Things old ladies do...

[Mary Ann]

^ My mother's were in nice color combinations, too. But, speaking of her...

I knit (not crocheted) an afghan for myself when I was in my 20's, and my mother really liked it, so I offered to make a pair of afghans for my parents for their 30th anniversary. My mother and I picked out the yarn together, and when I asked about patterns, she said I had such good taste, she knew they would love whatever I chose.

Fast forward a few months, and I've put in several hours of work on the first afghan. My mother sees it for the first time and announces that she doesn't like the pattern and I shouldn't waste my time...

Ooh, that's painful! If anyone pulled that on me they'd be pulling knitting needles from random body parts.

Thankfully my mother also had pretty good taste when it came to 70s yarn colours. What strikes me now is what terrible quality that yarn was, though, no matter the colour. It was the same in the 80s; a lot of the acrylic yarn was so plastic it almost squeaked. Acrylic yarn has come a long way since then, but I still find it uncomfortable to work with, which is one of the reasons I'm a yarn snob.

My main complaint with black-bordered afghans is that the colours are so vivid against the black background they make my eyes hurt (visuals are one of my sensory quirks). I made a baby blanket a few years ago with an oatmeal-coloured main border/background colour, and I loved the result. I was able to use strong, bold colours for the rest of the pattern, and the background colour softened them up.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Ouch!

^ My mother's were in nice color combinations, too. But, speaking of her...

I knit (not crocheted) an afghan for myself when I was in my 20's, and my mother really liked it, so I offered to make a pair of afghans for my parents for their 30th anniversary. My mother and I picked out the yarn together, and when I asked about patterns, she said I had such good taste, she knew they would love whatever I chose.

Fast forward a few months, and I've put in several hours of work on the first afghan. My mother sees it for the first time and announces that she doesn't like the pattern and I shouldn't waste my time...

Ooh, that's painful! If anyone pulled that on me they'd be pulling knitting needles from random body parts.

It was tempting! Instead I just handed her the bag of yarn, and she eventually made the afghans herself.

BTW, I love the baby blanket.

 

[T'Preea]

One thing I know for a fact that all old ladies do is forget how to f**king drive. My mother-in-law is 57 and she drives like she's 100, or something. It's ridiculous.

 

[KimMH]

Same here. One ought to put out carrots for guests. They'd keep longer.

My mom just sent me a picture of the first granny square for the all grey afghan she's making me! It will match my grey walls, grey sheets, grey bedspread, and grey curtains perfectly.

That is going to be beautiful!

Um... does making rosettes and krumkake seem like an old lady thing?

.

Wonderfully so! The more of both the better!

Oh, lordy, I forgot about the ones with the black borders. They are, indeed, the worst of the migraine-inducing lot.

I love the black bordered ones! Your oatmeal bordered baby wrap is divine though! I think tonal/ombré ones elevate the artform, but I'm a fan of kitsch.

 

[thestrangequark]

I've experienced it before though; thinking something is blue and people telling me it's grey -or vice versa.

She just posted this picture of her progress on Facebook today, the greys look much truer here, though the charcoal looks black! Hilariously, her middle-aged female facebook friends are already making "50 Shades of Grey" jokes on her wall!

 

[Spot's Meow]

^That is going to turn out so awesome! I love the colors.


Alright, here are my granny squares. I haven't cleaned them up yet so it's not perfect, and it was hard to pick up the right colors in this lighting, but you get the idea. Black borders with alternating white, blue and purple (well, more of a wine color) starburst pattern.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I think both the grey and the black-bordered one are going to look awesome!

Um... does making rosettes and krumkake seem like an old lady thing?

Not at all! Both are a lot of work to make. I think they'd be too exhausting for old people.
When I was a child, my mom used to make rosettes but the prob is always how to use up the fat afterwards and so she hardly ever makes deep-fried things anymore.
i'd love to try krumkake (I have a recipe that sounds quite authentic) but I haven't been able yet to find the necessaty tools. Yet another alibi for the trip to Sweden and Norway I'm planning for my 50est birthday, heehee

 

[Mary Ann]

^That is going to turn out so awesome! I love the colors.


Alright, here are my granny squares. I haven't cleaned them up yet so it's not perfect, and it was hard to pick up the right colors in this lighting, but you get the idea. Black borders with alternating white, blue and purple (well, more of a wine color) starburst pattern.

