Tuesday, July 1, 2008

You Start a Few, You Frog a Few


I really haven't been updating this much. I've been concentrating on the dog blog, and I've been trying to get projects done. I finished the dog bed. The smaller dogs will lay on it, but not the lab. She prefers the sofa, lol. But she'll lie on the floor, too. I found more of the same yarn at closeout at Ollies, and may make another bed for my computer room. First I have to clean the yarn out of the room to make room for it.

This is a baby blanket I started in Berroco Comfort DK, using the Cross Post Stitch from the 365 Crochet Stitches a Year Calendar by Jean Leinhauser and Rita Weiss. It works up quite quickly and I like the texture the post stitches add to the pattern. I took this to the doctor's office while I was waiting for my brother to have a procedure done, and I only made one mistake, which isn't bad for me, lol! I waffled a lot on what stitch pattern I wanted to use. I did swatches of a couple of them, but this one stood out for me. I'd like to try and make a baby bonnet and sweater using this pattern. I have to see if I use up all the yarn for the blanket, first, or just work one up in a different yarn for practice. I've only done baby garments from established patterns, never from one I've designed. I don't want to really mess up a nice yarn with repeated frogging.
These are the pieces of the baby sweater I mentioned last post. It's all done except the assembly and the ties. It's just sitting there, mocking me...asking me to put it together. I'm choosing to ignore it right now, since I want to get this baby blanket done.

This is the baby blanket I mentioned last post. I decided to use this Aran style pattern in a Leisure Arts stitch pattern booklet, after trying an Aran style from a different book that didn't work out correctly. I think it's because they had the instructions for the cable stitches incorrect, since they're different from the one in the book I'm using now. There were a couple of other problems with the instructions, and no one at the publishing company ever responded for my request for errata. So, I frogged it and moved onward. It's taking a little longer than I had anticipated, but I'm getting through the center panel. I haven't heard about a shower yet for my cousin's wife, but I think it'll be sometime this month. If I get this one done first, that's great. If not, I'll hurry up and finish the Cross Post blanket I mentioned earlier in this post.

I've put aside the baby blanket from Knit It- I had to frog back near the end of the first inset square/color change because it looked like a running stitch was going up the side between the stitches where the color change occurred. I haven't quite mastered how to change color mid row, so I'll work on it when I get these crocheted blankets done.
I've also started the Seaside Bag from the July issue of Creative Knitting magazine. So far, so good. I plan to make the tunic as well, once this crochet blitz is past.

I also frogged and put away the hat from the pattern I found among my late Mother's things. The pattern didn't come out as written, and I didn't like the large hole at the top of the hat, either. So many projects, so little time....