Crochet Challenge Weeks 9 & 10

I am going to combine blogging about this weeks challenge with last weeks challenge.  Last week we were supposed to organize or patterns, or start to organize or patterns, or THINK about organizing our patterns.  The patterns I have on my computer are pretty well organized by craft and then by type of project (bags, scarves, doll clothes, etc.); however, I do have a few printed patterns, magazines, patterns saved on All Free Crochet (it is so easy to click Save Pattern) and oh yes....my backup drive which has the things I had stored on my old work computers. 

This is not a small job.  My current computer, as I said, is in pretty good shape.  The rest is not.  I have not touched any magazines, I might think about getting rid of them and we can't have that.  I did work on my back up drive and reorganized some patterns I had stored there.  I also went down a rabbit hole and started deleting things I did not need (like training notes from 2004) so while I got a lot done it was not all crocheted related.  I do have to thank Julie for organizing this challenge, otherwise I may not have found those old files at all.  I am still working on finishing more works in progress.  We are going to go to California and I have to have some projects to show my friend Robin so she does not think I was just laying around all winter while she was studying and writing term papers.

My first project is lost in the shadowy memories of childhood.  I think it was a really, really loooong chain.  The first project I remember designing was an afghan I made in the 70's.  We had little (read no) money and I needed a Christmas gift for my in-laws. Someone had given me a stash of acrylic yarn in a variety of colors with a lot of grey skeins.  So I made an afghan of flower patterns in all of the colors and linked them together with the grey.  I don't have a picture of this but it did turn out pretty well, there were a lot of shades of pink as I recall and it went well with the grey.  What I remember most was my mother-in-law, Franny's, comments.  She kept saying that she had never seen anything like it anywhere.  Now Franny was a really good knitter but she did follow the patterns, I had to explain that I "made it up" and did not have a pattern.  I think she liked it, I am pretty sure that "I have never seen anything like it" was not code for "oh my goodness how ugly is this", Franny just could not comprehend making something up and not following a pattern.  Well things have not changed all that much.  I have not met a pattern that I did not think about altering (sometimes just to change the yarn) somehow.  The only difference is that NOW I say "I designed this with you in mind" instead of "I made it up" - much better don't you think?