Missy's Baby's afghan
The next project that I finished in this blog-posting-hiatus was a crocheted baby afghan for my colleague, Missy. This was called the "Baby Waves" pattern, from a kit that included the pattern and the yarn. After I made a few of the motifs, and saw how they'd have to be joined, I wasn't looking forward to the joinings, not only because I prefer to not have to sew motifs together, but because the motifs didn't naturally fit together. But I pursued it to the end.


Unlike some crochet projects, this definately required washing (and fabric softener to try to make the yarn a bit softer), and then full-court blocking to shape, because it was very bunchy after sewing the motifs together.



I worked on this from late March to mid-June, just barely finishing in time for the baby shower we held for her. But Missy and Conrad seemed very happy with the finished product!

Baby Sarah Burns Gift Set

And, while I'm uploading pictures that have already been taken, we had a new grand-niece born in the fall, and I managed to complete a baby set for her in time. We knew it was going to be the second girl in that family, so this time I decided to do an all-pink set in Caron's Baby Simply Soft.

First, the baby set from a pattern in an old issue of Workbasket which I've made before (booties weren't included, so I used a pattern from Annie's Free Patterns of the Day for those).

.

Remember that you can click a photo to see the enlarged version.

.

.

.

.

.

Here's the whole set, including the coordinated baby afghan from the Workbasket pattern, uses a crocheted Shell Stitch, with a special Shell-with-picots edging. (I just smoothed it out rather than blocking it before the picture -- but it machine washes well, so I didn't think any slight irregularities would matter that much!):

Catch-Up Time Part 2

3.) So, the missing baby afghan probably really belongs here. Too bad Betsey and Rich didn't send me a picture of it with the baby -- I could have a really nice posting then!

4.) After finishing that, I began a shell-in-the-round pattern crocheted afghan for Mark. It was one of his graduation presents, and he can take it off to college in the fall to keep warm, and to have a little bit of Mom/home with him.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

5.) I had made a scarf from two skeins of black eyelash yarn. It left a nubby texture that reminded me of the way Russian hats look. I thought maybe it was a kind of fur -- bear fur? -- but someone tells me that it's a particular kind of wool. At any rate, I bought two more skeins and was hoping to find a good hat pattern.

.

My colleague then bought some Bernat eyelash yarn, and a hat pattern was printed inside her label, but was made for single-pointed needles -- and you then sewed the hat up.

.

I figured out the changes to work it in-the-round, and knit it on 16" circular needles up until the last couple of rows (then I had to switch to double-pointed needles. That way, when I was finished knitting, it was done! Kathy then modeled the finished products for me, even though she didn't want to. She took my picture, too -- but she looks better in it than I do!

Catch-up Time.

OK, I'm missing a picture, but I'd made a crocheted baby afghan for Rich and Betsey. Darn! How could I send it off without having taken a picture?!?! I don't know what I was thinking.


So, here are the other items I've made in the interim.


1.) Fingerless crocheted gloves, because the modular we work in has so little insulation, and we had a severe cold spell... (I also made a hat with the leftover yarn, which was a tad too small, so I didn't take a picture...).

These gloves aren't quite as warm as knitted ones. I may use some leftover laceweight yarn to make knitted ones from a pattern I've recently found. But that won't be for a while.




2.) My first socks. I used KnitPicks self-striping sock yarn.

This first picture shows what they look like looking towards the inside toe. I knit on 4 needles, and needed a fifth. Working on 4 makes it much easier to follow the instructions, since there's a top and a bottom when you work the toe and the heel -- so the stitches are evenly divided.




-- a picture taken at the same time as above, showing progress from the outside. These were toe-up socks.











And the two pictures below show the finished socks!