My Biggest project so far!

So, I've shown you all of these baby blankets that I've made.  This week, I don't have a baby blanket to show you, but a full sized blanket I made for a friend for her wedding.  The blanket wasn't finished in time for the wedding, but it has finally been shipped and is on it's way to her and her husband.  The pattern was very involved and had a lot of pieces to it.

All of those pieces when stitched together made one pretty awesome blanket.  A really large blanket that took many hours, over a few months.  This is the final product!

The pattern is called the Double Wedding Ring Crochet Quilt.  I loved every minute I spent working on this pattern and I learned a lot.  This was the first blanket that I learned how to properly weave my ends in, as well as a few stitches that I hadn't used before.  I loved how easy the arcs of the dark grey color were to make, especially because when I started I thought those would be the hardest to make.  The light gray octagons were fairly simple, but the white eyes and centers were the really challenging parts.
The eyes were done in rounds and used quite a few new combinations of stitches.  The centers were also done in rounds and the corners of those were interesting to make.  I did a chain off of the round and then crocheted back to the round again.
The pieces are stitched together with single crochets in the back loops of the pieces, so the one side is very textured and the other side is very smooth.

This is the most complicated pattern I have made so far, and it is definitely one of my favorites.  I hope to make another one of these one day, but it will have to be for a very special occasion.  This did take me almost 3 months to finish after all!

Stroller Blanket

I have made this pattern once before, as a gift to a friend, and I really liked it.  So did she and her little boy.  He loved to throw things out of the stroller as they were walking, including the blanket she would use to keep him warm.  Obviously, this frustrated her to no end, always having to pick it up and if it fell into water, snow, or mud, she wouldn't be able to put it back on her boy.  So I found this pattern.

This pattern has holes in it for the buckles of the stroller to go through.  Thus, it can't be thrown out of the stroller, or fall off.  She said it was great to use and that it worked wonderfully.  It was a really quick pattern to make as it took me only 2 days to make the first one.  This one took me less time hours wise, though it was spread over 3 days.

Here is a close up of the buckle holes.

You can also see the texture really well in this picture.  It has wonderfully bumpy rows mixed into the hdc rows.  I loved the breakup of it while making it, and it apparently kept my friend's son entertained for many walks as he played with the bumps.  The buckle holes are easy to make as well, and fit right in with the pattern.  

I absolutely love this dark purple color.  Fit for a princess, my mom always told me.  So this blanket will go to some little princess to keep her warm in those still chilly days ahead of us. 

This blanket was finished on 2/27/14 and weighs 9.15 oz.

Total yarn stash used: 45.55 oz (2 lbs 13.55 oz)

Lovely Stripes!

I have always loved stripes.  Stripes are a great way to have a bunch of colors and still have it look organized.  These colors were chosen by my boyfriend's sister, Beth.  The way they came together makes me really happy.  This blanket was my first attempt at the granny stripe pattern.

 By doing two rows of each color, it gives it a zigzag type of stripe.  When I started, I expected that the stripes would look straight across.  The zigzags seem to give the blanket a bit more life though.  And the colors are so very vibrant together, which definitely helps.

 I like how the edging came out.  The red is the most vibrant color in the blanket, so I wanted to use it as edging. It is also the color that I started the blanket with, so it made the most sense to edge in that.

I am definitely going to be making some more blankets in this pattern.  It is easy and fast to crochet up, and I think it looks amazing.  I just need to decide what colors to make it in now!

This blanket was finished on 2/14/14 and weighs 9.25 oz.

Total Yarn stash used:  36.4 oz  (2 lbs 4.4 oz)

Rectangle Time!

Today's blanket is another simple pattern.  It's a granny rectangle instead of a square.  I've been trying to do at least some sort of new pattern for each of the blankets so far.  I really like the way that this blanket turned out.  The contrast between the dark green and the white is really nice, and would go great in my mother's living room.  However, it isn't for her living room.  Sorry Mom. :)

 I wanted to try this pattern because I really like the look of the granny square, but I knew I didn't want to make another square blanket.  Most of the blankets I've made over the years are rectangular, not square.  Originally I was going to change the size of the green stripes to fade it into the white, but I found that I really liked having just the solid stripes of green with the white high lights.

I really like the way that the white clusters pop out of the blanket.  To me, it makes it feel a bit more lively, and helps the dark green brighten up.  My mother has always loved these colors together, and so her living room is dark green, white and dark red.  These colors feel like home to me.

I edged the blanket with a simple edging of single crochet.  I think it looks simple yet polished.  I really love working with these two colors together as they seem to balance each other so well.  

This blanket was finished on 2/7/14 and weighs 7.05 oz.

Total yarn stash used: 27.15 oz (1 lb 11.15 oz)

Springtime Colors

So, I know it's only February, but out here in Seattle, it has felt like spring for a while.  It has been in the 40's almost all winter and to someone used to negative temperatures and feet of snow, it was odd to get used to.  I'm still not used to it yet.  The reason I bring this up is because of the colors of this weeks blanket.  The colors remind me very much of springtime.

