Cinco de Mayo, Mardi Gras Baby Blankets for Charity

Finished Object Friday post (link in sidebar)

Cinco de Mayo on the left, and Mardi Gras on the right. These are Oddball Baby Blankets. I've blogged about them as a wipw post, and on the yop post. Here they are done. Actually there's still pinned here as they were being blocked. I'm pleased to say the heavy duty blocking did take care of evening out the sides. If you want to see the before and after Click here. My portion on both these blankets was Border Patrol.

Had hoped to have another Cotton Cloth done for the Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge to show you today; but have been rather busy dealing with an elderly aunt and getting her admitted to a nursing home. My last couple of days off have been short of knitting time.

The weather is turning here in Central Ohio. I'm actually sitting here inside drinking hot coffee, have a fleece on even. It's only 43 degrees this am, which is only 11 degrees above freezing! That causes me to think about switching gears on my projects, as items for the homeless are so needed when the weather turns. Bridge and Beyond will get my knitting and crocheting attention.

Pink Petuna

It's Wednesday and time for another WIP post. Above is the start of Pink Petuna. Pink Petuna is an OddBall Baby Blanket. I've often worked with this charity group who sends blankets around the country, every knitter doing a section based on a theme. The last 2 I did were Mardi Gras, and Cinco de Mayo where I was the border patrol person (the person who crochets the border). Final pictures after blocking for those 2 blankets will be Friday's Finished Object Post. They've already been mailed off. Pink Petuna is worsted weight yarn...and the bright pink caused me to name it, Pink Petuna. I cast on 120, rather than the traditional 100, feeling the last couple of blankets were a bit too small. Babies now days seem to be getting larger and larger. I'm using the the needles that traveled with Cinco de Mayo (size 8), and a stitch called Little Blocks from the 200 Knitted Blocks by Jan Eaton. I used this stitch on the wedding ghan I recently finished and liked it's texture so thought I'd use it again. Will do a few more inches, and when assignments are complete I'll mail off to the next person in line and Pink Petuna will start her travels. I'm also working on Pink Poddle Ghan which will be donated for Bridge and Beyond for a new program, where afghans are given as house warming gifts when a previously homeless family transitions from temporary housing into their permanent housing.

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

Red Scarf No More and TA DAH!!

FO Post (link in sidebar)
gThis knitted scarf started out to be a red scarf for The Red Scarf Project; but I ran out of yarn. Had this yarn for ages and ages and knew it was pointless to even try and match it. I was burned out frogging things so decided not to frog it back and do some striping....everyone's first way to solve not enough yarn problem. I also liked how wide it was (could have frogged it and made it thinner). It's 7.5 inches wide, made of washable wool (Plymouth's Encore). Lovely yarn to work with. So.......I made it half and half. Knitted with red until I ran out joined the purple and matched the length....It's done, aside from tucking in the ending purple tail. It's no longer suitable for The Red Scarf Project, so....I'm trying to decide whether to add to the donations for Bridge and Beyond, or gift it to someone.

And my big TA DAH, I finished the wedding ghan. You might have seen it listed on Sunday's YOP post, with a picture before it was laundered, final tails tucked, and blocked. Here it is in all it's glory. If you saw it before, sorry if these feel like a duplicate...I'm just truly please it's done, and pleased with it...so wanted to share. It's Plymouth Encore Chunky washable wool.......lol, seem to have a thing going here with Plymouth Encore Washable Wool.

Challenges with OddBall Blankets

WIPW (links in sidebar)
Oddball Blankets is a group on line on Ravelry. Each person knits their section based on a theme. Rules say no ribbing or cable stitches should be used as they draw in and make things uneven, count your stitches before and after your section to be sure you have 100, adjust the number of garter stitches for the edge to prevent curling, use the same type of yarn (sport, baby, knitted worsted etc.) mail onto the next person on the needles after knitting your 4 inches. The above theme is Mardi Gras. My spot is called border patrol. Crochet a border on this knitted blanket......pull it together and finish it off, mail it onto the organizer to be donated to local hospitals. Stitches selected should be reversible and have no right or wrong side. I've found over time, there's lots of leeway with the stitch selection, the yarn selection and sometimes it's quite a challenge to finish them off doing the border patrol. The yellow and purple sections do pull in, quite a bit. Hoping when I add border stitches that unevenness is less noticeable, and or when laundered and blocked it will be even.

I select 2 bright colors and do several rows of border. It does, I think pull it together...color and theme wise; but it doesn't even it up as much as I had hoped. The yellow section though not cables or ribbing definitely pulls the blanket inward. It's a lovely stitch too, so it's a shame. Click to enlarge, I don't know what the stitch is. Probably not a good choice for a group project, but would make an awesome scarf, and or blanket on it's own.

Close up of the border, and the pretty yellow section. Fingers crossed when blocked I can even it up more.
WOW, this one Cinco de Mayo really has issues with being very uneven. The black in the center is infact ribbing. I love this blanket, I love it's bright colors and variety of stitches; but am concern about the challenge of evening this one out.
It's a beginning. Yarn selected and stitches to use for the border patrol pattern have also been selected as this point. But, as you can see after one round of single crochets how far off it still is.
A close up shows a good 3 1/2 inches variance is the width of this blanket. I don't know if even heavy duty blocking will get the job done here. Pondering my choice of stitches again on this. As I continue to work on it, am constantly pulling, stretching it...in hopes of improving the rather large gap.

Drum Roll Please, Wedding Ghan(YOP)

Post #7 YOP (Sept 4-10th)

Just finished the border, have a few tails to tuck, launder and block and it's finished! The Wedding Ghan. I'm happy with the end result, pleased with what I learned in the process. This was my first knitted ghan with multiple stitches, first large scale knitting project, and first large scale project joining with the very tedious mattress stitch. I learned to do eyelet knitting and enjoyed stitch variety I got with the blocks (taupe blocks), and the texture and zigzag triangles (dark brown blocks) I got with counting, counting, counting. Lost track how many times I ripped out and redid. The brown blocks seem to be the most difficult for me, harder to see I think. I had issues with being on the wrong side...apparently forgetting to click my row counter, or perhaps clicking it twice? Thinking I hadn't clicked it? This item is now in the wash. I'll move this item now to my completed list of YOP.
I crocheted the border with several rows (2 each of the dark brown and taupe, and 1 of the ivory inbetween) of single crochets, followed by a row of scallops in dark brown to finish it off. The border I think not only gives it a more finished look, but helps it lay more flat. Which also the blocking should help with.

In addition (no picture at this time). I finished the red-purple scarf, called Red Scarf Project no more. Tucked tails just before posting, so it too moves into the finished list.

Working on October Cloth for Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge (which makes cloth 7), and Poddle Ghan. Also selecting border for 2nd Oddball (Cinco de Mayo). Pictures later.

YOP list:
Wedding Ghan DONE
Cotton Cloth Calendar Challenge (about 50% done with DD's cloths) started cloth 7 which was to be Easter Colors, a basket weave design for March; but you can't see the pattern well, and needles are wrong, and wrong size and ...frogged it. Posted it HERE. Think I'll switch to October since that's closer anyway. April, May, June, July, August, and September done. Need to do Jan, Feb, March, Oct, Nov and Dec. **Switched to October current focus
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 headway Poodle Ghan (a current focus)
Oddball (Waiting on 2nd one to arrive so when I get it finished, I can mail them at the same time.)
Bridge Ghans (no additional headway) Will begin edging squares since wedding ghan is done
Red Scarf Project Scarf, posted about it HERE. So, will now call this scarf Red Scarf Project No More. DONE

Happy Sunday all