Mistletoe and Lace

 

This afghan actually started out as a loom-knitted project after I purchased the afghan loom and wanted to try it out. I soon discovered, however, that not only can I knit faster with needles than I can on a loom, but the pegs were so closer together that wrapping the yarn around them was tedious and frustrating. So, it sat around for awhile until I finally decided to remove what little I had accomplished, unravel it, and start fresh with a different project. 
As you may be aware, my goal is to make at least one project from every craft book I own. If only I would quit buying more books at thrift stores, I might actually be able to accomplish this goal. Nevertheless, I selected from my library the Mary Maxim book Timeless Treasures, and chose a pattern that suited the amount of yarn I had on hand, Ribbons and Lace. Or so I thought. Apparently, I tend to crochet larger than guage (I never do a sample swatch to check my guage, especially not with afghans) and ended up having to buy extra yarn. Even though I didn't add the fringe included in the pattern. (I'm not a fan of fringe on afghans. What is it good for? Besides getting tangled up when you wash the afghan). So, what was supposed to be a 48" x 56" afghan ended up 58" x 67". I got to the point where I had only 3 rows left, and only had a short string of yarn remaining. So one more skein of yarn was purchased, and the afghan was finished today. 

I love variegated yarn, but find that it makes the actual pattern in the design indistinct. I found the same thing with the Lace Enchantment afghan. And this one actually called for a contrast yarn, which I think would have enhanced it, but I'm not redoing it now. The pattern also called for restarting each row at the same end and working into the back loop. I found that a ridiculous idea, especially restarting each row - imagine all of the ends to work in! Initially, I did start working in the back loop, and then into the front loop on the following row for the part of the pattern that called for that, but I didn't really feel it made that great a difference in the look of it, so just started crocheting normally for all rows. 

Another WIP finished, which is likely my final finish for 2020, unless I actually get some potholders made...

A Couple More UFOs Done

I really want to have fewer projects lying neglected around my house, so am attempting to get old projects finished (somewhat successful) before I start new ones (not so successful). I don't remember when I started this About Town Ruana for my daughter, but it is finally finished. Not soon enough for this past Christmas, but in plenty of time for her birthday in September. It's made with one colour of Red Heart Unforgettable (Dragonfly) and a couple of different colours of regular worsted weight (4) yarn (Bernat Premium green and purple). Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a previous post, I find that cell phone pictures don't always give true colours. I had to tweak these pictures with my picture editor, but they're still not totally accurate. I like the colours better in person. 

I also find that if too much time elaspses between the start and finish of a project, especially if I don't work on it for a year or two, my gauge can change, which is the case in this project. The second half is actually a little smaller than the first half. Another word of advice if you're making this project is when you're sewing the back seam, don't sew it all the way to the middle or you end up with the ruana too long in the back. See the first photo. I probably could have stopped 2 or 3 inches short of the centre. 

Once that was done, I needed to find another UFO or WIP to finish. While I was pondering this and looking in some of my books, I realized that I didn't have a current knitting WIP or UFO. Well, not exactly - I do have one project that is more of a sampler afghan, where some blocks are knitted and some are crocheted. But I had no strictly knitting projects on the go (at least I don't remember and haven't found one). So, I decided to start on the San Diego Sunset afghan, using Loops and Threads Kidding Around yarn instead of the mohair called for. I'm not sure why I opted for that, except that I think it was on sale at Michael's when I bought it. And the fact that mohair is not readily available. I probably could have used Red Heart Unforgettable, but it's a lot more expensive than what I likely paid for the Kidding Around. I'm not sure how well Kidding Around - a 6 weight - is going to work with knitting worsted (4 weight) in the same project, however. I guess I will see.

I still need to buy the knitting worsted for this project. So this was as far as I could go for now. So I looked for another UFO to work on. Earlier I had pulled out the Feileacan shawl and assembled the first butterfly I had made. It had been a lot of work and I really didn't like how it turned out. So I googled and found an alternate butterfly pattern and tried it. I liked it better than the one I made using the pattern, but it was still a lot of work. And because it was slightly smaller than the original one, I would have to make more. And I've kind of lost my motivation for crocheting butterflies.

