Japanese Flower Scarf

Hello Friends,

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the Japanese scarf for my mom is done! Although posting the photos now will ruin her surprise when she receives the package, I know she will enjoy just as much. Thanks to all of you who commented to tell me that the scarf is wide enough with just one row. I connect my Japanese flowers as I go and had already connected two flowers to the second row. Removing them was not a lot of work, and it was definitely too thick for a scarf with two rows. Good thing I posted a progress photo a couple weeks back so I didn't waste a lot of time making two rows!


11 Japanese Flowers

  When I first thought I was done, I put the scarf on and realized the dark rose colored flowers on both ends were even with each other. I should have planned better to eliminate this from happening. I decided to add one more flower to off-set the colors.

Looked like it needed one more flower

12 Japanese Flowers

 I added a flower with light pink petals to make the scarf 12 flowers long.

The finished scarf for my mom

I am a little worried about the connection between each flower. When wearing the scarf it appears as if there is a lot of pulling happening at the petal connection. I guess I will see how it behaves when winter comes and my mom wears it. The flowers look quite big. For those of you who are interested here are the stats on the scarf:

• 12 flowers long
• 7 different colors
• Lion Brand Vanna's choice yarn
• I used a G hook, 5.00MM
• Length 75.5inches/191cm
• Connect-as-you-go petals

I promised my mom two scarves so I will be making her another one. I think I am going to use hexagons for the next one, but I have been eyeing some smaller flowers that may be perfect for it!
Have a fabulous day,
xoxo Susan

Japanese Flower Garden Finished!

Helloooooo,

The Japanese Flower blanket is finished. J was kind enough to go outside with me and take some photos - I am so lucky he is cooperative. The flowers look much bigger when I hold the blanket up than when I photograph it on the ground.

It was a sunny hot day for the "photoshoot" and after holding it and drapping it around myself, I just loved it even more. 

Here it is on the garden chair set on my front porch...

Watercolor version of the photo...

 Very cozy to wrap around one's self. I was worried about the spaces in between each flower. I had a lengthy conversation about this with my Thursday crochet lunch group last week. Many crocheters were putting small flowery shapes in between but I just wasn't sold on the idea... plus I didn't have the time.

 Of course, I had to try it out on top of some chairs in my house...

After taking as many photos as I could, it was time to fold it up and ship it out.

I ended up with a total of 56 flowers, each flower was approximately 6 inches in diameter. I used twelve different colors of Lion's Brand Vanna's Choice Yarn . The following colors were used and the number of flower per color:

Olive - 4;  Dusty Purple - 7;  Antique Rose - 3;  Rose - 3;  Colonial Blue - 4; Dusty Green - 5;  Purple - 4;  Rust - 8;  Dusty Blue - 4;  Cranberry - 5;  Sapphire - 3;  Silver Blue - 6

The dimensions are 39 inches by 53 inches.

For my next one, I will stick with a general color pattern. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out which color petals to make next to make sure colors were not too close to each other. If I would have stuck with a general order, I would have saved a lot of time. So if you are going to make one with a variety of colors, I recommend sticking with an order.

xoxo Susan

White Centers

Hello Lovelies,

I am working away at the Japanese blanket and have it just about done... but I will wait for tomorrow to share the final photos with you! I liked the blanket right from the start but now that even more of it is complete and I can drape it around me and cover myself up with it, I simply LOVE it. I hate to part with it, but I am sure the new owner will love it too. I used Caron One Pound for the white centers because I had a big one pound skein of it and thought I would use it for this project. The Caron one pound yarn is very stiff -  at least it is right now before washing it. For the petals I used Vanna's choice so the petals are very soft. I think the combination works well and is cheaper than using Vanna's choice for the white centers too.

I started off by making one white center and petals to see how the flower looked and felt in the beginning. Then, I would make a few white centers at a time then add the petals and connect them. I was weaving in the ends as I went because I wanted to see how the flowers looked cleaned up. After about half of the blanket was done, I left the ends out to get the bulk of the blanket complete (remember my timeline was getting a little strict!). Last night I wove the ends in while watching Celebrity Apprentice with J, so it took a little over 2 hours to weave in the ends for about 40 flowers.

