OddBall Baby Blankets and October Cotton Cloth (YOP)

YOP #6 FO Friday Post HERE

Wow, here it is, another Sunday and time for another update of YOP (year of projects). Have highlighted in red with links to posts of the finished objects to date. Had plan this week to focus on above cotton wash cloth, part of the Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge (this is #7), and Pink Poodle. Instead I focused on the 2nd OddBall Baby Blanket that arrive, Cinco de Mayo. And the start of the new OddBall Baby Blanket which will be cast on today, now that I've selected the yarn and name of the blanket. It will be titled Pretty in Pink.

Will be heading to the post office to get both Oddballs in the mail, and The wedding ghan in the mail, hopefully tomorrow before work.
YOP list:
Wedding Ghan DONE
Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge Working on The October Cloth for DD, so am slightly over 60% done with Nov Dec Jan Feb and April left.
Cotton Cloths for Bridge and Beyond (haven't started)
Candy Corn Ghan (no headway)
Buckeye Scarf (no headway)
Learn to knit socks (no attempt)
Learn to knit cable stitches (no attempt, but....have found a pseudo stitch I may try on a cotton cloth to get me started)
Awesome wool (blue) scarf no headwayPoodle Ghan no additional headway
Oddball DONE (both Mardi Gras and Cinco de Mayo finished, in the laundry and needing blocked as we speak) Starting new blanket which will be titled "Pretty in Pink" and will start it's journey to other knitters.
Bridge Ghans (no additional headway) Will begin edging squares since wedding ghan is done
Red Scarf Project Scarf, DONE

Happy Sunday all

Whoa Nellie, it's Wednesday

Well, I've made lots of progress on my Poodle Blanket. Believe I've completed 4 sections since my last post and picture and am at the writing of this (scheduled ahead a wee bit), almost at the half way point. Hopefully, by the time you read this I will be on the decreasing half vs the add a stitch half. Somehow, mentally that always makes you feel you're closer then you really are. After all it takes the same amount of time to do the 2nd half as it does the first half...or does it? You do perhaps spend more time on the first half decided when and where to change colors which is less of an issue the 2nd half....though realistically this one isn't x number of rows and it's not precise. No need to do that really with the yarn. I named this one Poodle Blanket since my last post because the colors make me think of the 50's and poodle skirts. And black and white saddle shoes. It's made with 2 different skeins of JoAnn's Sensations Rainbow Boucle. This yarn is listed as a bulky yarn and that always surprises me as it's very light weight to work with. It suggests size 10 needles on the label, but I grabbed size 8. To me 8 is the average, the one you use the bulk of the time with knitted worsted which is what the yarn seems to me like. It might go faster though with size 10.
I've made no headway with the red scarf for The Red Scarf Project since last time. Since it's a long way off, I've laid it aside for awhile. Likewise, the pretty blue with the long 300 stitch cast on..I've not done anymore on it either.
Instead I decided to cast on this pretty yellow butterfly washcloth. I needed a little project to tote around and this seemed like a good idea. The problem I'm having is the cotton fiber does not slid nicely on my Denise Needles. I probably should have grab some old metal needles for this project. It's fine for the regular knitted rows, and or even the regular pearl rows; but the rows where you're purling a purl it seems very tight and hard to move and is hard on my hands.

Both the yellow washcloth and the pink poodle blanket will be donated to those in need at Faith Mission, through Bridge and Beyond.

I've asked several people in their blogs, but haven't yet received a reply...so will ask here. Does anyone know how to make those little graphs you see on people's blogs that show percentage done on any given project? I've wondered that many times and would like to add a couple here, I think. I've seen them on RAV. as well, but am more interested in posting those here on the blog. Please leave your instructions in the comments. That way, others who might be interested will also see them, and I won't delete them in emails or have to go sort through to find them. Thanks

Baby Luke's Blue Blanket

Baby Luke's Blue Baby Blanket. This granny square baby blanket started as a result of my joining my first ever CAL. I've made more granny squares then I can count through the years, and more ghans then I can count too; but I'd never joined a CAL. Doing so, got me making squares differently, using patterns I've not used before...actually using a pattern is rather unique for me. I'm a bit of a winger of many things. But, I really got into this. I used 3 different pattern books. Blogged about the books and patterns HERE where you can see it coming together.

