Window Panes & Wool (Finished!)

Just the other day I bought some new yarn. Last night I used it all up in one sitting. Good times, indeed.
This wool was as wooly as you can imagine. It was 2 ply, quite coarse- but not itchy, and smelled a touch like sheep and hay. Genuine, for sure. I even picked out a couple specks of grass. I immediately dispensed with any notion of turning this skein into a garment.

Being a lovely, undyed ecru-white I decided to create something from it that would show off its simplicity. Make that 2 somethings.

A 9 flower garland.

5 triangle Granny Bunting

 It's such a murky day out today. Why do I always want to photograph finished items when the sun is hid beneath waterlogged clouds?

I noticed, while focusing my camera on this granny triangle, that the void areas create a flower petal of sorts. A charming detail. :)

The destiny of the Triangle Granny Bunting is unknown (I'm smitten, I may keep it), but the Flower Garland I plan to list in my Etsy shop. I want to dig through my buttons first to see if I have a little bronze bee leftover from another flower garland. It needs a little something extra. But only 1 something, this time.

Have a LoVeLy day! :)

***

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An Easy Choice (Yarn)

New Yarn! 

(happy dance!)

This is the easiest skein of yarn I have *ever* purchased.

Why, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you.

I went (for the first time) to our local foods market and the first thing I see (besides a little girl who wants to be our best friends... my 3 year old turned into Bambi and suddenly retreated right beneath my feet) is a basket with 5 or 6 skeins of yarn. 

This shop is all local, so of course I was going to buy local yarn. $10 a skein, not cheap, but hey, it's not about the price. 

They offered 2 (undyed) colors: Ecru or Khaki.

Duh, ecru! 

And here it is, it's internet debut...

I'm goober laughing at these pictures.
I just threw it atop a blanket,
but it looks like this yarn is from a professional photo shoot in the 80s.

Yards per Skein unknown, but it's quite a bit, as you see. 

I like the twisted parts. :)

Now what to make of it? Uhh...

The funny thing is, I wouldn't have picked this skein in a million years in a yarn shop. It's not very soft, it's "just" ecru, et cetera go the strikes against it. But because I had very limited choice and I wanted to get it (for various reasons), it was an easy choice and one that I'm immensely happy with.

Funny, less is still more, even when it comes to choice.

So "Yay!" for new yarn! And "Yay!" for an easy choice! And "Yay!" for local goods!

***

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2 Rows Down... (WIP)

Before the weekend hits I wanted to share a bit of Sunburst Granny Goodness. 

So here you go, internetters. 

2 rows down, 9 to go. 

Loving every square. 

***

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Bed of Roses Blanket... *Still* a Work in Progress

In the midst of all my obsessive love over the Sunburst Granny Blanket, I thought I'd revisit the never-forgotten, never-finished, never-ending Bed of Roses Blanket. I started this back in September and my hopes were that I'd finish it up by Christmas as a triumphant "Happy Christmas to ME!" present. But, no. I'm now going to consider it a miracle if this blanket is done before my birthday (the end of May, if you're curious. Don't bother with presents, money or cards: just send yarn). And honestly, I'll be delighted if it's done within a year of it's original start date. 

Honestly, I don't have that much left to go...

I can whole heartedly recommend this yarn.... for other projects. I just didn't realize what I was getting into with this blanket. It's extremely silky and luxurious, which is pretty much exactly what I'm going for. But not exactly easy to work with, so almost not worth the trouble. Almost. :) 

Yes, that's a tool box being used as a dresser. And yes, that's a nerf gun on top.
We're either super cool or super lame.
I haven't decided yet.

You can read up on the Bed of Roses origins right HERE and also my poor attempts to stay focused on it HERE. Sadly, the entire second post was about me not paying attention to this beautiful-but-boring (yeah, I said it) blankie.  And what happened after that? The Not-That-Ugly Stash Bustin' Blankie. The Baby Blanket. The Berry Beautiful Blanket. And those are just the blankets. There's a whole list of good stuff tagged under "Finished" but I'm leaving off there.

As of Today, the stats of the blanket go something like this:

There are 8 squares across and I'm 2 squares into the 6th row. I have all of my flowers made for that row, I just have to turn them into squares and join-as-I-go. It's my intention to make this blanket 8 squares across and 8 rows deep, but we'll see. I may poop out at 7 rows deep (likely) and throw a border on it. I have a tendency to see a glimmer of hope at the end and say "good enough!" and then I'm done.

...like this blog post.

Good enough!!

