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

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

About done

Last night I finished crocheting in the last circles into hexagons on my chakra circles into hexagons blanket. Here it is, from all sides:

I will be working on a half hexagon motif for the 8 spaces (4 on top, and 4 on bottom) using just the beige, and I also need to weave in a bazillion ends too, but the major work is done! Earlier I had worked the dark blue and an alternating row of red and purple all around from that center hexagon. I decided it was way too wide so I tore those 2 rows out and started building it longer.

I know it is long and skinny because it needs to be. This is a blanket for use on my Reiki Healing clients as they are on the massage table. I hope it proves comfy.

If it turns out to be too narrow I can always build on each side as I have plenty of hexagons left. I will just stash them away for a bit and if I don’t use them on the sides, then I will making pillows and/or child sized blankets out of them.

Today I needed a break, so I headed off to the Needlework Unlimited sale. Bought a bunch of sportweight kid colored yarn for charity blankets, and 2 pairs of felted slippers that say, yarn queen and knitting queen on them. I already have a set that say yarn goddess.

Peace

Christmas 2007 is finally over!

I finished sewing my sister’s Christmas 2007 afghan last night. Here it is, just hanging out on one of my chairs.

I still need to de-hair, wash and dry the afghan before giving it to my sis.

I planned on sewing together RetinaBurn, but dang I just don’t feel like doing that. So today I will start crocheting together my circles into hexagons chakra blanket. I have my corrected plan here too.

See you later!

~ Peace

Circles into Hexagons and other things

I have crocheted all 210 3-color circles for my chakra blanket. Just tonight I finished the placement plan:

Now I have to crochet them all together. That means working the last 2 rows on all of them, taking them from circles to hexagons.

From this placement I am only using 163 of the circles, the rest I am going to make into pillows or some sort of wall hanging for the healing space.

So, what do you think?

I am impressed to say I even figured out a way to make the plan. All those 3 colored circles are stacked images. I couldn’t figure out how to do it in my graphics software (Paintshop Pro) but I managed it in Windows Publisher. Sometimes the tool for the job is the one that lets you do things in the rough way – quickish and non-arty but good enough.

Other things I have been up to are sewing together my sister’s afghan. I might have that done tomorrow evening. I am bringing it along for my project during my BeadLadies meeting.

After sewing up my sister’s afghan m y plan is to star sewing the RetinaBurn afghan. It will feel good to have both of these sewing stages of these projects done. I think I will be able to enjoy the crocheting process of the hexagon chakra blanket if I know some of my other projects aren’t haunting me.

But that doesn’t mean I feel so guilty that I am not going to be doing my computer games. Have you found Sheep’s Quest yet? It is a hoot. You help sheep to upgrade their farm by moving through maze-like formations – make arrows so that they will follow, pick up coins and keep them away from the predators (wolves, penguins, etc.) and normal sheep landscape items like land-mines, pits and such. I finished the game – purchased all the upgrades so now my sheep can watch giant outdoor screens, go to the arcade, and dance at the disco. That’s a normal sheep’s life, isn’t it?

p.s. I just spied a mistake involving 2 circles. Can you find it too?

Peace!