#book blanket project

[perfectpurls]

Book Blanket Project: Light from Uncommon Stars

This year I decided to try the "crochet a blanket square for every book you read" idea. I'm only going to be creating squares from books that I give at least 3.5 stars to, so it will probably take me more than a year to create, but here's my first square of the year!

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.75

[tj-crochets]

Beetle bag! Bag of beetles!!!

This might be my favorite one yet, I love how these fabrics look together and this beetle print is just fantastic

[rabbitstitch]

My third book in my 2025 Book Blanket is Witch King by Martha Wells. The colors really feel too bright to me for the muted colors that I love in the cover, but they go well together.

My rating for Witch King by Martha Wells is ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐! I will DEVOUR any book by Martha Wells, but this one got me with the world building and the flashbacks. I cannot wait for the sequel.

[friend-crow]

Oh shit, I forgot my brother said he was sending me a book press for my birthday!

[crochetingwiththecat]

Is it possible to request your pixel art for the Odyssey cover, I'd like to do a c2c crochet blanket using it, I think... If not its okay, its your work, and it would be quite big.. and I have a habit of biting off more than I can chew with crochet projects..

The short answer to this is yes, I am happy to share the pixel art designs with anyone who wants it. My stipulation is that I really want to be able to finish the project for myself first.

So, once I've finished the book cover part, I will figure out how to make the file available for anyone who wants to give it a try too! You are also welcome to message me and I'll send the file that way once I'm all set.

Thank you for the ask!

@mydnyteraven

[jehanthepoet]

I just finished making a Pooh Bear themed baby blanket for my cousin and it was very easy but also I'm SO proud of it. It's the biggest (size wise) sewing project I've completed to date!

[gmanmedias]

random genders from my hoard: rainoxsaflonic

🌧️ 🌧️ 🌧️

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

🌧️ 🌧️ 🌧️

[typheus]

feeling so normal rn (reread a really good book)

[glacialheart]

it's nearly one am but there is no way i'm sleeping with tummy pain sakdhkajhdkj

[perfectpurls]

Book Blanket Project: A Novel Love Story

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston: ⭐⭐⭐.75

[lunar-years]

I haven't read the book but I looked up the plot and it does say the character enlists as a Nazi and in the end is 'redeemed' because both characters are 'flawed' which isn't exactly great, to put it mildly. 'Anthony Doerr found the novel's popularity unexpected because it features a sympathetic Nazi'. Asking genuinely if you can please shed some light on this because based on that, I have no intention of reading or watching it.

I pulled out my book and read the jacket and also the amazon description and neither mention redemption, so I'm not sure if the descriptions are differing between more recent versions or what; Basically, I think that is a very...simplistic... plot description, and if they're slapping that on the book jackets nowadays they should not be doing it, lol. It is a lot more complicated than just "this nazi character is sympathetic and therefore redeemed."

The general plot of the book is that it follows two children from a very small age up until they are teenagers during WWII. The girl is French and she and her dad are forced to flee Paris at the start of the invasion; The boy is a German orphan in a mining town whose life trajectory is essentially to become a miner and die in poverty in the mines like his father while trying to care for his younger sister. When he is 13-14ish (it's been years since I've read it so the exact age may be off) he is enlisted by the Nazis because he knows how to fix radios. They offer him a "way out," i.e., joining a Nazi Youth school. By 18 he's become a fully-fledged, indoctrinated soldier who eventually is sent to fight and work the radios in France, where his own sense of self-preservation and complicity is constantly at war with the horrors he recognizes all around him.

The book is about the total devastation and horrors of war. There are no winners here. I would say the narrative treats Werner (the German boy) as deeply human, with all the complexity that entails, but it doesn't forgive him and it certainly doesn't treat him as a "Good Nazi." It never tries to argue that his humanity or his good choices outweigh the evils of the system he participates in & therefore is helping to uphold. Without giving away the ending, I promise he isn't "redeemed" in any traditional sense. It is a book that operates largely in the gray areas. It forces readers to question, "could I be a Werner? what would I do about it if I were?" and also appreciate that we will never truly know because we are not in his place and time.

That said, it is a war novel that yes, involves a nuanced “Nazi” character (if we’re being completely accurate, Werner isn’t a Nazi, he’s at first a child and then a Wehrmacht soldier complicit in the Nazi regime) and I totally understand why that isn't for everyone. It is also extremely sad. If you don't enjoy those types of narratives, I wouldn't recommend it!

[alloflifeisbeautiful]

010

[365momme]

Fun DIY Projects to Do with Your Kids

Navigating family life after the loss of a loved one can feel like an overwhelming journey. As a mom, balancing work, kids, and the rollercoaster of emotions that follow grief, it’s important to remember that even in times of sadness, new traditions and activities can bring light and connection into our homes. In my previous post, Creating New Family Traditions After Loss, I shared the importance…

[rubiatinctorum]

I miss knitting. I did a little bit the other night, but not a lot. I spend most of my time crocheting now, and some of my time finishing the last few thousand words of a novel. I want to knit a lot more again soon.

