A Week’s Worth of Stitching

Unsurprisingly, I have begun a new project.

Not only that, I’ve volunteered for another new one. And possibly, volunteered my mother-in-lw for one too But more on the volunteering later, because it’s an awesome project and deserves its own post or two.

SO, new project came about because my brother gave me some bright green and brown yarn when I was in Alaska. As expected, he neither knew what kind it was nor what its fiber content was, just that he’d purchased it at Michael’s (that was me looking for it, right). So off I went to Michael’s, whereupon I discovered that it was Red Heart Soft Yarn, acrylic. I was pleased. It was both (a) inexpensive enough to do a large project, (b) not wool and (c) soft and washable. I am allergic to wool, so that would’ve been the end of that.

I had an idea, you see, born of a Flickr picture from a talented contact and this yarn from Jeremy. You see, I love flowers, and with spring approaching (hey, it’s 80 outside, it’s never winter here!) I’m apparently thinking daisies. So when I saw this 3-D daisy granny square, it called to me (also here on the designer’s site). Ah, I love this pattern. And I love granny squares!

I also had some thin, soft white Caron Simply Soft yarn similar to the Red Heart. So with the addition of some dark purplish Red Heart, some dark red Caron, and some soft orangish and yellow Red Heart, I am now making a lap afghan. That’s the pattern there (left), a checkerboard of brown with the flowers in red, yellow, orange and purple. Gee, I choose awfully fall-esque colors for a spring quilt, don’t I? I have mentioned my living room is red and brown, right?

I should add a caveat. The brown square is my own design (I’ll add a pattern for it). I worked all Saturday on it. I didn’t want the whole afghan to be flowers, but I wanted the designs to be similar. So since a flower is a circle on a square, I worked out a circle-in-a-square openwork granny. I think I need to add another row around them to make them more the same size, but I really like how the pattern turned out. While experimenting I discovered a lovely octagonal granny (right)I will eventually use for something else. This will make a really pretty something-or-other someday.

Anyway, I’ve been working really hard on it, and I really am enjoying it. I’ve got about 10 of the 40 squares I need done. There will be 20 brown, 8 red, 4 purple, 4 yellow and 4 orange. Well, I think so. I’ve only made red and brown so far, and I kind of like that too. Here’s my progress so far, rather pretty it’s turning out Yay!