Stained Glass Blanket

Good Morning Lovelies,

Yesterday the day started out bright and sunny and then some clouds came and lingered on with some rain for almost the whole day, and I enjoyed every single minute of it. I spend the day working on my little squares for my new blanket. I decided to call it this one Stained Glass. All of the different colors remind me of stained glass windows so there you have it.

You can see I am weaving in my ends as I go. I find this to be so much more enjoyable when I near the end and do not have that dreadful feeling of being almost done but still have to spend hours weaving the ends in.

A few colors are still missing. I may have to pop over to the craft store today and get a regular orange color and a regular purple, maybe a magenta as well. I am using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice and Vanna Baby, 100% acrylic, this is the yarn I use for most of my projects.

So for now I am working on stacking up the colors. I have not decided how big this will be yet. I do not want it to be too small that it will not get any use. My main goal was to use this as a way to de-stash but as I already said I need to go buy some colors I already ran out of! Angie's version for her daughter was 10 by 16 squares, I am thinking maybe 12 by 16 which is a total of 192 squares, or 13 by 16 for a total of 208 squares.

This is a holiday weekend here in the USA called Labor Day. Time has gone by so quickly I did not realize the holiday weekend was already here. The holiday weekend means no school Monday! I hope you are having a great weekend and a great holiday weekend for those of you in the USA.

Have a fabulous Sunday,
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

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

Connect As You Go Granny Circle to Squares

Good Morning,
I hope you are having a lovely morning. The sun is shining here and although I went to bed late last night (I was crocheting) the sun shining outside has me feeling energized and ready to go. Unfortunately today I will not be driving up to Tampa to see baby McKenna. McKenna's mommy is not feeling well and has a fever :-(
So I instead of working via the internet, I will be going to my office/university today (although the rising gas prices make me want to work from home permanently). Next week I will venture up there to see the my friend and the baby.

Last night I was trying to make some progress on my granny garden blanket. The granny circles which turn into squares when you connect-as-you-go. The pattern links can be found here in my first posting about it.

This blanket is interesting because while I make it, I often feel like there are too many "holes" in the blanket for it to be very useful. But, in between connecting each circle, when I lay the blanket flat across my legs to check it out, it works! I haven't decided how long I want this one to be. The smaller version would mean I am almost half done (if I do a 10 by 10 row). I think the blanket needs to be longer than 10 by 10 based on seeing other ladies' blankets. The blanket looks much more grand when it is bigger, and all of the weaving and cutting of the different colors really takes a lot of time, so I want it to look grand once it is finished. Maybe tonight I will make another dent in it. Every time I feel like I made a lot of circles, when I lay them out there just doesn't seem to be as many. I must say, it really does look as nice as I hoped it would. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed when I wash it for the first time that my weaving in was adequate.

I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday,

XOXO Susan

Foggy Views and Granny Stripes

Good Morning Lovelies,

We have a foggy start to the day here, but it is bright so it looks like the sun will be out shortly. Yesterday I found painfully little marks on my left heel, which J thought were spider bites. I couldn't even run last night because it hurt too much to have my sneakers rub against the skin. When I went outside to check out the fog this morning, I noticed we have spider webs all over the place (they were not there yesterday). Spider webs across the screen of the lanai, around some plants, and on some trees. It looks like J is probably right about my little marks being spider bites. I am going to put him on spider patrol.



Foogy Morning



Usually I can see all the way down the street in the backyard

 

Can you see the spider web?

I have made a little progress on my granny stripe. Tomorrow I will show you my color inspiration for this one. I am using blues and some shades of green and a yellow here and there - an English Cottage/Meadow look. Those of you in England you will have to be the judge for me once the blanket is complete! For anyone who missed my first posting - I explained some subtle differences between my pattern (due to my errors of course) and Lucy's pattern for the granny stripe.

I still love touching this blanket. Even though the texture isn't as differentiated as other patterns, I still think the look and feel is great.
Well off to grade all day long with a little bit of getting our taxes done in between. I usually spend Mondays grading all day but yesterday I had some other projects to finish up so this week Tuesday will be my full day of grading.
XOXO Susan

Granny Square Connect As You Go, M.C. Escher Take 2 Attempt

Hello Friends,
Yesterday I attempted to do my second take on my granny garden blanket (I call it my granny garden because I think the circles look like a colorful garden) metamorphosis photo. If you remember a couple weeks ago I took a progress photo of the blanket and it resembled an M.C. Escher style piece of art. So I decided I would make a real attempt at making a metamorphosis photo as I completed more of the blanket. After speaking with my brother about it, we thought a dark background would enhance the blanket, so I thought the dark green grass we have here in Florida would be perfect, plus it is a colorful garden after all!

