry yesterday I noticed that a) I wash a lot of dishtowels, and b) our towels and kitchen cloths are starting to look a little...rough. This thought popped into my head: gee, wouldn't it be neat to have a dedicated drying mat next to the sink, so I don't have to keep using regular dishtowels?

And the uncontrollably impulsive side of my brain answered, ABSOLUTELY! You should make something bright and fun!

So AJ and I went to Michael's, where Sugar & Cream yarn is on sale for $1.25.

Oh my gosh, isn't that just about the happiest thing you can imagine right now? After reading all these Waldorf-y blogs over the years, the idea of making rainbow stuff has taken strong hold in my brain.

The plan is to crochet (FAST!) a drying mat for the kitchen counter, and then use the leftovers of each color to make coordinating washrags (and turn the current collection into dustrags, as they are seriously discolored, faded, and gross).

And because I veer from impulsive to overthinking, I started pondering color order:

Traditional ROYGBV?

Or something different, a little out-of-order?

OMG, seriously, do I have an off switch? 'Cause I could really use one. I annoy myself.

A traditional rainbow it is. I started this just before lunchtime, and it is 2:00 as I write this (and I have fed a toddler, taken him to the potty, and read naptime stories). So obviously it's quick. The yarn calls for a J hook, but I am using a K because I tend to crochet quite tightly and I don't want this to curl up. It's 45 chains wide, and I'm working about 3" of each color, which should give me approximately an 18" long mat.

I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I crochet. It's just so fast and uncomplicated. I really do like it and should do it more often as a break from knitting. Plus I can more easily keep and eye on (and interact with) the children when working a simple single-crochet project like this.

And the colors! Good fun on this dreary day.