Saturday, April 26, 2008

Pineapple Motif Scarf/Shawl

5/11/08 Update

This is not working out - I've tossed this in the, pineapple scarf? What Pineapple scarf? pile. :P

I wanted to make a friend of mine a scarf. No, not the wintery kind - we live in Florida. I had seen her wear a long scarf with a dress the other day and it gave me an idea.

I went to Michael's Art & Crafts and picked up some Paton's Brilliant in Crystal Cream. It's a good color for her and the specks of gold add a bit of classiness in my opinion. :)

I was going to to a lacy tunisian stitch, but wasn't loving how it was turning out. Then I remembered a pineapple motif pattern I had and got the book and decided to do that.

I'm on the forth motif, not sure how it's all going to turn out or how many more skeins I'm going to have to use, but I'll play it by ear.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Granny Square Bolero

When my issue of the may/june '08 Crochet today! came in the mail, I knew that I wanted to make the bolero pictured on the cover for my girls. It's on page 48 and designed by Jacqueline van Dillen. Another W.I.P.

Panda Bear Cross-Stitch Afghan

Even though I ranted about the Marshall Amp blanket (the cross-stitch part), I am going to work another cross-stitch blanket. I saw a book at Herrschners with panda bears and it was crochet. I simply had to get it. :)

It's called Cross-Stitch Crochet Afghans 2008 National Afghan Contest Winners. I had been happily working away on it when I got flooded with a few other projects, so it's setting aside for the time being, but I will get back to it because, well, it's pandas!

Personalized Baby Blanket

My second personalized baby blanket is finished. I used dark country blue and grey in Caron Simply Soft and an H hook. It is 28" x 31 1/2". Hubby helped chart out the crown on the mat. I used tunisian stitch for the mat and cross-stitched the name and crown in. I used a reverse sc for the border.

Striped Soy Baby Blanket and Cap

I had picked up some Bernat Soy from Michael's. It was on clearance for 1/2 off and I couldn't resist. I picked up some colors in blue, white, off white and brown. I then read that a couple whose music really ministers to me is having a baby. I e-mailed her and asked if I could make a blanket for the baby. She said yes. I knew I was going to use the Soy and simply adapted the pattern on the skein wrapper. It's a small blanket, but so soft and I really love the design. I had a bit of yarn left over so I made up a cap for him, too.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Finished Pile

Have you ever had a project that was so almost finished that it sat there for weeks almost finished? Oh, I guess that's just me. ;) I had 2 projects I was working on (4 actually, but we won't talk about the other two, yet). They both are baby blankets. One is commissioned by a friend and the other is a gift I'm making for a couple who's music has ministered deeply to me. The commissioned blanket has been almost finished for a little while, waiting on me to ask dear hubby to sketch out a crown for me to cross-stitch on the mat. The gift is basically finished but for the ends that need to be woven in and then snipped off. I finished them both tonight! YAY! And, in fact, I think the Lord sent an angel to help me with the gift because when I got halfway up the blanket, I saw that that half was already woven in! And I had done the other side of the blanket already. Double YAY! Thank you LORD! I'll be posting pictures of the final projects under separate posts, so stay tuned.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Personalized Baby Afghan #2

My friend has asked me for another baby blanket. Another family member on her son-in-law's side recently gave birth to a baby boy.

She said the first blanket was a hit with the family so we decided on a second one for this little guy. Since he has already been dubbed "The Prince", I decided to modify the border with crowns in place of the hearts.

When I first charted out a crown, I didn't take into account that my graph paper was square but the area I was working with was more rectangular, given I'm using dc. But I did think ahead to make up some swatches to see what it looked like. I decided to modify the border even more. The pattern shows 6 hearts along the bottom, top and 2 hearts along each side. Because I don't want my crowns look like they've been squished from the sides, I am making 3 crowns along the top and bottom with nothing along the sides.

I've also charted his name and need to chart another crown for the mat portion of the blanket. I've completed the bottom portion of the crown border and am about halfway done with one of the sides.