Showing posts with label center-out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label center-out. Show all posts

Thursday, July 18, 2024

Pink blanket for great-grandaughter

This is going to be a Christmas gift for my great-granddaughter Lilliana, who loooves pink! The blanket used less than 4 skeins, so I'm using the last part of the fourth skein to also make a matching pink Mini Dino for her. 💜 This is a great design to give as a gift to any young person because it's easy to crochet, and the infinite pathways contained in the blanket represent the infinite potential in every young person's life. I absolutely love that symbolism and message.


I followed the method shown in this video by Fiber Spider. Blanket is worked with 39 pattern rounds followed by 1 round of solid DC and then edged with a border of RSC (reverse single crochet, also known as crab stitch). So, essentially, 40 rounds plus the edging. Here's the link to my Ravelry project page, which has details about the yarn and hook I used.


I've made this design several times, and I like that the rounds begin/end at a corner, but I think if I ever make another one, I'm going to attempt to do it in turned rounds, where there is no obvious right side/wrong side.



Tuesday, November 29, 2022

The Granny Merge blanket

I was looking for an idea of a different way to work a center-out blanket when I came across this video by Fiber Spider showing how to use the granny merge stitch sequence to make a shawl. I like the way this looks, and so I'm adjusting the instructions just slightly to use them to make a center-out square blanket.


The repeating sequence I'm using is 3 granny rows followed by 2 solid rows. After 25 rows, the blanket measures about 30 inches on a side, which if I stopped now would be the right size to make a nice lap blanket. But I believe I will continue working to make this into a throw-sized afghan.


I wanted to make a new blanket for my grandniece Charlotte, and when I saw how long it was taking me to finish this one (which I started on Jan. 30 ... that was 10 months ago!!), I realized that if I was going to give Charlotte a blanket this Christmas, it would need to be this one (even if it isn't her first choice of colors). My ability to crochet blankets has slowed way, way down, to the point where apparently I'm only able to finish one blanket per year anymore. Sigh! I hope Charlotte will like this one.


Finished at 45 pattern rounds plus 1 round of RSC (crab stitch) edging. Total yarn weight: 1,223 grams.

Friday, December 24, 2021

A new blanket for Wendy

I started making this blanket without a recipient in mind just because I had the yarn on hand and felt like using it because it is a very pretty colorway. (Originally I bought this yarn for a different project but then lost interest in that one.) And the Red Heart Ombre yarns lend themselves nicely to the Which Way Filet blanket pattern by Fiber Spider.


As the blanket was coming together I started to think that it might be a nice one for Wendy, since she's now a teenager and had outgrown the more "baby style" blanket I previously made her. This blanket pattern, with the limitless potential and endless possibilities suggested by its winding paths, is perfect for a brilliant teen like Wendy. 

My only worry was that I didn't know whether turquoise was a color that Wendy liked. But then I got to sit beside Wendy at dinner early in December, and I don't know how we got on the subject, but I was able to ask her what her favorite color was, and I was THRILLED when she said TURQUOISE!! Woo-hoo!! So now I know that she's going to love this new blanket.


I made her older sister a more grown-up-looking blanket last Christmas, and now it's Wendy's turn to get a new, grown-up-style blanket to last her for many years to come. Finished it just in the nick of time to give it to her for Christmas this year.

Friday, June 12, 2020

Virus Blanket for RV free pattern

Well, it took me a little more than a year (only working on it when we were camping in our RV), but I finally finished this afghan. The colors in the afghan coordinate nicely with the color scheme inside our RV, and the finished size makes a nice topper for the queen-size bed to add another layer of warmth on cold nights or to snuggle up with for a nap.


This is the Virus Blanket free pattern by Jonna Martinez. Her free video tutorial is on YouTube. And I like to use the edging from this video by Kiki Crochet on my virus blankets.

Total yarn weight: 1,113 grams, or about 5.59 skeins / 1985.5 yards. Please see my Ravelry project page for details about the yarn colors I used here. 

Sunday, June 9, 2019

Granny Squared Into Highlighter Hell Throw free pattern

I found a couple more skeins of the unidentified colorway aka “Highlighter Hell” (what I call it) by Red Heart, so I decided to use it along with some plain white to make an infinite granny square throw for my daughter who loooves these (horrifically) bright colors. 😉


After trying to work this continuous granny square in full rounds of a single color, I discovered that there was not a good way to carry the next color up for the subsequent round without leaving a long loop on the reverse side where I changed colors (see below). I was afraid that the only way to “fix” this would be to add a lightweight flannel backing to cover the reverse side and hide the loops.


I pondered this problem for a while and concluded that the best way to avoid it would be to use a two-color spiral method, so I went searching for a pattern and found The Continuous 2 Color Granny Crochet Tutorial by Fiber Spider on YouTube. Ta-da!! This method is an absolutely brilliant way to work a two-color continuous granny stitch blanket without having to tie off after every single round (and have eleventy-bazillion ends to weave in when you’re done, plus all those ends would equal a lot of wasted inches of yarn), and it eliminates the big-loop-from-carrying-up-the-yarn problem I was having. Like I said: Brilliant!!


Here's a comparison of the obverse view of working the blanket in full rounds of each color (left) vs. the half-rounds used in the Fiber Spider method (right). As you can see, the different methods are undetectable to the eye, but Fiber Spider's method results in a blanket that is fully reversible and looks tidy on both sides:


I just kept working rounds on the throw until I ran out of the Highlighter Hell color. Then I used some highlighter orange yarn from my stash to work a border of one round SC followed by one round RSC or crab stitch. Finished size is about 44 inches square.



Works when they were still in progress ...

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Weathered Glory Patriotic Afghan free pattern

It shouldn’t have taken me five months to crochet this afghan (the virus pattern is usually quick and easy to make) , but I suffered a terrible tendon flare in the elbow of my dominant arm when I was about 80 percent done with the blanket and it took me several months to get back to working on it. Sigh! Anyway, at least it’s done now. Made this in colors to coordinate with the decor in our guest room.




Linked below is a great free video tutorial by Jonna Martinez that details how to make the virus blanket.


Friday, October 19, 2018

Afghans two ways

Same yarn, two different afghan styles. Which one do you like best?

We've had the spiral one in our living room for the last five years, and now I'm cannibalizing it to make the one on the right.