So yesterday I waited for the grass to dry after the irrigation system ran, and waited for the sun to be in the right position (the sun is sometimes too bright for the colors to show in photos), and I did not have good luck. The grass is very thick here and wouldn't allow the blanket and pieces to lay flat, making the photo look un-even. As you can tell from the photo, things look a little wobbly.


Uneven grass...

 

On the coffee table getting ready

So, my hubby is cleaning off the brick driveway so I can do a take 3 today with the reddish brick background for the photo. Keep your fingers crossed! I will post the "Take 3" photos later this evening.  I hope you have a nice Sunday planned, we are going to go out to lunch on the water and watch some dolphins play while we eat - today is another gorgeous day!

Oh, one last thing: A.C. Moore craft store has Vanna's Choice yarn on sale for $2 again!!! WOOOO, of course I just had to buy some more for $2.50 on Friday for my granny stripe blues but I will be stocking up again for sure. You may be wondering what I would still need at this point, but after the granny garden blanket and the ripple, I ran out of some colors. Oh, and I also needed some more white, olive green, and mustard yellow for my African flower daisy cushion -- I hope to show you in the next few days!!! My very first one. Michael's craft store has Vanna's choice on sale for for $2.50 each and then tomorrow (Monday) for President's Day they are giving an additional 20% off, see the website for the coupon, so if you are closer to a Michael's you can get it for $2 each tomorrow. Ok, enough of my going on already.

Have a fabulous Sunday and check back soon for the crochet metamorphosis!
XOXO Susan

Back at It

Hello Friends,
Yesterday I was feeling a bit under the weather so I did not share anything with you on my blog. I did start another WIP, I know I know, I already have several other works in progress but since I am new to crocheting regularly, I am so far behind! I love all of the things Lucy at Attic 24 and Alice at Crochet with Raymond have been making over the years that I feel compelled to "catch up". I am still working on my other projects for variation, but I just needed to try the granny stripe.

The granny stripe is still in the very beginning stages and I am using a certain color pattern as my inspiration but I am not going to reveal my color inspiration just yet...

I followed Lucy's pattern as best I could, except I forgot for the first row that her dc really meant sc in USA terms. SO my first row is a dc instead of single crochet. I really love making it, the rows go at a nice pace and it looks so nice, especially the texture it produces with each color having a row of front and back (you flip) which doesn't usually happen in a regular granny square. In addition to using a USA dc (instead of a UK dc which is sc in USA) my other adjustments were to put one chain in between each granny cluster for the second row only (first row of clusters, but second row of the blanket). Lucy's pattern says to make the length in multiples of three's so mine was a chain of 162. I was imagining a blanket to cover one person on a sofa or bed.
Welllll I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I just might post again tonight to make up for yesterday. We will see how much progress I make today. The weather is delightful as usual here so I may have to crochet outside.
XOXO Susan 

Another Day in the Sun

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you had a nice Valentine's Day yesterday and received whatever you wanted from your special valentine. J and I are not big on gift giving for Valentine's Day because we don't like to have "stuff" laying around that we don't need. We prefer to go on trips and enjoy time together. I did make some brownies the night before and we ate them up fast. Mondays J has off from work, but I always have to work, so after work we had a nice dinner, enjoyed some of the nice weather, and then went for a run together - a lovely little V-day.

My ripple blanket is turning out quite nice. I started this project exactly one month ago and I have been smitten with crochet every since. I now have about three projects going at once but that is normal behavior for me. Although the weather is superb here right now, I am jealous of the people up north in the cold who are making lots of progress on their knit and crochet projects because the mounds of snow have them stuck inside. The photos on the blogs and flickr are amazing!

The yarn on this blanket feels so soft (Vanna's Choice), much softer than it feels when I use it for other things. I used a G (4.25MM) hook which is the same as I have used for other things, but there is something about the way this blanket feels. The pile of yarn I purchased over the last few weeks is starting to get thinner. I went through one whole ball of white from the granny circles (white is the final round and connecting color). The red is almost gone, after using it twice in the ripple blanket photographed above. I am not sure if there would be enough for another two rows of it (each ripple color is two rows).

Tonight I hope to make some more Japanese flowers to add to my WIP. More photos to come...
Have a fabulous day!!
XOXO Susan

Ripply

Hello Everyone,

Today is not so sunny, but I have a busy day indoors so I don't mind. We have so many days of sunshine in Florida that I often welcome days of rain and clouds. When the sun is out I have a sense of urgency to get outside and enjoy myself - I think this is from living up north for so long. Sometimes you could miss all the nice days in a summer if they fell during the week.

