Granny C2C Afghan

I'm working on this now. This is a good pattern. I got the idea from Zooty Owl's granny c2c cowl pattern; click here for the pattern. I did modify it slightly; Zooty Owl didn't work a ch 1 in between each of the 3 dc clusters, but I did. So far, I like this pattern and it should prove to make a great afghan!

EDIT: I noticed that Clare at Bobwilson123 also has a video on this same pattern! Here's the video:

HAPPY Afghan

OK this is my first attempt at a corner to corner (c2c) afghan. I'm loving these colors and it's making me sing that Happy song in my head as I stitch. I know I'm going to have to get more pink and red yarn for this, but that's ok. It's part of my effort to burn up stash and only buy yarns for projects I've already started, rather than buying random yarn and not knowing what to do with it when I get it home because I had no project in mind for it when I bought it. LOL! I do that entirely too often.

So it's my HAPPY afghan!

Skinny Scarf

OK over on FiberFlux I found THIS pattern for a skinny scarf. I really liked it, thought "oh that looks easy so I'll make it," and I grabbed some yarn and began stitching.

Here's what I have so far:

The problem I seem to have with my scarf is how it tilts uphill to the right. I'm not sure why it's doing that. Her scarf stitches look perfectly straight and I'm not sure what I've done to make mine tilted.

Got any ideas? Or should I just go with it and incorporate that into my scarf?

That said, if I can get this figured out, I had a GREAT idea with this. Stitch up a whole boatload of these in various colors - say I do some in this sangria color, and some in red, and some in violet, etc - and then find a way to sew them or crochet them together to make an afghan! Sort of like a granny square afghan or mile-a-minute afghans. I may try that with some scrap yarn and do a couple of sample or test strips. I think I'll do that this weekend...

Woven Lapghan

OK so I'm working on the white mesh part of this lapghan. When this is done, I'm going to use another yarn to weave into the mesh. I haven't yet decided which one to use. 

In this photo I did the top row with Lion Brand Fettucini, a t shirt yarn that may not be the best choice, because I can't guarantee I can buy enough of it to use for the whole blanket. It's made with scrap t shirt material, so finding more than 2 matching rolls is challenging. The Fettucini yarn is the one with shades of blue, in the top center of the picture.

The second row is woven with Starbella ruffle yarn in Toucan colorway. I think I like this color best, but this yarn can be expensive. At about $5 a roll, I may have to drop about $100 on that yarn by itself to get the whole project complete. Not sure. That's a bit costly. The Starbella yarn is the brilliant rainbow yarn top left in the picture.

The third row is a chain of Lion Brand Homespun in the Barrington colorway. This yarn is very soft and rather bulky, and that would make for a very warm lapghan. Hiding the ends in when I complete the weaving would be very easy too. It's a bit more affordable than the other yarns, and I get more of it for my dollar. Hmmm.

What I originally had planned was to chain some orange and some green and weave the chain into the mesh, and it would look like the Irish tricolor:

But then I thought "oh come on, get CREATIVE woman!" And I came up with the idea of weaving a more novelty type of yarn into the mesh. 

I do need to stash-bust, so I might use my Lion Brand Homespun, doubled, with some lavender sport weight yarn included, which I have. That might be my best bet. I know it doesn't show too well in this photo - the texture of the yarn is lost in my picture, but this is a closeup of the Homespun:

This shows the ripple in the yarn and the beautiful colors in it too. I find it's not easy to just crochet with, but there's plenty of other ways to use this yarn if you think outside the standard knit/crochet boxes. 

Given some of the other shades in this yarn, I bet if I made another mesh in seafoam green and wove this Barrington color yarn in, it would look stunning. Or do a soft rose mesh. 

Food for thought. 

Yarns

Here's a stash buster project I've started on - partially to burn up some cheap yarn I have, and to practice the chevron stitch I've just learned:

The thing is, the red yarn and the variegated yarn here are Craft Smart yarns, bought at Michaels craft stores. I gotta say - this yarn feels like SANDPAPER. It's SO scratchy and rough! There is nothing soft about it!

I'm hoping that I can wash this with some fabric softener and it will feel a lot better; I know I had some good luck on that front with Red Heart Super Saver yarn, which also feels very rough. I made a mesh market bag with some of their deep red Claret color yarn, and with Red Heart, their dark colors are often very scratchy. Black is the worst. Well, I tossed that bag in the wash with some fabric softener, and the difference was amazing.

The pink yarn in this project is Red Heart Super Saver, and it's not too bad as far as roughness is concerned. I made a scarf with some of this, as well as some black RHSS. I've used the scarf all winter long and it's held up well, it's not too scratchy, and it has some nice drape to it (but I did make the scarf in a mesh pattern, with a slightly larger hook than is normally used with this yarn, and this gives the work some nice drape). I'm not sure if I want to continue using this pink yarn with the Craft Smart for this; perhaps I could use the pink RHSS for something else?

Well, RHSS is cheap enough yarn; if I need more hot pink I can get some.

I did find a new favorite yarn: Bernat Super Value yarn. I'm doing this with a couple of colors I found:

It's sooooooo soft and buttery. I love this yarn. This may be my go-to yarn from now on.

Camo Shawl?

 

OK well, my hand seems to have recovered fairly well from the radial cardiac cath I had on 4 March, so I think I can crochet now. I'm doing something fairly easy - a box stitch shawl with double strands of Lion Brand Homespun yarn in "Mediterranean." Eh. I don't know about Mediterranean - more like Duck Dynasty/1980s US Army camo to me. I'm kinda sorry I chose this color, quite frankly. I should have gone with the "Tudor" color, which looks like this:

 

Maybe I'll just get 10 skeins of this next time I shop for yarn. I think I like these colors better than the "Mediterranean."