Almost there!

I finished crocheting another ripple. This one is 37 x 56 inches. Done in earth tones. Here it is:

It is the same ripple stitch as the blue and greens I did a bit ago. This time instead of a somewhat random I did 2 repeating patterns.

Here are some close-ups of some of the repeats:

Basically it is one skein of each color except for the variegated, and the greens are really 3 different. I ran out of one and had to sub in the 2nd green along the way, but it isn’t really that bad and is somewhat hidden because it is next to a variegated stripe, so the eye doesn’t land hard there. That is what I am telling myself anyway.

I started another today (9 out of my goal of 10) and I am finding not having enough yarn is getting to be a repeating issue. That is one of the problems of doing stash projects – you finally run out of stash! I guess that is a nice problem. All I need to do is go out and get some more yarn, which isn’t a sad thing at all. Here is what I have so far:

It is called the Sideways Shell Baby Afghan, by Donna Laing. I started out with a longer starting chain because I am using sportweight yarn. It is an easy, quick pattern. I have already used up 2 of my 6 skeins of the yarn. Not enough yarn, so I am going to try to find some matching sportweight to put 2 or more sections of solid between each 2 skein stripe. There will also be a solid colored border. That is the plan, anyway.

More later!

~ Peace

The Game – My Mosaic

1. Black-eyed Susan
2. My Turkey Dinner
3. Frank B. Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of State
4. A Better Day – faded blue
5. Dave Matthews
6. first day of summer – currently iced tea
7. Dalai Lama – DM and Dalai Lama=heaven, but I wasn’t there.
8. lemon bar cupcake – lemon curd cake
9. Meeting – loving
10. A special stillness of Japan…in NY – stillness
11. We are choosing hope over fear. –
12. squares – ZenKnit
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

I saw this on The Purloined Letter.

Here are the rules:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search
b. Using only the first page of results, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

This was interesting. Searching using "tags only" brought up better results.
~ Peace

Guess what this means:

Guess what this means:

This is the sign of an afghan in it’s last stages of completion. The weaving in of all the tails of yarn. The best way to do this is to get a whole bunch of DVDs to listen to (remember, your eyes aren’t on the screen) or CDs because it is less distracting. Have the remote handy because you will be jumping up and down to get iced tea refills, taking potty breaks and letting the dog and/or cats in or out. You need to have a pair of very sharp scissors (buried under the stack of ends in this photo), needles and such.

I always like to have a my laminated photo of the Dalai Lama around or in my pocket wherever I go. Looking at it reminds me to be compassionate. Keeps the criticism down and helps me to peaceful and relax while I am doing something as mind numbing as finishing an afghan.

Cats and dogs usually like to help too!

This one is using most of my stash of blues and greens. The pattern is from 200 Ripple Stitches, by Jan Eaton, using the pattern called warm waves. It is was fun to do and the ripple is very bendy. All increase and decreases – not too holey, but I like to think that it is holy seeing the Dalai Lama was involved. It is about 39 inches across and 52 inches long. I used a repeating pattern of 2 greens, 1 blue, 1 green, 2 blues. There is a spot up on the upper left where I ran out of the medium blue I was using so I had to sub in some darker bright blue. I like to think of it as a cute freckle on a serene face.

Peace!

Catching up.

I wanted to leave the Aguirre Avenue post on top for a while so that my family could find it. But it’s time to move on because I have finished projects to show you.

I finished the leafy vine blanket. I don’t think I mentioned that I ran into a dye lot problem with that blanket. I had just grabbed up all of the balls of green yarn at the last NU Outlet sale. I did notice that the bunch was several dye lots, but in eyeballing them, didn’t notice any great differences. Then I proceeded to knit the blanket up, checking under my faux Ott light and did notice something but rationalized it away because it was a “oh, this part is in the light, and that part looks darker but it is because it isn’t in the light” kind of thing. After knitting up 3 or 4 balls of yarn I decided to take a photo and this is what it looked like with flash.

Ouch! I decided to knit on. Thankfully I had 2 more skeins of that lighter dye lot and decided to end with the same lighter dye lot, keeping the other ball in reserve in case I needed to add some sort of embellishing to help pretty up the color jump.

When I was done I checked in with others who have that kind of picky notice things behavior like I do, which comes in handy in times like this. We all decided that the color difference within the blanket wasn’t very noticeable in regular light. So here it is:

This blanket was based on a free pattern for a dishcloth, leafy vines cloth by NightlyKnitter.

Next, I decided to do a crochet star blanket. Crocheted blankets go so quickly. I managed to crank this one out in five days. All old and newer stash too!

I found the star pattern while browsing around in Ravelry. It is a free pattern, Chromium Star by Laura Lynn Hanks. She has some good tutorials that help with some techniques for making increases and decreases without creating the normal but largish holes in the fabric.

