Wordless Wednesday

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Pretty as a Pumpkin

I've long said the pumpkin spice I make at home is so much better than any pumpkin spice item I buy at the store. But I buy fresh pumpkins only around Halloween. And I've yet to successfully grow a pumpkin.

On Halloween Day, we found half-price pumpkins at the home improvement store we had to visit for light bulbs. I bought the three ugliest pumpkins, and I put them on our porch in time for trick-or-treaters. I'm not sure anyone noticed, but I liked having them.

Now the pink one has been sliced, baked, blended and spiced. I even added mango habanero spice to the third batch. YUM!

I forgot to snap a photo of the pink pumpkin, which actually wasn't so ugly. I did snap the blue one, and it will be the next pumpkin in my oven!

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Car Cozy Monday

How do you turn a crocheted steering wheel cover into something wintery or Christmasy? Make it in holiday colors, Photoshop the photos, or, just wrap the completed project up and give it as a Christmas present. :) Snowflakes will be back next week. I just needed a new steering wheel cover, and I had a blast working up this pattern.

Back in 2021, Lizard's mom bought us an automatic (used) car, hoping it might allow Lizard to drive just a bit longer. (The stick shift and clutch in our 4Runner became too difficult for Lizard to operate a couple years into his Parkinson's diagnosis.) Mission accomplished. Lizard can't drive now, but he did get a few more months of driving before he had to turn all driving over to me. The new car came with a steering wheel that gets VERY hot in the sun, even though we keep a sun shade in the windshield when the car is parked. I ordered a steering wheel cover that first summer, and it worked really well until the last couple of months. Perhaps our unprecedented summer heat melted the elastic inside the purchased steering wheel cover. For several weeks now, my steering wheel has become a strip tease dancer. I cannot get it to keep its clothes on!

I'd seen a couple of really cute crocheted steering wheel covers, and I'd thought for years I might one day make one from the luscious colors in my sock yarn stash. When it came right down to it, I opted for acrylic yarn instead because I think it will last longer (if next year's heat doesn't melt it to the steering wheel, right???) and worsted-weight because larger stitches would work up faster. As in, two days... I'm on a new WIP diet. I'm not allowed to start new time-hog projects until I finish a few that have been waiting in the wings for years or even decades.

I opted to crochet the steering wheel cover base, then rib knit the edges to make the cover cling to my steering wheel. When I've shared bicraftual patterns in the past, I've received complaints from some of my readers who don't know how to knit. Feel free to crochet the steering wheel cover with perhaps 11 rounds instead of the 5 rounds I've shared here, then weave either yarn or perhaps some of those mask elastic leftovers through the edges to create that magic steering wheel cling.

It had been quite a while since I'd knit anything at all. I have (earplug-shaped) knitting needle stoppers somewhere. Probably preventing WIP stitches from sliding off the needles of the plethora of projects hiding in every nook and cranny of my house. I couldn't find a single one. I looked up how to make DIY needle stoppers, and I don't have anything on hand that might suffice other than tightly wound balls of crochet thread. I've now ordered new knitting needle stoppers (and they should be here Wednesday!), but I struggled through the knitting portion of this project with my stabbed project remnants. Not a highly recommended substitute. my little balls of thread frequently pretended to be kitty cat toys. Rolling across the floor after making a run for it and causing many stitches to drop off my needles in the process. Little boogers!

I love the lime green of my new steering wheel cover, but that lovely color actually wasn't my first choice. The eye-popping neon was the top skein in the first bin I opened when searching for a big enough ball of leftovers to cover a steering wheel. After I finish a few more projects, I may make a new steering wheel cover, and I'd just love to make it with a gradient or as close to the color of denim as I can get. I have an idea for a new stitch pattern, and I'm hoping my second idea doesn't have to percolate too long.

You may do whatever you'd like with steering wheel covers you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 14.5 inches across
Materials: Size G crochet hook, size 7 double-pointed knitting needles or circular knitting needles, 1 skein worsted weight yarn (I think this project used up less than half of the 4-ounce skein.)

November Skein Steering Wheel Cover Instructions

Ch 160. (In retrospect, I wish I had worked this cover with 150 stitches to make a bit tigher on my steering wheel. I suggest measuring your steering wheel, then subtracting two to three inches when working up your initial chain. For this pattern, you need a multiple of 2 stitches.) Taking care not to twist work, sl st in starting ch. Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 1 dc in each ch around for a total of 160 dc; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2. Ch 2; turn, OR...

OR... (this is my favorite method), work a chainless dc as described by my good friend Mrs. Micawber.

Round 2: Work standing or chainless dc OR ch 3 (counts as 1 dc and ch 1), [sk next dc, 1 dc in next dc] to end of Round; ch 1, sl st in standing/chainless dc OR in 2nd ch of starting ch 3; ch 2, turn, OR, work standing or chainless dc.

Round 3: 1 dc in each stitch around; sl st in starting dc.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Rounds 4-5: Repeat Rounds 2 and 3; sl st in starting dc at the end of Round 5.

Round 6: With double-pointed or circular knitting needles, draw up one loop through each stitch around.

Rounds 7-11: K 1, P 1 around; bind off. Weave in ends.

Round 12: On bottom of steering wheel cover, draw up loop through each dc around.

Rounds 13-17: K 1, P1 around; bind off. Weave in ends.

NOTE: Upon finishing this project, I put a dab of Elmer's Glue-All over each of my knots and massaged it in to make sure nothing unravels through what I hope will be heavy use before the sun fades the yarn color too much.

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Friday Fantastic

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halfway there

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Wordless Wednesday

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Autumn Color

We haven't been able to do much fall color photography the last few years, but I am sure relishing the half day we spent recording the gorgeous hues of autumn at the end of September.

Lizard wanted to ride a mountain trail he used to tackle all the time before his Parkinson's diagnosis. Up to St. Elmo we went! The ride was "steeper and much harder" than he remembered, his words, so we weren't able to do the entire five miles. But what we did do was spectacular, and I hope he can keep riding, even if only a couple of miles at a time, for many years to come!

Fortunately, many rest stops meant many, many photos. Didn't do bad for such a short high altitude visit!!!

Lizard has had such a rough year, thanks to our friend Parky. But he keeps right on fighting, and I'm going to try to keep making wonderful memories with him as long as we possibly can.

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