A star-ghan for a friend and a rectangle stash buster!

Been a while since I posted anything. Moving got in the way, and I haven't had a lot of time to post here until now.

Since coming to Minnesota from Mississippi, I've done a few things. These are the first couple of projects I'd completed since the move!

My friend is having a baby. She'd seen my star-ghans and had wanted one for her soon to be. I had some yellow and light blue yarn in my stash, as well as a skein of pastel multicolor, so I put them together and they turned out lovely! I sent it to her along with my Baby Blue afghan as a bonus.

I still had a ton of yarn in my stash (and still do, to be honest), so I picked out a few colors that seemed to go together well that I'd never be able to use in any other projects and started working on a granny-ghan. Instead of making the usual square type that I've made many times already, I went ahead and tried for a rectangle shape. I'm told that it DOES look rectangular in shape, but I'm missing it, I think. I should have made the inner square longer. That would've given it a more elongated shape, I figure. Maybe next time.

Bold Boxes

I call it Bold Boxes because I really can't think of anything more interesting to call it.

I started doing this on a whim one night. I didn't want to work on one of my WIP's because I intend to do that while in the car or at the motel when we start off to our new home in a week. I had yarn to use, and I thought the colors went together nicely, so here we go.

It's really nothing more than standard granny squares and rectangle granny squares put together in strips. The border was something I played by ear. I wasn't exactly sure what I was intending to do with it, but I think that it turned out nicely, regardless. It's about 52x42 inches.

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this afghan. I guess I'll be keeping it.

Baby Blue

I was going through my stash of baby yarn and found some Bernat Softee Baby yarn in Denim Marl that I had bought at a salvage shop. I didn't want to combine the yarn with anything else because I liked the soft variation in its color so much on its own. So, I set to work and here's what came out!

It's made with what I believe is called a "box stitch", which is rather simple to do and makes an interesting textured effect. What I would like to do is put a bit of a spin on this and try for something in an adult size with a nicer looking border. I'll post a pattern for it once I get around to doing it.

Cloud Nine

A friend of mine wanted me to make a shrug for her. The pattern that she gave me was hard to follow, though. So, I made her a shawl instead. She seemed happy, even though she didn't get exactly what she'd wanted.

This was made with a yarn that Hobby Lobby sells called Lambie Pie. The edging is done with Lion Brand Fun Fur. Really, it was very soft and warm. I was sort of sad to see it go!

Too many balls!

We're moving (though I've already changed my location on my personal info), so I'm doing all I can to find extra room for everything possible. I checked out one of my yarn boxes to see if I could possibly squeeze some more yarn into it. It did have a couple of full skeins in it, but over half of the box was made up of yarn balls! In all sizes!

I thought, "Guh! How did I come to accumulate so many yarn balls?! I could really use that space for full skeins..."

And after thinking it over for a while, I decided that these yarn balls needed to be used up so I could get that space back. And what better way to use up scraps than to make a super-stash-busting granny square afghan! :D

I currently have 33 squares in all kinds of colors. And that's about half or so of what yarn balls there were! o_O But now I have room for my full skeins and have something to do while traveling! :D

For my sister-in-law's baby.

Shortly after finishing the blanket I mentioned before, I found out that my sister-in-law would be having a baby. I had a lot of extra baby yarn left over, so I decided that I'd make up a blanket for her.

Looking back on this, it took a lot longer than it should have. Something like this would take me about a day or two to complete now. This took me several weeks to finish back then.

I didn't really like the colors very much. My mother had insisted that I buy a color of Red Heart Soft Baby yarn called "Koolaid", which has since been discontinued. I would have preferred something like Bunny or Angel Print myself.

I made this blanket a lot heartier. I knew that with a baby, it would be put to heavier use than my previous blanket, and I'm glad for the experience that blanket gave me. Otherwise, I don't think my sister-in-law would be using this blanket anymore... ^_^;

My second creation.

I had done two of the Homespun blankets before I moved on to something else. I found a free pattern on a leaflet in the yarn department at the store, and thought that it looked like it would be a challenge for me at the time.

I wish I had a better picture of it, and I also wish I still had the blanket! I was still really new to crochet at the time, and didn't have anybody I could ask about anything I was having any trouble with or unsure about, so my connections were not able to hold up to machine washing or extended use. I feel embarrassed about that now, looking back, but it was a good lesson for me to learn so that I could make sure my future projects were strong and able to withstand the use I hoped they would be put to.

This afghan turned out to be rather large in size, considering that it was a baby blanket pattern. I liked it a lot, too. The yarn I used was Red Heart Soft Baby in pink, blue, and white. Two strands were held together, so it was somewhat thick.

I do still love this pattern, and am strongly considering making this blanket again with regular Red Heart Super Saver yarn instead of baby yarn. It'll probably be even bigger, which is A-okay with me! I'll just use 1 strand, though. I don't see any need to use two. And I'll be using a different color combination next time.

The addiction begins!

Once upon a time, my mom took me to a little crochet club held at the local library in a town near where I used to live in Mississippi. The lovely ladies there taught me the basics of crochet; chaining and single crochet. My very first project was a rather sad looking little purple purse that I have since misplaced. My second project was a beret with a pompom on top. I moved on to larger projects from there, finding my true love in crochet - afghans!

The photo doesn't really do the colors of this any justice. I didn't have a good place to take a picture, though. The afghan shown is exactly like the first afghan I ever made, except my first one was in blue instead. It's very simple, using only single crochet throughout the body and double crochet on the border. It also has tassels on each of its 4 corners.

I gave this afghan to my mother in law. She seemed to be pleased with it. I just wish I had a nicer picture of it. Sigh...