Ta-Dah!

And it's finished!  I'm absolutely in love with the final results!  

Granny Patch

Making progress!

Simple, four round, granny squares, using a "join as you go" method. The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK, and there are about 30 different colors here. I have to admit, this hasn't been one of my favorite projects, but it is growing on me as it gets bigger.  This picture shows 9 rows of 10 squares. I added another row last night. I think 20 rows of 10 - 200 squares total - plus a border should do it.

My Week in Pictures...

Stripey progress... (I'll post the specifics later!)

Amazing, delicious cheesecake! Every couple of months, I have a girl's night out with my dear friends Rose and Alice. We drink a bottle of wine, eat delicious food, gab about our kids, and relax.  Love it!

Spring is coming!

Granny Patch progress...

Let the Granny Patch Begin!

In the real world, I run an emergency shelter for homeless families.  It's rewarding and challenging work. A wonderful man has offered to host a fundraiser for us, complete with silent auction, and he says I don't have to do a thing to help.  What a gift! Well, I can't very well sit back and do nothing.  This granny patch afghan will be my contribution to the silent auction.  I'm using bits and pieces left over from my Stylecraft DK 17 colour pack, plus other colors of Stylecraft I recently ordered.  

Details:  I'm making each square 4 rounds, and using a JAYG (Join As You Go) method of connecting the squares.  Right now, I'm putting 10 squares in a row, using random color sequencing.  I'm quite sure I'll end up adding on to that, perhaps doubling it at some point. We shall see how it goes! 

Hello Kitty!

What have you been working on?  I've got 18 of these in progress.  Faces will be added at the end. For the pattern, go here.  Made by K provides an excellent tutorial for making Hello Kitty squares, as part of a scarf project (which I made a few months ago.)

To get 8 inch squares, I added an extra "granny" row, and either a row of single or half double crochet, depending on the yarn. Some of this yarn is Red Heart, which required the single crochet edge, while the I Love This Yarn needed a half double crochet edge to make the same size.

To make her bow, I made rectangles of single crochet... 4 rows of 12 sc. Leave long ends to weave into the center, wrap around for the middle of the bow, and tie off at the back. Stitch into place.

Here's a picture of the scarf I made for my niece. 

The Week in Review

Crochet things....

8 inch squares for Love Squared.....

Here is a link to the directions for the spiral square!

More for Love Squared, and about 15 Hello Kitty faces, waiting to be made into squares.

My sweet Gertie-bird. This week, we took her to the vet for extensive testing. She has not been feeling well and has developed facial sores, lost the hair on her face, and seems weak. Gertie is having a hard time getting up and down the stairs, and even just jumping up on the couch. We hope to get to the bottom of this in the next week or so, when all her test results come back.  Keep positive thoughts for a diagnosis that is easily cured and managed!  Gertie is a Newfoundland/Golden Retriever mix. She is the sweetest pup on the planet.

Animal Squares

Obviously, these squares haven't been blocked, so they look a bit wonky in these pictures.  I wanted to get them posted anyway. I'm impatient like that! They will be given to Love Squared and included in blankets for homeless children.

Hello Kitty - followed these instructions.  I improvised the bow, making a rectangle from a few rows of half double crochets, then wrapping and tying yarn around the middle. Super easy.

This lion pattern is an Anne Halliday design from Color-Bright Creatures, published by Leisure Arts. The original design is done in a hexagon.  I'll be making more animal shapes from this book over time, as it includes really cute piggies, frogs, birds, turtles, bears, and puppies. Great for including in kid's blankets and for using up leftover yarn!

Looks like the faces on both squares are tilted just a little. Guess I'll have to be a little more careful about that on the next one.

Same as above, but with a larger crochet hook, so the design is a bit bigger.  He still needs a face!

