name afghan

Coke has this new gimmick called Share a Coke where each bottle of soft drink has a name written on it. Of course this makes folks look for their name and the names of family and friends. Cute gimmick, but there are some folks who can never find items with their own names for whatever reason. Perhaps they are spelled differently than the majority of folks with that name or just not in the top 250 name list they used. Find out if your name is on a bottle here.

My own name, for example. My full name is Sandra. My nickname is Sandie. I am almost always able to find items with Sandy (Coke has it) but rarely Sandie. I can sometimes find Sandra but it's not on this particular Coke list. I don't drink Coke so no biggie for me.

Anyway, all this to say that a sweet relative of mine mentioned that she can never find anything with her name on it so I decided to make her a name lapghan as a surprise so she could have something with her very own name. Here is the result. (Guess what her name is. heh)

The yarn used is leftover skeins purchased for Doctor Who scarves.

The edging is Red Heart Burgundy. The two tan colored solid stripes are Vanna's Choice Taupe. Some of the other skeins did not have labels but here's what I remember (if my memory can be trusted).
Bernat Waverly Gypsy Gold
Red Heart Soft Wine
Vanna's Choice Honey, Eggplant, Toffee, Rust
Knit Picks Dublin, Sienna, Eggplant, Currant

There is a grey but I don't know which it is.

The yarns were all worsted weight but not necessary all equal in thickness. The RH Soft is slightly thinner than the rest and the Bernat Waverly is a little thicker. It all came together pretty nicely except when I went to work the edging.

I ripped that edging out at least three times. LOL I could not get it to lie flat and I do attribute this somewhat to the thinner yarns. I finally settled on one round of single crochet, then one round of (sc, ch 3, sk 3) which I adjusted along the side that was giving me trouble. Then for the final round I worked (3 dc in each ch-3 loop, ch 1). I think it came out pretty well.

I might give an additional tip if you decide to do this and use that edging. When working the ch-3s you need to extend those chains to match the length of the stitches beneath them or you will have puckering there. In other words, work loosely and pay attention.

The strips are joined with a whipstitch. The lettering is my own design, but basically is just square lettering. Easy for anyone to do. I used 3dc mesh. The letters are 5 squares across and 9 down.

[update] I'm unable to update the web site currently, but if you want a filet alphabet chart Pinterest is a place to start. You can also google "filet alphabet chart" and will get a number of hits. I'm happy to send my alphabet chart to anyone who inquires as well. Just send me a note via the contact form. One caution - some of the alphabets I saw did not design each letter to be the same size. If you are making squares and need them to be the same size, make sure you choose a chart design that does this. In other words, all the letters being the same number across and the same number down. For example, all my letters in the chart used here are 5 across and 9 down. In order to get a "center" you need an odd number. I also have a larger chart which includes lowercase letters but I have not tested it in a project yet.

That's all for now.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

Doctor Who baby lapghan

I have not been good about keeping the blog up these days. I am sorry about that. It was so busy for a while and these are quiet days. I guess I am grateful for the lull. :-)

I thought I'd update on the lapghan/baby afghan. I've finished two strips and begun the last one.

The basic pattern I am using was inspired by the "inches" pattern on DoctorWhoScarf . I did not measure inches. I just took the idea and chose to use 4 rows for every inch Gene listed, even though that was not going to be a physical inch in my strip. It gave me a guide to start which was very helpful. (Gene's pattern is for knitted scarves, fyi.)

The main thing to remember in making this particular afghan is that you have to follow the stripe pattern remembering that you are working "up" so to speak. I rewrote my pattern with that in mind. I'm not explaining that well. The pattern starts with the purple/burgundy. For my first strip I began there and worked through to a camel stripe. I didn't finish that stripe but ended the first strip there. For the second strip, I had to work backwards. So I began with graphite and ended with the finish of the camel stripe. That way the camel stripes were next to one another and continued the "scarf" pattern. Then for the last strip I began by finishing the graphite section which was at the "bottom" of my 2nd scarf strip. It sounds complex when you read it but in reality it is obvious when you're working it.

Perhaps the picture can explain it better.

I have a few things in mind to try next. I want to make a one piece following the stripe pattern. The tricky thing with that will be to figure out how wide to make it so it looks right.

I also want to do one with double crochet. I have several ideas about how to do that.

I am enjoying working with the lighter weight yarn. I think it does justice to the pattern better than the worsted yarns. The smaller stitches, to me, are more closely in line with the knitted stitches. Of course, this particular yarn comes from the UK and mailing costs are much higher when buying from overseas. I lucked out with these skeins as they were had a free shipping offer at the time. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from Deramores again though. They were fast and accurate. The yarn is wonderful. No problems with it at all thus far.

You'll notice in the picture there is some turning at the corners. This will be fixed as the strips are joined together and an edging added.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

lapghan

Things should have slowed down now that the new site is up, right? heh That hasn't been the case, but most of it is not to do with the site. As far as I'm aware, things are working smoothly there. If you run into any problems, holler out to me so I can correct them. There are still a few things that need to be done, like photos on the dictionary pages. That will be done in time. I also hope to do more videos soon.

In the meantime, on my hook this week... more cross-stitch squares. This time for a lapghan for a cancer patient, friend of a friend.

Here is the finished piece. It is about 44" square, using 36 six inch squares and joined with the continuous join. Yarn is whatever I had in my stash. The red is I Love This Yarn red. The medium blue is Red Heart Delft Blue.  I think the grey is also I Love This Yarn. There is some Vanna's Choice in there as well. I think the light tan is either Annie's Choice or Impeccable. The assembly is Red Heart Super Saver Aran.

I am really pleased with the way it all came together.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie