Daffodil Blanket

Several years ago I purchased a large quantity of hot yellow yarn on clearance.  I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but it was I Love this Yarn, so I knew I'd eventually use it.  A couple of blankets later (Zipper Blanket and the Blended Arrows Blanket), I still had some left, and I wanted to use it up.  This color is almost painfully bright, so finding colors to go with it was a challenge.  Then it occurred to me: if you're going to make a yellow blanket, you'll need some real variation in the type of yellow.  So I grabbed the leftover Buttercup yarn from the Speedy Afghan, and the leftover (I still have a ton) Banana yarn from the Easter Egg Blanket, and started looking through patterns.

I wanted the colors to really blend together instead of being obvious stripes.  Stitch 25 does that.  I've used this stitch before to make the Star Spangled Afghan, but for that I used a different color pattern, where 2 of the 3 strands were the same.  This time there were three distinct colors.  I love the way this turned out: it reminds me of daffodils.  This is a great way to make a single colored blanket look interesting: pick three shades of blue for example, and make your blue afghan.

Color Pattern: (1 row of buttercup, 1 row of hot yellow, 1 row of banana) repeated, ending with hot yellow.

Chain 182, then work stitch 25 until work reaches desired length.  Add the standard border to complete:
Add this border in Banana and you're done:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner

I used I Love this Yarn in Banana, Hot Yellow, and Buttercup with a J hook to make this.

Another Aggie Afghan

When I bugged my buddy about what colors he and his fiance liked, he wasn't very helpful.  All I got was essentially, well, we're Aggies, so maroon and white are good.  I say that isn't very helpful because all of my buddies, the people I actually make blankets for, are Aggies.  I don't want to make 14 maroon and white afghans.  That gets boring and challenging to make something unique.  But this was the first request for maroon and white, so I went with it. 

I actually had some trouble coming up with a design for this afghan.  I had already made one Aggie blanket, the 12th Man Blanket and I saw no way to improve upon it.  So, I decided to just go for simple, classic crochet.  Basically I did wide (8 rows of dc) panels of maroon separated by 3 rows of hdc in white, maroon, white.

Here's how I made it:
Chain 180
Row 1: dc in 4th ch from hook, dc across (maroon)
Rows 2-8: ch 3, turn, dc across (maroon)
Row 9: ch 2, turn, hdc across  (white)
Row 10: ch 2, turn, hdc across (maroon)
Row 11: ch 2, turn, hdc across (white)
Rows 12-19: ch 3, turn, dc across (maroon)
Row 20: ch 2, turn, hdc across  (white)
Row 21: ch 2, turn, hdc across (maroon)
Row 22: ch 2, turn, hdc across (white)

Repeat Rows 12-22, ending with row 19.  This border completes it.
Round 1: hdc around (3 hdc in corner) white
Round 2: sc around (3 sc in corner) maroon
Round 3: dc around (5 dc in corner) maroon
Round 4: sc around (3 sc in corner) maroon
Round 5: dc around (5 dc in corner) maroon
Round 6: sc around (3 sc in corner) maroon

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Aubergine and White with a J hook.

Smores Blanket

This is another story of impulsive buying of clearance yarn.  I found it for only $1 a skein, and bought all of it they had, about 20 skeins.  Then it sat in my stash, and continued to sit.  Finally I decided I needed to use it and started a blanket, my favorite way to crochet down my stash.  When I was finished with what I normally do, I still had a couple of skeins left.  So I decided why not make the border just a little bit wider?  It's annoying to have left over yarn because then you have to figure out what to do with it or just let it sit, taking up space.  So, I added another couple of rounds to the border.

This was the first blanket I've made with self-striping yarn, and it was interesting.  The sections of one color don't even make it one whole row, but they're much longer than in variegated yarn.  I liked the striated look that it gave.  The colors reminded me of a combination of neapolitan ice cream and smores.  Basically, one section looks like toasted marshmallows, another looks like graham crackers, another kinda sorta like chocolate, and still another like strawberries.  So, it's smores with strawberries added to the mix.