I love the lilac and green combination so much.  Lilacs, and the scent of them, always reminds me of my mom and Grandma and of Mother's Day.  The lilac bush in my parent's backyard always bloomed about a week before Mother's Day.  So seeing them in bloom and smelling them now always makes me want to go out and get my mom something special.  

This past week was the one year anniversary of my Grandma passing away.  It was a tough time for both my mom and I.  I have always loved making crafts for my Grams, and when I learned to crochet it was exactly the same.  I made her quite a few blankets over the past couple years.  These colors would have really made her smile.

In this close up you can see the colors better.  You can also tell that the green yarn is thicker than the lilac yarn.  When starting this blanket, I wasn't sure if I could make the two yarns work together, but they did quite well in the end.  I think it gives the blanket a nice texture.  I love the way it seems to weave in and out.  

The squares close up look like they puff up or pull out, but they are really quite flat.  I am really happy with how this blanket turned out!

This blanket was finished on 2/3/14 and weighs 5.5 oz.

Total yarn stash used: 20.1 oz

Stripe Time

I like stripes.  Wide stripes, thin stripes.  They are just fun.  And look nice and organized to me.  Green and blue were the colors chosen by JP for this blanket.

I liked the idea of trying to attach different sized granny squares together.  The little squares are only 2 rounds and so very easy and fast to whip up.  The big squares are 4 rounds each.  The most difficult part of this blanket was doing the join as you go with attaching the big squares to the little ones.  There is a space where the big square needs to be attached to 2 of the little squares.  I was worried about this when I was imagining the pattern for this blanket, but I am very happy with how it turned out.  

The colors are nice and very vibrant.  I was happy the whole time I was making this blanket.  As I was getting to the end of the blanket, I wasn't sure what color to do the edging.  I like to make the edging either stand out or blend in to the blanket, but because of the order of the stripes, I knew I couldn't use just one color to do the edging in.  It would stand out on one side of the blanket and blend in on the other.  After much thought, and some outside input, I decided to do two rounds of single crochet, the first in green and the second in blue.

I am very happy with how this blanket turned out.  Simple and stripey and altogether cheery.  I have some other projects in the works as well, but I'm still trying to keep up with trying to make more blankets.  If you want to choose some colors and let me know, I'll gladly make a blanket up and donate it for you!

This blanket was finished on 1/30/14 and weighs 6.45 oz.

Total yarn stash used: 14.6 oz

Continuing the Project

After I was done with the first blanket, I was still really in the mood to crochet.  So I wanted to start another blanket right away.  This time all I knew was that I wanted to try making a blanket in rounds of the granny square pattern.  For the colors, I asked my friend Dana what colors I should use.  He picked pink, blue and purple.  I added in white as well to even up the color scheme.

I really like the way that this turned out.  The colors seemed to work together wonderfully.  I am sure that this blanket will bring some happiness to someone.  I liked making this blanket because of how simple the pattern is.  Once it is started, it just keeps growing.  However, as it got larger, each side took longer to finish and I kept waiting to start the next color.  

Here is a closer up picture of the pattern.  The pink is even more vibrant in real life, so it is a bright and happy blanket.  All of the yarn is super fuzzy and soft, so it is a very cuddly blanket.  As Dana picked the colors, it will be donated in his name.

This blanket was finished on 1/26/14 and weighs 4.15 ounces.

Total yarn stash used up: 8.15 ounces

First of the Blankets!

So this is for the first of the blankets that I've made.  I decided that I had never made a proper granny square blanket, so I wanted to try something simple.  

I love the color purple, so that is how I started this one.  The blue color is really fuzzy and I had been wanting to work with that for a while.  The blanket is simple, but I am really happy with it.  I used a join as you go technique.  After all of the blankets I have pieced together at the end, joining as you go seems much nicer to me.  

You can see the way the squares interlock a bit better in this second picture.  I like seeing the blanket build as I'm working on it as opposed to seeing the pile of pieces grow and then trying to put them all together in the end.  It makes me feel like I am making a blanket instead of just a pile.  

This blanket was finished on 1/25/14 and weighs 4 ounces.  

Total yarn stash used up: 4 ounces.

A Restart

So it's been forever, and one of the things I wanted to do this year was update the blog, and I have a new project that I wanted to share with everyone.

My mom works for a hospital and the NICU always needs more small blankets.  They also use these little blankets for the babies that sadly don't make it.  It gives the parents something handmade that someone put time and effort into for their child.

My goal is to try to use up some of my stash of yarn in making these blankets.  So some of them may be silly colors, and not be the perfect colors for baby blankets, but I am putting my time and effort and love into making them. I want to make at least 2 blankets a month.

If you want to choose the colors for a blanket, I will make it and donate it in your name.  Just pick 2-4 colors and post them on here and I will make the blanket and post a picture of it for you here.  Then, when I send the blankets to my mom, I'll attach your name to it.

I'll start uploading pictures of the blankets that I have finished in the next post.  I am weighing these blankets as well so that I can keep track of how much of my yarn stash I have used up.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you keep reading. :)