Ghans ghans and more ghans

Earlier in the year I made a name afghan for my daughter. As it happens, she is now expecting our second grandson. I was thinking I needed to add our new grandson's name to the afghan or create another afghan including him.

I started out deciding to make a new afghan, but rather than using individual letters as in the first one, I would make them one piece. Well, this was poorly thought out as the one piece names are much narrower than the individual lettered names. :-( I forgot to take into account that there would be twice the space between each letter than in the one piece. I don't know where my brain was that day. I could easily have added those stitches in. In any case I did two of each name as one piece. Then I borrowed the original afghan and noticed the difference in width.

What to do oh what to do. Well, those one piece names are made so I will probably assemble them and make an afghan out of them. I have some almond yarn to edge each name and put a border around the entire thing. I haven't started to do that yet. I could conceivably rip those back as I have enough of the same yarns to increase the width between letters I think. But you know, who would do that? LOL They are made. I really enjoy working filet pieces so it was not a hardship to do. It wouldn't even be a hardship to redo them really.

Now for the afghan that is already finished I am staring at it and wondering if I am able to take it apart without damaging it. I think it is possible. My concern is where the tails are sewn in on the border. I am crazy with sewing in tails and they could be anywhere. heh

I completed enough letters to make two names. BUT - you know there is always a but - I forgot to take into account that the names are not the same length. The longest name has 8 letters. The new name has 6 so while I had enough yarn to make 12 letters and three blanks. I need another blank. I THOUGHT I had another skein of Knit Picks Brindle, but alas I do not. So what to do, what to do. Ordering one skein with shipping and handling added seems impractical. Of course, I could always put those letters aside and make new letters with a different color and I may well do that.

I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do, but I will sew together the letters I do have because ... well, why not? LOL

I am also thinking if I completely started over I could order more yarn in different colors for each name. And well, who doesn't like to get new yarn to play with? LOL

I share this with you so you can see that although I have been crocheting for many, many years I still screw up more often than I might like to admit. LOL

I also am not finished the other afghan though I have completed most of the picture part. Can you guess?

Also I made a couple of dish/wash cloths and forgot to put up pics of them. These are still from the When Granny Meets Filet book which I totally love.

I also wanted to mention a cowl pattern that I found today. I like the idea of buttons and she has a full tutorial demonstrating how to make the cowl, add the buttons and her method of sewing in the tails. It is the Earth Fairy Button Cowl. You can find the text pattern with a link to the video tutorial here. It is also available on Ravelry but the Ravelry link sends you to this page anyway. :-)

That's all for now. I'll keep you guessing as to what I will eventually decide to do. *heading to Knit Picks to look at yarn* :-)

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

pretty cloths

I have been wanting to use the filet patterns in the back of the book When Granny Meets Filet by Bendy Carter. I was looking at the Knit Picks Comfy Sport cottons I still have from the mandalas and decided those would make wonderful soft wash cloths, so I set to work.

As I said, these are all made with Knit Picks Comfy Sport cotton yarn. The yellow is Creme Brulee, pink is Flamingo, reddish purple is I think Lady Slipper, and the blue purple is Lilac Mist.

I have actually made one more since I took this picture, but I'll show that one in the next round.

These are worked with a G hook. They come out to be about 7 1/2" x 8". I hope to make one in each pattern though probably won't have enough of this yarn for that. I have other cotton I can use.

I really enjoy working filet though the pattern is not as evident without a solid background on which to display it. It's just enough of a challenge yet I am still able to work it while watching TV.

Hope you all are enjoying your crochet creations.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

dishcloths

I've made a couple of dishcloths which will be going to son. He's moving into an apartment and needs all the startup things.

This first is about 9" square. It is a simple ch 31, with alternating rows of dc and (dc, ch 1, sk 1). There are 8 dc rows and 7 skippa rows. Edging is dc.

Of course there must be a Who item. This cloth is about 10" x 12". I took the Dalek out of Elizabeth Harac's pattern chart to make this dishcloth using worsted yarn from Annie's Hook and Needle Club. The chart is at Ravelry. 