Anyway, I had decided to give a blanket as a Christmas gift to a family at church, and knew basically the colors that I wanted, but I just couldn't come up with anything I wanted to make.  Then I happened to see this blanket that I had already finished, and realized it was exactly what I had been trying to design.  I couldn't come up with something I wanted to make because I'd already done it.  So I gave it to them, and they loved it, even remarking that I had gotten the colors right.

Chain 185, then work the spaced shell stitch until satisfied with length. 
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
 
I made this with Red Heart Stripes yarn in Latte Stripes with a J hook.

Shiny Mint Blanket

Undoubtedly, the biggest fan of my crocheting, and this blog, is my mom.  Whenever I talk to her she always asks when the next post is coming.  So, I decided it was past time for her to have her very own blanket.  Therefore this Christmas that was her present.  Having the blanket be for my mom, it was actually fairly easy to design because I know her and her house so well.

So, I had this general idea of a design in my head, but nothing specific.  Then I looked around and noticed a blanket I had started months earlier but hadn't finished.  It was perfect.  The color was right.  Also, I know that in Texas a really warm blanket is not desired.  So using Simply Soft instead of my usual I Love this Yarn brand would work great.  Simply Soft is soft and has somewhat metallic sheen to it. 

This blanket had started as a way to use up more clearance yarn that I had impulsively bought.  I had skeins and skeins of it, lots of skeins.  So, to use up more of it, I chose to make a queen sized blanket.  That was a good decision because my mom has a queen size bed, so it was perfect.  Also, I did use up all of the yarn I had and actually had to buy one more skein to finish it.

I decided to use stitch 23 for the blanket because I know that it works extremely well with solid colored yarn.  This isn't the first blanket I've made with it either.  I made a maroon blanket for myself, details are at the bottom of this post.  I'm happy with it, but it's hard to see the pattern because the yarn is so dark.  So this mint green color was perfect.

Chain 203, then work stitch until satisfied with length.  Add this border to finish:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in each corner

I made this with Simply Soft in Woodland Heather and a J hook.

Sunny Shells Blanket

When I find I Love this Yarn on clearance, I buy it, especially when it's only $1.43 a skein instead of $3.99.  This particular time, there were probably 30 skeins of the same color, so I bought them all.  The only problem was that I didn't know what exactly I would do with them.  I figured I'd end up making blankets out of them, but what stitch, and should it be paired with something else?  Variegated yarn is tricky to combine with other yarn.

Anyway, last year I made the Sunshine Blanket with this yarn for a buddy of mine who was getting married.  When I was done I still had about 15 skeins left, about the right amount for a blanket since variegated skeins are smaller than solid skeins.  So, I was bored, needed a project to keep my hands busy, and this yarn had been sitting around for a year and it needed to go away, so I started this project.  I initially tried to match the pink in the yarn to put solid colored stripes into it, but I couldn't find the right color, so I just kept it simple.  I decided to use stitch 28 because it is awesome for variegated yarn, and practically mindless.

I had no person or purpose in mind while I was making it, but I took it with me to various functions where I knew I was going to be seated for a while and could pursue a mindless project.  When I crochet in public, I routinely get comments from people about what I'm working on.  People are curious what exactly I'm making, because sometimes it's entirely not obvious.

Anyway, a lady at Bible study basically gushed over how much she loved the colors in this yarn.  That got me thinking: she really loved the blanket, and I knew she crocheted, but she never kept anything for herself.  Also, she loved the colors, and I kinda didn't, and I knew she would appreciate it: so about halfway through it became her blanket in my head.

Chain 187, then work stitch 28 until work reaches desired length.  Add this border to finish.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 5: dc around, 5 dc in each corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Perpetual Sunshine and a J hook.

Charcoal Blanket

I like to give blankets as wedding presents, so it would make sense that my friend since kindergarten, who happens to be married, would have a blanket from me.  Well, she didn't because she got married over 8 years ago, when I didn't know how to crochet.  So I decided to give her one for Christmas this year. 

