I decided to participate in Hands2Help this year and chose Quilts for Compassion to send my donations to in large part because they accept quilts of all sizes for men, women, and children, AND they accept crochet blankets. I packed up 6 today, 2 quilts and 4 crochet blankets and will ship them off tomorrow.
The finished quilts and blankets have been piling up around here and I hope to get more ready for donation in the next couple weeks. A few to ship off and a stack to take with me to GA to donate.
I love working with cotton yarn but the new blanket is not working out. The yarn is just not soft enough to be a blanket so I’ve decided to give up on it and down the road will use it to make a market bag or two and some dishcloths. I did a quick search on Ravelry and I will have lots of bag patterns to choose from.
So last night after making the decision to give up on the blanket, I debated whether to start a new one or to pick my knit one back up … I know it seems like this is taking me forever to finish and you’re right it is … but I will finish it quicker if I keep working on it so I’m back at it. It’s not a hard pattern and I like knitting it … it’s just slow going which is probably why I like crocheting blankets better. They’re quicker and I get to start something new faster! This is also a cotton yarn but it is soft and has nice drape.
Keith watched from his office today as 3 deer walked down the street … he snapped a photo of the one that came down the driveway. I knew having the big windows in the office would entertain him, he likes watching the world go by. We’ll miss watching the deer visit when we head home this weekend.
I’ve been working on this knit blanket since the end of February but I did a lot of binding last month so I didn’t knit as much. It’s the only project I have to work on the next few days so I might make some progress.
Sometimes it seems like nothing is being accomplished and all the sudden there are several finishes to share.
First up, my Charm Square quilt … just squares and borders but happy and bright and ready for donation.
2 Charm Square packs
Borders are cut 2.75 inches
I started with 2 yards of the border/binding fabric and have a chunk left
I also finished crocheting 2 blankets. If I get the quilts washed before mid March, I’ll have another stack of blankets and quilts to take to Chris to donate to SafePath. With both of these, I think I’ve found a good yarn/pattern combination so while I do like finding new patterns, I also like to make blankets I’ve enjoyed crocheting in different colorways so I’ll need to remember these combinations.
Yarn – Lion Brand Ice Cream Big Scoop in the Lemon Meringue colorway – about one and a half skeins. It was kind of hard to tell for sure how much was used because the 2nd skein was a mess with chunks of yarn stuffed in the skein. Usually I have good luck with Big Scoop skeins so I hope this was just a one time thing.
Yarn – Premier DK Colors – this is a new yarn I’m trying that I bought a while back on sale at LoveCrafts.com, it’s very soft.
Hook size – G
Finished size – 33 inches square
My unpacking is done, the laundry is in progress and if I work a bit on the tax stuff I should have some time today to make more chisel stars and/or start a new blanket!
Yarn – Premier DK Colors – this is a new yarn I’m trying that I bought a while back on sale at LoveCrafts.com so far so good, it’s very soft.
Hook size – G
And no, I haven’t woven the ends in on the yellow blanket yet … I do need to get that done Overall I try to finish one completely before starting another but it doesn’t always happen.
Keith got home tonight and once I go to bed, I’m looking forward to sleeping in since he’ll be here to take care of Finn in the morning. Tomorrow I need to load and quilt a top to finish of my list for the week.
Another Ross Beanie is done and tucked away in the box to be donated. I’m not sure how many I’ll make before sending them off but I think there are 7 in there now. These are sized for men so they’re a little big on Hat Head.
I also made orange Rainbow String blocks. I didn’t have many strips/strings in orange so I cut some from scraps and fat quarters … I had enough for 10 blocks. Again, my plan for these is to make some blocks in each color and then I’ll make a Rainbow HeartStrings quilt myself and donate the leftover squares for our September project in Maine so I don’t need a specific number of each color block. So far I’ve got green, purple, and orange done.
The Trellis Stripe blanket is done. It’s my 3rd blanket finish for the year and blanket #4, the yellow blanket stitch one, is done too except for weaving my ends in.
Yarn – Caron Big Cake in the Grape Jelly colorway – 2.25 big cakes used
Hook size – I
Finished size is about 40 x 52
I started out doing her edging but went wrong somewhere on the first round so I just continued on in a similar way without worrying that my stitches weren’t lining up like hers. I like the picot finish!
This colorway wasn’t working up as pretty as I’d hoped in this pattern during the making of the blanket but I’m happy with how it looks finished and a little girl somewhere will love the purples I’m sure!
It’s not often they get snow in the Atlanta area but I love this photo Chris sent me yesterday with all three of them wearing hats I knit!
I taught myself to knit and to crochet – it’s not hard if you find the right “beginner” book and YouTube videos help if you don’t understand something. They didn’t have all the videos when I taught myself but these days if I don’t understand something in a pattern or a stitch, I can usually find a video that lets me see a demonstration. Very helpful especially if you’re just starting out.
I try not to start new blankets before finishing the current one but I got through two balls of yarn and was waiting for a 3rd ball to finish up the Trellis Stripe blanket – it’s almost large enough but I decided I’d like a few more rows and a border so, Wednesday night after finishing the binding on the Whale Strippie, I started a new blanket. I’d mentioned when I finished the blue Blanket Stitch one, that it was bit bulky and that I wanted to try this stitch in a lighter weight yarn and I’m happy to say it’s going to be perfect in this yarn! Now I just have to hope that the two big skeins make a long enough blanket for the 150 chains I started with or I’ll end up in the same situation as the purple blanket and having to wait for yarn to finish it.
