make something happy

One of the best ways to beat the blues is to work with an entirely different color. Or in the case of this project, colors. One skein of this citrus-y cotton yarn was in my stash from another project that didn't work out as envisioned, but it was just the ticket when it came to a feel good distraction. Who could be down when working with such upbeat colors?

While we were on vacation, we watched in dismay as rainstorm after rainstorm crashed through NJ. We knew that our farm was completely under mud, and we were feeling really bad for our poor farm sitters having to wade out to the back fields each day. We started picking up different locally-made soaps to make up for all that mud.

If there's soap, there has to be washcloths, right? Luckily I had a bit of time to get them done. I wanted to use that colorful cotton yarn, so when I spotted the free Citrus Slice washcloth pattern from Bernat, it was a perfect match. I had some natural colored cotton in my stash, which is where the value of a stash really proves itself. (And I am not just saying this to justify the size of my stash. That white cotton yarn was a freebie from Knit Picks a couple of years ago.)  There are few pleasures greater than having a pattern catch your fancy on a Sunday night, and realize that you already have the yarns and needles to cast on right then and there.

The pattern required a few modifications—I made it slightly larger, and crocheted a single row of each color around the edges, as suggested by another person on Ravelry, to make it look even more like a slice of, well, citrus. The center became larger as a result, and I had to improvise a crocheted center to close the resulting hole.

I hope the cheery result gets a smile from the users as well, despite all that darn mud.