Christmas Granny "In A Weekend" Progress

Progress is good!  I'm just finishing row 20 of 31 on my Granny Square blanket which has been in the works for several years, I think.  

I've learned so much since I started working on it.  One of the things that made it difficult was that my skeins of yarn didn't go very far, the larger my "square" got.  I had to change to a new skein of yarn in the middle of a row, sometimes more than once.  I struggled with that in my initial run.  Now it's  so simple to do, and I think I'll finish this one soon. 

No joining, no border, just those few more rows.  I weave in ends as I go, always, so that won't be there at the end.

Crochet Madness

 Christmas Afghan

The New Year has been odd, so I'm now about to begin row 17 of 31 rows in the famous "afghan in a weekend" I adapted to be my Christmas Afghan.  It's getting hard to photograph the thing, since it becomes embiggened with each row rather amazingly.  It's still very relaxing to work on, and the yarn is soft and very warm covering my lap in the cold temperatures we've had.   I've learned how to attach a new color/new skein of yarn in the middle of a row while working on this.  It is so simple, and makes life easier as I make my way around this behemoth. 

 Yarn Lust and Finding Patterns

Think me a bad dog if you must, but I decided this would be a year where I learn to do scarves.  I love scarves of all kinds, and want some nice wide ones in colors of my choosing.  I am so much all about the color.

It seems to me one of the first projects any crochet book gives you is a scarf of some sort and length.  Ya, time to tackle the ez stuff I'm too stoopid to make.  Why not branch out, you say?

I confess I have been out hunting the yarn aisles as I vowed not to do. BUT.  I now hunt with a project in mind.  Either I've found something intriguing on the wonderful Yarnspirations site, or I'm looking at the yarn itself for one of the free patterns on every label.

I could write an entire post on Yarnspirations, but I'll say I really started looking at it in depth one day when I was looking for patterns for all of the colorful little skeins of Lily Sugar and Cream Yarn that I have accumulated somehow.

Yes, there are a few skeins of the soft, shiny Paton's Yarn in there too.  Soft and Shiny appear to be irresistible to me.

Caron Cakes


 Speaking of Yarn Lust, I thought I'd try the Caron Cakes yarn.  These were apparently made for the 100th Anniversary of Caron Yarns to be sold last August and not for a regular product line.  Apparently special spools are needed to create the "cakes" and there aren't many of these spools...
But people went wacky over them and wanted MORE.    http://thecrochetcrowd.com/future-caron-cakes-customers-unite-michaels-stores-caron-yarns-respond/

This sort of shortage feeds Yarn Lust.  I hope Caron knows this and will act responsibly.  I started by purchasing one skein of it, rather pricey, I thought, at $7.00, but it is big and fat and soft.

Then I find out about the scarcity, and my collector Spidey Sense goes whacko. Particularly since they are adding some new colors in January that are prettier than the originals.  Also, they plan to retire some originals and it looks like a few new colors will be introduced in June.  BOINK!!!!!   I've been to three Michael's stores so far looking for the new colors, and haven't seen them.  Don't think me discouraged!

I'm making (fingers crossed) three scarves with the Caron Cakes.  The pattern is very simple, really just single crochet.  But.  I've never made a scarf before at all and I am wondering it if is typical of them to twist up like a strand of DNA when you're just starting out.  Or is this another DOA epic bozo fail?

I love the variegation of the yarn, the softness of it, and I really like the three colors I have for scarves:  Blueberry Cheesecake (above), Bumbleberry (purple), Faerie Cake (soft greens).  None of these are the new colors, which I haven't gotten my mitts on yet.

https://www.michaels.com/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-siteCatalog_michaels_US/default/dw55dada9f/project_pdf/CaronCakesLookBook.pdf


So Many Scarves, So Little Time

Whilst indulging my Yarn Lusting, I liked this pattern for Red Heart's Stylish Stripes Scarf on some yarn skeins:

I like the width and the way it hangs, but I didn't care for the colors.  I bought three other colors of the Red Heart Soft Essentials (trying to use the right yarn for the right project, yay me) yarn instead:

PINK!  The Soft Essentials is very silky and a bit slippery to work with, but oh, so pretty.  Imagine me with that scarf, la la la.


