Taa-Daa!

The front edges DO line up.  I was standing crooked.

Finished up the non smoking jacket.  It doesn't look exactly like what it set out to be, but it's a keeper anyway.  :-)  The post stitches give it some 3D texture, and I love the vertical stripe effect.

It was supposed to have a shawl collar and belt.  But I didn't like the belt, and I didn't like how the collar hung open more than I wanted it to.  So I added 6 buttons and made it a double-breasted jacket instead.

And the good news is I actually WROTE DOWN THE PATTERN this time!  Sort of.  It's in my own crochet shorthand and partially charted, but at least I can make it again sometime.

In other news, you may have heard about a recent small event called Hurricane Sandy.  Well, one of my fellow Ravelers lives in a part of New York that was impacted, and she is collecting hand knit and crocheted items to distribute.  I quickly whipped up a baby afghan to pop in the mail.

This pattern is a freebie, called Cerulean Harmony Throw, designed by Carrie Carpenter.  If you're new to changing colors in crochet without cutting the yarn, this is an excellent pattern to learn the technique.   I modified her pattern an eensy bit, and only did two rows of each color instead of three, like the pattern states.  

Close up of the color changes.  Work 4 double-crochets, then drop the yarn and switch to the other color.  The unused yarn is carried along inside the stitch.  Very clever.

So I made this afghan, and I like it very much.  So much, that I decided to swap it with the one I made months ago for my BFF's baby girl, due this Friday.  I had made her a rainbow stripe afghan because at the time, she didn't know the gender.  Now that she knows she is having a girl, it makes more practical sense to give her this girly pink and purple sparkly thing, and to mail the gender-neutral rainbow stripe one to New York.  It will find an appropriate home there, no doubt.  

Rainbow Ripple baby afghan, for a Hurricane Sandy baby.

It's also germ-central around here.  Both of my kids have been sick, and they have different ailments no less. So there isn't one icky bug in here, but two!  I made an emergency trip to Walgreen's for antibacterial wipes and we're spraying down everything with Lysol.  I do NOT want to spend Thanksgiving in bed with a bucket, thank you very much.

In between the fevers and chills, my son read a couple of the Ugly Guide books, based on the Ugly Dolls.  Then he drew pictures of two of the critters from the books and asked if I could make him some new cuddly creatures.  We rooted through the craft bucket for some fleece scraps and buttons, and whipped out these guys.  

The yellow guy supposedly has 3 brains; one in each piece of his head.

The drawings that inspired the creatures.

There's nothing like new cuddle friends to make you feel better.  I guess Tylenol works too, though.

Snuggly Baby Stuff

Baby blankets are fun.  They're small and quick and just when you're getting tired of repeating that stitch pattern, it's finished!

My husbands nephew and new wife are are expecting their first child later this summer.  The second they found out it's a boy, I jumped in the car and went yarn shopping.

This was a tricky project because the dad-to-be is an architect.  Being married to an architect myself, I understand how weird they can be about colors and lines.  So, I decided to go with color-blocking, and chose this pattern with simple details, clean lines and all that.

The colors themselves are an adult spin on the classic crayola box.  Instead of traditional baby brights, I went with muted shades.  A kid could (theoretically) snuggle under this thing well into their childhood without embarrassment or fear of mocking from their peers at sleepovers.

The stripes are made individually, then connected to the previous row with this neat little zig-zag bit.  This pattern is a freebie from Lion Brand Yarn.

Huh.  I wonder if the recipients of this blanket read my blog?  Well....if so, SURPRISE!   Hope you like it.  :-)

Babies Like Schedules and So Do I

When my kids were tiny it seemed the only way I kept the fridge full of food and everybody in fresh laundry was to have a schedule.  It went something like this:

Monday - Mom's Group & Playdate
Tuesday - Preschool & Errands
Wednesday - Laundry and Sheets
Thursday - Preschool & Errands
Friday - Laundry, Clean the House

Now that the Little Ones are bigger and off at school all day long, I let the schedule go because it wasn't as necessary. 

Or is it?

These days, laundry gets done when the basket starts to overflow onto the floor.  Or when one of the kids hollers that they have no clean jeans. (Thank goodness we have ample socks and underwear around here!)  The sheets get changed on a regular basis, but it's anywhere from three days to ten, depending on when I remember.  I do a pretty good job keeping food in the fridge, but that's purely my own selfishness of making sure there's always romaine and radishes for my daily afternoon salad.  Might as well pick up food for the other people while I'm buying lettuce and ranch.

However, this blog is suffering from neglect.  I think of it often, really I do.  But sometimes it seems like such a mountainous task to take photos, retake photos (because I am a horrible photographer), upload the photos, write about it all, blah blah blah.  

