Shapes in crochet

Apparently I have a tendency to knit or crochet things shaped like the Millennium Falcon. Or Pac-man. Whatever. 😅

Pink Grapefruit Lemonade blanket contemplation

I have a bunch of skeins of vintage acrylic yarn (circa 1960s), and I’m trying to finally use them to make an afghan. And although I’ve tried several different stitch patterns, so far nothing is really jumping up and grabbing me to say, “This is the one!” I’ve tried drunken granny, C2C granny, and circle granny thus far. I’m afraid I may end up defaulting to my favorite afghan pattern -- virus -- which wouldn’t be terrible because the virus afghan is lovely, but I thought I wanted to make something different this time. Ugh!

As you can see in the photos, I tried starting out in all the stitch patterns mentioned above. The furthest I got with any of them was in the “drunken granny” stitch, which I had seen some people talking about online but I hadn’t previously heard of this stitch. The photos they shared looked interesting, so I went looking to see whether the pattern was available on Ravelry but was disappointed not to find it here. However, there are several good video tutorials for this stitch on YouTube. I used this one.

I usually prefer to have written instructions to refer to, however, and I also can never leave well enough alone, so I jotted down the starting instructions from the video and also embellished them to work if using FSC instead of a starting chain.

Drunken Granny easy crochet baby blanket pattern

Setup row: Chain in multiple of 5 to desired width of the finished blanket (or FSC in multiple of 5 plus 1).

For foundation chain setup, row 1: Ch 4. DC in 5th ch from hook 1st FSC. DC 3 more times (total of 4) in same st; ch 2; DC in same st. Skip 4 sts; 4 DC in next st; ch 2; DC in same st repeat until 3 sts remain at end of row. Skip 2 sts and DC in last st. Ch 3; turn.

For FSC setup, row 1: Ch 3. DC in 3rd FSC from hook. DC 3 more times (total of 4) in same st; ch 2; DC in same st. Skip 4 FSC;

Row 2: Working into ch 2 spaces from previous row, 4 DC in next ch 2 space; ch 2; DC in same space. Skip to next ch 2 space. 4 DC in ch 2 space; ch 2; DC in same space repeat to end of row. DC in top of ch 3 from previous row. Ch 3; turn.

Repeat row 2 until blanket reaches the desired length.

Work a SC border around all 4 edges to finish.

For different looks this blanket can be worked in a solid color, in stripes alternating colors every 3 rows (or more), in an ombre gradient yarn, etc.

To me part of the appeal of the drunken granny stitch is that it reminds me of falling ginkgo leaves even more than an alternate version of a granny cluster. But I still wasn’t inspired enough by it to keep going with it in a full-sized blanket.

So … virus it is, I guess. LOL. Virus is turning into my go-to blanket pattern. Le sigh!! 😏

And thus the Pink Grapefruit Lemonade afghan came to be.

Playing yarn chicken

When you play "yarn chicken," you win some, and you lose some. Oh well! 

OOOH, I found another skein in the stash bag where the first baby pink skein came from! I'm saved!! Bwah-ha-ha ...

Better to be lucky than good sometimes. 🙃

Hanging Litter Basket for RV

This hanging litter bag is intended to be used with a disposable liner. A plastic bag or small paper bag from the grocery store is suggested as a liner.

Using a 5mm hook, in HDC start with a base of 10 sts. Work in continuous rounds increasing 10 sts each round to 100 sts, about 7 inches in diameter. Work in straight continuous rounds for 12 rounds. Decrease 10 sts on next round to 90 sts. Work in straight continuous rounds for 8 rounds. Decrease 10 sts on next round to 80 sts. Work in straight continuous rounds for 4 rounds. Finish top edge with knitted applied i-cord including a 2-inch loop at the end of round.

Litter bag will be about 11 inches tall when finished.

Update: My husband discovered that the plastic tub that our dishwasher pods come in is a perfect fit to be a rigid liner for the hanging litter bag, making it easier to neatly tuck away the top of the plastic litter bag between the crocheted cover and the pods tub. Genius!

To the Peak Hat free pattern

I love the unique texture and stylish brim of the To the Peak Hat, a free pattern from Patons/Yarnspirations.

Changes I made from the written pattern: Used 5.5 mm hook. Worked to 80 sts. Made each cluster with 4 FPDCs instead of 3. Made brim 54 sts wide instead of 46.