And Granddad, light up the place And if you pull my card, you pull the ace And if you ask me, turn up the bass And if you play defender, I could be your hyper space so

My parents have loved to play the board game Sequence with their many grandchildren for decades (oldest one is well into the 30s and youngest just turned 18).  So much so that I wanted to make a quilt for years but could never find playing card fabric that depicted each and every playing card without being overlapped AND would be a proper proportion.  

Just before the COVID lockdown occurred back in March 2020, I found a pattern on Ravelry that depicted the playing cards in Tunisian crochet.  I had never tried this technique and this was a BIG project so I gave myself a huge completion window for my father's 80th which occurs in February 2023 but ended up giving it to both my parents this Christmas.

There were some changes.  The crocheted card designs are drastically simplified as compared to real playing cards. The  wild card space in each corner was changed to a NY Yankees logo as my mother has been a fan all her life despite moving to Boston for college at 18 and remaining there the rest of her life.

Finally I changed the border to reflect the family surname rather than the word sequence plus the treatment of the jack card.

This was the first post;COVID Christnas we celebrated with everyone.  My brother's family flew in from Australia and the oldest grandchild just had twins a couple of months ago.  

What she asked of me at the end of the day Caligula would have blushed "Oh, you've been in the house too long" she said And I naturally fled

So like many of us over the last 24 months I have spent a LOT of time at home.  I was so bored that I learned how to crochet.

I had seen the African Flower hexagon technique that was used to make an owl.  I used a J 5.25 mm hook and worsted weight yarn of various colors  Once I learned the stitches, it was amazingly easy.  I knew the hexagons were large but had no idea I would end up with a HUGE stuffed animal.

I then decided to make the same pattern using Kappa colors of dark and light blue since our mascot is an owl.  I did not want such a huge owl so used a much skinnier fiber and smaller hook.  This time I used a 1.5 mm hook and  #10 crochet thread.

What a size difference the hook and fiber make!  I found it much harder to crochet with this thread and tiny hook as opposed to the yarn and larger hook.

Here are the 2 owls together.  They don't match at all but I wanted to show their proportions.

I have decided that I am officially hooked!