Oh look, another blanket.

I started the blanket for my friend's parents on Sunday and I am making pretty decent progress so far. I've got two out of six rows completed plus two squares. I think I can finish row three today, so fingers are crossed on that. I've got two and a half discs of Babylon 5 to keep me company while I work on it. Should be a fun day.

Here are some photos to show you the blanket and my progress.

This is what the individual square looks like:

It's got a really fun texture. The squares are placed to each other going in alternating directions, like so:

I know this first chunk is a little wobbly looking, but as I continue to join them, they are squaring off really nicely. You can see this in the shot of the first two rows:

I haven't looked too closely at the instructions for the border yet, but they appear to be a reiteration of the square's pattern, so that should come out looking really nicely.

My husband would like me to point out that I nearly beheaded myself taking this last photo (I was standing on the bed to get a good shot and almost walked into the ceiling fan, which was definitely on at the time). It's all in the name of crochet though, so totally worth it.

I hope you all have a really great holiday week. I am looking forward to my Friday off that's for sure.

Happy Independence Day all.

Laters,
C

Well, I've been busy, that's for sure.

My apologies for missing my post last week. I was actually in the process of getting my two blog posts up last week when the fuse box at my house literally exploded. This was on Sunday. We just finally got our power turned back on this morning. On top of that I had to undergo a medical procedure this week (I'm alright. It wasn't major but was necessary) and you can see I've had a lot going on lately.

But between sitting around in the hotel and recovery time from my surgery, I've been able to get a few small projects done on the crochet front.

First things first though, I did finish one of the house projects on my list last weekend. My books are now completely unpacked and pre-sorted. Once we get our bookshelves built, we'll be able to go through them all and get them purged and shelved much more easily. Huzzah! Here's some documentation on that front.

Yay, no more books!
(The kitties approve, now they have more space to lounge.)

Here's half of the sorted books...

And here's the other half. Obviously we won't be getting to use our guest room any time soon.

Then, after the power went out I couldn't really sort through office junk in the dark, and since crochet is portable, I went ahead and made these:



These are some fun little house socks I made (as you can see, working partly on my front porch). I used the leftover yarn from my friend's birthday blanket. It's the Red Heart Super Saver Bay Print. Good stuff. This is a really quick and easy pattern, worked side to side for the main part of the sock and then the toe is done in the round. You can find the pattern here.

I did make a few modifications to the pattern. I dropped ten stitches off of the ankle end of the sock for a shorter ankle (I don't like cuffs on my sock, which according to my husband is just completely bizarre). I also slip stitched the sides together instead of doing a single crochet join, so that there wouldn't be a big ridge on the inside of the sock. Also, I didn't have the hook size called for in the pattern so I used the Boye size F hook.

I actually started this pattern using one of my really awesome fancy stash yarns. It's Plymouth Yarn's Alpaca Boucle in color # 702 (a nice variegated yarn that alternated between dark and light blues). Unfortunately I didn't have enough of that yarn for my big feet, so even after two attempts I ended up having to frog the socks with that yarn and go to my leftover basket. That's okay though, that's why I have the extras. :o) I think that the Alpaca yarn might end up getting used to make doll blankets. We'll see though.

Okay, and then there was one more project, also with the leftover Bay Print yarn. The original blanket I made with that yarn was for a friend's birthday. Well, she loves the blanket, and it turns out so does her pet chinchilla, Bullet. So much so, in fact, that she wants to take the blanket to work with her, since it's lighter than anything else she has, and she feels guilty doing so, because every time Bullet comes out of his cage he heads straight for it. So I made him his own miniature version of the blanket.


Hopefully having his own blanket will distract him from the big one.

So there you have it. That's what I have been up to. I also bought all of the yarn to make the blanket for my best friend's parents. I'm planning to get started on that one tomorrow.

I hope you all have a good week.

Take care,
C

Summer break...

Greetings and salutations.

I did manage to finish my blanket project on time.

I am really happy with how it turned out. I will definitely be using this pattern again. I might even give it a go with the full number of colors and see how that turns out.

Here's a close-up shot of the corner so you can see the edging.

Hopefully my hubby's friend will like it. She ended up not being able to make it into town this weekend at the last minute. I think she needs this more than ever now, so I will be shipping it off to her post haste.

I know I've still got a good list of projects to work on (and I just got another blanket requested of me this weekend), but I believe I am going to take the rest of June off from crocheting. I've got oodles of projects to get done around the house in order to complete the unpacking process. I mean, we only moved in last September...it's not like I've been procrastinating or anything.

First up is to finish unboxing and sorting all of our books. Here's the pile I have left to deal with (as well as a parting shot of the Wally-cat).

This is about half of our books. I already managed to get the other half unpacked and sorted in general groups. Once we get our bookshelves built (which we are working on), then we can do a more thorough sort, purge, and organization as we shelve them.

So I hope everyone has a splendid week. Feel free to check back for project updates.

Take care!

C

Here's what I am working on at the moment.

Alrighty, here's a glimpse at my latest project. I am calling this one "Hug" because it is a cheer-me-up gift for a friend of ours who has been having a rough time of it lately. She's going to be in town this coming weekend so the plan is to give it to her then. I have the remaining rows all scheduled out, so I should be able to get this done by Wednesday evening if all goes well.

This is going to require some will power on my part though, because Lego Indiana Jones the video game comes out on Tuesday and I of course pre-ordered it. But I am not allowed to even open it until I've finished my Tuesday rows. I swear.

Anyhoo, the blanket is a throw and I am making it using the Chevron Afghan pattern on Craftown.com.

Here's where I was as of Monday night (which considering I started it last Sunday is not too bad, I feel):


This is about a quarter of the way done. It's not as wide as I had hoped it would turn out (hence it being only a throw), so I might use a bigger hook the next time I use this pattern. I really do dig the design. The big challenge for me is that it is a very simple design--every row is exactly the same unless there's a color change. The monotony makes it easy for me to get distracted and make mistakes. But for the most part I've been good. Also, it's a side-to-side project, and those kind of drive me a little crazy sometimes. I'm always a bit worried that I'll either drop some stitches or throw some extra ones in and not realize it until several rows later, which just never is a good thing. But this one is coming along pretty nicely, so maybe I am getting past that particular hurdle. I did invest in a row counter (well, technically I think it's a stitch counter for knitting, but I am using it to keep track of rows) for this project and I am loving it. Definitely worth the two bucks.

So, here's where I am as of last night:

PROGRESS!! I only have 48 rows left to do, and then the border. I think I'm just going to do two rows of single crochet around the edge (in the green) rather than do a fringe as the pattern calls for. Our friend has a kitty, and I know from experience the things kitties can do to fringe. Also fringe doesn't hold up so well to the washer/dryer IMO.

A few other notes:
-The pattern actually calls for five colors, and I am only using two, but I am still pretty pleased with how it's come out. I may give it a try with the five sometime and see what happens.
-The pattern also calls for a size J hook and I'm using a size K. Mostly this is because I don't appear to have a size J hook.

So there you go. I will put up photos of the finished project next week.

I hope you all have a lovely week.

Take care,
C