[iknityounot]

(Long post, sorry y'all)

A little more than two years ago now, my grandmother passed away. She and my grandpa had moved down to my home town a few years before so we could take care of them. I brought them groceries once a week, helped them write checks, fixed tvs, and found lost things. I was really close with my grandma.

In addition to her hilarious personality and dry wit, one of my favorite things about her was that she was a painter and a crafter like me! She used to crochet, and I took her to the craft store a couple of times so she could get more yarn and books on crochet. But her arthritis and the shaking in her hands kept getting worse, so she eventually had to stop.

She kept her most recent project, a granny square blanket, safely packed away in a plastic bin. She told all of us she was going to finish it one day.

Her hands never got better, and when she got sick, and we found out it was cancer, she rapidly deteriorated.

After she passed, I went to work helping my mom clean out my grandparents apartment so we could move my grandpa in with her. In our frantic cleaning, I found that bin again:

DOZENS of granny squares, dozens of half used skeins. I asked my mom what she wanted me to do with it, and she said she didn't care. I set it aside and later took it home.

Maybe a month later, that tumblr post about the Loose Ends Project was going around. It felt like a sign--I was never going to learn to crochet in order to finish my grandmother's blanket. But they might be able to help!

So I filled out the interest form. They got back to me SUPER quick. And maybe 2 weeks later, I was paired with volunteer in my state (only 2 hours away!) and the box of yarn, granny squares, and my grandmother's crochet hook were in the mail. That was at the end of January this year.

Over the next couple of months, my "finisher" emailed me regular updates on her progress, and asked me questions on my preferences for how she constructed the final blanket.

At the end of August, the blanket was done!

I had always intended the blanket to be a gift for my mother. So I cleaned it up, put it in the only bag I had big enough to fit it, and drove to my mom's. I gave the blanket to her and she was gobsmacked. I explained to her all about Loose Ends, and how someone volunteered to finish the piece for us. She was speechless. (I was quite pleased with this, because I am not the best at giving gifts, so this was a pretty exciting reaction!)

She said that it was the most thoughtful gift she had ever been given. She said "your grandma would love this". To which I replied, "yeah, I know she really wanted to finish it a couple of years ago". But that was when my mom dropped the bomb of a century on me--she told me that my grandma had started making those granny squares OVER 30 YEARS AGO. She had started the blanket when my grandpa was staying in the hospital, but that was back when my mom was younger than I am now! My grandma had packed them all away, planning on finishing it, when my grandpa was sent home from the hospital. Then it went from house to house, from condo in Chicago to their apartment in my hometown. All that time and my grandma had wanted to finish it, but couldn't. First because she was busy, then because she forgot how to do it, then because of her arthritis, and then because of the cancer. My mom said she had given up on expecting my grandma to finish it. 

She said I brought a piece of her childhood with her mom out of the past.

And really, all of this is to say, if you have seen or heard about the Loose Ends Project and have an uncompleted project or piece from a loved one who has passed away--these are your people. They were so kind and treated my project with such care. That box probably would have been found by my own grandkids one day if I hadn't heard about Loose Ends.

Five stars, absolutely worth it!

(From what I understand, you can sign up to volunteer too! If you have time to share, it might be worth checking out!)

[noirandchocolate]

Several weeks ago one of my coworkers called me over into her cubicle and gave me a very unexpected gift. Her mother passed away recently, and she'd been packing stuff up at her condo to give to relatives and sell, so the home could be sold. The mother was an avid knitter and crocheter, and when my coworker came upon her stash of equipment, she told me, she "immediately thought of me as someone who might get some use out of it."

So, I have inherited a varied collection of knitting needles and crochet hooks, cable needles, sewing needles, and, best of all, now-out-of-print pattern books, mostly for blankets, because that was what this lady loved to make most. Plus, I also have a bunch of gauge swatches she made, pinned to little bits of card covered in perfect schoolteacher handwriting setting out the patterns they were made to test.

And also...

My coworker brought another bag, full of yarn and...knitted blanket squares. Her mother's last started project, before she got too sick to continue. And she asked if there was anything I could do with it.

It turned out, there are twelve completed squares, and I quickly located the pattern book they are from amid those given to me. It's a book of 60 patterns, meant to be put together however the maker wishes into blankets of 20 squares. I figured out which of the numbered patterns were already made, and selected eight more that I thought might go well with them.

So now! I am working on completing! My coworker's mother's last knitting project!

And I really am feeling very good about doing it.