***

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Sunburst Granny Progress (WIP)

I'm pretty sure repeatedly using cell-phone images and apologizing profusely gives me a failing grade in Blogging 101, but I cannot help myself. I never seem to have my camera on me and I'm so in love with this blanket that I must document every single square. Obsessively. And then share it with the World Wide Web so you too can fall madly in love with this blankie. 

I'm halfway through my second row. Each row has 7 squares and is 38" wide. This will allow for me to make a border and go just a smidge over my 40" width plan. I think I'll be making it about 10 or 11 squares deep (long?) to reach my 60" goal. Somewhere along the way it'll be appropriate to dig through my fresh copy of Around the Corner Crochet Borders and figure out what loveliness will be edging this blanket. I'm pretty sure I want to keep it white (technically ecru), but I'm also committed to open-minded-ness about this. Oxymoron? Hm, perhaps.

Anyway, the colors are more vibrant in real life, and the images could be a great deal sharper. But it's gorgeous all the same and I'm sure you loved this post or you wouldn't still be reading. :)

More updates to come! Stay tuned!!

***

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Here Comes the Sun (WIP)

The Sunburst Granny square is one design I've spent an abnormal amount of time obsessing over. I've googled imaged it, etsy searched it, pinned it, saved it to my desktop. So when my cousin sent me a text with an image she saw in a book and a "Can you make this?!?!?!" plea, there was no getting around it.

I dug out a pattern I had printed before, but there were 8 rounds in that sucker. 8 rounds! I mean, it was pretty and all. But 8 rounds? The prettiest part of the square is the very center. So I decided to scale it back. I tweaked and edited and skipped the fluff. 

Ready for the result?

1

(my apologies-

these first few images were taken with my crummy camera,

but they get the job done)

2

3

4

5

6

I finally busted out the real camera.  

7

8

Yuuuum. Yum. Oooh my, yum.

I've been working on this blanket all weekend long, mostly outside while my boys play in the yard. It's so delightful to hook up some squares, playing with colors and watch the trees (now covered with leaves) go woooosh woooosh in the wind. I have good vibes about this blanket. Good vibes, indeed.

And I can't wait to write this pattern out for everyone! It's everything I love about crochet:

easy

fast

colorful

fun

funky

versatile

etc

etc

et cetera.

=D

Check back often for the Sunburst Blanket's progress.

The pattern will be with the "Finished!" post. 

I'm soooo excited!

***

Here comes the sun, little darlin', here comes the sun.

and I say, it's all right.

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The Granny of All Bags (How-To)

You may remember the

Fat Bottom Bag

Well.

It's D-O-N-E!

And holy cannoli, it's huge! 

I'm pretty sure it's bigger than I am. 

You can fit a large toddler in this thing... not that I tried. 

I don't have to try, it's obvious.

Anyway, here it is, in it's humungous Granny of All Bags glory...

Already stuffed with yarn for the next project. Check back for *that* project. It's a good one. I'm in LoVe! 

I left the pattern right after I finished my giant granny square. I just didn't feel like doing all those single crochet stitches called for. Laaaa zeeeee. So really, it's nothing at all like what the pattern dictated. And I'm pretty sure it's bigger than the pattern dictated. I didn't note the yarn type, the hook size, the gauge... yeah, none of that. So keep in mind what your tools are before you jump into this thing. Smaller hook and thinner yarn = smaller bag. Which I plan to make as well. :)

Here's a simplified version of my steps for all you lovely crocheters. Sorry this isn't a tutorial. Nor is it really a pattern.... it's just a how-to. Any questions, leave 'em in the comments section and I'll try my very best to answer them!

The Granny of All Bags: How-To

1) Make a granny square. Mine was 26 rounds. Huge. This sucker definitely isn't a purse. I guess it could be, if you have a lot of loot and don't mind putting a liner in it. Weave in all your ends and clean it up a bit.
2) Fold in half with right sides together. Join yarn to both sides and single crochet into every chain one space. This will pull your side closed. Go around the corner and into the top for the first 5-8 chain one spaces (just use your judgement and personal preferences. There's not better way). Fast off, repeat this step on the opposite side.
3) Now that your sides are decreased, you're going work your granny stitch (3dc, ch1) across one side of the opening of the bag. Continue for 3 or 4 rows, then tuck your handle in and *around the handle* slip stitch the last row worked with the first row worked. Make sense? Oh, good. :) Repeat that on the other side.
4) Weave in your ends. Be shocked at how comical it initially looks. Then fall in love with it's funky retro-fabulous good looks.
5) Stuff your yarn inside. Take it everywhere you crochet!

***

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