Long ago, in the summer of my first year in Sweden, my then-new-and-shortly-thereafter-lifelong friend, Leslie, taught me how to crochet. I’d been able since I was a child to crochet a chain, but the ability to do anything more complicated had always eluded me. Somehow, though, Leslie was able to explain things in just the right way to make me understand, and in the months following the two of us spent countless hours crocheting and sharing secrets and cementing that lifelong friendship.

Since those days I’ve nearly always had a project in progress, even if it sometimes takes me months, or even years, to see them through to a finished product. My current “big” project is an afghan for Yrsa. I had meant to make one for each of the kids when they were babies, but I think Tage’s is the only one I completed according to that timetable. I would feel quilty about Yrsa’s getting to be four without her afghan completed, but I started it only in November, after I finally finished Brynja’s, when she was nearly seven.

Alongside the afghan project, I’ve been working on a number of little projects, hats and scarves and whatnot. Lately I’ve turned to making small stuffed owls (pattern here). Initially I planned just to make one or two for myself, but it didn’t take long before the kids started putting in requests. So far I’ve yet to finish one for myself–I have a couple that are nearly done–but I have completed Yrsa’s, Tage’s and Brynja’s. Petra’s is up next, of course, as soon as she’s decided on colors.

These pictures aren’t the greatest, I know, but you get the idea. There’s more than one reason I’m not a craft blogger.