Necromancy

Persevering on my Pine Street Inn squares, by early afternoon today I had produced quite a nice little pile of them.


I'd varied the colors and patterns, using whatever random balls of yarn I had lying around and taking care that all of the patterns were reversible. I'd even invented a reversible baby cable on the spot for one square. So I was, on the whole, quite pleased with myself, or would have been had I not known full well that my number was up.

The number ten, to be exact. I had ten squares, and I had promised 20 for the Knit-a-thon, and even I was not such an optimist as to think I could bang out ten more squares in approximately 36 hours, factoring in the need for occasional sleep and frivolous activities such as eating and basic hygiene. Even if I confined myself to bulky wool and sternly repressed any inclinations to creativity with stitch patterns, it wasn't gonna happen.

There was only one thing to do: invoke the Dark Arts.


Yes, crochet. I know a nice, easy textured stitch that has the added benefit of being diagonal, so that you can simply work a triangle until two sides are the right length, then decrease until you have a square. There is no question that crochet is faster than knitting: I can whip up one of these puppies in about half an hour. Such is my renewed confidence that you may have noted that after two crocheted squares I began another knitted one, but I fear I will have to revert to crochet for the rest.

One interesting fact has come out of this endeavor: you know how some anti-crochet knitters maintain that crochet is not only cheating but wasteful because it uses three times as much yarn as knitting? Observe the two beige squares, made from two balls of the same yarn. One is crochet, one knit, and each used essentially the same amount. So there.