pamgarrison

crochet blanket progress report: finished!!!

Hooray! I've finished the crochet blanket. {I used belladia's pattern found here} And I love it. It's officailly become my blanket, which I use when on my spot on the sofa. Technically, this project could have no ending, as there is no border or different stitch all around the edges, one could choose to go on until it's any size you want. Or until you are sick of it ;). I went with the size for my couch sitting comfort, using the "does it cover my feet and go above my waste with extra to spare?"measuring method. 

It's crazy and colorful and fun. Since my last progress post, I changed just a few things in my approach. I started lining the yarn up on the back of the couch so I could see the colors together, like this:

and this:

That way I could make sure I liked the ongoing color pattern developing, as well as have easy access if I had a little time to add a row or two. It saved me from disliking colors in the morning light by eliminating the dark of night next yarn choosing.

The other change was my crochet hook. Same size, just a hook I liked better. I hated the look of the purple irridescent metal hook. I like all my crafting supplies to be pleasing to my eye while I'm using them. I am sure that sounds super silly to some, and makes perfect sense to others. Which are you? Anyway, I'm a major lover of white craft tools. (Well, white everything really.) It works very nicely, I enjoy crocheting with it. This is the hook I bought. 

Other than that, I've been proceeding as before. 

 It's sized 44"x44", a nice little lap blanket size. I have an average of 20 rows for every 6" of blanket. 

I'm looking forward to more crochet projects. And I'm still shocked, amazed and a little saddened by how many hand made afgans you see at thrift stores and flea markets for such little money. Maybe I'm a slow and other people whip out blanket after blanket so those that inherit them have plenty to share?  

I know some of you were making one too. How's it going for you? Any progress to share? It's nice to finish it and have someone to celebrate with. 

Here's my post with all the details on the pattern used  {pattern is found on belladia's blog post here} and materials, and here's a previous progress report post. 

progress report: crochet blanket

Checking in with a project update on the crochet blanket I'm making, previously blogged about here and here.

I thought I would be done by now, after starting out like gangbusters, but then I got that weird virus, switched mostly to the hand quilting while sick, and the crochet blanket was sort of forgotten about for a bit.

Besides the usual things of life, I think my waning interest was partially due to wishing I'd made it a little wider from the get go. I realized that this could only be a lap afgan, not one for the bottom of a bed say, which totally disappointed me, because I think it'd look so great at the bottom of my son's bed. Another "issue" I was having was that I had started looking around a little bit at yarn online and fell in love with some of the colors, and descriptions, (but not the price!). I haven't bought any new yarn for this since the previous posts, but as I crochet with all the different inexpensive wools, cottons or blends that I bought, I am learning a bit about the differences, and know that the next blanket I make (oh ya, I'm hooked) will have more carefully selected yarns. 

That said, the pattern I am following (here) clearly states it's intenion is to put those leftover yarns to use, so, really, it's as this blanket is supposed to be I think; a hodge podge of color and texture. It's got that in spades I'd say!

I'm very glad I got over all my self manufactured "issues" with the afgan and got back to work on it. Super happy to be closing in on the finish line. 

Last night while putting the project away for the night I started rolling the threads around the remaining skeins to make these little yarn flowers. They make me happy. 

One of my favorite parts of this project (probably holds true for most creative pursuits with me), is the colors. How they interact with each other. 

Now that they are in little stackable flower shapes, it's easier to make little piles of different combinations. Each time I finish a row, I am choosing the next color based on it's interaction with the color before it. I am trying not to repeat any color combinations. If I put hot pink next to burnt orange somewhere on the quilt already, then I will find another color to put next to it each time I use it. Every so often (probably about every foot or so), I make sure to have used black and the same with the whites. So that there will be somewhat equal and balanced streaks of  light and dark throughout the blanket. 

I talked about it in the previous post, but I am still surprised to see how much the quilt changes each time I add different color combinations. It's so interesting to me. 

 

Very fun to discover new color combo loves, and even some dislikes too. I'm sort of a fan of color clashing in general, and this quilt has got a whole lot of that going on!

 

I wish I could get a photo of that hot pink, hot pinks and reds are so hard for me to photograph. 

I'd say I'm 3/4's of the way there. Hope to be back with a finished report soon! 

 

project update : crochet blanket

Popping in with a progress report on the crochet blanket first blogged about on this post.  I haven't had too much time to spend on it, but do find it such an enjoyable project for bursts and start type crafting. It just seems to add up to something pretty quickly in my mind even if you're doing a row here, a row there. I love when it's time to add a new row, because the entire blanket changes in my mind due to the new color. I was looking at it and if you take sections of the blanket, and just repeated those sections, you'd have a pretty blanket by itself, totally different than the other segments. Like this:

I love colors, but I especially love color combinations, how they play off each other. the exact same chartruese green above, looks totally different next to white as it does next to orange. I have no particular order, I'm just trying out new combinations as I go, occasionally making sure I've got some dark or some light every so often. I don't usually use black regularly, it's not a go to stitching/creating color for me. I'm enjoying the stretch of incorporating it in this blanket. I decided that I really wanted a mustard and a pink that wasn't purple or hot, so I did add a few new colors:

My favorite addition to the quilt has been that deep green. I also wanted a creamy-er white. Still not sure about the bright turquoise blue. In case you want to know: 

On an instagram post I did recently, someone commented about how they liked the look of the rows of colors, but didn't want to weave in all the end threads afterwards, to which someone else suggested holding them on the blanket and crocheting over them as you go to hide them. It was a total "duh Pam" moment, as I have done that in embroidery before and it makes perfect sense. Also, the hanging thread tails were starting to annoy me too. So, after reading that, that's what I've been doing, as the picture shows:

So much nicer to work on without the tails there. Now, remember, this is my first crocheting ever...don't look too closely! I'm sure you're eye is catching some glaring mistakes on the strong colored rows, but also remember, I'm going with the attitude that home made isn't about perfect, it's adding charm, right?!? ;) As long as it's not in danger of coming apart (which it's not), I'm happy to plod on, one colorful row at a time! 

Like I said, it's a pretty satisfying medium for seeing your efforts add up substantially as you go. I'd say I'm 1/3 or 1/4 done now, but I'm in no rush, I'm enjoying every minute of it. I think this is a super easy starter project because it uses the same stitch (dc) row after row....just in case anyone is tempted to join me on the adventure...report in if so, we want to know!