Final Peruvian Print Strip!

Finally! I have a strip finished in a size I like. This one is 18 stitches wide, all half-double crochet, on a J hook. It took an entire skein of Red Heart Super Saver yarn in the color Peruvian Print, and turned out 6 inches wide and 60 inches long. I'm going to edge the strips in Soft White, and I should have seven strips when I'm done, so it will make a nice-sized afghan. I'll crochet all the strips together, so there shouldn't be any sewing on this afghan.

I have to once again thank my friend Linda (aka Crocheting Fool) for the suggestion of crocheting this yarn into narrow strips. I really like this much better and I'm glad I decided to do a narrower strip.

Another Attempt with Peruvian Print yarn...

I took the advice of my friend Linda (aka Crocheting Fool), and used the Red Heart Super Saver color in Peruvian Print, crocheting it into a strip. I like this so much better than my other pattern attempts with this yarn. Thanks, Linda! I really do think this color is probably for knitters rather than crocheters, but I do like how this is turning out. I'm going to edge strips with white, and make them into a lapghan or afghan, depending upon how much yarn I have here. The strip is crocheted with a J hook in half-double crochet on 25 stitches...

Fleece Blanket

Here's a fleece blanket that I put an edging on. I crocheted two blankets together, then just three rounds of a shell edging. Crocheting two blankets together makes them very nice and warm.

Christmas gift...

I got to work yesterday and found that one of my co-workers had left me this gift. It's so cute, and I love snowmen too!





The day before, another co-worker left me a beautiful fruit basket. It was filled with oranges, apples, pears, a tangerine, a kiwi, and grapes. The fruit is so good, so I have to find out where he got that from! It was so nice of both of them to leave these gifts for me. Two of us got "thank you's" from them for all our help this year, and it is really nice to be remembered for that.

While I was taking the pics of my gift, I decided to take a picture of what I see outside my living room - it's snowing here, with up to 7 inches predicted by tomorrow with lots of blowing and drifting and below zero wind chills. Welcome to winter in Wisconsin!

Weather PIxie

I have that little picture to the right of my posts that is a Weather Pixie. If you click on the picture, it will take you to the site to get one of your own. It shows the current weather here were I live, and yes, it is cold here now! Had nearly a foot of snow yesterday...too much for one storm!

Peruvian Print

Red Heart Super Saver yarn has a new variegated yarn in a color called Peruvian Print. I bought some to try, but I can't decide if I like it or not. It may be the combination of cool and warm colors that I don't care for, or it could just be too many colors in it. I prefer cool colors, but do work with some warm colors, just not the colors I see in this yarn.

My first attempts of making something with this yarn didn't look good to me, so yesterday I tried making a solid double crochet square from it, with the intention of making a square lapghan. I didn't care for that odd-looking step up of the colors when the new rounds started, as you can see in this picture:


So, I decided to just try a half-double crochet lapghan with it. I'm still not sure I like the colors in this, but I'm going to continue with this and see how it goes:

Scarf

I recently finished this scarf using JoAnn's Rainbow Classic yarn in a blue variegated. I used a puffy shell stitch for it to add texture, and this scarf turned out nice and warm, just in time for the winter weather we've had here.

Granny Square Christmas Tree

Here is a pattern that I created years ago. Feel free to give a try, and if you have any questions or find any errors please let me know. Enjoy!

Granny Square Christmas Tree



Materials:

8 oz. Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Green
3 oz. Red Heart Super Saver yarn in White
Small amount white or dark brown worsted weight yarn for tree trunk

You will also need:

4 - 1-inch red pom-poms
9 - 1/2-inch red pom-poms
4 red velvet ribbon bows with a gold twist-tie attached
4 - 1-inch gold jingle bells
Small amount of fiberfill stuffing for trunk
1 - 1-inch white/bone ring for hanger
Craft glue or hot glue gun
Size I/9 (5.50 mm) hook

Tree is approximately 24 inches tall when finished.

Granny Squares:

Using size I hook, start with a ch 5, sl st in first ch to form a ring.

Round 1: Ch 3, 2 dc in ring, ch 2, (3 dc in ring, ch 2) 3 times, sl st in top of beg ch-3, turn.

Round 2: Sl st to ch-2 space, ch 3, 2 dc in space, ch 2, 3 dc in space to form corner, (ch 1, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next ch-2 space) 3 times for 3 more corners, st st in top of beg ch-3, turn.