Top is from the pattern, bottom is from a pattern I found online

I suppose I will finish this shawl eventually - another project for my daughter - but not right now. I also did a little half-hearted work on Sophie's Universe.

So I rummaged around in my rough totes and found this afghan.

I suppose I will likely never know this afghan's full story, but on one of my frequent trips to the thrift stores, I found what was probably a crafter's stash: yarn, patterns, etc. I concluded that, in all likelihood the crafter had either passed away or been admitted to a seniors' home and her stash ended up at the thrift store. I bought some patterns and some other crafting stuff and found this afghan, partially finished, plus the unused yarn in one of those zippered vinyl storage packages that afghan kits come in. 

No pattern and no picture, but I determined to take it home and finish it in honour of the anonymous crafter that had to relinquish her (or his) craft. The first thing I had to do was determine how to stitch this pattern. 

With help from the members of a crocheting group on Facebook, I was able to find directions online and start stitching this afghan. I also had to determine what size of hook to use in order to keep my stitching gauge consistent with that of the original crocheter. I ended up using a 3.75 mm. And then I had to decide how to alternate the colours. In the absence of a pattern to give me any direction, and since the first part of it didn't seem to have any consistent number of rows for each colour, I just more or less randomly chose. But then I ran out of the ivory yarn, other projects took precedence and this one ended up at the bottom of one of my rough totes. 

But last night, I finished it. I'm not sure how big the original project was supposed to have been. I ended up with an afghan approximately 46" x 67", a good size for an afghan, and still have 3 skeins of the red yarn left over. I wanted to finish the end with ivory, so used some from my stash. Even though it, too, is knitting worsted, it was substantially bulkier than the original yarn, so I didn't want to use too much of it in this afghan, so just did 3 rows to finish it off. 

Originally, I had thought this afghan had come as a kit, which is why it puzzled me how I ended up with 3 extra skeins of yarn. However, several of the labels had price tags on them, which is not generally done in a kit. Likely the original crafter just used the vinyl package to keep this project together. Even bed linens come in this kind of package, so it doesn't necessarily have to have originated from an afghan kit. I did a little research to determine how old this project might be. Canada became officially bilingual in 1969 (note the French on the label), but Simpsons Sears did not become just "Sears" until 1984. I thought maybe it was older because it seems like forever since yarn was called "sayelle." Evidently not. 

Two UFOs finished and a new project started. That's still progress, isn't it?

Horsefeathers

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of horsefeathers is nonsense, balderdash. And

I have to admit that this afghan is a bit of nonsense. First of all, this wasn't the best choice of yarn for this particular pattern. As a roving yarn, there was too much variation in the thickness of the yarn to work very well with the "loopy" part of the pattern. Secondly, yarn choice aside, the pattern itself is rather silly. All of those big loops of yarn can too readily get caught on someone's toe, a bedpost or whatever. By the time I'd come to that conclusion, however, I was too far into the project to want to start over with a different pattern. So I finished it off. 

