The Quest for the Perfect Motif

I've decided to crochet a blanket for my sister. I have a decent amount of Caron Simply Soft (which I love using for afghans-so cuddly! so durable!) in blue tones. Figuring out what yarn to use is the easy part; figuring out the pattern? Not so much.
A couple weeks ago I ordered a few books from Amazon, which arrived in less than a week. (If only my orders from Jo-Ann arrived so quickly!) One of them was "Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs" by Edie Eckman...so I'm giving that a go.
Since I also have a decent amount of random Simply Soft ends left over from other projects, I'm doing test motifs.
The first one I made was Motif #6:

I really like this one, but upon completion realized it wouldn't work for the project I want. This motif is a 10-point circle, and I cannot figure out how to evenly join all those motifs and create a uniform design. I'm a bit of a stickler for uniformity in crochet projects. It might work for an interpretation of the Santa Fe Shawl (also designed by Edie Eckman-I really like her designs!) but for this project I just don't see it working out.

The next one I tried was a hexagon: Motif #46:

This one would be fairly easy to join, and the blanket would certainly look like a bunch of snowflakes...but those points drove me nuts when I was working on this! Triple picot stitches on each point...I get frustrated easily. I like the end result, I just really don't like the process.

On to the next one...Motif #49:

This one is starting to show promise. I like the way it looks, there are no annoying picot stitches, and it wouldn't be difficult to join-as-you-go (which, incidentally, I have yet to try.) I may have to make another motif & try the joining...of course, I also plan to try out a few more motifs before I decide for certain what pattern I'm going to use.

Well, I'm off to work this morning (I knew a long weekend was too good to be true!). I'll update later with more test motifs & hopefully a decision.

Post-Thanksgiving

Ok, back in the States everyone is either cooking dinner or eating dinner.
Here, it's early Friday morning, and at my house everyone is awake after the requisite post-turkey nap. Although, the restaurant where we had dinner had much better roast beef than turkey, so I supposed it should be called the post-dinner nap. Yes, we had Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant. No, I didn't cook a turkey myself. We don't have an oven.

I'm very thankful for a number of things this year:
1) I have a very wonderful family.
2) I have a 4-day weekend--especially nice considering that since I arrived, I have not had more than one day off at a time.
3) I have the two most wonderful cats on the planet (even if they do shed their weight in fur each month)
4) I have several boxes full of yarn with which to crochet fun stuff like afghans....

Speaking of which, I have been working on quite a few crochet projects. Some of them have even been completed.

For example:

This was the "practice" Crochet Kingston Hat, by Teresa Richardson. The practice was done using Caron Simply Soft yarn.

And this one was the "real deal":

Made using Berroco Lustra. I've had 4 balls of this stuff sitting in my stash drawers, waiting for the right project. Well, it's getting pretty cold here and I wanted a cool-looking, yet warm, hat. It took less than one ball of yarn, and then I had a lot left over, so...

I made this scarf to match it. It is very warm. Which is good, because our house is very cold. I definitely miss California right now. I miss central heating even more.

At Last...

We finally have internet installed at the house.
This makes us very happy.
Now I can sort through thousands of crochet patterns and post lots of pictures of the afghans I am working on, and my husband can do...whatever it is he does online.

A few things that were missed while I was unable to post:
I managed to lose 25 pounds in 2.5 months, thus managing to keep my job and make my mother & sister very jealous.
I also developed tendonitis in my right Achilles tendon, which makes running (and walking, and climbing stairs, and depressing the accelerator and brake pedals while driving) pretty uncomfortable.

It is, unfortunately, well past my bedtime and I need to sleep. So I will have to post more later.