Squares on Sunday: The Afghan Version

I know, I've been posting like a maniac, huh?! Hopefully it keeps up, though it'll probably taper off eventually.

Anyway, afghans. If you've been following this blog and/or Ravelry, then you know I have three afghans in WIP status. Unfortunately the hexagon amoeblanket and granny daughters are in hibernation, because I've got to work on Christmas gifts. But I'll still show you my progress so far.

Here's my progress on the hexagon afghan:

I really love it, I can't wait for it to be finished. And all those little hexagons have some sort of memory with them. There's rainbow yarn from one of my first scarves, scraps from my Daddy's afghan and my moms, a hexagon that represents the other afghan I was doing (and now stopped) the Happy Summer Hexagon one, remember that? One day, you shall be finished. 

And granny daughters! It was really bright that day so it's kinda washed out, but this one has been tons of fun. It goes by super fast, and I like just sticking my hand in and grabbing a random color. There's plenty of my own grannies, and then fun and interesting ones I've gotten from swaps. There's even a glow in the dark one that totally freaked me out when I woke up in the middle of the night. I was trying to figure out how there was this glowing string and where it came from, but couldn't get it until I woke up the next morning. 

And as far as my grandma's 80th birthday afghan spectacular, that I've been seriously slacking on, I still have more than half the squares to make. I have 5 12" ones and 12 6" ones to go, so only 17. Yeah, only 17, right?! I need to get working! If anyone has any suggestions for more 6" blocks, throw them my way. My list of blocks to do has some blanks for 6 inchers.

So the goal for the next SoS? Have at least 1 afghan square to show for my grandma's blanket. I think I can follow that. (Even better if it's a 12 incher!)

Berroco...

...has hexagon stockings!

I know I have stash yarn somewhere and can make one! Look at these great hexies! 

Cute, cute! I'll have to read over the pattern later, because it's 3 AM and I should probably sleep. Probably.

This is the type of vest I want to make, too. Simple. I have one like this in brown yarn I got from H&M in 2006, so I know they don't have anymore. Maybe I should just splurge and buy the pattern at least, because then I'd always have it. I really fancy these simple little waistcoast vests. They can really kick up a regular old shirt. 

~

Stocking pattern is Hexagon Stocking which can be found free on their site.

Vest pattern is Americano from Booklet #302

Favorite Things Friday: Garnet Hill's Inspiration

We get the Garnet Hill catalog in the mail every few months, and each time I drool over all the exquisite crocheted items, beautiful cashmere sweaters, fluffy duvets, and then I look at the price and realize there's no way I can afford any of these things. But that doesn't stop me from taking my scissors and cutting out some of those crocheted items and store them for later, when I can make them in affordable yarns, and it'll have that ounce of homemade-ness. (And it won't be $350.)

Firstly, of course, they have hexagons!

They have hexagon scarves,

 hexagon afghans, and latch hook hexagon pillows.

I love the colors of both of these, and would love to have more of a themed hexie afghan or scarf, rather than one made up of scraps. Those look nice, sure, check out THIS one on Craftster, but themed things are nice, too. Ooo, I think KnitPicks has like 12 colors of Palette in blueish colors. Mmmmm. 

I love this throw, too. I used to have this pattern stitch bookmarked, and I probably have it somewhere, but this is to remind me to get it out again.

I really love their color combinations, that aren't too feminine or masculine, and have an autumn touch. The colors may look vastly different in balls in a bag, but together they're exquisite.

These crocheted and latch-hooked items are probably so expensive because they're hand done. I know there's knitting machines that can knit pieces of sweaters up in no time, but because crochet is so different, I doubt the existence of a crochet machine ever. I don't have the magazine in front of me, but I'm pretty sure the "hand made" label is there, along with where it was made.

This cashmere sweater I really just liked the color combination. Maybe it'll be seen in a future project (maybe a hand knit cashmere sweater.)

This rug was just gorgeous. I love the colors, and design, and... ok, I just love everything about it.

Thanks Garnet Hill for having such inspirational items in your catalogue! 

A few things...

Such has HEXAGONS! I found these on someone's blog, and need to find where they make them ASAP.

What a spectacular cereal!