Our new file cabinet came in yesterday so after work I was busy putting it together. I was trying to suprise J before he got home from work with the completed cabinet, but I ran into some trouble. The sides of one of the drawers did not line up properly so I couldn't put it together. I was going to call the company today (their phone line was 9am-5pm) and tell them I needed a new piece when I realized we could try to drill down some of the pieces to get them to align properly.

So after J came home he glady took out the drill and did the drilling for me (when he was out of town in October I tried to drill the curtain rod in the bathroom... I don't try to use the drill anymore). So the file cabinet is complete and looks lovely! The matching desk should be arriving via Fed Ex sometime today. So after work today we will put together the desk. If all goes well I will be able to share the photos with you tomorrow.

Slowly but surely I am making progress on my ripple blanket. I love the way the blanket feels, I am very happy with the Vanna's Choice yarn, this is my first project using it. When I lay the blanket out on the floor it makes me want to strethch out and lay on it. I think I may make a ripple cushion to go along with the blanket, or a cushion to coordinate but a different pattern.

I have been trying to keep my WIPs confined to certain places so J doesn't feel like I have WIPs all over the place. He hasn't said anything yet but we don't want him to start resenting crochet! So far he is really enjoying the outcomes of my work and only tells me to take a break when he knows I've been at it all day long :) I do have a pattern I am going to try this weekend that I cannot wait to share the work with all of you!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a fabulous day

Susan H.   XOXO

Another WIP

Hello! I've been grading all morning today. I designated Mondays as my day for grading last week's assigments/work my students submit on Sunday evenings. Today I moved out of my office and onto the lanai so I can enjoy the fresh air while I work away at my laptop (instead of being cooped up indoors like I often am).
Similar to the way I go about most things in my life, I have multiple works in progress for my crocheting. This is definitely evident by the various pictures I posted of different pieces I am working on over the last few weeks. Last week I shared some circle grannys, which are now slowly turning into true granny sqaures as I make the last round and connect them together. My inspiration for this one came from Lucy in Attic24 (http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/hexagon-howto.html) as well as this one which I believe her name is Meg (http://solgrim.blogspot.com/2009/06/sirkel-i-kvadrat.html) is mostly in non-English but the pattern is provided in English. I decided to make the final round squares for this blanket, but after I finish this one, I am going to make something with hexagons.



First round 4 added





As round for for circle #2 was made, I connected if with the first one



The connect as you go is G R E A T!



This is my M.C. Esher Metamorphosis exibit - I may be on to something here!!

I didn't really mean to do it, but my last photo reminds me of an M. C. Esher drawing - a metamorphosis photo - and I think it is really neat! Since I didn't really plan to make it look like that, I certainly could improve for future photos if I want to go down that route. Maybe tomorrow I can orchestrate a true metamorphosis shot... hold your excitment for tomorrow to see what I can come up with. My brother Kevin is an art teacher and I am sure once he stops in for a visit on my blog this week, he will have some helpful advice.

Oh and I made another cap during the garage sale Saturday morning. I love the look of the hat with a flower attached so of course I added one on. Here it is for you to enjoy:

Have a great start to your week. XOXO

It's Monday Again

Good Morning. I have another long week ahead of me, as I am sure most of you do too. Yesterday was a nice an releaxing day for J and I. We went for a bike ride around our community and we also ventured outside our community to enjoy the nice weather and check out ponds in the area, mostly look to see if there were fish in the other ponds. About two year a ago, my husband (J) and I traveled up to the northern part of Florida when we first moved in and stocked our community ponds with catfish. The catfish grew to be quite large. After come very cold days this winter, we no longer see the catfish in our backyard pond, or any other fish for that matter. Over the summer when we would feed the fishies, it would look like this. Lately, we see nothing.

Today I am also sending off the baby blanket to my dear friend Gina. Her baby girl is due February 26th. I started making this blanket as soon as I heard she was pregnant. Of course it still took me many months to complete because I did not work on it each day. Today I will send it off to her in Tampa FL so she can put it in the baby's room with the rest of her stuff as we all wait for her arrival!!! 


This is the blanket that got me back into crocheting again!

 

Folded up and read to go



Another one beginning

I am up bright and early this Saturday morning to be a judge in a regional science fair. I can't wait to see what the kids came up with this year! It will be a long morning/afternoon, but good for the kids. After I get out I plan to write some more of one of the manuscripts I am working on, and sneak in some crocheting too.

I wanted to share a little glimpse of another project I've started - I will try to do a little bit each day...

 I always enjoyed the granny sqaure every since I first learned to crochet. These look like circles now but when I do the final round they will become squares!

More soon.

Happy Saturday!