My friend Anna and her husband are expecting a baby this November and I can't wait to get started on a baby blanket for them. I am thinking of using the Circle of Friends pattern with 8 squares. They are not sure yet what the sex of the baby is so once we hear the news I will get right to work. Well I am off, this is a busy time of the semester, only 3 weeks left... can you believe it?!
xoxo Susan

More for the flower blanket

Good Morning,

Last night I was hooking away at the Japanese flower blanket. As I added more flowers to the blanket, I draped the existing flowers over my legs and noticed the blanket really is hole-y. Many ladies on the Flower Bed blog are adding flowers in between the Japanese flowers. To be honest, I really do not like the way the blanket looks with little bits added in between the main Japanese flowers. I am starting to wonder if I should work on the granny stripe and give that one as the gift instead of the Japanese flower blanket. The flowers still make a lovely blanket but for people who live in a colder climate and will want and need to use the blanket for great warmth, I am worried the blanket may just be decoration.



J's arm is in there - he came home earlier than I expected and was clearing the yarn from his side of the bed.

 Maybe I will just wait and see when the blanket is finished. I know my mom will love it if I give it to her instead of the folks it is planned for as a surprise. So I will just have to wait and see.
Today I have a lot of research to do so I better get back to work. I hope your day is filled with fun.
xoxo Susan

Slowly but Surely

Good Morning,

Photos are now back in action on blogger! For the last two days photos were not showing up on the blogger blogs, which makes posts not as lovely. Now we can all see what everyone has been up to. I think photos really help viewers get a feel for the pieces of life being blogged. I have been waiting to share some updated photos of my flower blanket.

Very early this morning I made a fast movement in my sleep and pulled a muscle along my spine. I ended up having to get up at around 5:00am because it was too uncomfortable to lay down. Luckily I can still type so I can get a lot of work done today, and hopefully crochet this evening too. My back has done this before but luckily at last three months have gone by since my last episode. Fortunately, I have some fabulous sun flowers to cheer me up!

I hope you have some real or crocheted flowers in your life.
Have a fabulous day!!
xoxo Susan

Flowery Saturday

Good Morning,
After a long week, I am going to spend my morning out on the lanai working on the Japanese flower blanket. Last night was the deadline for submitting proposals for one of the national conferences I attend every year so this week was extra busy preparing proposals to submit. The conference will be held in November in Anaheim California. I have never been to California so I look forward to it very much.

Back to crochet: I feel like the flower blanket/cover is getting larger and I can see progress being made. Although I have a feeling to get to the next big chunk of it done will take quite a while. I usually make a few white centers and then do the petals. I think I will try to make ten more today white centers today and complete at least five of those ten into flowers. Who knows maybe I will get all ten into flowers!

I am going to add more blue flowers. Right now there are four different shades of blue, although the two or three darker ones are hard to tell apart in the photographs. I am making this as a surprise gift and I think the home it will live in will look great with more blue flowers with the other colors mixed in.

The sun is shining and it looks like we are in for another beautiful day in the mid to high eighties (degrees F). I am not sure what else we will venture out and do today. J keeps mentioning mini-golf, or going to ride on this mountain bike trail we heard about, but I would like to play tennis. So we will see what activities we do today. Tomorrow I am going to share with you some information about a great charity that supports women who are experiencing cancer. The charity is called Embraceable Wraps for those who just can't wait for tomorrow.

Happy Saturday

xoxo Susan

Japanese Flower Blanket Emerging

Hello,
Yesterday morning we had to "spring" our clocks ahead one hour. I am in the eastern part of the USA, standard eastern time. This means we lose an hour of sleep/day today. Although it is just one hour, I think everyone notices and feels the hour lost. I was able to make a few more Japanese flowers for my blanket and I want to share them with you today. I hope you have some more time to work on it this evening, but I am afraid this week is quite busy and I may not be able to get any crochet done today.