And so, the blog is going on a schedule.   I'm going to start a thing called Finished Object Fridays, which will be just what the name implies.  Or it may be Almost-Finished Fridays, depending on the week.  :-)

This week: Finished Object Friday (12-2-11)

Sample skirt from the book Sew Serendipity.  I'll give a book recommendation and review later, because this is the best book for skirts and dresses I've found yet.    I wanted to try one of the skirt patterns for size and fit.  This is just stash fabric I had lying around.  It's a flattering A-line with pockets.

Love the stitch detail on this piece.  Here's a pocket close-up:

It's a little snug so I'm going to make the next one a size larger (that's why a sample is so important!), and I'm going to make a winter version using the dark gray tweed with microsuede below.  It will be so pretty!  Picture this stuff with tall black boots and a fitted sweater.

In other Work-In-Progress news, I've made more octagons for the Realta Afghan.  I'm about 20% done with the thing...maybe.  It's been so relaxing to sit at the end of the day and make an octagon or two, so it's ok that this will be a long process.  They just POP with color and bring such cheer to these cold winter days!

Till next week, then.  :-)

Basket of Joy, Refilled

Check this out

No, that's not mine.  It's called the Realta Afghan and it was designed by one of my fellow crocheters on Ravelry, The Gingerbread Lady.  When I first saw it, I kind of forgot to breathe!  My face got closer and closer to the monitor as I tried to analyze it's construction and stitches.  Then I sighed (loudly) closed the browser, and moved on to more practical thoughts, because an afghan like this takes a looonnnnng time to crochet.

That was probably two months ago.   But I've secretly been pulling up this photo and going breathless over it on a regular basis.  And then it hit me - who cares if making one would take a looonnnnggg time!  It's November 15th, which means we could have several feet of snow on the ground, like, any second now, and I really don't have anywhere to be until Spring. 

And so the Basket of Joy was refilled! 

This is truly a clever afghan design.  It starts out with a rainbow assortment of colors (I'm using 12 colors), which are laid out in a color wheel.  What really makes this pop is that each octagon is made using colors that touch on the wheel.  I never woulda thought of that.

I envision this wonderfully cheerful, colorful afghan to work on all winter long.  The snow will fall peacefully and the kids will play happily by the fire pick fights with each other through the cold depths of winter as cabin fever sets in.

Three motifs done.....a billion to go.

'Tis the Season

Ahhhh.....late summer.

The Little Ones have returned to school.  Life resumes a regular schedule.  Bedtimes are again enforced.

This is my New Year.  It's a chance to start fresh.  In addition to getting the kids geared up for school, I cleaned out my home office and re-organized everything.  Very refreshing.

My August New Year comes complete with resolutions.  This year, I want to challenge myself try new techniques, including but not limited to:

• Insert an invisible zipper
• Sew more with knits (two successful projects this week - more on this in a blog post soon!)
• Make something wearable using Tunisian crochet
• Learn the knit and purl stitches with the double-ended crochet hook
• Take a knitting class
• Make a project from Lily Chin's Mosaic Magic.

I'll keep you posted. 

In the meantime, one of the ladies from my Ravelry Crochet Club mentioned the Attic24 blog a few weeks ago.  Wow.  Such inspiration!  The author is Lucy, she's english, and she writes in a delightfully english tone.  She sounds like the kind of person you'd pop over and visit for tea unannounced whilst our kids scampered off to do whatever.  Someday, when I cross that overseas trip off my bucket list, I am soooo going to try and meet up with her.  I'd like to meet her and thank her in person for the free patterns she designs and the joy she shares with the world in her writing.

Anyhow...

Today's blog post is directly related, because both patterns are available on Lucy's blog, attic24. 

The Blooming Flower Cushion and the Granny Stripe Afghan

The flower cushion was just pure fun. It embodies summer and joy and it makes me happy to see it sitting there on my furniture.   Below is a close up, and a view of its stripey backside.

The rest of the yarn was made into this Granny Stripe afghan.  Moment of truth here: I usually find afghans tedious and boring after about one day.  This one was not boring at all!  In fact, it was a scientific study of color that I've never done before.  With 14 colors at my fingertips, this was pure color exploration in putting combos together that I never would put together ordinarily.  I discovered some truly wonderful combinations that will surely show up in future projects.

Oh, and another lesson learned.  Fringe is the enemy.

I thought putting a fringe edge on this beast would be an easy substitution to working the remaining yarn ends in with a needle.  WRONG!  Adding that dang fringe took about 3 hours. (yes, I am bitter toward it still.)  A better plan would have been to work in each end immediately upon completion of each row, so I didn't have a mass of loose ends mocking me at the end of the project, saying, "na na na boo boo.....now whatcha gonna do with US?"  Gah.

Fringe aside, this is one my most favorite afghans to date.