Stars, Stripes, and a Finished Throw

Y'all. It is DONE. The Colors of America Throw is finished, blocked, and honestly prettier than I expected, and I had pretty high hopes going in.

If you've been following along, you know I've been working on this throw for a while now. It's a patriotic motif throw made with Knit Picks Brave Worsted in red, white, and celestial, and it is timed perfectly for America's 250th anniversary. The pattern uses 2 double crochet clusters instead of the traditional granny square construction, which gives it such a clean, modern look.

Here’s a closeup of the clusters.

Those Colors Though

I have to talk about the colors for a second, because wow. The red, white, and blue in this yarn are so vibrant, we're not talking washed-out, faded patriotic. We're talking rich, bold, "I-see-you-from-across-the-room" color. The Knit Picks Brave Worsted really delivered on that front.

The border is simple, two rounds of granny stitches, then two rounds of single crochet and chain stitches, and the alternating blue, white, and red in that border is what really pulls the whole throw together. It frames everything just right. Sometimes, simple is exactly what a project needs.

Here’s Emme giving me the guilty face because she knows she’s not supposed to be on the finished project. 😄

Happy 4th of July (From My Air Conditioning)

The 4th of July is coming up, and I am genuinely excited because it’s the 250th birthday of America, but I don't have anything big planned, because it is HOT here in Texas, y'all. Like, step-outside-and-immediately-regret-it hot. So my 4th will probably involve staying in the air conditioning, maybe firing up some red, white, and blue food, and admiring this throw from the comfort of my couch.

If you have any great air-conditioned 4th of July ideas for us Texas folks, drop them in the comments! I'm always open to suggestions that don't involve melting.

Up Next: Blossom the Elephant

So now that the throw is off my hook, I've already started thinking about what comes next, and it's a big one. Literally.

I'm making Blossom the Elephant by Marly Bird, and she's going to live in my classroom. I teach AP Seminar, and if you're not familiar, it involves two performance tasks and a timed writing portion on the AP Exam. It can get pretty overwhelming for students.

I use the question "How do we eat an elephant? One bite at a time." as a way to help them think through big, intimidating tasks. Now, I'll be honest, that saying is a little unsettling when you really think about it (elephants are adorable and they deserve better lol ), but the principle holds. Big things become manageable when you break them into smaller pieces. Blossom will be a visual reminder of that for my students.

This will be a bit of a stretch for me. I haven't done a ton of amigurumi, and the bulky weight yarn doesn't have much stitch definition, which makes it genuinely tricky to see your stitches as you go. But I like a challenge, and I think she's going to be worth it.

Will she be done by the time school starts the second week of August? That... remains to be seen. July tends to fill up fast with appointments and school prep, so we'll see how many bites of this elephant I actually manage to take before the bell rings.

I'll keep you updated — stitch by stitch, bite by bite. 🐘

A Little Something for the Week

"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come."— Proverbs 31:25

Finishing a project always feels a little bit like this verse to me. There's something about seeing work completed, stitches that started as just yarn on a hook turned into something real and beautiful, that feels like a small act of faith. You start without knowing exactly how it'll turn out. You keep going anyway. And then one day, it's done.

Here's to finishing things, y'all. And to whatever comes next.

Ariana 🧶