Sew I See!

Ever since my last blog entry, I've been working on strips of motifs for the Ogee afghan .  I'm not cranking them out at top speed, but slowly the jumble of ogee strips is growing taller.  Part of what slows down the progress is stopping to weave in all the ends, every few motifs, but I've learned through hard experience that it's better this way.  I'll thank myself later.  ;o) The individual strips aren't stunningly beautiful, unfortunately.  They have a tendency to curl up and generally look a mess.  I'm also second-guessing myself on the colors-- but I have faith it'll all work out in the end.  It usually does.  Once joined, the strips will look much nicer (and flatter), and the color scheme will be warm and slightly exotic. Looking at other people's ogee-motif afghans, I noticed that some of them had joined them on the diagonal, instead of having the longer dimensions of the ogees running the length or width of the blanket.  I like

I have no further progress to report on any afghan project, because all crochet-time lately has been devoted to doilies.  Thread crochet is ideal for hot, summertime weather, so when the doily bug bit, I didn't resist. Unfortunately both these latest doilies are unidentified charted patterns I found online, so I can't provide pattern information.  Sorry about that! I'm calling the first doily  "Rosy-Fingered Dawn" in honor of the thread color.  (I'm not particularly great or clever at naming things...)  The thread is more from my "going-out-of-business" clearance-priced stash of America's Best Country Cotton Crochet Thread (size 10), and the color is "Rose Pink". I used a smaller hook size than I typically use for size 10 thread, just to see if my results might be nicer or "tidier" in some way.  Instead of my usual size 1.75mm or 1.65mm, I used a 1.5mm hook.  You wouldn't think such a small variation in si