I am really happy with the colors so far. I think the white centeres and the multi-colored petals work well for this! Even J commented on the colors. I am using Vanna's Choice Lions Brand. Well I better get back to work. Luckily the sun is shining and the little birdies outside are chirping.
I hope you have a fabulous day!
xoxo Susan

A Flowery Weekend

Hello Lovelies,
This morning I woke up early to get right down to come crochet business. The flower cover I started a few weeks ago with the beautiful Japanese crochet flowers posed some problems for me regarding color selection. After seeing many beautiful examples on the Flower Bed. I decided my next one is going to have 2 color flowers only, and since I am making all of the centers white, I guess the flowers could be considered one color.
So, I started working on my new Japanese flower cover this morning. I am very happy with the white centers and the same color for the entire petal.

Using less colors also means less ends to weave in, which if you are a regular reader you already know I dread weaving in the ends. I like to weave them in as I go so it looks cleaner when I examine my progress, but this slows down the making progress part a little bit. Weaving as you go does not take more time in the long run though.

I also need to work on the granny stripe blanket this weekend. I have been neglecting it over the last couple weeks. The temperature dropped a bit here so I have been able to use my ripple and granny garden blankets to keep my legs warm as I crochet, and I have been enjoying every minute of it.

I don't know if I will ever get enough of crocheting flowers. J works every Saturday, so in between getting research and teaching work done, I usually spend the morning hooking away. I am going to cook some corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight in honor of St. Patrick's Day week coming up. We had some last Friday at the Irish Festival but I have been craving some more.
Happy Saturday
xoxo Susan

Variety of Crochet Flowers

Good Morning Lovelies,
Another weekend is just about here and I am looking forward to it very much. Although I was on spring break this week, I feel like the days are slipping away quickly. Our spring break was a week later this year which means we have one week less to go before the semester is over. J and I are trying to decide where we should go for our summer trip this year, any suggestions???

This afternoon I have a crochet meeting with one of my colleagues at work. We have a new project brewing and we are both very excited about it. I don't want to spill the beans yet, but I will be sharing all the lovely details because you may want to be involved.

Over the last several weeks some great flower varieties have been showing up on the Flower Bed blog. I've been wanting to try the layered Japanese flower and yesterday I finally did. I started with the back petals first and worked my way forward with the middle and inner petals, is this how other people do it? As I was making them I thought it may be easier to do the inner petals first, I will try this for the next one.

The layers do take quite a bit of time. Since the petals take up the most time when making a regular Japanese flower, the amount of time to make a layered one is at least doubled. I am not sure yet what I will do with the layer one(s) but as you know, I just love making flowers!

I was trying to make more Japanese flowers for my cover so I made five inner circles in five different colors (I like the assembly line method sometimes for these things). Well, I accidentally used a hook one size smaller than the one I used when I made the existing flowers. This meant the circles I made were a tad too small and the petals would not line up for connecting. So I have one slightly too small Japanese flower, and four slightly too small centers. I decided to try a combination of other flower patterns I have seen (the one came from Le Monde de Sucrette's blog) and made the flower below with the periwinkle middle and pink petals (top one). Her original pattern didn't have such a large middle. I will make one following her pattern to you can see the difference, it is a lovely little flower and her scarf is beautiful.

Well, we had a nice sky last night as the sun was going down and I couldn't help myself, I had to take a photo to share. This is the sky opposite the sunset. The trees were in the way so I couldn't get the actual sunset. 

Oh, one last thing. I forgot to share the photo of McKenna's hat after I added a few more rows. She looked simply divine!

I hope you have a fabulous Friday today. Today I am having lunch with a friend at our favorite Mexican restaurant, a meeting about a new crochet project, and then a presentation on action research for some of our undergraduate students, a nice Friday.
Take some time to enjoy the outdoors.
xoxo Susan 

Weekend Wonderfuls

Good Morning Lovelies,
The sun is peaking out from behind some clouds and I up am ready to go this Saturday morning. Yesterday I wove all of my ends in on my granny garden blanket and took some photos. I think the blanket is at least a third of the way done, maybe a little more than one third. The progress is similar to my ripple. So I guess I can say they still have a way to go before being finished. Yesterday I was reading on the raverly message board about having multiple WIPs so you do not get so sick of them you never finish. Apparently I do that too! Today I will try to make a dent into more circles for the granny garden.

My two Lucy projects that got me obsessed with crocheting: ripple and circles to squares!!