I don't know what she was thought about my weird text of 'What's your favorite color?', but she responded 'Gray'.  When I saw that, I went hmmmmmm.  What to do with that?  So I decided I'd make a solid, dark gray/charcoal blanket. 

The only problem?  I Love this Yarn, the yarn I use to make blankets, only had 3 colors of gray: Light Gray, Gray Mist, and Graybeard, and none of those are dark.  So, I thought I'd have to branch out into another brand of yarn, uggh.  Well, I went to Hobby Lobby to buy yarn for another blanket, and lo and behold, they had a new color: Graphite, which was exactly the color I wanted.  So, I scooped it up and got started.

I decided to use stitch 1 from the new book I'm reviewing because it's such a simple, quick stitch that looks great in a single color.

Chain 180, then work stitch until work reaches desired length.  Add a border to finish.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner 
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Graphite with a J hook.

Blue Stripes Blanket

Living far from family has its challenges, so I'm grateful to the people in my church who have helped me out and included me in their family events.  I decided to surprise three of these families with an afghan for Christmas.

For this blanket, I knew that I wanted to use navy because I knew that would go with their decor, but I had some trouble picking a second color.  I finally settled on using a lighter shade of blue.  When I went through the first book of 30 stitches, I had two favorite stitches: 1 and 13.  For this afghan I used stitch 13.  It's a very fast stitch that looks much more complicated than it really is.  The color pattern is basically a large block of navy, then three stripes of light blue repeated.

Color Pattern:
16 rows of navy, (2 rows light blue, 2 rows navy, 2 rows light blue, 2 rows navy, 2 rows light blue, 16 rows navy) repeated

Pattern:
Chain 182, then work stitch 13 following color pattern until satisfied with length.  For me this was four sets of stripes.  Then add this border:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner (navy)
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)
Round 4: sc around, 3 sc in corner (pale denim)

Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in corner (navy)
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in corner (navy)

I made this in I Love this Yarn in Navy and Pale Denim with a J hook.

Christmas Gifts

This year I gave five blankets as Christmas gifts, which was a little bit crazy.  Each blanket deserves its own post, and those will be forthcoming.  Stay tuned.

Bumping Along: Stitch Nine!

So, back to 50 Stitches for Afghans by Darla Sims.  Today's offering, stitch 9, is somewhat whimsical with offset bumps on one side of the fabric.  It's not a difficult stitch, but it is slow.  Slower than sc in fact.

However, I liked the way it looked and it really is pretty mindless, so it wasn't too bad.  I normally can't stand puff stitches, but for whatever reason I didn't mind them in this pattern.

The color pattern I used for this worked well with the bumps really standing out.  Changing colors every other row would not work well.

I would consider using this stitch for small projects where you want small holes.  Using this stitch to adapt a kid's sweater pattern would be cute.  The bumps would help with scrubbing if you made dishcloths from them.  They would also feel good on your feet as bathmats. 

Color Pattern:
Work (one row in yellow, one row in purple, one row in green) repeated, ending with a row of yellow and the border in purple.

Chain 88, then work stitch until work is square.  Add this border to complete.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (sc, ch 3, sk 1) around, (sc, ch 3, sc in same stitch) at corner

I made this with Lion Brand Pound of Love in Soft Pale Green, Soft Pale Yellow, and Soft Lavender with a J hook.

A Journey through Spirals: Summary

Well that's the end of my journey with spirals.  I figured out how to make the shapes that interested me in a satisfying manner.  The only thing still lacking is to figure out how to make the spirals wider without having to attach more balls of yarn.

I just had a thought about that!  Why not just make taller stitches?  Like instead of dc (2c), use 5c, or for even bigger ones 10c (these numbers are totally arbitrary).  The obvious problem is that there will be gaping holes.  That can be solved by using linked stitches.  The corners would be interesting to figure out, but probably doable.

Anyway, now that that rabbit trail is over, let's summarize what I've explained about spirals.