I'm very pleased with this blanket. I love the mix of blues (4 shades of blue), none of which are traditional baby blue. I stitched the squares together using the whip stitch method. Which while much slower then crocheting them together in the join as you go method; I believe I still prefer. I've really gotten into making borders and have yet to use the same border for any of the recently completed afghans I've made or assembled from the various groups I'm in. Taking time to do a border I think really gives it the Finished look.

Baby Luke came into this world on Friday March 18th at 1:34 a.m. weighing 6 pounds 9 oz and measuring 19 inches long. Congrats to Mom and Dad (Heather and Ryan). Ryan is my youngest nephew, so once again I am a Great Aunt.

Blues for Baby Luke, Granny Squares

Stage One of this baby ghan is HERE
15 squares thus far done, 12 of which are joined. The bottom row not yet joined in above picture. Note the 3 books these squares are from, plus a few standard squares where I just crocheted the basic granny, and 2 various circle in a square from an on line free pattern. This has been a bit more tedious then I like for a baby blanket, and has taken more time then I like...or thought it would when I began.

I joined my first ever CAL on RAV. Blogged about it here. Then after making a couple of squares decided to switch to The Blues for Baby Luke. Luke's my youngest nephews soon to arrive in this world's baby.

The book on the right 101 Crocheted Squares by Jean Leinhauser is NOT a book I would recommend. The patterns are poorly written and many are much smaller then I like. 4 and 5 inch squares don't appeal to me. Additionally, she has lots of squares that have applique's which I'm not a fan of, particularly not for a baby, or a ghan that get's lots of use and will need to be laundered. Many of her patterns are very similar to those found in other books which is also a bit surprising. This book though is no longer in print, and buying one now on line is quite costly.

The 2 books on the left, 99 Granny Squares to Crochet, and Contest Favorites afghan squares are both Leisure Arts books with a variety of designers. Each square has the name of that particularly designer. Thus far I've found the patterns in both these books to be much better/ easier to understand patterns. I would recommend both these books for anyone wanting granny squares.

I have 10 squares to go, then select border....hoping to get finished before she delivers.

Meow

This afghan (catghan) was made for my niece's daughter who is now 14 years old; so it's been around awhile. This was her baby ghan, made with good old Red Heart Yarn and crocheted from mostly granny squares. I wanted to put eyes and wiskers on at the time, I remember...but, didn't want anything she might put in her mouth and choke on so it remained a little bland. It needed a little repair. Not bad after all this time and many washings. Still looks pretty good. Definitely a testimony to the durability of Red Heart Yarn....acrylic washable yarn.

Just joined a meme (WIPW), fun idea. This was a work in progress in terms of the repair, so I'm counting it here.

Buckeye Baby Completed

Buckeye Baby got completed...just in time for the baby shower. Hat, booties, and sweater all knitted with Lion Brand Woolease (washable, soft wool). I love working with this yarn such a nice texture. Was thrilled to find the Buckeye Baby Bottle, Bib, and Binky(guess Binky is the "new" name for what we called a pacifier) to add to the Buckeye Theme. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll see 2 football buttons to jazz it up. Hope Luke (soon to make his way into the world) enjoys his Buckeye Outfit. Here it was in the works.

Continuing to work on his baby blanket, as we speak. Hoping to get this blanket finished for his birthday. Stage 1 HERE.
And here it is at is progresses, worked on squares and joined these 9 in the car on our weekend jaunt to St. Louis to visit our DD.

The blanket is crocheted in granny squares, 8 inches with lots of shades of blue. The lightest shade you see here, is blue not white. Felt like good headway was made on the car trip, so stage 2 moving right along. Must check my blue stash to see how much more yarn I have and what shades of blue they are in order to move to stage 3. Stay tuned.

On the return trip from St. Louis I worked on edging knitted blocks for a ghan for Faith Mission for Bridge and Beyond. Got them all edged, and ready for joining.

