Tag Archives: afghan

Pearl Blanket – 28″ KB Loom + peg extenders

By

I’ve decided to try to catch up on my projects before starting new ones.
I chose my blanket to finish up first. It’s been on the loom for quite a long time now.
I’m happy to finally have it finshed.
Shelibean tried the blanket out first. He seems to think it’s just right.
Here’s my blanket’s stats:
168 pegs – 28″ Knitting Board Loom + peg extenders
KB Knitting hook
8 skeins of 6oz 185 yds ‘Pearl’ Lion Brand HomeSpun Yarn
278 rows
46,704 stitches
Finished size 58″x58″

Here’s wishing all you all luck in finishing up your works-in-progress.

.

Shades of Purple

By

IMG_9920Here’s the colors for my next project. Even though they may look more like blues in the photo, in real life they’re 3 shades of purple. I’m not going to say what I’m making or if I’m going to make more than one item because I haven’t totally decided yet. There might be a crochet hook involved and/or a knitting loom. The only thing I’ve decided for sure is that these are 3 of the colors of yarn I’m going to use. You’d be surprised how hard it was to find 3 shades of purple in one brand of yarn. I thought I was going to have to order the yarn online and get different brands of each color plus pay monster shipping fees to get some, but thankfully I found this brand with 3 shades at a Hobby Lobby store. ~happy dance~

I’ve never used  ‘I Love This Yarn‘ brand before. It’s a soft acrylic yarn with a nice spring to it.
My Bff knows a lot about yarn and she suggested I make a swatch, and wash & dry it, to get a proper-sizing on the yarn.
That made sense to me, so that’s what I did.
I didn’t think to look on the yarn band for washing instructions until after I had washed and dried my swatch. Then my Bff reminded me of the manufacturers directions on the band when I sent her a photo of the after-wash. She said she usually gives the recipient of her creations a copy of the directions from the band. My Bff has the most awesome ideas.
I used a single crochet, double crochet and a crazy stitch to make my swatch. I figure these are 3 of the main stitches I’ll probably be using. I washed and dried it like it was a regular piece of clothing. I’m happy to report that the swatch washed up really well. Shrinkage was minimal and the yarn didn’t pill.IMG_9919

I splurged the other day and bought a couple of afghan crochet hooks. (I saw the hooks and my ECD kicked in. lol ) I’ve been wanting to try Tunisian crochet and it requires a long hook. I haven’t tried to use these yet. I’m busy with other things, but someday I’ll sit down and give them a try.01-IMG_9940Here’s a link that might give an idea about the Tunisian technique.
Tunisian crochet on Pinterest

Have you ever used long crochet hooks?
Have you ever tried the Tunisian technique?

I hope you all have a pleasant rest of the week.

crochet

Crazy Calming Crochet Stitch

By
IMG_9103

My apologies on this photo, the sun went behind a cloud as Sheli posed perfectly and I took the photo. The dark blur sort of in the upper left side is a bumblebee that has taken up residence on our back porch. Sheli was watching it fly around.

This is my finished crochet project that I mentioned the other day,  a 56 inch x 44 inch blanket.
I got the idea for this blanket from my Blogging Buddy Charlotte. I’ve always wanted to try this pattern, but I didn’t think I could do it. Then Charlotte posted a beautiful baby blanket she crocheted by this pattern. She said it was calming work and not too difficult. She gave a quick and easy explanation of the stitches. It clicked hope in my heart that perhaps I could do the stitch and make something pretty too.

I spent 30 minutes trying to make the pattern work for me, but I’m not skilled enough for free-hand on such a lovely stitch, so I went and looked up a pattern… well, I found some, but I couldn’t make them work either. I felt like such a gourd-head.

I was about to give up when I saw a link for a vintage pattern supposedly written as it was in 1899 and 1917: How To Crochet The Crazy Stitch. I thought it couldn’t hurt to check that out… wow, I took right off following the pattern… now what does that say for my mentality? lol The only change I made to the pattern was, instead of using the 3 double crochet that it calls for, I used 2 double crochet. The 3 double crochet made it look too bunchy.
There’s a few patterns on that page for the crazy stitch. The one from 1899 calls for treble crochets.

Sheli fell in love with our new blanket of course. I let him pose with it while I took photos.
The first person that used this blanket was my grandson, he snuggled underneath it to watch movies this weekend.

It’s a nice size blanket and not too difficult to make. I think it went quite quickly, but then I love to crochet.

I echo Charlotte’s words that it’s “Calming work”
Thanks Charlotte for inspiring me once again. I’ve really enjoyed making a bright new blanket for my family to enjoy. ((hugs))

IMG_9286

I hope you all have a great week
& can do a craft or activity that you find calming & fun.

crochet
3-spcbg

Sheli loves crochet

By

pf1I accidentally made Shelibean a new toy. I call it a puff because it’s soft and puffy. Last night while trying to design some crochet flowers, there was some that I didn’t like. To keep them together to throw away, I started tying them together. By the time I had added the 3rd flower, a cheerful looking flower ball was formed. I decided it’d be a cute toy to give to Sheli, but he was already in bed asleep, so I’d wait until morning to give it to him. I continued on crocheting flowers and two more of them didn’t turn out right, so I added them to the flower ball.
pf2I really like the look of this flower ball. I think it would make a good bath scrubby if it was made of cotton thread.
I gave Sheli the puff this morning. He chewed on it a bit and then snuggled up to it while laying on his favorite afghan, and took a nap.
When he woke up, we played a bit of fetch with it. I guess it passes the muster of Shelibean’s high standards for quality control. 😉

Here’s a photo of Sheli sitting on my Candy-corn afghan when I first made it last summer. He took such a shine to it that he claimed it before it was a 1/4 of the way finished. I crocheted many of the rows while Sheli sat on it and played or napped. I guess he loves the bright colors.
6-19-2013-shelgan

Sunday it was 70° and would have been a really nice day if the wind hadn’t blown so wild and if the sun had of shined. My hubby mowed up the fallen leaves that were scattered across the yard.  Sheli and I tried to sit for awhile on the porch but the wind gusts were too uncomfortable for us.
Last night it was stormy with thunder, lighting, rain and heavy winds. Part of our region got a coating of ice. We were fortunate that we only got a smidgen of snow. It’s in the low 20’s, overcast and colder than all heck.
Was Sunday’s warm temps only 24 hours ago…
3-3-2014-snwWhile searching my old files I opened my folder for last March out of curiosity about the weather then. As it turns out, our cold weather last year was pretty much like it is this year…
3-6-2013-snow

Dear Blogging Buddies,
You may remember my 2013 photos from my ex-blog. I hope you all don’t mind my re-posting them. I enjoy sharing them again so my new blogging buddies can see them too. 🙂

This is all for me at the moment.

I hope you all have a pleasant week.

🙂