I Love My Coworker

This has nothing to do with anything but I'm going to share anyway. When I got to work today, I opened my email to see that my mother had sent me a concert list from a venue. I literally squealed aloud. Without missing a beat, this is how the conversation went:
*squeal*
"Who's going to be where?"
"Shut up. You don't know me. John Mayer at the Chesapeake."
"I was wondering when he was coming back around. What are you eating over there? Chicken?"
"Shut up. You don't know me. Yeah, okay, I have chicken strips."

She also brought homemade zucchini bread that was simply amazing. She's a good 30 years older than me, but we get along so well. When we have to go to training together we're accused of acting like an old married couple. Likewise, I have days when she absolutely irks the fire out of me. Most of the time, though, she's the greatest coworker ever. Our job is one that requires a lot of monitoring of systems, so we have a lot of dead time when things go the way they should (no alarms, no codes, no crises). You have to either like your coworker or you have the longest work days in the world.

The nature of my job also explains my prolific crochet production. Back when I first started, I was actually encouraged to find a hobby. I don't work security, but it's along the same line of thinking. One of the most challenging aspects is finding a way to stay awake during the lulls. Crochet works quite nicely for me. :) Want to know what I did today? Sure, you do.

I invited a friend of mine to join my crochet Pinterest board and she pinned a couple of necklaces. I'm not sure how I feel about crochet as jewelry, to be honest. It leans more toward the "whimsical" side rather than the "practical" side, but it is a thing and I was in need of something new. Naturally, I didn't follow any of the pins and instead took out my flowers and stared at them as if they would somehow magically connect themselves in an artistically stylish and bohemian manner. I'm sad to report to you: they did not. But I doodled around and came up with a few ideas. They need refinement but they're a promising start, I guess.

This is the first I made. It came out the best. It's just two circles and a chained necklace.

This is the last one I made. The Cowboys-esque coloring was completely incidental - I was so tired of blue but didn't like how it looked with red. I dug in my bag and found a scrap of gray.

 

Ever try to get a picture twenty times and then just don't care if it's crooked? If you don't, here's Exhibit A for the physical representation. I don't like how it came to look so blood-like. I was going for floral. I got grotesque. Good job, Jill.

A close up of the first. This was made in one continuous piece. No sewing needed.

 

I thought this was a better close up than what it came to be. Oh, well. It uses my Two-Tone flower and then just chains. If done in one color, this could be done in one piece. It needs some tweaking. It might wind up really cute.

This is the wrong side showing. The border is the same stitch as the flower petals, but it doesn't quite work here. Maybe it's just the color choice that has me so reluctant to like it? I like the first two rows well enough.

A closer view of the right side. It has potential, I think, but I'm just not digging it.

I'm not typing up the pattern for two reasons. 1. There's no demand for it. 2. I did type some of it up and then my wifi jacked up. So I'm pouting.