For some reason I decided to join the 2008 12″ block crochetalong on ravelry (and on craftster).  A new block is chosen each month, and by the end of year I should have enough blocks to make an afghan.  The block for January is dreamcatcher.  I decided that I’d use up excess Bendigo Woollen Mills 8-ply cotton to make my blocks.  I started off with this blue one:

I like it!  But it only blocks to 9″, not 12″ (which I knew was likely, since the pattern called for a thicker yarn and larger hook).  Next step – to make another January block, since otherwise the afghan was going to be tiny.  So off to the stash – there were three large balls of lonely DK acrylic from Lincraft that I’d studiously been avoiding.  Their time was now.  I crocheted up another block:

Hmmm, you probably now know why I’d been avoiding using that yarn.  Hubby says that looking at it makes his eyes hurt.  Time to do another cotton block, this time in lemon.

So now it looks as though I’ll be doing three blocks each month: two in the plain cottons (there are still four more colours in the stash) and one in the acrylic.  Then I’ll figure out what to do with them at the end of the year.  The acrylic blocks will probably all be joined together to make a small rug (Clare thinks it would be good for her doll).  Hopefully the cotton ones will go together nicely in the end.

Each block took about 1.5 hours to crochet, so it’s a nice low-stress, highly portable project.  I am already looking forward to seeing what the February block will be!