crochet blankets Archives - Page 7 of 12

Posted on April 17, 2014 by admin

Monday’s News

It appears that my plans can change in 5 minutes or the length of time it takes the Dr. to say you may have torn your tendon. So, I am no longer looking forward to sewing for the comic con as I was thinking of doing. I can always do the comic con later. The good news is that I will get a lot of time sitting with my foot up which is always good for the crocheted items in the shop! I have been working on some little things but I will surprise you with them next week.

My family cleaned the flower beds out for me this past week. They worked hard as the beds had been neglected over the past year.

Here you can see the rose bush and the sage that grow by the front door. We need to put some weed blocker down and then cover it in mulch in an effort to cut down on the grass growing back. I had a lovely package yesterday that was exciting and cheerful at the same time. I received these beautiful yarns in the mail from my friend Rose. Rose does lots of fancy knitting and these are (probably) a small part of her destash. They are all shades of brown and orange and I can hardly wait to get started on them. I have some ideas and they are percolating while I work on some other little things.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on April 14, 2014 by admin

100 items in 100 days!

Looking back at this challenge. I would say that it has helped me think outside the box. I had to get out of my comfort zone in my sewing and forced me to finish some mending projects. I finished a bunch of things in a short period of time. Â I forced myself to use what I had on hand to fill my shop. It was good for me as it pushed me to create new and different things. It was an incredibly freeing experience to

Here they all are!

See you later,

Karen

Posted on April 14, 2014 by admin

Challenge Blanket and instructions!

Here it is in all of its glory, the challenge blanket and the instructions! I started this in the 100 items in 100 days challenge Â and I meant for it to be the very last entry but I just couldn’t wait to get this finished.

I love granny square blankets, but this one is great too! It has one thing going for it that the Granny Square blankets don’t. Can you guess what it is?

It has no holes! That is right, absolutely no holes for the air to get through. So, if you want to crochet a blanket for a non-Granny Square lover this is the one to use!Â Â I used DK weight yarn for this blanket as it was what I had on hand and a G sized hook.

This is a super simple pattern and I am going to share it with you right now! If you need a more complete pattern, I am pretty sure that there is already one on Ravelry.com.

Chain the length you want the blanket to be as a multiple of four. Half double crochet in each chain across.

2nd row.

chain five, skip the first two half double crochets and half Â double crochet in the third, half double crochet in the fourth chain two and skip the next two half doubles, half double in the next two and continue in this pattern across the blanket.

3rd row.

Chain two and turn. You will have a funny loopy thing there at the start. Double crochet down into the 2nd row into the first half double that you skipped and then double crochet again into the second half double that you skipped in the row previously.
Chain two and continue in this pattern across the blanket.

This is the basic pattern if you have any problems just let me know.

The last row in the blanket you double crochet into the spaces and half double into the tops of the double crochets of the previous row.

To finish it out I simply crocheted a simple grey Â border around all the edges of the blanket with two chains in each corner stitch.

Let me know if you make one! I would love to see it.

Talk to you later,

Karen

P.S. This one is for sale in the ChocolateDogStudio.etsy.com shop!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/186196415/hand-crochet-blanket-afghan-multicolor

Posted on April 1, 2014 by admin

April Fools!

The first of April is this week and we have been incredibly busy. IÂ put things on hold for awhile but I am ready to get back to the 100 items in 100 days challenge.

I have these projects started:

The blanket is almost finished. The quilt is almost half way done. The stars are still in progress and the bottom picture is only 1/8th of the way done!

It has been a busy week as we decide classes for our daughter, getting some last minute senior year Â things done. I get photos taken today by our son and daughter in law. They are coming over to spend the day with us. We will send out Commencement announcements soon.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on March 30, 2014 by admin

Stripey Wool Stash Blanket #91

This is number 91 out of 100 items created from my stash! Woohoo!!

I finished this last week but I was waiting for our son to come and take these photos to show off it’s true beauty.

It is crocheted completely of wool out of my stash yarns. I used little balls of yarn and whole skeins.Â

Some of the skeins were variegated and some were solid. I love it, it is warm and cozy. It was almost too warm to work on as the weather is turning to the mid 60s these days.

I like the peaked scalloped border that is a bit more masculine than I normally use. It is Â 59″ x 49″ on an average size. Â I just love it and it is available in the Etsy shop!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on March 27, 2014 by admin

#90 out of 100 Items!

It has been a frustrating week and I tend to hit one of these fairly frequently. My creativity seems to hit a slump and my ability does well. I Â have been working on using up my stash and part of that was to finish a crochet blanket I started about 10 years ago. I thought I had finished it way back when. It is a lovely green, white, yellow and blue blanket that I use in the studio when I wake up too early. It was not big enough to be warm and cozy. So, I have started adding to it with my stash yarns. I finished it once and the ends were definitely not the same width by about 12 inches.This is a Â huge difference, and it looks gathered. I changed crochet hook sizes and went up to my largest hook, and it is still not even. Now I will need to count stitches and see if I have dropped stitches off the ends of the blanket. It is only about 4 inches difference now so dropping stitches might be the answer. Turns out I had dropped about ten stitches so I added those back in and the width turned out just right. I used up a bunch of little balls of yarn and some larger ones as well. It isn’t the most beautiful blanket I have ever made but it is incredibly soft which more than makes up for it’s homely appearance.

See you later,

Karen

Posted on March 3, 2014 by admin

The New Blanket

The new blanket! I have been admiring this pattern around the internet. I know that Lucy of Attic 24 is making a variation of this same pattern. Her blanket is beautiful as always. Â I have posted bits and pieces of my blanket on facebook so if you follow me there then you have already seen a little of it.Â https://www.facebook.com/Chocolatedogstudio I started this blanket back around the middle of February.

Here it is at the very beginning. It is a perfect scrap afghan pattern as you can use any colors you want. I am using a complete stripes worth of each color.

It will be a great blanket as there are no holes for air to get through. It is taking me a bit to get it finished as I keep setting it down to work on other items in the 100 items in 100 days challenge! I am using my stash for this so it counts as well but the sewing machine has been calling these days.

Talk to you later,

Karen

You can see Lucy’s blanket here:Â http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2014/02/creative-happiness.html

Posted on February 25, 2014 by admin

The second challenge

I have been thinking of a second challenge. This one has to do with crocheting Â and granny squares. I have seen so many beautiful squares and I want to make them all. Did you know that the average granny square blanket uses at least 100 squares? So if I make 100 different squares I should have enough for a blanket. If I make a couple of each design I would easily have a nice sized crochet blanket. I am not going to give myself a time limit on this challenge but I am going to make 100 different granny squares and then make them into a blanket. Here is my first square. It looks a little wonky and needs to be steam blocked. Â This pattern is found in the book The crochet Motif by written by Edie Eckman.

So this is number 1 out of 100 Granny Squares!