ripples on a coral reef, and nablopomo(fobloyo)

I'm sharing my progress working through the Chain Reaction Afghan Project. It's been great fun so far to really expand my repertoire of crochet techniques. Each square in the blanket is designed by a different person using different techniques/skills, and is only 12x12", so I'm never bored.

This square, called Ripples on a Coral Reef, is by the same designer as (somewhat odd) Intertwining Loops. In my view, ROACR (as I affectionately call it) is a considerably more successful design. The motif is quite open, but no one's going to get their entire hand caught up in it. The use of color makes sense. The pattern calls for regular old basic crochet techniques, but the construction keeps things interesting: you make a lot of chains and then crochet over them in the next round to form the ripples. Considering the fairly straightforward look of the square, I found the written pattern for this square to be quite complicated, and would recommend using the chart.

In more exciting news, however, I've decided (erm, tentatively) to join up for NaBloPoMo. I feel a little silly using that abbreviation, but whatever. Basically that means I'm going to try my damnedest to post every day in the month of November. The event is curated by blogher right over here. Feel free to join me! Or just click "mark all is read" on my feed if you get overwhelmed! They even provide daily writing prompts, which may or may not complement the huge backlog of crochet projects I have to talk about. Today's prompt is to discuss your favorite part about writing. Honestly, I've been thinking about this all afternoon and the best analogy I can come up with is to say that for me, writing is like exercising. I should be doing both of them every day (most especially the writing part, given that I am working on a PhD and all). Once you get out of practice going back to it can be painful, but when you really do it a lot and get into the rhythm of it - that right there is the best. So my favorite part is the flow, not only on the microlevel (when you really get into a particular activity, right in that very moment), but on the macrolevel as well. I love when you get into the rhythm of doing something good for you every day - the routine. So here's to nablopomo ... and flow.