Planned Random

Sarah over at Shabby Chic Sarah asked me last week if I was randomly choosing my colors for my Granny Stripe blanket.  I must admit, I can't handle true random.  What if I pulled the bright red to go right nest to the bright pink?!  So I do what I call a "Planned Random."

When I did my Ribbon Afghan that only had 8 different colors, I planned each color repeat as I went. 

Sorry for bad picture quality

With my Granny Stripe I have 26 colors.  Before I started I set them out in the order I wanted them.  There were a couple edits along the way, but this order pretty much held.

You can see the bright red in the middle of the bottom row (where I started) and the bright pink in the middle of the middle row.

After I finished those 26 stripes, I sat down on my floor, layed the blanket out and sorted the yarn until I chose my next order.  Voila!  Color repeat number 2! 



That might make the blanket wide enough.  I might have to add about 5 or 6 stripes after this color repeat.  If I do, it'll probably be my favorites that get a 3rd stripe.

This surprisingly took me a while.  I was sitting there (you can see my water bottle under the coffee table) and boy was I was indecisive.  I am doing rows of 2 and rows of 3 for my granny stripe.  If a color was a 3 row color in the first repeat, I was trying to make it a 2 row color, with a few exceptions.

Is this close to how you did your "random" granny stripe?

It's Done!!

The Super Secret Afghan is DONE!  I finished it a couple of days ago and again had to wait for good light for pictures.  So let's just get to it!

So there it is!  What do you think?!  The edges still ruffle a bit like the last one, but only down the side of the stripes, not at the top or bottom.  I put one sc in the side of every sc and two in the side of every dc (US terms), was that too many stitches?


The details:

I bought:
2 skeins Aqua (Impeccable, top left in picture)             
2 skeins Grass (Impeccable, below Aqua)
3 skeins Tradewind (Impeccable, below Grass)
2 skeins Soft Taupe (Impeccable, below Tradewind)
2 skeins Navy (Red Heart Soft, top right in picture)
2 skeins Berry (Red Heart Soft, below Navy)
2 skeins Grape (Red Heart Soft, below Berry)
2 skeins Teal (Red Heart Soft, below Grape)

I had about half a skein or more left over from each color, but almost a whole skein left over of the Tradewind.

The pattern is Ribbon Afghan and the colors I chose were in random order, but each color has the same amount of stripes.

I'm just so excited to have it finished!  I'll have to post later on who this is for, as of right now it is still a SECRET!


-Sam <3

Mother's Day Present

I'm pretty sure that my mom doesn't even know I started a blog, so no worries about spoiled surprises here. 

This is what I made for my mom for Mother's Day:

When I was talking to my mom last week she got very excited about different kitchen patterns.  I really like the pattern I used, Big Girl Hanging Towel.  I had a super sized (4oz) skein of Lily Sugar and Cream in the color Ecru.  The pattern called for doing a final single crochet all the way around.  I didn't have a enough yarn for that, so I only went along the top part.

I found these really cool wooden buttons at Michaels.  I thought they went really well with the natural color of the yarn. 

After I finished this yesterday I figured I'd make a couple more for my Grandmas and my OH's mom.  I'm about halfway through my second one in a darker natural color.  My mom might not get the one pictured, now that I think about it, because I have some cotton yarn that will match her kitchen.

What do you think?

On another note, Super Secret Afghan is almost done, it just needs a border.  I have to finish the hanging towels above first though since Mother's Day is in 5 days!!!!  Also, I volunteered to do a couple more small projects that are kind of linked to Super Secret Afghan in a way (eventually all will be explained), and they have the same deadline.  All of a sudden I went from 2 WIP to a ton!

-Sam

WIPs (Work in Progress), How many is TOO many?

I have to admit, I am very OCD at times.  I'm the type of person where I had to finish the book I was currently reading before I would start another.  I thought I would be the same way with crocheting, but I'm not as extreme.

I have two WIPs right now.  The first is another afghan that will be a gift, for now lets call it Super Secret Afghan.  Yarn choices below:

I tried to stay in the recipient's color palette, which is pretty much mine too!

I am mixing brands of yarn on this one.  I haven't had any issues really so far.  You'll have to wait to see what I'm doing.

Second WIP is for ME!  First project for myself!  I am making myself a beautiful and super soft scarf out of the yarn below.  I showed my Grandma Betty a picture of the scarf I wanted to make and she immediately said, "Let's go to the store and get you that yarn, you need to make something for yourself!"  So, Thanks Grandma Betty!! I love this yarn and I'm super excited about my scarf.


This yarn is Patons Silk Bamboo.  It is the softest yarn I have ever felt.  I am so excited.


I think I would definitely have more WIPs started if I had unlimited funds to buy the supplies.  It would probably still bother me starting something new without having the previous things finished, but I know it would happen.  Since like most others I do not have unlimited funds, so I'm stuck with one or two projects at a time.

So, what do you think?  How many WIPs is TOO many?  Do you find you have issues finishing your projects if you have a lot going on a once?

--Sam <3