I've started putting together my Paperweight Granny / African Flower motif afghan (aka the "A-Gypsying We'll Go" Afghan).
After concentrating on crocheting just the "floral" part of the motifs and saving them up, I finally got enough of them collected to start joining them (I thought-- more on that in a moment).
I'm using the join-as-you-go method and making the last round in a variety of shades of cream, ecru, and buff. I'm trying to be random in the placement of both the "flower" colors and the different creams/ecrus-- which as you know means that it isn't really random at all. They say that random is hard; I'm just doing my best and trying not to fuss too much over it.
(Similarly, I decided a while ago that I don't care if every motif is unique for this blanket. It's not easy making every motif different, when there are so many-- and who really cares, anyway? If some are the same, that's fine.)
The joining has been lots of fun, so far. (Even though I'm trying to stop every so often and weave in the loose ends to save having to do them all at the end.) The motifs come together pretty quickly, when all you have to do is select a flower and a skein and crochet one round!
Unfortunately, when I really looked at what I've joined so far, I came to the conclusion that the blanket wasn't going to be as big as I'd hoped, so I'll need more of the flowers.
So, I've stopped joining and gone back into flower production mode. (g) The flowers are fun to make, too, but I was just having such fun joining that I didn't want to stop!
I'm not sure how many more I need. I'll start with thirty and see where that leaves me... I'll also have to make some half-hexagons, if I want a straight-sided blanket. I still haven't decided which I'd prefer.