Oh Baby

CandyLand is the theme for this OddBall Baby Blanket.
I had issues with this blanket. Firstly didn't realize it wasn't a knitting worsted weight blanket. Was trying to follow suit and used Caron Simply Soft (which I had on hand, and hate using), but it was purple and to close in color to the section already here. I didn't want to buy more yarn, even though baby yarn or sport was suggested. Found some fingering weight yarn in my stash still nice and clean in it's original closed plastic bag. Fingering is too thin, so I used 2 strands. Since I had quite a bit done and had to frog, I went with your basic garter here to get this on it's way. I had held the group a bit and felt badly about that. The yellow next to the purple looked nice.
Barely started here in this picture, though since photographing have made some good headway with this one. This one is titled Mossy Delights. I'll be the last knitter on this OddBall. I'm using Pique Triangles which is a nice two sided stitch. It's best not to have a right and wrong side with blankets, though that can't always be accomplished. I love all the greens.
This is a close up of Confetti, where I was on Border Patrol. I crocheted this edge and used up some green confetti looking yarn so was able to stay in theme with my border. I found this border (and the one I used for finishing up my daughter's ghan for Bridge and Beyond), in a nice leisure Arts book by Jean leinhauser titled 50 More Crocheted Afghan Borders. #4531 I like the book, it seems to have a nice mix of borders to use for different types of ghans.
And here's the completed Oddball Baby Blanket, Confetti. The Oddball group is on Rav if you're interested. There's a group for baby sized blankets, full size ghans, and even pet ghans. Everyone does their bit and the blankets do a bit of traveling before they're donated. The baby blankets are all donated to children's hospital's around the country for those in need.

This is some of what I've been busy doing. Still many projects in the works, but a bit here, a bit there and slowly they get done. Though it seems for every completed project I start 2 or 3 more. lol How bout you? What are you up to? Remember busy hands are happy hands. Even if they're not hands that are knitting or crocheting.

Troubled Blanket on it's way, FINALLY

Gees, what started out as an easy project really took a turn to taking too much time and I had to solve a problem. The pink yarn was given to me and and I thought it was such a soft pink would make a nice small blanket. I started was to be a plain pink blanket, and when I was at what I thought was the 1/4 th point by counting the stitches on the needle I weighted the yarn I had left and thought I was good to go. No clue how I was sooooooo off. I don't know if I didn't weigh the yarn correctly, forgot what I came up with, or changed the count I was going for on the blanket. But, clearly I was way off. The pink yarn was old, wasn't a brand I'd ever heard of before and so I knew it wasn't possible to try and match. Two choice, rip out back to the half way point and do a 2 tone blanket or keep going until I ran out and then switch. I hate, hate, hate to rip out and had so many projects going and deadline looming that I choice to keep going and add a new color when the time came. My thought was then to make a hoody type blanket so whatever color I added for the 2nd color on one corner would be matched with a hood of the same color on the opposite corner.
The 2nd color ended up being about 1/3rd of the blanket which measures 32 x 32 inches. Susie snuggled up in the traditional wrap method showing the hood which has a small ruffle. I didn't want it to lay totally flat against the blanket feeling it might be too tight.

This is on it's way to Angela for her Blankets for All Babies request on Crochetville. She's been busy making baby items for her local pregnancy center where your mothers with low income are much in need. Give a baby a head-start and make something warm. I have a couple of hats and green pair of booties going with this donation as well, but forgot to take pictures.

The blanket is knitted in straight garter stitch on size 6 needles (yarn was lighter weight so smaller needles were necessary which made the process slower than I like, even without the added problem of running out of pink), using the traditionally dishcloth pattern. The hood is made the same. I just knitted what looked like a new start until the corner seemed large enough, edge it, as I had the blanket; and crocheted the two together.

Angela's charity is in NE, Ohio.

Troublesome Knitting, are you trying to tell me something?

Nothing fancy here, your very basic corner to corner ghan with a little detail on the edge created by doing the yo (yarn overs). I'm not sure what happened, or why. Did I count wrong, did I measure wrong, did I weigh the yarn wrong? Did I just forget? Arghhhhhhh

The pink yarn was donated to me HERE, 3 ply knitted worsted. As I debated about whether or not to strip the blanket I weighed the yarn on my scale and figured I had more then enough when I was at what I thought was the 1/4th point.