I've found or written up patterns for the following shapes:
Circles (really 12 sided polygons)
Hexagons
Rectangles
Squares

This is hardly an exhaustive list of shapes.  As I write this, I realized that triangular spirals are also possible.  Any shape, at least regular polygons, can be made with spirals.  Hopefully you can figure out how to make a heptagon spiral if you really want to by looking at the principles for the more normal shapes.

A Journey through Spirals: Part Three

So, now I've shown how to do round spirals and rectangular spirals.  It's time to do square spirals.  Squares are basically a combination of circles and rectangles.  They have a definite point of origin like a circle, but with corners like a rectangle.  The challenge is to take a circle and make it angular, or to take a rectangle and make it start out with a simple ch 2.

This was actually a lot more difficult than I expected it to be, but I did come up with something.  The design principles are the same as for rectangles:

1. Corners need 3 sc or 5 dc to be square
2. It's easier to feel a chain 1 than to feel the middle stitch
3. Dc are twice as tall as they are wide

Essentially, this is a rectangle where the initial side consists of only a corner.  So, what you have to do is make a corner in each color in the same chain space, then crochet down the opposite color's corner and make another corner.

Here's that concept written out:
Chain 4
Round 1: (dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in 4th ch from hook with color A.  Attach color B to same ch, (ch 3, dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in same chain

To make sides: dc in post of opposite color's starting ch 3, work corner (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in top of opposite color's starting ch 3.

Round 2: dc around with (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in the ch 1 of corners

Repeat Round 2 until work reaches desired size.

I made this with Bernat Baby Coordinates in Tangerine Dream and Funny Prints with a J hook.

A Journey through Sprials: Part Two

Last time, I went through my endeavors to make a round spiral blanket.  Well, what limits spirals to round or semi-round things.  This time I decided to make a rectangle.  Again, the issue is beginning.

Here are the design principles I used:
1. Corners need 3 sc or 5 dc to be square
2. It's easier to feel a chain 1 than to feel the middle stitch
3. Dc are twice as tall as they are wide

Here's what I came up with:

With Color A, chain a number of chains such that the length equals the difference you want in the length and width of the finished product.  For instance, if you want to make a twin-sized blanket, typically 75"x90", then the difference is 15".  Your chain should measure 15".  This is only an approximation because work does tend to stretch the starting chain, but it's a starting point.

Round 1: dc in 4th ch from hook and in each ch across with color A.  Attach Color B to back side of chain (at the beginning of the chain, where the little bit of string is hanging off, where you've just crocheted back to with Color A). Ch 3 and dc across.

To make a corner: (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in last ch

To make sides: dc in post of first dc of opposite color.  Make corner in top of first dc of opposite color.  These sides should be 5 dc in length (2 for each corner and 1 for the height of the initial dc)

Round 2: dc around with (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in the ch 1 of corners

Repeat Round 2 until work reaches desired size.

A Journey through Spirals: Part One

A while ago I decided I wanted to try doing spirals.  I of course went to ravelry to find out how to do it.

 The first pattern I found was for a hexagonal blanket.  I grabbed some I Love this Yarn from my stash and got busy.  The initial few rounds are a little awkward, as usual with spirals, but once the work is established it is very quick and particularly mindless.

 

I had decided that I wanted another round blanket for my bed, so I planned on making it fairly large.  I was a little worried about having enough yarn to finish the project when I started.  I only had 3 skeins of pink and 2 skeins of coffee.  However, this pattern does not eat yarn.  The finished blanket only took 1.5 skeins of each color, much less than I had expected.

One problem however, is that a hexagon is not really round.  It is in fact angular with 6 well-defined sides.  Also, I wanted to make the spirals wider.  So, I wasn't really satisfied with this pattern as a round spiral pattern.  I again went looking on ravelry.  This time I found a pattern for a 12-sided blanket using 4 skeins at a time.  This pattern delivered by smoothing out the edges and doubling the width of the spirals.  I used Bernat Baby Coordinates in White and Funny Print, where each color started 2 of the spirals.