Finally, who doesn't need to have a few afghans in progress, in case I should shockingly finish one.  It bends the mind, does it not?

Caron Pinpoint Crochet Blanket

This uses three of the HUGE Caron One Pound skeins of soft grey, which I like, because I have a gray couch.

How perfect, except for those centers, which are not in colors I ever would use.  I need 72 centers for the afghan, and I decided to use some of my leftover pastels for the centers instead.  It will be so very soft and pretty.  I'll share it with the beagle.

I can make these during commercials or while supper is cooking.  And, so wisely use up the leftover yarn bits.

I've "bookmarked" many more patterns, but haven't made the big step of getting the materials.  These will do for now!

Christmas Afghan Rows 7-10

I was zipping right along when I finished up row ten and realized I was going to run out of yarn.  Eek!  There are mathematical consequences to using fatter yarn than the original pattern, though unwittingly, since I still haven't seen a skein of the Red Heart Bulky anywhere I don't know how much bulkier I went.

As you go around, you need ever more yarn for a single row.  I looked at the skein in hand and thought it might make it, but it came up five spaces short.  There was no graceful way to attach new yarn for that small bit, so I pulled it out, went to the store for more yarn, and did the row over.  There was plenty of the white, and the green, but no red at all.  I was able to order some directly from Lion Brand, but still don't have it yet. 

I suspect I will still come up short for the 31 rows of the afghan, but, it is going to be lap sized and more pretty shortly, so I'll call it a lesson learned and be careful to have an overabundance of yarn any time I tinker with pattern requirements in the future.  There is no doubt I will tinker, because more often than not I see a pattern and think it would look so much nicer in another color, or, in the case of the many British based blogs I follow, we don't have access to the gorgeous yarns and threads they have.

Christmas Afghan Rows 4, 5, 6

      

 Christmas, as you may guess interrupted the work on this.  Now I can relax and crochet away. This square is 11" x 11" . Big!  Wooly and so soft.  It is so cold out that it is a pleasure to work on this just for the warmth of it. 

Two rows of the original green next.  See? The New Me (as my husband would say) will be finishing projects left and right going forward.

Christmas Afghan Rounds 2 and 3

See me whip this baby up!  Remember, the usual length of time from start to finish for me is ten years so I am rockin' and rollin' here.

I had to resort to writing out the round two directions for myself in plain English. Voila!

Round Two

A little bumpy at the edges because the strands you need to tuck in are the size of a truck, compared to a normal bit of yarn.

Boink!  Looking to Round Three and the picture of the afghan grrrrr there are two rounds of red and I fastened the stinker off.   I had happily wound the white color into a nice soft sparkly ball, too.   Alas, I had to slink in the red again, which didn't quite go according to directions.  In fact round three's directions seemed so whacko, and I was in No Mood, so I just crocheted around the square as I normally would and poof to the directions for this round.  I'm sure I'll pay dearly for this bit of rebellion.  But not yet, muahaha.  Resting before Round Four, Five, Six in soft sparkly white.

Round Three

Christmas Afghan Using Red Heart's Weekend Granny Throw Pattern

Trying this with Bernat Handicrafter Holidays Yarn, in variegated, sparkly white and sparkly red.  You can't tell from the picture, but these are HUGE skeins.  I looked all over for them and finally found them at Joann's.  I found I own two size N hooks, but think because of the gauge requirement, I'll need to find another size or so up.  I've gone off the crochet deep end, because I now love hooks as well as yarn.  A trip to Michaels!  (Larger hook selection)

It isn't the bulky yarn they ask for, but this is the simple pattern I want. http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/weekend-granny-throw

 

12/4/16

Off to both Joann's and Michael's this morning.   Joann had one more of each of the Bernats, which I'm going to make using a more appropriate sized hook for the yarn I'm using.  The pattern will certainly look a bit different but I'm confident it be lovely.

