Super-quick Baby Afghan for Our Nephew!

So, I've been working on another baby afghan for our new nephew, but I have to re-work part of it and I knew I wasn't going to finish it in time to give it to him for his Christening this past weekend. So, I searched for a different baby afghan that would work up quickly. Fortunately, I had the gift of time in the form of our drive from Orlando, FL to Raleigh, NC.

I found this pattern for "Little Victory" baby blanket on Lion Brand's website (it is free to sign up and become a member where you then have access to loads of free patterns!). The "V" stitch worked up so quickly! I was able to finish the blanket with time to spare to make a hat to match... (although I put the final stitches in the hat in the parking lot of the restaurant that we went to following the Christening service at the church ;)

What was great about this pattern is that it is a smaller blanket, perfect for car seats and/or strollers!

Anyway, here is the blanket and hat (honest, the blanket really IS rectangular and NOT uneven, but I guess I didn't do a good job of laying it out!):




Here is a close-up of the detail and edging of the blanket:




Here is a close-up of the hat:




Here is Saki wearing the hat (it is a little big for him now, but he'll grow into it!):




The yarn I used is Phentex Fashion Six in 905 4/06.

Fun and Interesting Yarns!

No, I haven't put my hooks down ;) I'm just working on a project that will be taking me a little while. But, I wanted to share some new yarns... many are "green" yarns!

This first one is called Beadnik by Moda Dea (in Blue Beat). It is great novelty yarn because you don't have to deal with a bunch of fluffy, shreadding yarn that gets clogged if you have to frog it. I used the tan (Daddy-O Tan) color to make the tan "star" shawl in a previous post.




The next one is a green-ish yarn. It too is Moda Dea and is Bamboo Wool (in Bamboo). What makes it "green" is being 55% Rayon from Bamboo, 45% Wool. The part that is bamboo is friendlier to the environment.




This yarn is truly green in that it is made from factory scraps. It is made from the cuttings of saris in India. The cuttings are collected, shredded, and spun into yarn. It is VERY pretty and so unique! The company I got this yarn from is called Darn Good Yarn. The owner, Nicole, gives GREAT customer service with emails and personalized messages in your shipment! The great part is that the yarn is pretty inexpensive as far as "green" yarns go at $37 (which includes shipping!!) for 5-100g skeins of yarn!




This yarn is green in that it comes from alpacas. So very soft, I can't wait until I make this up into something for myself. If you read my earlier post about my mom's scarf, this is the yarn I mentioned that was pretty expensive ;) It is made by Misti Alpaca and is their hand paint Baby Suri Silk yarn in color 21.




This next yarn is not really "green" but I bought it in Pittsburgh when I got the above yarn. It is made by Suss Yarn Suss Crunch Skyline in Papaya. I think this yarn may be discontinued, because I got it on sale :)




This amazing purple-ish yarn is made from Camel Hair and is impossibly soft! Al, our pug, likes it too. Everytime he sees a ball of it, he tries to bite it. Weirdo. Anyway, the yarn is by Buton d'Or. It is their Ksar yarn. I can't read much more than that as it is in French ;)




Back to the "green" yarns, I bought a number of Vickie Howell yarns. This first one is from her LOVE line of yarns in Andi & Blaine. What makes this yarn "green" is that it is made of 70% bamboo and 30% silk. This is probably the softest of the three Vickie Howell yarns I'm trying.




The next of Vickie's yarns I bought is from her ROCK collection in Siouxsie. What makes this yarn "green" is that it is made from 40% soysilk, 30% fine wool and 30% hemp. It is probably the roughest of all the Vickie Howell yarns, but it is stilly lovely.




The last of Vickie's yarns I'm trying is from her CRAFT collection in Kelly (of course!). What makes this yarn "green" ist hat it is made from 35% milk fiber and 65% organic cotton. Yes, you read that right. MILK. This yarn is the midground of softness of these three.




Vickie has one other line of yarns is new and is called Vegas and is made of 29% soysilk, 67% wool, and 4% metallic thread. I didn't try this one yet, but I look forward to it!

The last new yarn I'm trying is again green, and is from Kollage Yarns. This particular kind is their Creamy line (in Purple Poem). This yarn is again made from milk, but more milk than the Vickie yarn. This yarn is made from 80% milk and 20% cotton! By far, this is the SOFTEST of the bunch!




Interested in how you make yarn from milk? I was too! Here is a good article.

I ordered these yarn from Yarn Market. There are a number of other kinds of "green: yarn that I'd like to try like banana fiber and corn fiber. I'm just so excited about these yarns!!

Yes... ANOTHER scarf!

As I told my crochet group last night, I've been experimenting with some new yarns... unfortunately, they are too expensive for me to do much more than a scarf... but, fortunately, they work up lovely to a scarf!

This yarn I bought at AC Moore. It is Moda Dea Bamboo Wool in "blue velvet". This yarn is made of 55% rayon bamboo, 45% wool. I literally just put my hook down and took a picture of the newest creation. I think this is one of the prettiest scarves so far (no offense to anyone I have given a scarf to in the past!).

Stay tuned, I will be posting pictures of new "green" yarn... more to come!

Spumoni, anyone?

I finished another scarf today... I tried my best to get it done on the way from Orlando to Port Orange, but I still had about 15 minutes of work when we got to my in-law's house ;)

When I was working on this scarf at my crochet group meeting, the one lady said that the colors looked so much like spumoni ice cream that she was going to need to stop at Publix (local grocery store) before going home! :)

I gave the scarf to my mother-in-law as part of her Mother's Day gift.

Found more pics!

I just found some pictures of two hat and scarf sets that I made for friends of ours who moved from FL to CO.

For the boyfriend half of the couple:




For the girlfriend half of the couple:

I finished this off in the car on Sunday...

...on our way to meet our friend's new baby, Caroline (she's such a doll!!!). Anyway, I crocheted and Chris drove. I started the hat while getting a pedicure just before we went to our friend's house. It was a super easy pattern. I got a little creative and tried to do a "3D" flower on the side. I made the same flower, just two sizes and put the smaller one on the outside.

(Used) Dish Cloths

Here are a few dish cloths that I made a while back. They've gotten some really good use! I made a bunch a few years ago and gave them to my aunts as Christmas gifts... they said that they were too nice to use as dish cloths... some of them used them as doilies in their bedrooms! :)


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