Acts 20:35b

"It is more blessed to give than to receive."

This is usually one of those Christmastime verses, but it works for today too.

I crochet. I don't knit. Knitting is hard, because I drop stitches or pick up stitches and leave holes where they don't belong. But for some reason, crocheting works for me.

I've been working on an afghan for me since before my mom and I left on our trip. I brought it along and worked on it when it was cold, but summer is the time of year for leaving large quantities of yarn in the cupboard and not on your lap. So when the weather turned cold (which was until yesterday and today, when we had a Santa Ana and it got up to 90 degrees), I pulled it back out again. This is what it looks like so far (the threads on the arms of the chair are for my daughter's cross-stitch project--we're very crafty these days):


I started making it because I loved the yarn's color and softness so much. I had made several lap blankets using the same pattern for a lady at my church, who took them to nursing homes, and I wanted one for myself. This one, though, will be bigger than lap-sized. I'll keep going until I run out of yarn.

But that's not what Acts 20:35b is about. It's about the red yarn in this picture:




At the shoe store last week, some of us were talking, and it turns out that one of the girls is underage. She doesn't drive, so she has to wait for her ride, and sometimes they're unreliable. She's had to wait as long as an hour and a half in temperatures that dip down into the 40's after work. So I told her I'd make her a scarf to help keep her warm.

The fabric store was having a yarn sale, so I picked up a couple skeins of Candyapple Red, Lion Brand, Homespun yarn (see the red yarn above). I figured out how to calculate the number of starting chains to make: the number of bumps wide you want (each bump is about 2 in.) x 3 plus 4 more chains. So my 5-bump-wide scarf started with 19 chains, and I kept adding rows until it looked long enough.

One thing about working with the Homespun yarn is that it's chunky, so it doesn't make a nice fringe. So I looked through the Afghan book and found a border I could use for the ends. With the size Q crochet hook, it only took an evening to make the scarf, and it came out beautiful. My daughter's friend who lives with us was jealous, so I told her that if the girl at work didn't like the scarf, she could have it. Otherwise I'll make a skinnier scarf for her with the rest of the red yarn. (starting: 13 chains).

Tonight was the underage girl's first day back at work since I made the scarf, so I took it in. Our friend had already spilled the beans to her before I got there (too funny!).

She loved the color and how soft it is, and she doesn't want to part with it, so my daughter's friend will get another one.

And I can't believe how good it feels to make something for someone and have her love it. It really is more blessed to give...