Well...
buzzing along with the yarn in my project bag I wasn't paying any attention to how much yarn I had left, when....at about 2/3rd's done had a snag and pulled the yarn out of my bag to untangle. Yikes...no way did I have enough to finish the blanket. I could frog (which I detest) back to the half way point and make the blanket 2 tone; provided I had the right weight of something on hand. I really didn't want to frog so came up with plan B.

Plan B, switch color, enter pretty minty green and finish blanket. Ok 2/3 and 1/3...little weird, so how about then starting a 2nd piece using the minty green and making just a corner to attach to the opposite corner of the 1/3 minty green. Like a hood? So, for now that's my plan.

I get one row done when my needles come apart and a huge number of stitches are no longer on my needles. You've got to be kidding me. I'm terrible at putting the stitches back on the needle, plus I wasn't at this point real awake. Let it be til I had my coffee. Hooked my needles back together. I've only had that happen once in several years and it was right after I got my Denise Set when I probably didn't put them together well enough to begin with. I really can't believe it. Knit half the next row AND it happens again. Seriously, not as many stitches this time. What's going on. Was that a hint I was suppose to frog? I sure hope not, cause I didn't. I've knit one row since, so far so good.

Got my toes and fingers crossed I can finish this before I have another issue. I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

**pink in first picture seems more on target, not sure why the 2 pictures look so different
****
This is slated for a charity right here in Ohio, Blankets for all Babies

Suz ie Q, baby I love; oh Suz ie Q. I've never been good at remembering who did what song, so perhaps one of you know which song it is that's in my head as I type this post. This is Susie, you've seen her before. She's quite a ham, loves to have her picture taken and is often a model for me for finished scraves, hats and the like. She said, and I quote; "the blankets no good until it's been test". Now if I had a little smiling face thingy here it would be rollin it's eyes. LOL

Anyway, this is a super soft blanket I finished a few weeks ago. It was requested by my boss. Not like one can really say no to one's boss. This isn't the prettiest baby blanket I've made, the colors? I don't know, what do you think? The yellow just isn't soft pretty baby yellow to my way of thinking; but then she picked out the yarn ...........sooooooooooo there you go.

It's one huge granny square, but the yarn was quite thin, like fingering weight so it took forever to make. I used a small hook (can't now remember what size), and did 3 or 4 rows for the ruffle edge. I ended up with 9 scallops per stitch so you know how long that took.

She gave it as a shower gift for her niece who loved it.

Feeling under the weather the last 3-4 days, better today; but still taking it easy. Didn't go to work, no need to spread the bugs.

Gonna spend some time sorting hats, mittens, and scarves today for the homeless folks and the free clinic folks. Have you visited The Bridge and Beyond? If not, please do; some very big hearted and talented people have donated fabulous items.

M = Military

Been busy knitting and crocheting and thus far here's what I have ready for Marine Corp Kids:
This blue, green and yellow baby ghan is just under 40 inches square, crocheted with V-stitch and sc from knitted worsted weight yarn. The yarn is called The REal Worsted Yarn. I've never used it before; but really like the feel of it. Softer than Red Heart, but much more durable to work with than Caron Super Soft which I find splits very easily.

AND






Booties, slippers, and a little hat. Most of the booties and slippers are knitted, the mutli colored booties are crocheted. A little size variation; but basically newborn size.

In the works, this blue and pink knitted baby blanket which will be a bit larger than the blue and green one. This is about 8/10th complete. My hope is to finish it in the next day or so and then be able to ship out this donation.



PROJECTS IN THE WORKS:
Candy Corn Ghan 1/5th done for Victory Gang?
Squares and slippers for Pine Ridge Reservation
Pink and Purple Baby for...whom, not sure which charity yet.



**updated my mileage
***updated my numbers and items for donation
****managed to wear my pedometer 4 days last wk and walked the following:
Monday 12,023 steps
Tues 11,943
Wed 11,418
Thurs 10,736

today forgot to put it on, probably would be less though am heading outside to do some yard work. So that counts as exercise...right? My new pedometer doesn't convert steps to miles but some where here on line I found a scale...basically 10,000 steps equals 5 miles.

Anyone know what happened to Joansie, Knitting by thje Ocean?? Her link no longer takes you to her blog. You get a message you must be invited. It says to email her for an invite...however, there is no email ady to so. I do hope she's ok.