Granny Square Blanket, completed

The granny square blanket is finished and it turned out to be so very beautiful!

Thanks to the wonderful green dragonfly ! Her comment underneath my last post to use turquoise AND orange, in short: to use COLORS was the perfect suggestion.

Hence, I would border half of the (12) squares with an extra row of red, pink, orange or yellow before joining all of them in turquoise. The edging is a tiny little row of single crochet in orange.

Granny Square BlanketGranny Square BlanketI love the outcome! Thanks a million Janette! Doesn’t it look like it has been sitting on my sofa forever?!

Granny Square Blanket
Granny Square blanket without orange edging … (I added that in the meantime but had to take pictures beforehand)

Granny Square Blanket

Trial and Error

In spring I want to wear a poncho. Something soft and warm, yet not too warm. Plain-colored, knitted, loose-fit, with armholes and a pretty neckline. Hence, I searched for the perfect pattern on ravelry. I love ravelry, but this time its magic would not work: I would not find anything to match the poncho I had in mind.

Therefore, I decided to write my own pattern. A decision with far reaching consequences, I guess …

I picked a beautiful yarn (50% wool, 50% alpaca) in brown red, that is pure fun to work with, knit a sample to ascertain the proper gauge, put J into bed and got started Thursday evening. Paper and pen within reach. So far, so good.

IMG_0564However, last night, I had to unravel my first attempt. Regardless of sample and gauge, it was way too small and (to top it) the neckline looked stupid. Hence (slightly frustrated), I started over (different neckline) and spent half of the night knitting, trying to make up for lost time.

Definitly NOT a good idea (sometimes it is well worth to wait for daylight) as I realized just now that about 15 rows earlier I must have missed an increase … So I am unraveling again.

IMG_0586Ambition has grabbed me now 🙂 I will keep you posted on whatever may emerge. Wish me luck!

Granny Square Blanket

This is what I crochet when taking the train to work: a small size granny square blanket. Each square measures 12×12″ (30x30cm).

I am usually pretty good in boiling down stash but no matter how hard I try – some skeins seem to last forever. They’re mainly sock yarn in weird color gradients, hardly more than one skein each and I know I will never (ever) use them for anything “real.” However, I wanted to get rid of them AND at the same time I needed some easy crochet or knitting to take along with me. So I decided to make a blanket: 1 ball = 1 square.

This is where I am right now:

Granny Square Blanket Granny Square Blanket Granny Square BlanketGruesome colors, I know. How about joining them in turquoise? Same color for the edging. That will brighten up the blanket and unite its parts. Maybe not turquise but orange. Not sure yet.

However, another two and a half squares and I am done. That will make a nice, small blanket, 47×35″ / 120x90cm.

Have a good weekend.

WIPs

In case you wonder what I have been up to lately:

I am crocheting an amigurumi doll that was named kangaroo Kira by its creator lalylala. See all progress here.

IMG_0505
kangaroo ear

And I am getting ready for Valentine’s Day 🙂 My pattern for a crocheted 3d heart can be found here.

crocheted 3D heartThe granny square blanket I am working on (feels like forever …) will get an extra blog post one of these days; the same goes for the colored bobbles baby blanket and the black lace scarf. None of them is finished yet and may not be in the near future …

Clearly not enough time for all things yarn in my life – but who am I telling this?!

Cowl Workshop

Last week Jessica hosted a workshop on How to Knit a Cowl at DaWanda in Berlin. She generously sponsored 20 participants with her beautiful Ku’damm yarn – a 70% merino, 30% alpaca blend – in various colors with matching circular knitting needles. What a treat!

kudamm-grauA flamy red would have been my choice – most (of the all-female) participants settled for steel-grey though.

Jessica had asked me to join and encourage “knitting rookies” and that’s what I did. It turned out to be advantageous that there were two of us … for though it said in the invitation that knowledge of cast-on, knit and purl was a prerequisite to sign up, quite a few ladies showed up with less.

So we would walk around tables, explain and show cast-on methods, unravel failures, demonstrate how to purl, encourage those who needed it, and admire all progress – no matter how fast or slow.

IMG_0487 IMG_0488 IMG_0489 IMG_0490 IMG_0492 Sooner or later, the ladies would ease-in, chat, help and support each other and guidance wasn’t needed any more. And after less than two hours (!) the first cowl was done!

I really enjoyed meeting other knitters, talking to them and spending time together. Thank you Jessica and DaWanda for organizing the event, good luck to all new knitters, and all the best to the attending mom-to-be – may the cowl be ready before your baby is born 🙂