Yep, more crochet

Not much to report, I’m just busy hooking.

This is the 2nd afghan, the first four squares of clue 5. I still have 12 to go, but these are working up very quickly, and I’m not having any issues at all. I have 6 squares done for the white afghan, and each one gets done more quickly than the previous one.

Clue number 6 is out, and thankfully it looks to be a square to be worked fairly quickly. I should be able to get those done and back to clue 5 this week.

I leave you with a pretty I saw out my window this morning.

One day…

… my knitting will be this good. I highly recommend checking out the work this fellow has done. The photo should take you to his blog.

 

The post which is afghan heavy

Since this project is taking up a lot of my crafting energy these days (not for a lack of trying!), it stands to reason my blogs of late will also take up this venture.

Last week’s clue was the first in changing colours, and introduced the triple and half-double stitches. I was already familiar with all these techniques, so the working of these went fairly quickly. My only hiccup was that apparently I need to learn to count. Rows were 22 stitches long, and for some reason I could hit 21 or 23 without any issues. I had to actually pay attention and be vigilant on my counting.

To keep on top of the clues as they come out, I have taken to crochet everywhere:

… Mostly at my computer. I have been reading my blogs and watching my streaming shows, spending time on facebook and flying around Azeroth all the while crocheting.  Of course, that may contribute to my counting problems. 😉

 

And so, my single colour afghan squares for clue number four:

Again, the thin yarn makes this a flimsy square, but I think it will turn out alright.

 

Afghan #2 squares for clue number four:

I apologize for the paper in the shot, I know it doesn’t look very pretty. I wanted to show the colours, and the light purple is just close enough to the brown of my desk top that the colour washes out.

I had an odd happening with the coloured squares. I finished my third square, and realized that my pattern was off. Apparently while watching tv, I had forgotten which end was the top of the square, and I had cast on my colour change at the bottom of the square and therefore adjusted the pattern. If nothing else, I’m very good at make-work projects.

 

Clue number five was released on Wednesday, calling for 16 squares each. A little daunting, but I have worked up one square so far. This square is a mitered square, and this is a new technique for me. I must say, I am really having fun with this.

This is my first attempt at one of these squares, and while I will be pulling this one out and starting again, I am pumped at how it turned out. I realize my stitches got a little tight near the end, causing the square to go a little off keester, and the final square size is about 1/2 inch too small. So, I will be pulling it out and adding a few stitches in and loosening up the cornering. I will be switching back and forth from my coloured afghan to the solid one, to add some variation, but I do not think this will stitch up fast enough to complete 32 squares in one week. But when I have some free time in upcoming weeks I will be working on these squares.

And so there you have it. Off to hook some more!

Afghan #2 Clue #3

Is anyone confused yet? Good.

So I have finished the eight squares required for clue #3 for my second afghan. A couple changes I made to this square:

– I added an extra chain stitch at the foundation chain, finding that if I double crocheted on the 4th chain from the hook my corners did not look nice. I instead double crocheted at the 5th chain.

– My proportions were just a smidge off, so I did a row of single crochet around the outside of each square. This made the squares the right size for the rest of the afghan and made a nicer edge. Depending on how the afghan is put together I may yet do that with the first set of eight I made up.

And so I have tonight and tomorrow to get clue #4 done before the next clue is handed out. I doubt I will be able to get it done, but one can hope!

Runaway train

Last week’s Crochet Along clue called for eight squares to be completed. I barely finished those eight squares, on one afghan version before today (late last night, in fact).  To steal a phrase from Annette, I stealth crocheted this week. A few minutes here, a few minutes there…

This clue had us doing a v-stitch. Basically a double crochet, single crochet and another double in the same single crochet space. Once I figured out the odd phrasing for the first row, it was fairly smooth sailing.

My squares for this clue leave me wanting to sc around to make it more square. I am not fond of the edging here and hope that once this afghan is pieced together it will all fall into place. I realize a lot of that comes from the light yarn I’m using – it does not hold it’s shape well, and the next set I do for my second afghan should work out a bit better.

I am trying diligently to stay caught up with the clues. I hope to have the next eight squares done for the second afghan by this weekend, and hopefully get the fourth clue done for both by Wednesday. The fourth clue is asking for some colour changes, which only affects my second afghan so it should go fairly quickly. That being said, it also asks for four squares to be done.

I did have some doubts as to when this afghan would be completed, but it seems that they are really bumping up the number of squares per week to make it finished before Christmas. Not that I have any idea what I’m going to do with these once I’m done. Really, I’m doing it because it is an easy fun project and my growing belly is hindering both knitting and cross stitch right now. So crochet it is.

And on a side note, since I haven’t shared it on my blog yet (though those of you who have befriended me on facebook are already spammed with this!), here are some recent ultrasound photos of the baby. Only six weeks to go before we meet the little one!

Mystery Afghan Redux

So I finally got off my hiney and made a decision on my mystery afghan. I decided to still do my original plan and use the yarn I had set aside for it, but change it up a bit.

And so:

Clues one and two. The top photo the colour is pretty accurate, in the bottom though, the blue is much more navy. And so now I’m ready for clue three, to be released tomorrow.

Clue #2

Clue number two was released on Wednesday for the Bernat Mystery Afghan. It is not that it took me three days to get my act together and blog about it, rather it’s taken me three days to figure out what I’m doing.

The first thing you may notice is that these squares are the same colour as my first set of squares. Here’s my problem. As I decided to make this a stash buster project, I opted to use the colour I have the most of (in this case, a white) as my main colour. Except that this yarn is of a lower weight than the other yarn I have chosen. For what ever reason, I neglected to notice that at the beginning.

So my gauge for the first clue determined my squares would be 7″ x 7″ rather than 8″ x 8″, which is fine. I grabbed colour #2 and happy made the granny squares necessary. And lo! and behold! My square came out to be 8″ x 8″.

As you can see, I had an issue here. Since this is an afghan with 48 squares it seems the finished product will be 8 squares x 6 squares, and the squares need to be the same size for this to occur.

And so, I pulled out my square, grabbed a 5mm hook and tried again. This time my square was 7.5″ x 7.5″. This still would not do.

I then thought to look at the cause of this – duh – it’s the yarn itself! As I don’t have any other lower weight yarn to go with the white I had chosen, I decided to make a monochromatic afghan, and hope the squares are different enough to make it interesting.

Except that in working up these squares, they measured to 8″ x 8″.

Having enough, I pulled out the last row. Each square is now a row short, but measuring the same as my initial squares.

So now I have four other colours slotted for an afghan I won’t be using. I am still toying with the idea of just picking up a fifth and making a second afghan.

But on to my “wow” moment for this square. I have always had a problem with granny squares in that my joining point was always quite obvious. Like “I just learned to do this three minutes ago and should probably continue this craft while wearing a helmet” obvious. And so I avoided doing granny squares.

This was answered so simply in the instructions itself, I’m astounded I didn’t figure this out sooner. Instead of turning the work at the joining point, Bernat recommended keeping the work with right sides facing, and simply slip stitching along to the next open chain, negating the need for turning. Join, sl st three times, and start your next row. These squares are sooooooo much neater! And since I incorporated the no-turn dc start I learned in the first clue, one can hardly find the join spot.

I tell you, if these wow moments continue with each square, this is going to be a very fruitful afghan.