The Center is Finished

Its now Saturday night and I'm just chilling from a day of errands, laundry and house cleaning. Yeah..I clean house every once in a while, mostly when I am out of clean eating utensils and clothes.

So I've been a working on the afghan and have the 6 inch squares done. There are 12 total. They look like this:

The 4 at each corner have the same pattern but a different background color.


This piece has :
Caron Simply Soft in Soft Blue
Mary Maxim Starlette in Green
Caron Simply Soft in Bone
Mary Maxim Starlette in Natural
Mary Maxim Starlette in Chocolate

I changed out the Chocolate for Camel in the corner squares. The Camel is Mary Maxim Starlette.

Altogether it is looking pretty grand, if I do say so myself and I do!

The pattern is called Sunburst Granny Squares by Priscilla Hewitt.

I've started on the small 3 inch squares which will surround the whole middle. Ah...what have I gotten myself into. Each 3 inch square has 3 colors which means 6 ends times, let's see, a billion?? Hmm...I may want to rethink that. I don't mind weaving in ends, but there is a limit.

I just realized that I need to make a Christmas present. So this goes on the back burner while I peruse Pinterest and Ravelry to find a neat pattern. Shhhh...don't tell.

A Good Start

Happy Day after Thanksgiving! I hope you all realize all the things/people for which you/we are thankful. I won't get too maudlin and list all that I am thankful for, but I am grateful for the ability to crochet, the means by which to do it, and cats who don't get into my yarn basket.

I thought about how to make that lovely afghan and decided that for me, the only way to do it was to take it a section at a time. I looked at the middle section and guesstimated it to be about 24 inches square. It may not be, but that's my story and I'm sticking too it!

The middle area is made of 3 inch grannies, which is great, but I wanted a statement center, so I went with a 12 inch middle that will be surrounded by 6 inch squares. One of the hardest tasks, and one of the funnest, is picking the pattern and the colors. Colors! Oh my gosh. The original must have a billion colors, or at least a lot. I'd say the original has an overall red theme and that gives it that Oriental rug look. I chose more greens and browns. I hope to get the Oriental rug look; keeping my fingers crossed. So what do I have so far? Here is the 12 inch middle piece.

After I made it, I decided to add a round of brown (oh...look...I'm a poet) to all the squares that are going to make up the entire center. This pattern is called Raindrop Block by Donna Kay Lacey. I changed the last couple of rounds. The blue in my square is more of a country blue and what looks white is soft taupe. This gives you the idea. The yarns I used were all a worsted weight (#4), but from different manufacturers. Some have a sheen and some are matte, which gives the whole piece a bit more character. In this piece you will find:

Mary Maxim Starlette in Chocolate
Mary Maxim Starlette in Medium Taupe
Mary Maxim Starlette in Soft Taupe 
Mary Maxim Starlette in Green
Mary Maxim Starlette in Caramel
Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue
Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red

Green? Green? Where are the greens? Coming chickadees. Peace.

Quixotic Afghan

Hi everyone. Hope all of you in the Mid-Atlantic states have prepared for the storm coming your way. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have started another project. I was looking around  Pinterest a few weeks ago and came across the most wonderful looking afghan. I tracked down the original posting and it turns out that is is on a fabulous French website. Alas, there was no pattern for the afghan.

I kept seeing this afghan being repinned and repinned. I studied it as best I could and thought "Hey..I'm going to give it a try. I want to make this afghan for myself. " Yes, I may be crazy, but I'm going to have lots of spare time in the near future so I think this is going to be a fun project. Take a look at this. Gorgeous, yes?

Other work by this talented fiber artist can be found at  Clothogancho.

I'll be back over the next several weeks showing my progress on this Quixotic endeavor. Peace.

Fern Forest Scarf

This is an orange scarf update. I said that the scarf was inspired by a pattern that I saw. I found the pattern and would like to give credit to the designer. The book is Crochet: 20 simple and stylish designs to wear by Jane Davis. The book can be found at Amazon  http://tinyurl.com/7hp4mzy.  I may make another scarf using another whole different set of colored and textured yarns. I wish I could show you her picture of the scarf. Even the name is lovely Fern Forest Scarf. There is also a pattern for matching Fern Leaf Mittens.

It's Orange!

As I said, it's orange. Lots of orange. Many oranges.

Many years ago I made a friend an orange scarf. Last fall, her house got struck by lightning and burned. Insurance took care of her basic needs etc., but as all of us who have been there know, you lose more than just your "stuff". I decided to make her a new orange scarf. I did not have time to make the yarn like her last one, but found a pattern for a most cool replacement. When I get my act together, I'll find the link.

