Three-Color Afghan Q&A

So one of the main projects I’ve been working on in December was a gift, so I never showed it that much, however now that the holiday is over I’ll reveal it.  It’s an afghan that I made for my grandparents, now about five feet long and about 4.5 feet wide.  It’s very dense and yet stretchy.  Working on it with it on my lap kept me very warm!

Yarn:  It has three colors – off white, chocolate brown and dusty blue.  The worsted-weight yarn is Vanna’s Choice from Lion Brand (oh how my husband laughed when I brought home Vanna White yarn!).  It’s an acrylic yarn, and I thought it a bit squeaky to work with.  But on the whole it’s pretty soft, easy to care for, and fairly priced for a project as big as this.  I believe it took 5-6 balls of each, something like that.  It was made by holding three strands of yarn together as you go, so it took lots of yarn.

Hook Size:  Speed Hook Size Q .  This was my first foray into “speed hooking” and I am torn about the method.  I mean, the loose gauge is great for this sort of project, but it’s not quite so fun to work with.  Kind of hurt my fingers.

Pattern:  Lion Brand’s free pattern the “5 1/2 Hour Throw”.  I modified this pattern quite a bit althought the basic “V stitch” (as I call it) is the same.  I used a smaller hook (calls for size S) which of course decreased the gauge a lot.  I still thought it was loose, so to keep this from feeling “too floppy” I used pretty tight tension.  Despite the gauge decrease, I did increase the size overall significantly by adding additional stitches (the original is about the size of the striped without the border).  I also removed the fringe it called for and instead added a two-row deep half double crochet “binding” border to tighten the edges because I was still unsure how the floppiness and stretchiness of the stitches around the edges would work out over time and with repeated washing.  (Note: Normally I would give you the link to the pattern, but Lion Brand’s site is apparently in the midst of renovation and is totally borked.  So here’s the pattern from Michael’s.)

Color Pattern:  The pattern is a single color thing, but I made a pattern of solid stripes surrounded by a three-tone border.   This matches my grandparents’ sofa (they call the sofa a “davenport” which I’ve never heard outside that area of Iowa).  In my next post, which I shall title “Made of Fail” I’ll tell you how I ended up making this particular color pattern, and give you some insight into how spectacularly the phrase “I am not perfect” fits me and why that doesn’t matter.  The crap I had to go through to get this project to completion was astounding, and as usual, it was all my fault because I made it harder than it needed to be.  Typical.  Well, hope y’all like it

My brother Jeremy gracefully agreed to “model” the blanket to show approximate size.  Pretty big for a lap throw, yes?

Afghan Detail of border and brown stripe:

Cheers to finishing a holiday present!

I’m having a lovely holiday-ish day & evening, which my cat Callie is helping along … doesn’t she look helpful? She’s a whole pile of fluffy trouble.

Today began with a very large breakfast …  so I’ve said I’m nuts about weekend breakfast, but I don’t buy two packages (each) of bacon and sausage like my dad does. When I came downstairs this morning, there was an awesome superfluity of protein and condiments.

I had my dad put away the baking mix, though. Baking mix doesn’t get used in my house. I’m very serious about this. I use my classic Betty Crocker pancake mix, and don’t try to make any other kind of pancakes Chez Miriam.

Then it was off to spend a lovely afternoon with my friend Paula at a craft fair. I got some good stuff, I thought, and I was impressed by the number of vendors who were candidates for running pipe shops. You cannot see what I bought yet, because then people won’t be surprised. I believe possibly that I have triumphed in relation to a certain younger relative while still maintaining my buy-handmade pledge, but we shall yet see.

I am very appreciative of my couch right now, which allows me t0 relax and watch the Food Network. There’s a Paula Deen/Cat Cora vs. Robert Irvine/Tyler Florence Iron Chef Battle on and today’s secret ingredient is sugar. I love Paula Deen – I can’t cook any of her food for fear of instant heart attack, but the woman is hysterical and her food appeals to the southerner in me.  I like cooking fritters, too.

I think it’s worth noting that I finished a holiday present – a scarf for my brother’s girlfriend. This was the scarf that was intended to be plaid, however the plaid did not work out although I did do some helpful experimenting, so it turned out to be a lovely striped scarf. The last step was fringe … and then the scarf was done!!!

The scarf finishin’ was not easy because Callie took a great interest in it, although at first she pretended to ignore me… but eventually she had to give into her instincts and try to take it away from me.  She was very interested in the process of trimming the fringe.  The picture after this that I didn’t take is of her leaping on me and trying to take the scarf away.  But I rescued it, and all is well.  My brother is pleased with the result, and I hope Stephanie will be

Flower Scarf: a new WIP

Christmas WIP:  I’m making three crocheted Christmas projects this year and am well into two of them.  I still don’t feel like I have quite enough to post on my crochet along, but maybe by the end of the weekend I will have managed to make a significant amount of progress.  Enough, anyway.

The Flower Scarf

Inspiration & Pattern:  As is my wont, I have researched this whole flower idea thoroughly.  I LOVE flowers, so I’ve been interested in making them for some time.  Then I ran across the 100 Flower Scarf pattern and associated flower designs at Applehead and decided I needed to make one.  In this case it’s actually not for me but for my teenagerish cousin Chelsea.  I’m crossing my fingers that she likes it.  I really have no idea what a 14-year-old might like.  I really want her to like it, so I’m actually a little nervous about giving this to her.

I also liked Charlene’s white flower,  the flower motifs at ChezCrochet.com, and also found some inspiration in Bernat’s flower power rug, although really what I needed were some motifs.

My Additions:  I decided, after practicing them a bit, that the flowers I’ve seen and tried are just too small for what I have in mind.  I wanted more like 4-5 inches across.

Then I went to the yarn shop and found some yarn I liked – Chelsea’s allergic to a lot of things, so I wanted to go for cotton.  I found Cascade Luna in four colors – butterscotch, green, chocolate and white.  Those decided the rest of the pattern direction.

The colors I chose were selected so I can make sunflowers and white daisies (some of my absolute favorites) and add leaves into the mix.  I’m keeping to a sort of ladder/trellis manner of putting it all together.  I hope it will look really garden-like and fun when I am done.

I took me most of last weekend to work out proper flower patterns I like, and really, I keep experimenting with each new one I do.  Most of the flowers will be just a wee bit different in this scarf.  Slightly different sizes, slightly different looks to them.  Makes it more interesting, IMHO.  I’ve had a lot of fun with it.  I’ve made about half the flowers now and a few more centers, but have run out of yarn.

Sidebar:  I am posting a couple of pictures of my new WIP, but these pictures are crap.  My camera continues to deteriorate, meaning the quality of my photos continues to do so as well.  I am not pleased.  Cameras are expensive, and to have one go south just a year after purchase makes me quite unhappy.  It’s a Nikon Coolpix L5, so it’s not a super expensive camera, but it’s not crap either.   Or at least, that’s what I believed.