Mixed Stripe Revisions, and Other Yarns

I made a mistake with the Catherine Wheel stitch - omitting the three stitches in between each motif - which caused those rows to be significantly shorter than the preceding rows.  You can't tell in the other pictures, but it was painfully obvious to me. I kept trying to ignore it - thinking I could find a way to compensate. Finally, I gave in to reality and removed the first Catherine Wheel section - the one in two shades of pink.  I was able to do this, maintaining the two blanket pieces as separate, intact, works.  So painful to rip that out. Sometimes, I hate facing reality.

Now, I'm reworking the pink Catherine Wheel, and all the rows that followed, getting my blanket back up to where it was. Unfortunately, the section I removed is bigger than the section I'm building on. Right now, I'm using that discarded section as a winter wrap, wearing it around my shoulders in the cold evenings. 

 

This shows the strip I removed, what was left with from the first section, and the new Catherine Wheel underway.

 Above - the section I'm temporarily wearing as a shawl. Eventually, it will become it's own blanket.  I detached it from the other section on the left - at the dark blue. The light blue was added so that all those loops wouldn't pull out, unraveling the stitches.  I used the light blue to make a modified "broomstick" stitch - grabbing 4 loops and making 4 single crochets in the tops, then moving to the next set of loops and doing the same.  Usually, broomstick lace uses longer loops, but this was the best solution I had to my predicament, and I love this blanket. It's so pretty! I'd hate to lose all that work. 

Here is the actual blanket, Catherine Wheel reworked, and a few of the replacement rows completed.  Lots more to do. I hope it goes quickly!

On another note, I spent a little time over the holidays finishing up another project. I joined several Block A Month groups on Ravelry last year, with good intentions.  My yarn was Caron's Simply Soft in plum. I ended up hating that yarn, and abandoning the the project. 8 squares were done - and they sat all year. I made one more square, connected them all, and made a border. I like the textures of the squares.  Pay no attention to those two doggies under the  blanket. I didn't have the heart to make them move. 

This shows the upper right corner better. The first picture doesn't really fit it in. 

Row 1: Popcorn Circle Square, Butterfly Garden Square, Royal Romance

Row 2: Random Square, Woolly's Snowflake Square, 16 circles

Row 3: Kata, Pretty Petals, Drop in the Bucket

The border is a combination of rows of single crochet, half doubles, doubles, a row of star stitch, and more singles and doubles.  It's not quite done.

This is the blanket Thing One is working on. She chose the yarn as one of her Christmas gifts, and started right away on a Hexagon blanket, connecting as she goes. I love it! 

Scrap-ghan

This is a great way to use up odds and ends of yarn from other projects, while trying out different granny square patterns.  To pull it together, I connected all the squares with white yarn and single crochet. This picture was taken before adding about a 2 inch wide ruffly border - comprised of a few single crochet rows and ruffles made by chaining 5, then slip stitch to the single crochet, repeat. Easy and pretty!

The bottom picture shows another scrap-ghan, complete with ruffly border. I love incorporating 3-dimensional squares like the flowers, and textural elements like popcorn stitch.

Both of these blankets were donated to children in poverty here in Toledo, via Love Squared.

Yarn Love

 

Testing Picasa.  I kinda like it.

Edited:  It occurred to me that I should add more commentary to this picture. The yarn is Stylecraft DK, special colour pack of 17, chosen by Lucy of Attic 24.   It is lovely to work with, colorful, and soft. I ordered mine from Deramores, with free shipping to the US. I always use the coupon code from Ravelry (RAV2012 right now) to get a discount. 

So far, I've used this yarn for two projects that are splashed all over this blog.  The Groovyghan is a collection of grannies connected with various stripes.  It's huge and I love it. 

Now, I'm working on the Mixed Stripey Blanket, using the remaining Stylecraft yarn. You can read about it in other places on this blog, or look for me (Meowmmy65) on Ravelry and look at it there.  I'm enjoying the project, but as usual, I'm anxious to see huge developments in progress.  I might be a little impatient. More updates to my stripey blanket will be posted soon.  

groovyghan again

groovyghan again, a photo by ElizabethTore on Flickr.

Almost done! Still thinking about adding a little more border.