One project that's on the hook

As mentioned in my last post, I'm working on a Learn Symbol Crochet Mystery CAL with the Learn Crochet group in Ravelry. It's being lead by Lavonne, Angela Best. She's the designer of the Short and Sweet top that's in Stitch'NBitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker. I loved that design, seamless construction, interesting stitch pattern, but pretty simple to work. And I love the way that it fits.
I'm becoming a little less stressed by working from symbols....but it's still much harder for me that working from the written pattern. It least now I'll be less intimidated by the gorgeous items in the old Magic Crochet magazines. I bought a huge stack of these for the lovely thread items, then I've only drooled over the pictures since. I don't think that I've made a single item. The patterns sometimes start with one or two rounds of written instructions, and then move to symbols. And for large items, they put only 1/4 or 1/8 of the pattern onto the page; like the antique/vintage patterns, they expect that you can "finish in established pattern". I think that I can do that now. But those doilies, and table runners will have to wait. At this time of year, I'm busy with clothing to wear and show off at the conference.
While I'm working on this project, I'm still thinking about the next project and the one after that. Should I make another garment, or work up that design idea for a tote bag that was in my mind last year, or should I start decide what to make for the gift exchange? Decisions, decisions.

New item for my crochet bag

Back at the beginning of June I started a post entitled "what's happening in my crochet world". Then I just made a list of things that I wanted to expand into paragraphs, I had enough ideas to make several very interesting posts. Well, I got busy with other things and forgot about this start. When I went back to it this evening, lo and behold, most of the items on the list are very out of date. Out of sight, out of mind,...out of my mind,...
Well, here's one thing on the list that I will write about - highlighter tape. At one of our crochet in public nights at Borders, one of the knitter/crocheter ladies mentioned this great product that she'd discovered. It's a bright colored, but transparent "tape" that's just the width of a typical line of print in a book or paper printed from the computer. It comes on a roll of about 21 yards. Just snip the length that you need and place it over the print that you want to highlight. What's even nicer is that you can pull it up without ripping the paper, leaving a sticky residue, or losing the sticky. I stuck some small bits on the page protector that held the pattern that I was working on at the time. I highlighted the numbers for the size that I was working out of the 3 sizes in the pattern. It's now easy to see all the information that's pertinent for my project. Right now I'm working on a Learn Symbol Crochet mystery CAL on Ravelry. As different parts of the project are posted to the group, I copy the important parts onto a Word document and print out the next part that I'll be working on. I use the highlighter tape to mark the row that I'm working. Then when I have to double check something, glancing from yarn and hook over to the pattern, I don't have to search the symbols to find out where I am. This great find is going directly into my crochet project bag and will be going along to the conference.

If you're interested in check out this product, I found it at JoAnn Fabric in the quilting department. It's callled Glow-Line Tape and it's made by Omnigrid. The package contains the 3 rolls of tape, one each in yellow, orange and pink. The package of 3 rolls was about $4.
Check it out at "JoAnn's online"