Bably Boy Blue Dreams Blanket Progress

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. First I need to say I've been having problems posting comments to some blogs. I've been visiting you all and trying to post, sometimes I even tried several times per day but when I submit my comment disappears. Is anyone else having similar problems? For blogger blogs that have a separate window open to write comments I am able to submit. Any help is appreciated. I do enjoy reading you blogs so if you have not heard from me in over a week, I have been visiting and trying to comment.
Thank you for all of your lovely comments on my inifinity scarf. I am working on a tutorial/pattern and hope to have it up later this week. You comments make me want to make more and more :)

Remember a couple posts ago I had many squares but did not weave in the ends yet? Well I sat down and wove all of those ends in before making any new squares. It felt so much better to arrange them without the ends flapping around.

I also hooked out the last group of squares I needed. I really love this pattern because you can make a square in five minutes so if you only have 15 minutes to work on some crochet you can make 3 squares! As you can see, the blanket is 8 squares by 10 squares, which I think will be a good size for covering a baby in the stroller/pram, carseat etc.

Once I connect the squares with the Angie's zip zap method I will write up the statistics such as the color names. I have 13 different colors in there. Sometimes arranging the pattern is the hardest part!

Has anyone else made one of these little granny square blankets too? If so, please share your link, I would love to see them. Don't forget to check back later this week for the tutorial/pattern for the infinity scarf.
Have a fabulous Tuesday,
xo Susan

First Infinity Scarf Complete! with Lion Brand Amazing Yarn

Hello Friends,
Thank you for stopping by. I finished the Infinity Scarf!!! The scarf took 2 skeins of Lion Brand Amazing Yarn in Arcadia (the name of the color). Overall this scarf was a joy to make. I can work on a pattern/tutorial if anyone is interested in the pattern. Many people have commented asking if it gets cold enough here in Florida for me to need a scarf. The answer is no (haha). Maybe one or two days where a scarf is really needed, but we do get some cold weather and the last few years we had temperatures go under the freezing point. In general, we do not really need wool scarves here.

Luckily I grew up in western New York and travel up there each holiday season, and all of my family is up there so plenty of people I can make some scarves for. I also travel for work sometimes and usually my travel is to colder places.

The scarf consisted of five "clusters" across for the width and 33 rows. I made as many rows as the yarn would allow.

One side

Other side

Since this is called the Infinity Scarf and supposed have a variety of different ways it can be worn, I tried to see how it would look in different formations. First, just once around the neck and hanging long.

 
Doubled up as a cowl - I think this is my favorite!

When it is very cold and the wind and snow are blowing you can use it to cover your face.

Over the shoulders. A wider look, more like a shawl? sort of?

If the wind is blowing and your ears are getting cold you can pop it over your head.

I am very happy with the way this scarf turned off. I will be mailing it out to my dear friend Sarah T. (as long as she wants it) who recommended me looking into the Infinity Scarf. I already purchased some more Amazing Yarn  in some other colors to make some more. The Amazing Yarn was on sale at A.C. Moore this week and the sale was ending today, A.C. Moore also sent me a coupon via email to get $5 off if I spent $20 or $10 off if I spent $30. Since spending $30 gives a better bang for your buck, I purchased 7 skeins and was able to get each one for around $3.08 per skein which is more than half off of the regular price!

Autumn is really starting in Florida!!

Hello Lovely Blogland Friends,

Another long week has passed and the weekend is here! As usual, I hope to spend my weekend crocheting away. Autumn does not always make an entrance here in Southwest Florida but this weekend we will experience our first bit of real autumn goodness. The humidity is dropping and the temperature is not supposed to reach 90 this coming week -- which means the temp is dropping. The temperature is supposed to be in the 60s during the early morning hours.

Earlier this week I showed you a sneak peak at the Infinity Scarf I started. Well, the scarf is still not finished, but I did make good progress. The first picture is one whole skein of the yarn. Hopefully the whole scarf can be made with 2 skeins and based on my calculations it should be just right.

Starting on the second skein... (same color yarn -- Arcadia)

Remember, I am using Lion Brand Amazing yarn in the color "Arcadia" and so far I really like the color variation in the yarn.  I am surprised there was so much blue in the beginning of the yarn because the rest of the colors change sooner.

I also started making squares in blues, greens and yellow for a baby boy blanket I am calling Blue Dreams. I loved my stained glass white blanket so much that I decided to use the same pattern for a baby boy blanket.

I think an 8 by 10 block will be just the right size for the baby to cover with in his stroller/pram for the winter.

As you can see I have not been waving in the ends as I go like usual. I am not sure what came over me, I just kept making squares and did not have my small hook near by to weave them in. So I will have to spend a few hours weaving them in this weekend. Surprisingly I am not dreading it, the ends weave in nicely on these little squares since they are too compact.

I hope you are able to have a happy hooky weekend. Enjoy the change in weather and autumn colors starting to appear if you are up north. For those of you down under I hope you have some spring fun.
xoxo Susan

Ran out of yarn!

