working on something

July 20, 2014 by 8 Comments

It’s been pretty slow on the crafting front here lately, but I do have something to share!

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It’s my first knitted blanket, and it’s simple garter stitch. I got the inspiration from the Colorblock Bias Blanket by Purl Soho, but I’m not doing the diagonal stripes, just regular stripes. The colors are the ones shown in this post — it’s the KnitPicks comfy worsted. Boy howdy is it soft!

It’s going pretty slowly, as is expected from a knitted blanket versus a crocheted one, but I’m enjoying the easy repitition. It looks like it’ll be a perfect size for my cozy chair. Can’t decide if I want to do a border or not with the darkest gray… I’ll need to learn how to pick up stitches from the side of something; is it easy? I could always crochet the edging if it’s too hard to knit…

Well that’s all I’ve got for today! I hope ya’ll are doing well, and thanks for stopping by!

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ripple #2 ta-dah!

November 19, 2012 by 22 Comments

 

I’ve finished my second ripple blanket!  Using the ripple pattern from Attic24 and Stylecraft Special DK yarn, I completed this in just under two weeks, with plenty of yarn to spare (perhaps enough for a baby blanket).

Here you can see how wide it is:

 

And how long:

 

So it would certainly cover a twin bed.  And here’s the the skinny purple border up close:

Two single crochets along each row of the ripples made a nice even border.  I followed it with another row of sc, then a row of dc, then a row of ss.  Here’s the back of the border, which I also think is neat:

 

And to make the border flat, on the wavy ends instead of that first row of sc I just made a sort of inverse ripple with sc, hdc, dc, and tr stitches:

 

So that’s it!  I’m really proud of this blanket and I hope to get lots of good use out of it.  Hopefully it can withstand me, my boyfriend, and my dog…  I’m just glad the yarn was cheap and the pattern easy!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

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yarn mountain and ripple progress

November 15, 2012 by 4 Comments

This past weekend I went to visit my parents, and they had procured for me two large black trash bags full of yarn that someone had left at their church.  Naturally, I was ecstatic about that much free yarn:

by the way, my new favorite color is chartreuse, as you might can tell from my lovely hoodie

 

there’s even more yarn on the couch that I forgot to put on the floor for the picture

 

This vast amount of yarn was then sorted into four kitchen-size trash bags: two for Red Heart, one for Caron Simply Soft, and one for everything else.  I left the bags in my car after returning home, thinking I’d get my muscle-y boyfriend to help me lug them inside later.

Two days later, I was at my internship helping to lead a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy group for people with borderline personality disorder and/or PTSD, and I noticed one of the clients had a lovely crocheted baby blanket in her baby’s stroller.  When I asked about it, she confirmed that she had made it herself, and that it was the only crocheted item that had survived a recent house fire.  Another client, who has said nothing in our groups for 3 weeks, stated that she knits on a loom herself.  I offered to these ladies the yarn that was still bagged up and sitting in the back seat of my car, and they were incredibly happy with the sheer amount of yarn.  They rummaged through the bags, picking the colors and brands they wanted, leaving me with almost nothing left.

I had intended to use this yarn myself for charity projects, but I think that giving it to these lovely ladies, who have no money to buy even the cheapest yarn themselves, was a great thing, especially since it got the previously silent woman to come out of her shell a little bit.  Crocheting/knitting is actually an excellent mindfulness activity, which is something we focus on in our DBT groups because it works so well at helping people with BPD/PTSD.  Sharing with these women made me feel all warm inside, despite the cold temperature of the parking lot in which we stood, parceling out the yarn.  I love to share the joys of yarn crafts, and helping the less fortunate is a great feeling, don’t you think?

As far as my own crocheting, I have progress to share on ripple #2:

it may look bigger than it actually is — that Ikea couch is more like a loveseat

 

I’ve used each of the 17 colors three times, and so far I’ve managed to keep from letting the same colors touch more than once.  I’m thinking that, if I stopped here, I’d have enough yarn for a second, identical blanket.  I’ve ordered two more skeins of the lavender shade to make a nice thick border.  However, I think I want this blanket to be a little longer so that I can stretch out completely underneath it, so I’m not sure what I will do with all the leftovers I will have.  I’ll have to search through Ravelry to find some good patterns for DK yarn.

What would you use acrylic DK yarn for?

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ripple update and a new tutorial

November 9, 2012 by 3 Comments

 

The blanket is not quite through all the colors being used twice, but it’s sufficiently large enough to warrant an update!  I’m having so much fun.  Since it’s not a super wide blanket I think I’m going to have some lovely leftovers — perhaps not enough for another adult sized blanket, but perhaps a baby blanket or some more winter wearables.

Also, I have a new tutorial up!  I’ve noticed that a lot of people leave their ends on blankets like this one until the very end, and it’s a huge pain to sew them all in.  The new tutorial is for the no-sew securing of ends.

click here for the no-sew ends tutorial

Thanks for stopping by!  Come back soon for more ripple-y updates and fun stuff!

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back to the hook: ripple #2 begin!

November 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The arrival of my Stylecraft Special DK pack in the mail yesterday still has me in a high state of excitement and happiness.  I wanted to start right away, but before I could pick up my hook I had to organize the colors in a way that would make sure that I used all of the colors equally without necessarily going in a strict pattern.  I came up with this:

Each of the 17 colors has been labeled.  As I use them, I’ll move them from one side of my coffee table to the other so that I can easily keep track of which ones I’ve used, and when I finish using all 17, I’ll mix them up and start again, randomly pulling colors.  A little OCD, you say?  Perhaps, perhaps.  As a counselor-in-training I actually haven’t been able to rule it out for myself.

Anyway, I’ve done 14 stripes already (28 rows, not counting the chain foundation):

I’m loving it so far.  My favorite color is the lavender shade, which is the fifth from the top in the picture above, and I debated not using it for stripes at all but saving it for a lovely thick border.  I decided against this, however, determining that if I need another skein, it’s only a couple of dollars, and I can certainly spare that for such a beautiful color.

I really do like this ripple pattern because it is so completely mindless and you can just go along with the rhythm happily while watching movies or listening to audiobooks.  Currently, I am re-listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I’m interspersing my listening sessions with romantic movies as well.

Don’t think that just because I’ve started this new ripple, however, that I’m not doing anything else.  There are quite a few new crocheted beanies for charity laying on my coffee table.  Soon there will probably be a post with a lovely picture of all the donate-able items spread out for you to see.

Thank you all for the compliments on my puppy and her new sweater.  She seems to be enjoying it’s coziness quite a lot, since we still haven’t turned our heater on.  We’re waiting as long as possible in the effort to save money on our electric bill.

Well, I think it’s time to go back to my ripple.  This post was a little break for my hands (sort of… I mean is typing really a break?).  Thanks for stopping by — I’m sure there will be more posts soon about my ripple progress because I’m so excited about sharing it with you!

 

 

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