Ah, now these colours look awesome with the black border. It's when very bright colours are used with a black border that my eyes start to melt.

I want to make a throw for friends of mine who have several sable-coloured Shetland Sheepdogs, so I'm going to use a brown border with lighter browns and beiges to match their dogs. Yay, yarn shopping!

 

[Tora Ziyal]

One thing I know for a fact that all old ladies do is forget how to f**king drive. My mother-in-law is 57 and she drives like she's 100, or something. It's ridiculous.

So because one middle-aged woman drives timidly (at least that's what I'm assuming you mean by "like she's 100"), you "know for a fact" that "all" old ladies forget how to drive. Spare me.

 

[Mary Ann]

Also, 57 isn't old, unless you're 14 and under.

 

[thestrangequark]

^That is going to turn out so awesome! I love the colors.


Alright, here are my granny squares. I haven't cleaned them up yet so it's not perfect, and it was hard to pick up the right colors in this lighting, but you get the idea. Black borders with alternating white, blue and purple (well, more of a wine color) starburst pattern.

See, this is really pretty. It doesn't have the eye-boggling technicolor dreamcoat color scheme of the example I posted!

Now, my mom is crocheting me an afghan, and my sister is knitting me a sweater! And it's a sweater you guys might get a laugh out of. It's not done yet, but she texted me this photo of her progress. She's wearing it here, it'll fit me a bit better, as she has bigger boobs than me and I have a smaller waist:

 

[Mary Ann]

^That. Is. Awesome.

 

[thestrangequark]

^Isn't it?! She was talking about making one for herself, and I offered to buy her the yarn if she'd make me one too!

 

[Mary Ann]

You must send Wil Wheaton a photo of you wearing the finished product. He'll love it.

 

[thestrangequark]

^I'll tweet it at him!

 

[KimMH]

^That is going to turn out so awesome! I love the colors.


Alright, here are my granny squares. I haven't cleaned them up yet so it's not perfect, and it was hard to pick up the right colors in this lighting, but you get the idea. Black borders with alternating white, blue and purple (well, more of a wine color) starburst pattern.

Lovely! I like how black framed squares look like stained glass!

That is all kinds of great! Your sister is wonderful and talented!

 

[Peach Wookiee]

I think both the grey and the black-bordered one are going to look awesome!

Um... does making rosettes and krumkake seem like an old lady thing?

Not at all! Both are a lot of work to make. I think they'd be too exhausting for old people.
When I was a child, my mom used to make rosettes but the prob is always how to use up the fat afterwards and so she hardly ever makes deep-fried things anymore.
i'd love to try krumkake (I have a recipe that sounds quite authentic) but I haven't been able yet to find the necessaty tools. Yet another alibi for the trip to Sweden and Norway I'm planning for my 50est birthday, heehee

I don't know who got the krumkake iron for my mom, but it was made in Pennsylvania. And I just checked Amazon. They have those irons. If you have an electric stove, those are great. Otherwise, get a hot plate and use that at medium-high heat or until water splashed onto the iron dances around. For the rosettes, I used one of those bucket fryers called a Fry Daddy and filled it with canola oil. I put the cooled oil into an old shortening tub and will put it in a collection box at the local community center tomorrow. It'll become biodiesel!
I was glad to learn how to finally do both of those on my own. Mom can no longer teach me and I have no grandmothers left.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

oooh, I never thought of Amazon! Thanks for the tip!!
I am hesitant to throw away something edible (the frying fat) and in my area they don't take collect it Therefore I strain it through a coffee filter and use it for pancakes and the like. It's not quite suitable for frying meat because there are traces of sugar, cinnamon etc. in it that won't always fit with meat.
The prob is that it takes me a year of pancakes to use up the fat from one bunch of rosettes.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Wow, a year? That's incredible. And the Nordic Ware one on Amazon looks the most like mine. And my pleasure.
If you're looking at other places, I'd suggest areas with a heavily Scandinavian population. If you're anywhere near Minnesota, that's a place to start hunting.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

Unfortunately, I am rather far away from Minnesota. Some 6000 miles, I'd estimate. I'm Bavarian

Contrary to the US, pancakes are not part of a regular breakfast but a sweet lunch here in Germany. If you make them more often than once a month you might experience some resistance from the meat-loving fraction of the family