Recent FOs

I finally have some FOs to share!

Lots of Love Lapghan by EssHaych

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Victorian Rose, Blue Mint, Grape, Grey

Hook: H (5 mm)
Date started: October 12, 2015
Date completed: April 14, 2016

Lovely pattern, and I really like the way the granny stripes border brings the blanket together.

~

 

Rainbow Ridges Hat by Lion Brand Yarn 
Yarn: Lion Brand Landscapes in Boardwalk
Needles: US 9

A very quick and easy knit using short rows then seamed up the back. It came out super long and slouchy; personally I like it rolled up and not so slouchy. The next one I’d probably cast on 35 stitches. However, f you make it into a beanie it’s almost doubled and is super warm.

For the Love of Lucy

I've tried writing this post about ten times and have absolutely no idea how to start it, so I'll just dive right in.

My two current projects both come courtesy Lucy of Attic24.  The first is her Granny Stripe Blanket.  I'm using 12 colours of DK yarn given to me by my best friend Sarah*. (She brought my 20 balls all the way from England, somehow stuffed into her suitcase!  I'm excited to have it though; DK at my LYS's are all pastel baby colours.)  Here how it's coming along.

 

I'm choosing the colours randomly. Each 'round' is a total of 12 colours, and in each round they're chosen randomly thanks to the Random Number Generator. So I have a nice little oceany section in the middle.

Green, turquoise, blue, green ocean!

Lucy chained 240, but I did 300, so it's long. It's longer than I am tall, so I'd estimate 5 feet 5 inches!

iPhone for comparison.

It's going to be huge on my bed, and probably hit the floor, especially when I add the border, but it'll be great to wrap around myself fully when it starts to get chilly again. (Except it's been really chilly here lately, which is fine by me. I'd like to delay the Virginia humidity as long as possible.)

The next WIP is Lucy's Jolly Chunky Bag. It's a smaller version of a bag she made in the past. (And as it's coming along, we're almost finished, I'm glad we chose the smaller version.) We because my mom is doing one as well - it's her first crochet project! She doing it really well, especially since we're using an H-8 hook with bulky yarn.

Starting rounds!  Mine's on the left; mom's is on the right

Lucy was selling a set of the yarn she used (Stylecraft Special Chunky) but it was sold out, and I wanted to start immediately. Waiting for yarn is torture. So we went to our local Michael's, which didn't seem to have chunky! (*shakes fist*) But we stumbled upon some Loops & Threads, Michael's own brand yarn in chunky weight. It's really soft and nice to work with. Here's what we chose:

Loops & Threads Charisma in Yellow, Fuchsia, Think Pink, Electric Blue, Dark Blue, Taupe,  and True Red

We should have FO photos soon. The way they're crocheting up, they resemble baskets, but I'm sure once straps are added and it's smushed into a purse shape they'll be great!

Happy crafting!

*Check out Sarah's EssHaych and Eriko's Emporium (Blythes!) Etsy shops

Hippo Progress & Granny Daughters

I really need to get back into using my cameras, both my DSLR and point-and-shoot, as I've gotten lazy and rely on my iPhone. It can take okay pictures, but it's main purpose isn't as a camera, so it doesn't have the best.

Anyway, more progress on my hippo, Pastiche:

I've started decreasing for the head. That big blob of red that looks like lipstick is where the snout will go. I love the pooling! 

This is how I usually am sitting though:

And yes, she's sitting right on the pattern. I usually have to move her at least once a night. She sits on anything I'm working on, be it the computer, a knitting pattern, or homework. She's there. Silly Arwen.

And I found a possibly handmade knit sweater in an old box that had American Girl doll clothes in it, and of course had to put it on Susie!

After seeing my friend Jeanette lay out all her granny daughters I had to do it with mine:

So many! I couldn't fit all the rounds around because of the furniture but it's a good idea of the size. Unfortunately, I think I'll need a few more swaps and a couple hundred more to make it fit my bed. Last count was 563 so I'll need 157 more to make it to 720. With two partners that's...like a swap and a half. Not too bad! Now to just join them all. But the "join as you go" technique isn't that bad.

What I really need to do, now that I'm inspired, is to lay out the squares for other blankets I have/need to finish:

The Amoeba-Ghan 

Grandma's 80th birthday afghan, which looks like it's 81st birthday now 

2009 Afghan, using 12" squares from Craftster and Ravelry CALs and 6" square from the Ravelry CAL

Happy Summer Hexagon

oh, and my Homespun Primary Colors Granny Square afghan

The Happy Summer Hexagon afghan I think I've done two hexagons? I think I need to buy some more yarn for it. But it's the perfect motivator to find the cord for my point-and-shoot and get snapping!

Progress

Progress on the Primary Colors Guilty Pleasure Granny-ghan. It's coming along nicely, it's very warm when I work on it. And there was a sale at Michael's (when is there not!) and bought another skein of Golden and Colonial. (the blue) I really liked the way the blue frames it, and I wanted it to be a bit bigger. I'm looking forward to see how it turns out!

(And no, I haven't broken my 2011 resolution to buy no more yarn. That was there mainly to prevent me from buying yarn to hoard stash. Besides, this is stashbusting!)

Mitered Crosses Blanket for Japan

Kay Gardiner of Mason Dixon Knitting has created a beautiful blanket square pattern. All download sales will be donated to the Mercy Corps for Japan earthquake/tsunami relief work.

It's a beautfiful square, especially when knit is gorgeous shades of Noro. So go forth and download, donate, and knit a blanket using luscious Japanese yarn!

Purchase via Ravelry.