Round 3: Sl st to ch-2 space, ch 3, 2 dc in space, ch 2, 3 dc in space to form corner, (ch 1, 3 dc) in each ch-1 space along the side to corner; (ch 1, 3 dc, ch 2 3 dc) in each ch-2 corner space. Repeat around, and sl st into top of beginning ch-3, turn.

Repeat Round 3 for square. The last round of each square is done in white yarn. When you've finished with the green yarn, fasten off, and attach white yarn with a sl st into any ch-2 space, and repeat Round 3 for one round, fasten off and weave in all ends.

For the tree, you'll need 4 squares in the following sizes:

1st square: 8 rounds green; 1 round white
2nd square: 7 rounds green; 1 round white
3rd square: 6 rounds green; 1 round white
4th square: 5 rounds green; 1 round white

Tree Trunk:

Row 1: Using either white or brown yarn and a size I hook, ch 12, sc in 2nd ch from hook and in each ch across; 11 sc. Ch 1, turn.

Row 2: Sc in first sc and in each sc across; 11 sc. Ch 1, turn.

Repeat Row 2 until you have 20 rows. Fasten off, leaving a long end for sewing. With right sides together, fold the trunk piece in half lengthwise, making a square. Sew the side edges closed and turn right side out. Stuff the trunk, leaving space at the top to sew it closed. Don't stuff too tightly. When you've finished stuffing the trunk, sew the top closed; set aside.

To Assemble the Tree:

With wrong sides facing, fold each completed granny square in half diagonally so that the last 3 rows of the opposite side of the square show underneath. Sew or glue the tip of the corner to the back of the square.

Start by laying out the largest square. Take the second square and lay it over the top of the first square so that the fold of the second square just touches the tip of the first square. Sew or glue the second square to the first square.

Repeat these steps for both the third and fourth squares of the tree.

Center the trunk at the bottom of the largest triangle and sew in place.

Decorating the Tree:

Glue the 1-inch pom-poms to the top point of the three, and to the three points on the first (bottom) square.

Glue the 1/2-inch pom-poms to all three points on the remaining three squares.

Attach a jingle bell to the middle of a red velvet bow, securing the bell with the gold twist-tie on the bow. Make four of these. Glue the bows to the middle of each square flap.

Sew the 1-inch white ring to the back top tip of the tree to use as a hanger.

Extra Notes:

You can embellish the tree any way you want to, really. Use your imagination. As for the squares, I've also made this tree using a solid granny square (dc in each stitch across, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in each corner) for a different look. I've used both Red Heart Paddy Green and Hunter Green, and I like the look of either one. You could use Christmas yarns with a sparkly thread running through them for a different look too. Maybe use just a glittery white yarn and a different color, like blue or purple for the decorations. There are so many possibilities with this pattern!.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about this pattern. You are welcome to use this pattern for personal use only. Do not copy and sell the pattern, however, you make make and sell these trees if you give proper mention of the designer.

Magic Ball Afghan #4 plus more...

Here's my latest Magic Ball Afghan - Yup, it's the fourth one I've made! These are so fun to make, work up fast, and are so warm. This one is 68 inches long and probably about 48 inches wide. I used Dark Navy as the solid color yarn that I carried with the magic ball yarns.



I keep making these to use up scraps of yarn, so as long as I have yarn, I'll keep making them. I have a few magic balls left over from the last four afghans, so now I'm going through my stash to see what color I can use as the main color for my next one. So far, I've used Dark Navy, Black, and Soft White. I'm not sure what I'll use next but I'll come up with something.

I've also been working on 4-strand afghans. The pattern these are based on comes from "Crafts" magazine - the November 1998 issue. The afghan is all half-double crochet, holding four strands of yarn together.

For the first one, I'm using all "I Love This Yarn" from Hobby Lobby. If you haven't tried this yarn, you must get some! It's a worsted-weight acrylic, and so incredibly soft and very easy to work with. If you aren't near a Hobby Lobby store, you can find this yarn at http://www.craftsetc.com/ I'm using one strand each of Blue Camo Ombre, Medium Blue, Brown, and White:



For this next one, I started it because I was curious to see how the colors would look together. This one uses all Red Heart Super Saver yarn - two strands of Buff, and one strand each of Buff Fleck and Aran Fleck:



These both are worked with a Q hook, and go fast. It's a fun pattern to try when you have yarns that you just don't know how to use up.