However, this pattern is not mindless.  The beginning 9 rounds are all different, and care must be paid to ensure a good result.  Also, throughout the piece, there are 4 skeins of yarn attached at once.  Managing these skeins so that they don't end up a colossal mess of tangled yarn is a difficult, frustrating task.  The finished baby blanket is beautiful, but, at least to me, not worth the headache.

There had to be a way to make this simpler.  I went back to ravelry and found another pattern. This one also was for a 12 sided blanket, but it is much more consistent throughout and only uses 2 skeins at once.  The spirals are not as wide as the previous pattern, but it's not a headache either.  I studied this pattern, but did not decide to actually make it.  Instead, using the knowledge of spirals I had gained from my previous attempts, I came up with my own pattern.  The problem with spirals is the beginning.  Once you get started it is simple and mindless.  So, I redesigned the middle and grew the pattern the same way this pattern did.

Here are the principles I used:
1. To be flat, an initial circle needs 6 sc or 12 dc
2. To have a gradual transition from the first round to the second, the stitches need to get gradually taller in the first round.
3. There will be 12 sides, so there need to be 12 stitches initially.

Here's the result:
Round 1: Ch 2, sc, hdc x2, dc x3 in 2nd chain from hook with color A. Attach color B and sc, hdc x2, dc x3 in same space.
Round 2: (dc, ch 1) in each stitch
Round 3: (2 dc, ch 1) in each stitch
Round 4: dc in each stitch until last dc of the side, (2 dc, ch 1) in last dc of side
Repeat Round 4 for pattern until work reaches desired size.

 

This pattern makes sense to me, so I think it's easy.  Hopefully this makes sense to other people too.  I used Bernat Baby Coordinates in Tangerine Dream and Funny Prints to make this baby blanket.

Oops! This Time for Real: Stitch Seven!

Well, I made a mistake last time I posted.  I didn't consult the book, just started typing about the next stitch, and instead of stitch seven, I actually posted about stitch eight.  So here in all its glory is the real stitch seven!

The overall effect of this stitch is to make very angular ripples, at least when you use my color pattern.  Lines of narrow holes run vertically throughout the pattern.  I like this stitch because it makes a distinct ripple pattern, but it does square off at the end, making the addition of a  border not a chore.  It's reasonably fast to work, though never totally mindless.  There are some complicated stitches, though easy to understand, care is needed to not drop loops or pull through too many loops.  Also, whenever you have to do a large number of one stitch in a single spot, counting becomes an issue. 

Although I like this stitch, I still prefer Stitch 4 from Triple Play Pattern Stitches for squared off ripples.   However, it is always nice to have another good option.  This made a nice baby blanket, and would make nice blankets as well.  I think it would make a particularly beautiful shawl, either solid colored or striped.

Without further ado:
Color Pattern:
1 row of white, (2 rows of maroon, 2 rows of white) repeated, ending with a single row of white, and a maroon border.

Chain 90, then work the stitch until work is square.
Add the standard border to complete.

Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: (sc, ch 3, sk 1) around, (sc, ch 3, sc in same stitch) at corner

I used Simply Soft yarn in Burgundy and White with a J hook to make this blanket.

At it again: Stitch Eight!

Trying so many new stitches constantly gets frustrating after a while because when I find one that I like, I picture all of the ways I could use the stitch in various projects.  To then have to immediately move on to an entirely new stitch without making any of the wonderful things I've imagined is not fun.  So, I took a break from investigating new stitches to actually make things other than baby blankets with the good ones I'd already found.

But, now I'm back to trying them out, and have stitch 8.  This stitch is fairly quick and relatively mindless.  It does have a picot stitch in it, which I'm generally not too fond of.  The result of the picot is that it's not completely mindless, and there are little nubs of yarn sticking up at regular intervals along the fabric.  This gives it a whimsical feel.  Though this is not my favorite stitch, it is different enough for it to be potentially useful.  I'm not sure what else I'd use it for, but it does make a nice baby blanket.

