Yarning Along - 08/03/15

Probably about 7 years ago, I began a Bobble Afghan and a Sweet Baby Hoodie in the same yarn for the new great nephew of the man I was dating. Well, that relationship ended and so did the progress on my crocheting. Moving more than once, buying my own house, working full time and studying for my degree intervened. Then about 3 years ago, I learned that my daughter was going to bless me with a grandson. And I hoped to finish both the afghan and the hoodie for him. But first I was determined to make him an afghan using the same Rainbow Afghan pattern that I used for her. I made hers with a white background and pastel colours, but since this was going to be a boy, I wanted something more bold and boyish. And I did get it finished:

In addition, I made him a quilt:

And finally finished the hoodie for him.

But the afghan was still lanquishing in a box in the basement. 

Last year, I learned that I was to have a new great niece or nephew in February. I already had a girl's quilt finished, Scrappy Shine. 

The quilt top is neutral enough that it could have been for a boy or a girl, but I had intended it for a girl and I bound it in pink. So I purchased fabric to make a boy's quilt as well, so I'd be ready for either gender. 

I had other quilts on the go and put off starting it as I had until February. Then I decided to renovate the sewing area in the basement. And those renovations are ongoing and most of my sewing/quilting supplies are piled up in the living room. As I'm sure you can imagine, there's no quilting being done. So I decided that I'd better get to work on that afghan in case it was a boy. 

As mentioned previously, that pattern is quite dense and the yarn is frustrating to work with as the shimmer strand keeps separating from the rest of the yarn, so it was really slow going. I was kind of hoping that the baby would be a girl (even though the parents were hoping for a boy). Then baby Seth was born and it became imperative that I finish that afghan. And I did.

Just last night I finally worked in the last of the ends, and it will get mailed off this week. The border ended up a little ruffle-y. I probably could have worked that out with blocking, but I doubt the parents (or the baby) will care. 

By the way, Mystery was so very good when I was taking the pictures of the afghan. I told him, "Don't get on the afghan or you'll be in trouble." And he only stepped on it once accidentally as he was skirting the edge of it. See how nicely he poses in that top picture. Such an awesome cat! (You'll also notice his tail in the bottom left corner of the picture of the boy's quilt fabric).

Meanwhile, I got my yarn for Sophie's Universe. 

And got started on this awesome pattern. Other crocheters were sharing pictures of their Sophie with the men in their lives, so I shared one with the Important Male in my life.

There were also pictures of Sophie outdoors, so I added a couple, including this one that shows how mild our weather is lately by including the water lying at the side of the street. I've actually got a bare patch of grass at the other end of my house.

And here's Sophie currently, done to the end of Part 3:

As she progressed, I realized that she was going to be bigger than the pattern stated, in spite of the fact that I'm using a 5.0 hook instead of a 5.5. I don't mind her being bigger, but I was concerned about running out of yarn, so I added a couple of colours: black and the blue that's on the last round in this picture. I wanted to add the black before I started a repeat of the colours, and remembered that I had some "in reserve" for the Cathedral Rose Window Afghan, so I "borrowed" some from that stash. In addition, while I was rummaging in the basement, I came across this mound of yarn, which is also in reserve for the Cathedral Rose:

That's 29 balls of green/purple variegated. This yarn came in those 1 pound packs of mill ends at Walmart. I have previously not purchased enough of these packages to finish a project, and when I went back, there were none left. So when I bought these, I was determined to make sure I had sufficient for everything I wanted to do and bought every package they had. There was more than this to start with, but I have completed drapery tiebacks

 

and the Lace Enchantment afghan in the meantime. 

While this is a pretty yarn, I've actually gotten rather bored with it. I'm kind of wishing I'd gone with the blues and purples in the picture on the Cathedral Rose pattern instead of the greens and purples. But I have this mountain of yarn now, so I need to use it. And it does go with my chosen decor better than the blues. Plus I also have the plain green I need. I thought I had the purple as well, but didn't come across it in my basement rummaging. Maybe I just thought about buying it. It will either turn up, or I will just have to buy some. Terrible thing, having to buy more yarn... LOL!

The yarn and needle I ordered for Red Heart's "Learn a Stitch, Make this Cowl" project arrived this past week.

That's Red Heart Medley in Eclectic for the Twisted Cowl (crocheted) and Red Heart Soft in Lavender for Candi's Checked Cowl (knitted). The Lovable Cowl pattern (knitted) was posted for March, which is made from Unforgettable yarn. I knew they had some in great colours at my local Walmart, so picked up a skein in Parrot, plus the needle I need, along with the blue yarn for Sophie. This cowl is lighter weight, so only requires one skein.

While I was there, I noticed that they had 3 skeins of Super Saver in blacklight. When I first saw the blacklight yarn, I fell in love with it. I love bright colours, especially set off with black, so this yarn was just awesome to me. And I resolved to make a project with it some day. Then when the Yarnspirations CAL came along, I decided to use blacklight as my main colour. I needed 5 skeins, preferably in the same dye lot. I'm not obsessed with dye lot, especially not in a variegated yarn, but would prefer to keep the same dye lot if possible. My local Walmart had only 2 skeins of blacklight and they were in different dye lots, so I had to choose alternate yarn. Later, even those two skeins disappeared and the blacklight slot on the shelf remained empty for a few weeks. So when I saw these 3 skeins, all in the same dye lot, I scooped them up. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I wasn't going to miss out on them again. I am rather puzzled, however, as to why my Walmart would only bring in 3 skeins. Had someone bought them and returned them? Or is that all Walmart thinks someone will use? I have actually emailed Walmart to find out why their yarn stock is so depleted, both in the store and online, but I haven't heard back from them yet. 

I added a ball of the orange as it, too, was the only one left, and if I decide to do something with the variegated plus other colours, orange is one of the colours I can add. 

Now, the ex is coming over this afternoon with a bucket of drywall mud to help with my renos. Before he got into truck driving, he worked in construction. And if there's anyone that can do drywall well, it's definitely him. So I need to get on with my day before he arrives.