Edging is a round of dc along the sides and sc top and bottom as I didn't want to add any more length.

That's all that's new today. The Who scarf got buried under cotton yarn. LOL

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

cloths

Last group of cloths for a little while as I have a few other projects I need to get to.

The first one is a dark navy blue. You will recognize the pattern as the one row dc, one row (dc, ch 1, sk 1) from previous cloths. I chained 31 and did 8 rows solid dc.

This is the same pattern but I ran out of the cream color so I added some brown top and bottom and around, finishing off with a round of cream in sc with what I had left. Now that I have mostly small balls left, it's a bit more challenging.

This is one of the small filet patterns from When Granny Meets Filet. I put four of them together using some of those small balls. However, when I was done, I realized the "white" in the variegated ball was not real white, so it looks a bit funny next to the real white. I will probably keep this one rather than sending it to someone else.

That's all for now.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

more dish wash cloths

I finished more dish/wash cloths and also made more heart squares to use the last of the aqua squares I made. I'll take a picture of those when I've assembled them. Of course any of these designs can be used for regular squares as well as dish or wash cloths. I have used almost all the large balls of cotton yarn now and am figuring how to use the smaller balls to best advantage.

Here are pictures of the dishcloths.

This white and variegated is one of my favorites. I had a small leftover ball of this bright variegated. I don't know what the color is. I worked long single crochets in the variegated over rows of white in single crochet. I think I worked five rows of white to start with.

The all white is a box stitch. The blue and white, and navy with colors are just stripes. I worked some in back loop to give a little variety.

This pinwheel is from the Annie's Attic book When Granny Meets Filet. There are several pages of filet patterns. What I like about this section of the book is that all the patterns for the small filet start with the same beginning chain, and all the patterns for the large filet pieces also start with the same beginning chain. The small pieces are about 5" with an edging using an I hook. This large one came out about 10". I did make some small pieces which I've put together into one large one but I haven't finished it yet. It will be in the next group.

That's all for now. Have a great day!

Happy crocheting!
Sandie

washcloths

A few more dish / wash cloths done. I actually have one more done that escaped picture taking. It will be in the next group.

I'm still using the yarn donated by Beth. Unbelievable how many cloths I'm getting from this box of yarn - and still quite a bit left. It hasn't cost me a cent to make these so the only cost I've incurred has been to mail. (Btw, did you know first class stamp price has gone up?)

Nothing fancy about this group of cloths. I just single or double crocheted, some through both loops, some through back loop only. For the blue and white I combined single and double crochet rows. My goal is not to have a lot of ends to sew in, though on the white and multi I was using up some of the smaller balls so I did end up sewing in a lot of tails. I don't mind the sewing in of them; just hoping they stay put.

If you're thinking of making some cloths for the Bridge and Beyond, and wondering where they're going to be used, here is what is said on the web site regarding washcloths (I use the terms washcloth and dishcloth interchangeably. They are made pretty much the same and can use any pattern. They're just used for different purposes.):

100% Cotton or a Cotton blend works well for both knitted and crocheted washcloths.  We collect these all year.  It's an item always needed at the shelters, and is very much appreciated.

The family shelters, both Faith Mission and The Homeless Families Foundation provide packages to the families as the depart shelter living into "their home."  Washcloths and dish clothes are always a part of these packs.

Sizes and colors appropriate for adults, as well as children; but primarily adults are needed.  The adults who live outside in the elements (primarily men) are also given these cotton wash cloths, so manly colors are needed as well as the more traditional pastels and brights.

I am making cloths right now, but scarves, hats, mittens, slippers, socks, afghans and more are needed for these folks in Ohio. Have a look at the blog site for additional info.


I've had a break from making videos, but I've been thinking of working on some again soon. This week will be rainy and it's hard to videotape with the rain banging on our aluminum roof, but I'm hoping next week I can start again. If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see in a video, holler out. I do have a list but it's not set in stone.

Happy crocheting!
Sandie