Now I am working on another blanket for Project Little Lambs. Another crochet so that I can be sure to make my personal goal of ten blankets by August 1st.

Again, stash yarn is used. Yeah! I am really enjoying this simple pattern (free) from Lion Brand Yarn, called Baby Blocks Throw. I am doing more squares, so basically the same pattern but 4 blocks of each color combination. Here is what I had done a few days ago:

I should be able to finish it up today, but may hold off on crocheting or sewing it up because I want your help/opinions on what layout to use.

More on that later!

~ Peace

Aguirre Avenue

Aguirre Avenue is now a reality – yeah! It was a beautiful sunny day, just right for a huge family gathering. It was great to have so many family members together to take part in this important event.

Here are a few photos below. There are more on my Flickr group. If you were a part of today’s event and have photos or video clips you would like to share – please do! Just meet me at Aguirre Avenue on Flickr

~ Peace

Countdown to an important day

I am so proud to be an Aguirre. This next week, Wednesday, May 21st, my family will be honored to have a street (avenue actually) named Aguirre. It is all because of my dad’s family. His 10 brothers, out of a total of 11, have all served in the military and all came home after their service – alive. My uncle Charles worked for many years to get some sort of recognition for the family’s service. Sadly, uncle Charlie died last year but his efforts were rewarded. I am sure he and my other uncles who have died, Henry, Robert, Mike, and Ruben will be there in spirit as well as my grandparents, Jose F. and Enriqueta, and my auntie Maggie.

On the East side of St. Paul, close to where their family home was, and close to where I am living now, Wadena will be named Aguirre.

Do you want to see a video of my handsome dad and my uncles Pete, Joe, Frank, Joe and Bill? Here is a link. My father, Louis, is the man 2nd from the left seated at the picnic table. In the old anniversary photo they show my dad is the one on the far right, last to be seen in the scan.

And here is a link to one of the most recent newspaper articles.

~ Peace

Goals are good

Finished another child sized blanket for Project Little Lambs. Here it is:

And a detail shot:

It still needs to be washed and blocked to make it look nice, but I am going to hold off until I am finished with the (10?) that I want to donate. I have until August, so I think it is going to be very easy to make my goal, even if some will be a larger size.

Here is a shot of my newest. Another knit. It doesn’t look like much yet, but after I get another skein knit the pattern should show better.

The yarn, Patons, Look at Me, is super soft. I have 7 skeins and will probably just keep on knitting it until I run out of yarn.

Isn’t it just a lovely day for Mother’s Day? My sister Chaachi and I took my mom out for Mother’s Day brunch at Fabulous Ferns. Good eating.

Now it is time to just kick back and blog, Ravelry, knit. Happy Mother’s Day for all of you who have human and animal babes, or mother/parent some other way (creativity, spirituality, LOVE).

Peace

One on the needles

Going back to my knitting on this one, and touching back into my ripple love.

This is a knitted ripple using the pattern Easy Ripple Baby Blanket.

I am using some discontinued Encore Colorspun DK from my stash. CO 142 stitches (34 stitch repeat + 6) using US 7 needles. Only 3 pattern lines, pretty mindless once I got past the fact that I couldn’t keep count of where I was based on where the cast-on tail was. What is really nice is this pattern is totally reversible.

~ Peace

Really done now

I finished tucking in the ends. Whew! That was a lot of work. I think it looks so much better with those nasty bits tamed, and the half-hexagon motifs there and all.

This child sized blanket is about 34 x 38 inches. It was made with some of the discontinued colors of cotton-ease. I used a bit of one skein of each of the colors: red, turquoise, navy, orange and yellow. I think I used about 3-4 skeins of white (can’t really remember). All of the colors where from my stash, but I ended up needing more white, so I picked up more white for another future project.

The right and left sides where the half-hexs are inserted kind of pooch out a bit, but I don’t think anyone but another crocheter would mind. I decided to go without borders too. Borders made it look odd.

I started on a knitted afghan using more stash yarn. I will post that once it looks like something other than a puny cast on and a few rows.

~ Peace

Just can’t wait

Can’t wait until I am entirely done with this project. Had to get it out into the blog and Ravelry world. Tonight I finished most of the work on my 1st child’s blanket for Project Little Lambs.

Anyway, here is what I have done so far:

Just tonight I finished doing the last rows on full hexagons, and started working on the half-hexagons. It took many attempts until I was happy with the half-hexagon. It isn’t perfect, but it will do and I think it will look better after I crochet on a border. I have to figure out what color(s) to use for that too. But basically, it is looking pretty good if I do say so myself. I hope to finish this one up some time tomorrow, and then I will post a better photo and some of the details – yarn amounts used and such.

I may do another hexagon blanket using some of the other discontinued cotton-ease colors: pink, lt blue, purple – perhaps white again, but maybe not as the main color. So more later…

Peace