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Wednesday, March 23, 2011

So many projects In The Works

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This afghan is a real piece meal effort. Some of these squares are squares, others rectangles. Some of these squares are knitted, some of these squares are crocheted. Some of these squares are big and some are small. The largest squares are around 12 inches, and the smallest is about 5 inches. As you view the picture about 2/3 of the squares have been edged and joined. I'm going about this in a different manner then I typically do. I'm edging in one color (dark forest green), and joining in a different color (dusty rose). Normally I use the same color. I'm using the join as you go method (crocheting squares together), sorta. I say sorta, because it's not continuous due to the variety of sizing and the need to piece meal, with lots and lots of measuring to determine how it will come together.

My stash often dictates how I put ghans together, as well as what method I use. I see what colors I have that will work, how much I have on hand. Crocheting them together takes more yarn then whip stitching them together. Whip stitching though takes longer. Crocheting them together adds texture. I didn't have enough of either the dark green or the dusty rose to do this all in one color, and thus decided on the merging of the 2 colors. I think it actually is helping to pull all the various shades of green and pink together; so rather like the look so far.

This is a ghan being made of so many different sizes of squares because the squares come from lots of people. They were donated through my blog, Bridge and Beyond for the homeless and abused Mother's and Children at Faith Mission.

I like to name afghans I work on, and have so named this one, Rose Garden.

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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Spring has Sprung?

miniature iris close upThis is the first, the very first sign of spring in my yard. This is short lived I know cause these cute little miniature Iris never last. They pop their little heads up while the ground is still cold and can be seen normally only a few days before a snow, or freezing rain comes and destroys them. But......they do make me smile, they do give me hope. They don't reproduce well, or perhaps because they pop up too early, they don't get a chance too? I have 3 clumps, but it doesn't seem like the clumps get any bigger with each they show themselves. Now this picture is cropped from the one below.
miniature irisBecause of where I had to stand (to keep from sinking into the rain drenched ground), you see my shadow. I tried to stand off to the side as much as possible and still be close enough to get the picture. The question is this. Which is the better picture? In other words, to crop or not to crop? I almost always do with my digital pictures (the only kind I take). Partially because it brings the item closer, makes it easy to see, and partially because it loads faster for blogging and posting on forums and uses less bandwidth and all those things. But, it occurs to me perhaps the non-cropped pictures show you more? With my shadow being visible you know we actually had sun....you know that round yellow thing in the sky. You've seen it, probably not much lately though. This second picture also shows how nothing else is green, telling you how early in the season the photo was taken. So, which is the better picture? Do you crop your pictures?

Please leave your comments, thoughts, and suggestions. I'm interested to learn what you think.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Completion of the 2nd longest Work In Progress EVER


opal afghan This ghan has been in the works for far too long. For a friend at work. I blogged about here, but the short version is...I estimated yarn needed badly on this one. That doesn't happen often and by the time I realized it I was about 2/3 rd done. Soooooo, I had to frog it. Once that was done, I searched my stash for yarn that would blend and came up with the taupe you see on the 2 sides and in a the centers of several of the squares.
close up afghan border Here's a close up of the border which I liked and felt pulled the project all together nicely. In truth, I didn't care much for this ghan which was another problem in trying to get it done. I used a smaller hook then I would normally use for these stitches and yarn in order to make it nice and tight and warm. She doesn't like holes in her ghans.


Here's a close up of the squares again with a view of the boarder. She was very pleased with her ghan and once she got it placed on her sofa she skyped me so I could see it on her sofa. Gotta love technology. I had selected the yarn from colors in one of her sofa pillows. The design--circle in a square also comes from the design on her sofa pillow. It's a very large ghan, larger than I usually make; but was necessary I think to pull off the design and have the new color work.