Why it’s called “crafting”: Flower Afghan
Last night at about 1:30 am I finally finished my daisy flower afghan. I’m quite pleased with the way that it turned out, which is really lovely, because putting that much time and effort into something you felt ambivalent about would be distressing. I was so pleased I actually made a special effort with my photography for the finished project.
This blanket epitomizes for me the nature of crafting: a bit of this, a bit of that and a lot of effort. The patterns are mine and not mine: part flower pattern I found, edited appropriately, part pattern I made up, a multi-colored checkerboard pattern I came up with and some brown and red borders. The end result is only a tiny bit talent – some hand-eye coordination and a bit of visualization. Most of this blanket is just sheer time and effort. I got a lot of practice crocheting.
So how long did it take? Well, it took me about an hour to do each block plus a little, and there are 48 blocks, which means about 52 hours. It took me another 24 hours to do the stitching and borders. Plus a little time when things go wrong or I have to fix mistakes, another 3 hours. I’d say that’s a good but conservative estimate of how long it took to make me, and that means I spent over 100 hours of my life spent making this. I’m quite a bit better at crocheting now.
For the next month or so, you should expect to see a lot of flowers here, this is the beginning. It’s springtime in the Hill Country, which means wildflowers, which is just about as pretty as it gets for me. I’ve always preferred simple field flowers to cultivated ones in almost every case.
So there you go! Nice, eh? I’m very happy it’s finished, and happy it turned out well!
Circle-in-a-Square Granny Square
I have started work on my flower afghan again. 
Hard to believe, but I last talked about this afghan on March 26 of last year, as far as I can tell. I worked on it for a solid 2 months and got 40 granny squares completed. I thought I was done at the time, but when I pinned the squares to a wall, it was too narrow. I had to break off from this to finish my charity project and never returned. So now, in my usual early-in-the-year-spirit of project completion, I have picked it up again. It’s no longer a lap blanket, but has turned into a queen-sized afghan.
This post is about the circle-within-a-square pattern I created for the brown squares. It is designed to echo the circular floral motif of the colored squares. I have not ever written down something like this before, BUT someone once requested that I do so, so here it is. I probably overdid the explanations. It’s only an 8-row square, after all.
**General Warning: No one has tested this but me, about 25 times now. I welcome you to try making it if you feel so inclined, and I might even bribe you if you try (reasonable offers involving yarn accepted) and tell me what you think.**
Circle-in-a-Square Granny Motif
H hook and worsted yarn used for the sample. Note: The ch-3 at the beginning of each Row in italics is equivalent to a dc.
Chain 5, slipstitch into first chain to form a ring.
Row 1: ch-3, 7 dc into ring, join to ch-3 with a slip stitch to complete row. (8 dc.)
Row 2: *ch-4 (not a dc), sc in next dc. Repeat from * around 7 more times. Slip stitch into first ch-4 to complete row. (8 loops of ch-4.) Flower shape.
Row 3: ch-3, 2dc in first ch-4 loop. *3 dc into next ch-4 loop. Repeat from * around 6 more times. Slip stitch into first ch-3 to close row, then slip stitch into next three spaces, ending between 2 groups of three dc. (24 dc.)
Rows 2 and 3
Row 4: ch-3, 2 dc into the same space between groups of 3 dc. ch-3. *Skip next 3 dc and 3 dc in next space. Ch-3. Repeat from * around 6 times. Slip stitch into first ch-3 to close row, then slip stitch into the first ch-3 space. (A total of 24 dc + 24 ch = 48 stitches total.) Completes central circle motif.
Row 5: ch-3, 2 dc, ch-2, 3 dc in first ch-3 space. Skip 3 dc, then 6 dc in the next ch-3 space. *3 dc, ch-2, 3dc in next ch-3 space (corner). 6 dc in the next ch-3 space (side). Repeat from * around to the end another 2 times. Slip stitch into ch-3 to complete row, then slip stitch to first ch-2 space. (A total of 48 dc + 4 ch-2 spaces = 56 stitches total.) Completes an almost-octagon shape.
Rows 4 and 5
Row 6: ch-3, 2 dc, ch-2, 3 dc in first ch-2 space (corner). *Skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space between stitches, skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space (i.e. in between the middle 2 dc in the 6 dc row), skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space, skip 3 dc (one side from *). Repeat 3 more times: corner (3 dc, ch-2, 3 dc) in next ch-2 space, then side stitches to complete square. Join to initial ch-3 to complete row with a slip stitch, then slip stitch into first ch-2 space. (60 dc + 4 ch-2 = 69 stitches.) Now theres a pointy-ish square shape in a standard granny square stitching pattern.
Rows 7: ch-3, 2 dc, ch-2, 3dc in first ch-2 space. *Skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space between stitches, skip 3 dc, 3 dc in next space, repeat until next ch-2 space (completes one side from *). Repeat corner (3 dc, ch-2, 3 dc) in next ch-2 space, then repeat side three more times around. Join to initial ch-3 to complete row with a slip stitch, then slip stitch into first ch-2 space. Lumpy square!
Rows 6 and 7
Rows 8 and 9: Repeat row 7 twice more around to increase the size of the granny square. Square becomes more flat-sided as you work.
Rows 8 and 9
Square complete!
By the way, if you’d like to print this, I have a sweet CSS file that allows my posts to be printed without creating the usual enormous crapola that comes from printing web pages. Because I really hate that, and I like adding gadgets to my blog.
Projects I Wish I Had Time to Do
I love my feed reader, I really do. But then I start going through things and I uncover a wealth of things I would like to do … if only i had the time. Which is always, and never. These are some of the recent things, a bit of cleaning out the Halloween wish list as well. Let’s ignore the fact that I can’t actually do all these things, I must settle for admiring the creative and occasionally kooky talents of others.
Home is where the game controller is cross stitch pattern. [Feeling Stitchy] This really does apply to my home. Maybe a GBA instead?
The brilliant Rubitone concept by industrial designer [Ignacio Pilotto] I love creative ways to display color gradation … Pantone colors make my eyes cross, though.
A knitted Ash from Bruce Campbell vs Army of Darkness by [the Adventures of Cakeyvoice] –”This is my boomstick!” I’m quite fond of Mr. Campbell and Army of Darkness, myself.
Crocheted Ring Bracelet from contributor [Diane Gilleland] on Craft Stylish.
Halloween Ribbon Wreath from [the Long Thread] This is one of those things that’s so straightforward my brain couldn’t possibly come up with it. I might do this for the holidays.
A colorful crocheted Hexagon Granny Blanket from [Attic24] – I’d love to do a hexagon afghan (but only after I finish the ones in progress, eh?)