I had fun looking for all kinds of orange yarns. I got some that were thick, some thin, some dark in color and some light in color. Most were wool/wool blends, but I did find a variegated gold/orange/green silky tape. Each row or two was either a different yarn or different stitch. All in all, it was a fun exercise in texture and I think she liked it.

The More I Think, The More I Can't Decide

Happy New Year!

When last we met, I was going to make a green and yellow scarf as a gift. I thought that I would dye the fiber, then spin up a green yarn and a yellow yarn and then the barber pole green and yellow. The barber pole would be used as the edging. Then I thought about it a bit more and changed my mind.

My friend also likes a bit of red in the mix and I couldn't decide how to add it so it looked good. So I changed my mind again. I went back to the green and yellow idea and started the Mirror Lake scarf. I was using the natural colored yarn, thinking I could dye the squares after they were made. I would make up all the squares and then dye half of them green and half yellow. I kept thinking about it while I was crocheting and changed my mind again.

I frogged (undid) the crocheting and decided to try another pattern. (I really liked the Mirror Lake so I will keep that pattern for another time). I found another pattern that I like, The Cathedral Pineapple Prayer Shawl Scarf. by Maria Merlino. It is a beautiful pattern and much easier to do than it looks. Its a clever pattern in that you make 1/2 of it, then make the other half from the foundation chain. The point of that is so when you drape it around your neck, all the pineapples are going in the same direction.

So here is the finished scarf.


In the picture below you can see the center back where the two pineapples come off the same foundation chain.


I still couldn't decide how to dye it, so I finally just gave it as it and let the giftee decide about any coloring.

Here is a computer rendition of how I envisioned the scarf to look like when I was done hand-painting it.



I think its just as well that she decided to keep it a natural color, yes? hehehhehe

Next time around: ORANGE

Where does the time go?

Oh my gosh! Has it really been since September since I have posted? Well this confirms something that I have thought about and that’s that I am no blogger. However, I have been busy, I promise you. Here’s what’s been happening fiber wise.

I got some of the carding finished and made a scarf out of the undyed yarn. It’s a pretty Aryan fisherman color with a touch of grey. Because of the fancy pattern, I couldn’t decide if I wanted to dye it or not. Since it is a gift, I’ll let the gifted decide if she would like it any other color.

Here you can see some progress on the scarf.

Here is the completed scarf, “Lobster Trap Scarf with Fishnet Trim” by Lyn Robinson. I did not put on the fishnet part. The pattern can be found here:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lobster-trap-scarf-with-fishnet-trim

Here is a closeup of the pattern.

I got that scarf finished except for the blocking. I still need to do that.

I continued to spin more of the same fiber to make more yarn for another scarf. This time though, I knew that I wanted to dye it. Dying is one of many of the creative parts of the spinning process. You can dye your fiber anytime during the process.

For this scarf, I decided to dye the fiber after it was carded, but before I spun it up. I have these lovely, soft batts that I threw in the dye pot and dyed them pretty much the same way I dyed the yarn mentioned in the last post. Since I’m back to work and the days are coolers and shorter in daylight, I had to dry the batts around the house. For a couple of days it was like a maze going from one room to another.

And yes, there are several colors there. I used blue, peacock, teal and turquoise. When I spun them up, I got a variegated yarn. I wanted something that looked like water with all its various shades/hues of blue.

I started a scarf as a gift, but the colors were coming out all "blocky" not flowing like I envisioned. So I ripped the scarf apart and tried it another way...and ripped that out and tried again. I finally got it going the way I wanted. It is a pattern of my own design. And of course, it need blocking too. I don't really like to block I discover, but it really does make the final product so much nicer. I'll get to it *g*

I have one more scarf/gift to make. But before I could start on that, it was time to make a few scarves for the Special Olympics. For the past couple of years, I've gotten some students together to make (crochet) scarves. This year another teacher (Hi Donna!) wanted to do that, so I am only along for the ride *g* The kids are doing very well and we will have lots of scarves to mail away this year. This is a good thing. Here are the three I made.

Now that the Special Olympic scarfs are done that I said I'd make, its time to get to the final gift scarf. I've spun two skeins so far and need about 3 more. This one is called Mirror Lake Scarf by Lisa Gentry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mirror-lake-scarf

It is made by sewing crocheted squares together. I plan to make the squares and then dye them in a light shade of yellow and green. If all goes well, I would like to make a green and yellow "barbershop" yarn to use for the edging.

Well that pretty much gets us all up to speed. Thanks for looking!