I got it into my head that I'd like to try it as well in the Red Heart Super Savers Chunky the pattern calls for.  I was up for making it an any nice color combination that I found.  Problematically, I couldn't find a single skein of it in either store.  I looked at all the chunky yarns and decided to go voila! with more Christmasy colors so I'm hoping the Lion Brand Wool-Ease Yarns I bought are the same weight as the Red Heart.  Wool-Ease Poinsettia (2), Wool-Ease Spartans (2), Wool-Ease Starlight (3)

I'm eager to try this out, and have already rolled my first skein into a ball.

Happiness is rolling skeins of yarn into balls!  I've done it since I first started to crochet.  Once you've come to a knot in the center of the skein that is hard to untangle with your project not fitting through the tight loops so well, agh.  It is really relaxing to roll the skeins as well, and they unravel as you crochet smoothly, particularly with my beloved yarn bowl.

I'm thinking of working the two projects in tandem.  Apparently because the pattern is a rectangle rather than a square, the beginning is tricky.  I'm hoping to see how it should go with the chunky yarn, then I can replicate it with the thinner yarn.  

12/4/16

The plot thickens.  The pattern is actually not easy, not at the start in any case.  My first effort came out looking very strange indeed.  So I looked to see if others had advice and found this similar soul:

Okay I think I have lost my mind. I have played and played with this pattern from Red Heart and I can't get it. Everything from

slip st in next ch – 2
ch-1 spaces. (in Row 1) to here in

Round 1 (Right Side): Ch 3 (counts as dc here and
throughout), work 2 dc in ch-1 space, ch 2, 3 dc in same
space, ch 1, ([3 dc, ch 2] twice, ch 2, 3 dc) in next ch-1

space, ch 1, 3 dc in first ch-1 space, ch 2, slip st to top of

beginning ch to join. is just not making sense to me. What am I not understanding. Please help

http://www.crochetville.com/community/topic/125974-weekend-granny-throw-from-redheart/

She gets several people telling her there is an error in the pattern and a couple more saying the pattern is fine, you just need to do xyz.

I'll have to read through again now that I've played with it to see if the advice makes more sense to me.

It occurred to me one of the problems is that I'm used to granny squares and circles, but that rectangles may be a different beastie altogether.   They are indeed, and it seems you have to get the base rectangle right or bad things happen.

These were helpful in letting me see how to make the rectangle, though they're using different length beginning chains:

Crochetbug actually tried to do the afghan in a weekend.  She mentions a bit of trouble at the start, but it didn't remain a problem for long.  

 http://www.crochetbug.com/i-put-red-hearts-weekend-granny-throw-to-the-test/ 

A video tutorial on making a rectangular granny, not quite what we're trying to do, but helpful in seeing how the rectangle should take shape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7DWpwecDi8    by Yolanda Soto Lopez

Tips on making a rectangular granny from Crochet Again.  Also not quite like the Red Heart throw, but it let me see the idea behind this technique.

https://crochetagain.com/2012/06/27/a-better-granny-rectangle/ 

I thought I had the idea now, right?

Hmmmm....

Slowly trying again, and this time I really thought I had it.

You have to admit it's vaguely rectangular.   The directions say "fasten off" then talk about four corner holes, and ha I have five holes. 

I'm finding the bulky yarn a bit difficult to work with, it doesn't slip over the hook nicely.  I like the coloring and the chunkiness of it though, and think the project will be really pretty if I can just master this bit.

I'm going to try the directions again with a size H hook and some regular weight yarn to see if I can see where the flaw is.

Stay tuned. 

12/6/16

I'm working on Round 2.  I think this looks good so far but the pattern suddenly gets hinky in the middle of this round.  You have to pay such attention to every stitch.  I do like the colors together.  The Poinsettia yarn is silky smooth, much more so than the green Spartan.  They're both just so lovely.  Fingers crossed.