Sew I See!

I was looking at color charts for a couple brands of yarn this morning, trying to remember the names of a couple of shades I'm using in my current afghan-in-progress (the bands of which I've either thrown away or stowed into a folder for the free pattern's sake).  So many pretty colors!  Why don't the local branches of the craft stores carry them all?  (Not a serious question.  Still, I wish they would .) - - - - - - - Speaking of the Summer in Sweden Afghan... After weaving in all the ends on my initial stack of 40 squares (which went well right to the end-- never got completely sick of the process!), I decided to embrace the old "in for a penny, in for a pound" mentality.  What's the point of crocheting a blanket that's just a tad too small?  I don't like a blanket that doesn't cover my feet when I lie down and pull it up under my chin, and though this is intended for a couch / lap blanket, I suspect the time will come when I'll want t...

Apart from blocking a few doilies (Treasure, Summer Splendor, and the Fancello Pineapple Oval-- all of which I still need to photograph...), I've been spending my crochet time on the Summer in Sweden afghan. I made the first two batches of eleven blocks (each) using the assembly line method, as I described in an earlier entry.  I modified the method for the next batch(es), mainly because I was running out of a couple of colors-- but also because I wanted to emphasize one or two bolder, darker colors, or use them more often so that they wouldn't feel unbalanced in the blanket.  To date, I've crocheted 40 blocks-- mostly only rounds 1-4 of each.  I think I might want to add another column/row/whatever of blocks to the width (possibly to the length as well), but I'm going to wait until my current set of squares are all done before I make that call. In the meantime, I've moved on to rounds 5 and 6 of the current, existing squares.  Those are the rounds worke...

As promised, I've taken a few progress photos of the new afghan/throw. Or the motifs, rather. They're nowhere near being connected, yet. Here they are in a couple of stacks (minus a couple that I've worked through to the next round)... And spread out in the first of two sets... They'll take much more room than this when they're done, of course. I just wanted to fit them into the photo and give you an idea of the color scheme. I still haven't decided if I'm going to stick to the "use each color only once per round (per batch)" rule. So far, I have, but I may change that in the fourth round... or in the next batch. I think I may want to work more of the dark blue and dark green into the motifs so those darkest colors don't seem too spotty.  (Besides, I love love love that dark prettiest-blue-ever, so I want there to be plenty of it in the blanket.) It's coming along. I think I'm going to like the finished product, and th...

So, I started my Summer in Sweden Throw (aka the Weekend in Stockholm Throw)! I originally selected the pattern based on photos of the finished blanket-- because I just liked the look of it-- and until I sat down with hook in hand, I hadn't really paid much attention to the construction (except to note that it was made of joined motifs).  Well, come to find out, this motif is made up of bunches (and bunches) of treble crochets.  Bunches of them.  That took some getting used to, because it's been a while since I've made trebles in yarn, and they can be a little of a pain, until you get in the groove of crocheting them.  (Fortunately, the groove has been found.  I'm happily trebling away.  One good thing about trebles?  They fill up a lot of space quickly .) Then there's the fact that this particular pattern is a little bit... weird.  It's not the easiest thing to understand-- but at least once you do understand what you're supposed to do, none...