The color pattern I used is 2 rows of orange, then (2 rows of green, 2 rows of orange) repeated, with a green border.

In any case, here's the pattern:
Chain 90, then work stitch until work is square.  Add the standard border to complete.
Border:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (sc, ch 3, sk 1) around, (sc, ch 3, sc in same stitch) at corner

I made this with Lion Brand Pound of Love baby yarn in Pastel Green and Cream-sickle with a J hook.

Doily Mania: May Orchids

The stereotypical item to crochet is a doily.  Doilies today serve little purpose: they're just decorative, and very few people have any use for them.  Therefore, I never thought I'd get into making them.  Then my friend Lynnette told me that they were her favorite thing to make, or at least, thread crochet was here favorite.  I've always liked making blankets, with my trusty J hook, but figured I'd see what all the fuss was about.  I made several attempts and just could not get into it.

I worked on a doily in maroon, because that way it'd at least be an Aggie doily, for months more than a year ago.  It was tedious, stressful, and somewhat painful to my hands.  Reading doily patterns takes some getting used to, there are some tricks to it that I didn't understand, which made me have to improvise because I read the pattern wrong.  Also, you can't really do anything while working on one because the pattern changes every round.  This attempt ended when my roughly three month old puppy discovered that the ball of thread would roll, and proceeded to play with it all over the living room, tangling it around, under and through the couch and other furniture, pulling out hours of work in the process.  At that point, I just gave up and haven't touched it since.

The main reason I don't like doily thread is that it's so small I can't really see my stitches, and working with a size 5 hook literally hurts my hands.  So, I decided to try the size 3 thread, which is ironically bigger than the size 10 thread, working with an E hook.  The results were okay: my hands didn't hurt, I could see what I was doing, but it was impossible to make things small.  I wanted to make butterflies to put on clips for little girls hair, but they were just too big.

Then a few weeks ago, while perusing the yarn selection at my local Joann's store, I ran across something interesting: size 5 thread!  Size 10 was too small, size 3 was too big, so maybe size 5 would be perfect.  It was Bernat Handicrafter Crochet Thread.  I bought some purple, Orchid, and green thread, fully expecting it to sit in my stash forever, because I thought I'd never get around to doilies when I had afghans to make.  Anyway, I did get around to it, rather quickly actually, so that I wouldn't forget, and I love this thread!  You can see your stitches, it doesn't hurt your hands to work with it, and it's not too big.  I also bought a size 5 hook with a bamboo handle to use for this, and the bamboo handle makes a huge difference. 

I decided to give my one book of doily patterns, A Year of Doily Patterns: Book 5,  another try, and started on the May doily.  I mentioned earlier that there are some tricks to reading doily patterns.  One of the most important is to not turn unless you're specifically told to do so.  Well, I didn't know that, so I turned after every round, which made the pattern not line up.  To compensate, I had to reinterpret the pattern for every round, which led to some problems.  It wasn't until I had actually completed the entire doily, and was taking pictures of it and generally admiring it, that I realized I couldn't fold it properly.  Nothing lined up.  Then I counted, and somehow I had ended up with 7 pineapples instead of the 8 that should have been there.  In any case, it lays flat and I like it, so I just have a slightly skewed doily now. 

Making that doily only whetted my appetite for doily making.  I went out and bought more of the thread, and searched ravelry for more patterns.  I've now made several (I'll post more of them later), and will probably continue to make these beautiful but pointless creations.

Blended Arrows Blanket

My plans to make a blanket out of the Blended Arrows stitch were thwarted for a while because Hobby Lobby is reorganizing their yarn department.  The consequence was that I could not get any white yarn for about six weeks.  It was a glorious day when I discovered they had finally restocked and I could finally finish this blanket.

This blanket was by far the most time consuming project I've done yet, but it was worth it.  It is the thickest, warmest, most solid blanket I've made.  Have you ever heard knitters scornfully say that they don't like crochet because there are too many holes?  This is my answer to that complaint.  If you want a warm, solid fabric, and time isn't really an issue, this stitch is for you.

