I’m a little obsessed with shells right now … (I must have an obsessive personality – first ripples, then linen stitch, and now shells). I thought I remembered a shell Afghan from one of my books and I was right.
This one is from the book 7 Day Afghans and it might just be my next one. I’m almost finished my 2nd cake but I’ve got a long way to go on this current one. I lucked out and the extra cakes I bought at Michaels are the same dye lot so now I have plenty of yarn to make the length proportional to the width! Next time I won’t chain so many!
From the book 7 Day Afghans by Leinhauser and Weiss
I don’t get it! I thought that chaining 154 for this afghan would be just right for using 4 skeins … after all, I chained 146 for this ripple and used 3 skeins but I was obviously wrong. This one is going to be massive but I LOVE it!
I measured the length as soon as I finished the first of my 4 skeins and I could tell it wasn’t going to be nearly enough yarn. Luckily, I was able to go online at Michaels and find the same colorway and order it online to pick up at my local store. I’m going to ignore the fact that it’s probably not going to be the same dye lot and hope for the best!!
I went up to the sewing at 6pm to start quilting and didn’t get any further than winding bobbins and cleaning and oiling the machine before the thunder started.
So I was forced to start a new blanket instead. I’d intended to do another woodland ripple but when I went over to Lucy’s Attic24 site, the shells jumped out at me so I started crocheting her Seashell Stripe pattern.
It’s a free pattern and a little more complicated than the simple shell blanket I just finished but she has step by step photos and really, the hardest thing about it is knowing where to put that first and last stitch in each row and she shows you very clearly where the stitch goes.
One thing to keep in mind if you decide to give this one a try is that she uses British crochet terms so you’ll need to convert it in your head to American terms which basically just means that when she says double crochet, we do a single crochet and when she says triple crochet, that’s our double crochet.
She recommends doing the starting chain and first row with a larger hook and I went up one size but still ended up with some bowing so I started over with a (K) hook and switched to an (I) hook on row two. Yarn is Caron Big Cakes in the Blueberry Torte colorway and I chained 154 which may turn out to be many but I’ve got 4 skeins and I want to use all 4 of them so we’ll see how it goes.
Finn got groomed today so I wanted to share a photo of my pretty boy too!
Yarn is Lion Brand Big Scoop – colorway is strawberry and I used a size (H) hook.
I took a chance with this one and used sport weight yarn (she used worsted) without changing the starting chain and still ended up with a nice size baby blanket about 33 inches square.
I could have continued into a 2nd skein but it seemed big enough with just one so I’m saving the 2nd skein for another blanket. With both the mint green and this one, I’ve learned that one skein will make a baby size blanket at least in these two patterns. If I want a child size blanket, I’ll use 2 skeins.
This one may be a little too wonky for you … and it can definitely use a little blocking.
However, it’s really pretty when it’s draped on a chair (and I’m sure it will also be pretty wrapped around a baby and you won’t even notice the wonkiness)!
My day didn’t go as planned … Keith overdid his workout this morning in the heat and ended up in the ER with dehydration and cramping. He’s really good about drinking but it’s HOT and he sweats a lot and just wasn’t able to keep up. He’s fine now but he’s been taking it easy since we got home.
I finished the mint green baby afghan last night and started a pink shell blanket so I worked on that while I watched the Tour on the iPad. That’s Keith napping under the green quilt in the background.
I think this is my new favorite yarn for baby blankets. It’s an acrylic so it can be washed and dried and it’s soft! Perfect for donation blankets.
It’s a variegated rather than a self striping yarn so I wasn’t sure how I would like it worked up in this ripple but I love how it looks. Obviously the stripes of color don’t go all the way across the rows but it works at least in this colorway!
Yarn is Lion Brand Ice Cream – Big Scoop and I used about 1.25 skeins. Next time I’ll have to get 3 skeins and I’ll have enough for two blankets. This one finished about 38 x 50 and I used a size (G) hook.
