A Challenge Has Been Presented…To My Challenge

I have actually been more than keeping up with my self-imposed pumpkin challenge for the month.

Since the first few days of September arrived on a weekend, I had the chance to make a few ‘extra’. Instead of crocheting up a single pumpkin per day, I made two or three at a go so I could miss a day here and there as I so felt like it.

Last night I handed my darling son the seventh pumpkin.

The night before, he told me he loved the pumpkins I had made so far. But…I could start making them in lots of different colors now. I had been sticking to Halloween colors, yellows, greens, and oranges. He also let me know I should start making the stems in different colors. I’d been sticking to his request for brown stems, with a few green ones thrown in.

The night before that, he informed me that he mostly preferred the smaller pumpkins rather than the larger ones.

Last night I handed him a purple pumpkin. He said it looked great. He said it was nice. He put it in a special place so it could protect him, as pumpkins are meant to do.

Then, he told me I could slow down on making the pumpkins now.

I had informed him, prior to September, about all the challenges I was contemplating for the last quarter of the year.

He is the one who helped me decide what I should be making for each month.

I reminded him again the last week of August, on Wednesday, that come Friday I would start making him at least one pumpkin a day. That that means I would be making him thirty pumpkins, if not more, throughout the whole month.

He was excited by this idea. He told me the shapes and sizes and colors of pumpkins desired, as well as colors for the stems. He even suggested some vines and leaves if I wanted to make them.

And then, you can slow down on making the pumpkins.

That threw me for about five minutes.

Sure, I am making the pumpkins for him. He spends all year lamenting about wanting to be able to get/buy/procure pumpkins of all sorts.

However, the challenge itself is not really about him.

If it were actually about him and no one else but him, then I would be fine tossing the making of pumpkins out the door until he requests I make more for him.

I created this challenge, as well as the others that are upcoming in the next few months, for myself. I want to challenge myself to actually stick to a challenge and complete it, especially after things have gone South for me so much this year, like the Temperature Blanket.

Another aspect of the challenge is that I have a yarn stash that I would love to use up in its entirety. This is not going to be an easy endeavor, especially when I continue to buy yarn for various projects along the way, most of which started with the boy and Halloween projects.

Mostly, I just want something to break up my typical day, to give myself something to look forward to at the end of the day, which is when I tend to make up these pumpkins, which is when I am glad he prefers the smaller ones most nights.

So, my plan is rather than giving him each pumpkin as I finish making them up, I will simply … I think I am going to crochet up a scrappy basket to drop pumpkins in as I finish them up. Why not?

Here are the pictures of the pumpkins I finished this week:

I would swear I made ten, but I can only find these nine photos. But at least these all have had their photos taken and I present them here for your edification.