Here's how to make this:
Color Pattern:

5 rows of yellow, (6 rows each of blue, white, green, yellow) repeated, ending with 2 rows of green.  The border is done in blue.

Chain 201, then work the Blended Arrows stitch.
Border:
Round 1: sc around; 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around; 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around; 3 sc in corner
Round 4: dc around; 5 dc in corner
Round 5: sc around; 3 sc in corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Hot Yellow, Peacock (blue), Limelight (green), and White with a J hook.

Puffing Along: Stitch Six!

Stitch six is the next installment in this series.  It grows fairly rapidly and produces a pretty, lacy fabric.  If you like puff stitches, this one is worth trying.  Personally, I don't like puff stitches, so I'm not really a fan of this one.  There is so much variation in puff stitches because each person does them differently, having different tensions in the thread.  Mine naturally come out tight, thick, and stumpy.  I have to consciously think about each stitch to make them looser.  My friend Lynnette makes light and puffy puff stitches, so I know it's doable, just not for me.  I doubt I'll reuse this stitch as written.  I conceivably would reuse it if I replaced the puff stitches with clusters.

Here's the pattern:
Chain 91, then work stitch until it's square.  Add the normal border to complete.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (sc, ch 3, sk 1) around, (sc, ch 3, sc in same stitch) at corner

I made this with Baby Bee Sweet Delight yarn in Precious Ombre and a J hook.

Back to it: Stitch Five!

Getting back to 50 Stitches for Afghans, here's stitch five.  Normally, I would have tried this in a different color pattern than that found in the book, but not for this one.  The point of this stitch is to have essentially a grid of tiles, some solid, some not.  Having multiple colors would distract from this, so I decided to make it a solid color.  The stitch itself is easy to work and grows at the speed of dc, which is nice.  I like the overall effect of this stitch, but I'm not sure what I'd use it for.  It would make a pretty tablecloth if you were willing to work with small thread. 

In any case, here's what I did

:
Chain 87, then work stitch until square.  Add the standard border to finish.
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in corner
Round 4: (sc, ch 3, sk 1) around, (sc, ch 3, sc in same stitch) at corner

I made this with Bernat Baby Coordinates Tangerine Dream yarn and a J hook.

Sunshine Blanket

It's springtime again, and that means wedding time.  Another of my buddies just got married, so I crocheted a blanket for the happy couple.  The colors were yellow and coral, which actually don't go that well together as I discovered when I began planning this afghan.  The closest color to coral was a light peach color, which is actually rather hideous unless you're going for cream-sickle, and even then it's not that great.  Instead, I decided to use a variegated yarn that transitioned between different shades of yellow and pink.  Like the name of the color, Perpetual Sunshine, the combination is a happy one.  Hopefully the couple will like the blanket I crafted for them.

When I planned this blanket, I forgot one very important detail: stitch 2 doesn't expand like most stitches.  Consequently, I didn't chain enough at the beginning to make it an acceptable width.  To fix this, I simply made the border extra wide.  Despite this foible, I am happy with the result.

Here's what I did:
Chain 167, then work stitch 2 until work reaches desired length.  Add this border:
Round 1: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 2: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 3: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 4: (cluster, ch 3, sk 2) around, (cluster, ch 3, cluster, ch 3, cluster) in corner
Round 5: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 6: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 7: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 8: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 9: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 10: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 11: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 12: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 13: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 14: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 15: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 16: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 17: (dc, ch 1, sk 1) around, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) in corner
Round 18: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 19: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 20: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 21: (cluster, ch 3, sk 2) around, (cluster, ch 3, cluster, ch 3, cluster) in corner
Round 22: sc around, 3 sc in each corner
Round 23: dc around, 5 dc in each corner
Round 24: sc around, 3 sc in each corner

I made this with I Love this Yarn in Perpetual Sunshine and a J hook.