On crazymomquilts' blog on Monday she posted an adorable hexagon needle book she had made:

Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen?!  The link to the tutorial is HERE, and the hexagon template she used is HERE.  I can't wait until I have another day off to make some clean the crafting room and then make some.

I've uploaded my New York City pictures onto Flickr finally.  You can find them all HERE.  As you know I visited the Lion Brand Yarn Studio for a class.  I have some pictures of the yarn I bought and the baby gator I made, but those are still on the camera, so I'll get those soon.  But how did I know it was the LBYS?

By the yarn bombing outside, of course!

Ohhhh, it was beautiful.

OK, so I was really excited to meet Anna and make some baby gators.  Once he's completely finished, I'll

 add him on here.

Speaking of Anna, I asked if she could make a tiny hippo, and she did!  Look how cute!  I hope I can get a pattern to make a whole multicolored army bunch for myself!

 P.S.  I also finished my baby gator today!  Pictures tomorrow!

Hexagons and butter cream.

Hexagon sighting at the Metro station!

Ha HA!  Ya'als thought I wasn't knitting?  I have a big stashbusting project going on now, but the plan for all the Sugar 'N Creme cotton is to make dishcloths for folks.  This is a Petal in Butter Cream Ombre for a friend's mom.

Ch-ch-ch-changes.

Remember the hexagon afghan I've been working on?  The last [green] round of all dcs in the spaces and each dc made them really curly and ruffly and they wouldn't lay flat even if I pulled and stretched it out.  I'm using acrylic so blocking won't work.  Today I decided to just see how it would look if I kept the "2dc, ch2, dc2" corners, and then repeated like previous rounds chaining 2 and doing 2dc in the space.  It doesn't look bad, and it's not ruffly!  I think that's how the final pattern is going to be.  I still have to decide whether I want the first [orange] round to be 3dc clusters like this one or 2dc clusters.  The 2dc clusters look more like a flower, but I like the way this one looks.  I've also done two this way, so I think I may stick with that.  One more hex to go, then I can do the pale blue triangles for in between and finalize the pattern and post it, w00t!

Hexspiration

For the past week I've been suffering from some really obnoxious stomach flu, and am still really weak.  While I've been drowning myself in apple juice and Gatorade, I haven't had the energy or the will to knit or crochet much.  Hopefully that will change soon, as I'm on the mend.  I'll probably be able to add to my capelet.  Rounds and rounds of stockinette (knit only, non-knitters) is boring when you're well, but is great for sick knitting.  Add to that we got new carpet in the house, so the majority of my knitting and crocheting things are in the basement.  Since I've been sick I haven't been able to even go down there and get the stuff, let alone try to arrange things.  Soon though, very soon.  So for now, I leave you with some of my favorite things: hexagons!

1. Hexagon progress , 2. hexapillow, 3. Hexagon Close Up, 4. SL273132, 5. hexagon quilt a long - layout #2, 6. Hex Blanket Start, 7. Hexed In, 8. hexicolour, 9. Lots more hexagons to go...., 10. African flowers crochet hexagons, 11. hexagons, 12. Hexagon Beginnings

Fun with hexagons.

If you're not already aware, I'm obsessed with hexagons.  More complex than squares, but still perfectly symmetrical.  I love them.  I'm doing the stashbusting hexagon blanket, and hexagon's with yarn from Sarah, and it looks like another one is in the works.  Yummy.

Yesterday I was thinking about making a real granny hexagon.  Not that the Attic24 one is wrong, but one that looks more like a traditional granny square but with two extra sides.  I had two ideas in mind: one would be a granny circle with a last round making it a hexagon, like Attic24's but more grannyish, and one that just started as a hexagon and grew and grew.

After making two hexagon daughters (which were the cutest thing EVER.)

This is Day 17 for Every Day in May.

I did 3dc granny clusters in each ch2 space, and 1dc in each around. This is what I got:

Hm.  Not so much.

Then I tried again and did *2dc, ch2, 2dc* granny clusters in each space and chain stitches in between which resulted in this:

Much better.  I kept going:

Yay hexagon!  It's not as grannyish as I had imagined, but it still works.  My mom saw it and was so excited she wants a blanket out of them, so I'm working on some of those.  I wrote up a pattern for it and will post it soon.  Maybe even a photutorial too.  

~

And Day 16:

I have more information about each EDiM photo on Flickr.