 A little collection of what I have worked on the last month. I forgot to put my granny stripe in there. I put the granny stripe into a bag to take to see baby McKenna (I can't go away without a WIP to work on!) and forgot to bring it back out. Well there you have it! I bought my first batch of yarn on Friday, January 14th and went to work on the ripple, and here I am less than 60 days later with lots of goodies!
Have a fabulous day
XOXO Susan

Can't Get Enough of the Flowers

Hello Again,
I have been bursting with excitement about my Japanese flowers. I really love them and try to sneak in time each day to make some, but of course my full time job has been getting in my way. Last week I "cracked" the pattern, well my interpretation of the pattern, and I have been making lovely flowers ever since. I think I will stick of a color scheme for my next Japanese flower project because I am having great difficulty deciding what colors to use and trying to have proper variation.

Usually each night before J goes to sleep (he goes to sleep earlier than I do), I relax with him prior to his bedtime and then I do some late night crocheting or research while watching my fav tv shows (we all know what everyone will be watching tonight - Thursdays...). Last night as I added on flowers I kept drapping it over J to see how it looked as a blanket, but he was complaining it was too warm - which it is starting to get very warm again. Crocheting blankets in the heat is not ideal but maybe mild weather will hang around just a little bit longer (mild being under 80 degrees F).




Laying Flat on the Floor... Can you see my little mistake in there?




Drapped over a chair. The flowers look so much larger than I imagined. I LOVE IT!

The pattern for the shrug/shawl/scarf is to be worked as a trapezoid shape, 4 flowers deep and then as wide and you want. I am going to stick with the trapezoid shape for now and see how it goes. I think I am going to bring this WIP into the office today to share with the ladies in person because I think it looks so fab in person (I am getting a little obssessed...you can probably tell).
I hope your day is fabulous and for many of your up north, I hope you enjoy the spring-like weather coming your way!
XOXO Susan

First Japanese Flower

Hello Again,
A few days ago Lucy over at Attic 24 revealed her newest WIP and I think everyone fell in love. She found some great photos and a pattern for a japanese flower shawl/shrug. There was only one problem for me... the pattern was in French. For those of you who know me personally, you may remember I did take a year of French as an undergraduate college student, however... I could only translate the last part "bravo!" and that part was mostly because my elementary school music teacher, Mr. Lady, used to tell say "Bravo!" whenever we would do a nice job playing our instruments.

So, I really didn't think I could wait for someone to post an English version of this, many people on flickr and Lucy's comments section have provided additional pattern links but still in French, or at least not in English. This evening, I had some time to try to translate the diagram here into the flower. AND I think I did it!

Go to the link and look at the diagram. From looking at Lucy's photo and other crocheter's flowers the first three rows are pretty easy to make out.
To start: Ch 6 and slip st to make a circle
Row 1: ch 3 (counts as first dc),  11 dc into the circle = 12 dc (1 is the chain 3), slip st to connect
Row 2: ch 3 (counts as first dc), *ch 2, dc into the chain space and ch 2*, *repeat for each chain space = 12 dc total (1 is the ch 3 and 11 dc)
Row 3: add new color in a chain space and ch 3(counts as first dc), 3 dc in the chain space, *ch1, 4 dc in chain space*, * repeat into each chain space = you will have 12 groups of 4 dc's around the circle

Here is where it gets tricky. Note: this may not be what the pattern really should be, but this is what I did and I think it looks like it works.
Row 4: Start your new color in the chain space. Slip st until you get to the second stitch of a group of 4 dc. Ch 5 and slip st into the third dc stitch. Continue to slip st until you get to the next group of 4 dc's. So you are going to slip st around the entire circle and making a chain loop at the second and third stitch (the middle) of each group of 4 dc's.

Finishing Row 4: Once you have gone all around the circle you will do a single crochet connecting the 4th row to the third row (connect by the chain in between two dc clusters).

Then do 8 dcs inside the chain 5 space you made. *Sc connecting to the row below, then go directly to the next chain five to make the next petal with 8dc*, repeat until all of the chain 5 spaces are full petals. End with the final sc to the chain space in the row below and slip st and fasten off!

I hope this helps others who could not translate from French to English. I was just telling one of my students earlier this week that my next thing on my "After the dissertation to-do list" is to learn some more French, and these great "French only" patterns provide another incentive! Isn't it funny how these things all come together?
XOXO SH