Hello Friends,

I hope you had a great start to your week. My weekend of finishing WIPs was lovely, until I ran out of yarn for my granny stripe blanket. The blanket uses up quite a bit of yarn for each color switch. Each color includes 2 rows (down and back), so using scraps is not an option with this blanket. I went through as many rows with colors I had and then I had to stop because I did not want the color pattern to look like I ran out of some colors.

I did take some photos of the blanket so far..

I really like this blanket. I named it English Meadow when I began to make it because I choose the colors to go along with the Vera Bradley English Meadow pattern. Since it was before the pattern was released, my colors may be somewhat different shades but I still enjoy it.

Since I ran out of some blues and greens, I decided it would be alright if I worked on a new scarf that has been waiting for me to make for oh so long. My friend Sarah told me about the infinity scarf. A scarf that can be worn multiple ways, I think the idea was that it could be worn an infinite number of ways. The scarf needs to be long enough to wrap around your neck twice which makes it look like a cowl. So I bought some special yarn to give it a try (well special for me, I usually stick with Vanna's Choice and Vanna Baby which I love, but usually buy it on sale for $2 or $2.50). I used a 50% off coupon at A.C. Moore and bought Lion Brand Amazing yarn. The color I purchased was Arcadia. It was difficult to choose as the colors are hard to see in the skeins.

The yarn can be a little tricky because it is fuzzy. If you mess up and need to unravel some stitches, this yarn sometimes will not un-do.  I will post some more photos of this and the pattern soon. Here is a sneak peak photo of the scarf...

I am very happy with the way the scarf is turning out so far. I hope your day was great!
xoxo Susan

Statistics for Stained Glass Blanket - White

Good Morning Lovelies,
I was hoping to post this much earlier this week but you know how that goes. Time slipped away.  This morning I am all ready to get working on finishing up some WIPs. This is my weekend of working on WIPs!

I was able to get outside and take some outdoor photos of the blanket in natural light but my lens would not stop fogging up from the humidity so I do not have as many presentable ones as I hoped.

Foggy Photo from Humidity

Here are the stats on the blanket:

Size: 47 inches by 29 inches
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice and Vanna Baby
Number Colors: 22 colors plus white = 23
Estimated time to complete:  21 hours and 33 minutes (1280 minutes)

I better get to work on my WIPs so I can have some finished pieces to show you by the end of this weekend. Have a fabulous weekend and Happy Autumn!
xoxo Susan

Stained Glass Blanket Showcase!

Well lovelies,
Here it is!!!!!
I would tell you a story about the blanket, but I think the photos speak for themselves. I have the blanket covering my legs as I write this (not because it is cold here but because with the air conditioning on I usually need a blanket for my legs at night when I stay up late on the computer... reading blogs!).

Before the border

Working on the border

Border complete!

 The finished blanket with border. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT! I teach on Monday evenings so by the time I came home from work and finished the border, it was very dark outside. All of these photos were taken inside. I will try to get some outdoor ones tomorrow morning. These photos turned out super great considering they are all indoor lighting.

More on the border and other statistics tomorrow for those who like that sort of information. I changed it slightly from Angie's border.

I hope you enjoyed the photos as much as me. I am not sure if I will be able to part with this. A special thanks to Angie at Le Monde de Sucrette for making this blanket and sharing the pattern. This is my favorite blanket I've made so far.

I hope you had a fabulous start to your week,
xoxo Susan

A little something to hold you over...

Hello Loves,

I was really hoping to have my stained glass blanket complete, but you know how it goes. I am making good progress but it is not quite done yet. I do not want to spoil the ta-dah moment, I am not going to show you any more photos of it until it is done.

Luckily, I do have something to show you to "hold you over" while you wait. First, I made some homemade brownies. Making baked goods from scratch and not from a box mix has been one of my goals for this year. Brownies were one of the goodies on my list to make.

I used the recipe for Chewy Cocoa Brownies found on the Toll House Cocoa container and it turned out pretty good. It was very easy to make.

1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter

2 Tbsp water

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup Nestle Toll House Baking Cocoa

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional, but I used them)

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Grease 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Combine sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; Stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan. Bake for 18 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into bars. Makes 2 dozen brownies.

The brownies turned out very yummy. So yummy that J and I gobble them up in only two days.

Now a real crochet "hold over". I know I said I was not going to work on anything else until I finish the stained glass blanket, but....

I was looking through photos of crochet projects and saw some diagonal pieces. After reading through some different variations of the pattern, I decided to try it with my own version of the pattern. Sometimes patterns do not make sense to me or logically works differently in my head, so after a little bit of trial and error, I was able to get this going. I am thinking a blanket (smaller one).

I hope you had a fabulous weekend. I have a very busy work week ahead so I must be off to try and finish this stained glass blanket before the week begins.
xo Susan