Above, the afghan is on the blocking mat, and you can more clearly see the big loops. It's a lovely colour, and I think that's what drew me to this yarn. The pattern is actually called Peacock Feathers, and you can find it in this book,and, as far as I recall, this is the first afghan I've finished from "Weekend Afghans." The pattern is actually quite attractive, just not very practical for use. And with two cats in the house, decorative afghans can't just sit around on the back of a chair or sofa. As a matter of fact, while I had the afghan on the blocking mat, I ended up with two snags in it, thanks to the cats. Fortunately, I was able to pull them out, and after the second snag, I covered the afghan with a sheet to prevent further mishaps.  
I started it on a circular needle, but found that all of those YOs tightened up on the cable part of the needle and doubled over on themselves, making it very challenging to get them back onto the needle end to knit them off again. After the first try or two, I started switching to a regular needle for the YO rows. However, I didn't have the right size of regular needle (9 mm) and had to substitute an 8 mm. Eventually, I bought a pair of 9 mm needles and just used them to finish the afghan rather than the circular needle. I didn't add the fringe that the pattern called for. I'm not a big fan of fringe as it can get tangled and matted and I don't think this yarn would make good fringe anyway.
According to my Ravelry account, I started this project on January 16, 2016, though my Ravelry dates are not always 100% accurate. I tend to start a project without documenting it in Ravelry, and it's often not until later that I get around to adding the project. So some dates are just estimates. Nevertheless, it's taken over 2 years to complete this afghan. I'm really glad it's finished: another WIP to check off the list!
Once finished, I had to figure out how to get a decent picture of it. The branch on this pine tree is almost ideal for displaying quilts and afghans.

Note that I said "almost." Although it's a good height and more or less parallel to the ground, it's too easy to snag yarn on the rough bark and twig remnants along the branch. I had to exercise great care in placing and removing this afghan. 

Now I just have to figure out what to do with it. I can't imagine that anyone would want this silly thing, pretty though it is. I'll probably just hang it over a quilt rack or ladder when I get around to buying one. The colour does go well with my bathroom, so maybe I'll hang it over a towel bar... 😁

Janet's Flower Garden

I believe that I've mentioned before that I dislike it when I'm crocheting in the round, and the pattern says, "You will notice the edge is starting to curl up at this stage. Don't worry, it will work itself out over the next few rounds." Or worse yet, "You will need to block it at this point to make it lie flat." For all the crochet - and knitting - projects I've done over the years, I've only ever blocked a few. I think I was still a teenager when I made an afghan for a friend's baby. The instructions said to block it so I did, though I'm not really certain why I was doing it. And I honestly don't think I needed to. I was just following instructions. Then there was the cowl I made with Charisma yarn. It was so stiff that I tried washing it to see if it would soften up, and blocking it afterwards. It didn't help. I also tried blocking the loom-knitted scarf that I made for my ex because it kept rolling up like a sausage. Blocking really didn't help that much either. (You can see both of these projects in this post). And then, of course, there are these round afghans... I really don't think that you should have to block to make crocheted circles lie flat. Years ago, I cut something out of somewhere (a magazine?) that told how to make crochet circles lie flat. It's just a matter of adding enough stitches per round. It shouldn't really be that difficult. Okay, I know that certain patterns require a certain number of stitches in order for the pattern to work out evenly. But crocheters have been making doilies for generations (and I still haven't figured out why), and they lie flat. And they have lovely, fancy patterns that work out evenly. Were people just better at math and therefore pattern development back in the "olden days" when people actually used doilies? I really don't know, but I do find it irksome. 
But with this particular afghan pattern (Queen Mandala Throw by Annamarie Esterhuizen), I found that I had to make too many adaptations to make it work. It's not that I can't follow directions - I just don't like to have to keep forcing things to work. I'm not a pattern designer, and I have a lot of respect for those who do develop patterns. But they need to work. And I feel sorry for inexperienced crocheters, who may end up thinking it's just them and not the pattern. I would really hate to see someone give up on crocheting before they really even got started because of a faulty pattern.  
So, this afghan was getting plenty big enough, and I was plenty frustrated enough, and I decided to start squaring it off. Once I got it reasonably square, I finished it off, mostly using directions from another afghan pattern (Sophie's Universe by Dedri Uys), and finally adding a butterfly on each corner, with directions (which I also had to adapt) from a youtube video. 
So I took it out this afternoon for its photo shoot.  And sooner than post all of the individual photos, I will share the video I made on Google.  

I keep trying to accomplish my goal of finishing all of my WIPs and UFOs before starting anything new, but there's always another "must do" popping up... At least I'm glad this one's finished.