One of my current favorite television ads is one for Progressive Insurance where Flo, the ubiquitous insurance checkout girl, is speaking to a pregnant woman and her husband about the “bundling” options Progressive Insurance offers to buyers.

Flo and the expectant couple list things that go together: “like peanut butter and jelly,” Flo offers, “like burgers and fries,” the husband adds, “like pickles and and ice cream,” chimes in the expectant mother.” All this brings the viewer back to Flo who then offers this: “like unicorns and glitter.”

While the couple in the ad doesn’t agree with this last bundled pair, Flo’s combination of glitter and unicorns strikes me as just right. It is both fanciful and over-the-top; a combination that is both sparkly and fantastic.

When making a crocheted object, I like my work to both embrace the ordinary and extraordinary (or extra ordinary as I sometimes think of it) as is feasible for it’s given use. Clearly, a blanket needs to be flat on at least one side for ease of use and comfort, but that leaves the top side available for decoration.

So this past week, in addition to working on the projects that are already in varying states of doneness and undoneness, I have also started to explore some of the embellishments in Lesley Stanfield’s 100 Flowers to Knit & Crochet.

Recently I worked on this zinnia:

I enjoyed making the zinnia and learned a new technique that makes use of a small twist to give the finished flower a bit more vibrancy and dimension.

With the success of the zinnia, I again turned to my copy of the book and gave the crocheted butterfly on page 95 a try. While my technique needs a bit more work to get the level of polish I would like to have for this embellishment, I was happy with my first effort:

and when paired with the zinnia, I liked it even better:

One of the things I love best about crochet is how forgiving it is, and how easy it is to use this craft as a vehicle to explore so many possibilities; like glitter and unicorns.