Blanket Progress

 Hi all - 

Spring is really here and we're really enjoying the nice weather! I mentioned last time that we visited family in Kansas City and Grace got hurt again. She got her stitches out on Tuesday and her wound is looking great! Funny thing, yesterday she got tangled in some barbed wire on our walk. She was completely fine, but the T-shirt she was wearing to protect her scab was ripped to pieces. This is funny because it seems that she can handle anything in the mountains, but as soon as she gets into the "dangers" of suburbia, she gets hurt! I think I might have to wrap her in bubble wrap on our next visit! (I did pull up all of the barbed wire and brought it home. I will put it in the trash as soon as I get a heavy duty wire cutter so I can cut it up to make sure it won't hurt the trash guy when he puts it in the truck. We walk in National Forest so it's okay for me to clean that up.) But on to the crafting....

I've continued to keep up with my Blossom & Buds crochet blanket designed by Lindsey Newns.  Last week's pattern installment had us add the tulip panels shown on the top and left sides in this photo:

Blossom & Buds

This week we are adding another couple of flower panels. I've started the first one here:

Blossom & Buds next panel

These flowers are pretty cool because they are created while crocheting the panel rather than being made separately and appliqued to the panel. There are three rows of flowers on each panel, so I have a ways to go with this week's pattern installment. But I'll still get it done before the next part of the pattern drops on Tuesday.

With the nice weather, I wanted to work on a project outside. I was having to juggle multiple balls of yarn at the same time on my currently active projects, so I took the opportunity to start yet another new project. I picked up my new kit for the Summer Blossom Mandala crochet blanket designed by Rohn Strong. This is one of the crochet blanket kits I recently purchased. Here is what I have so far:

Summer Blossom Mandala

This project has a lot of color changes, but so far always uses a single color at a time so it is perfect for working on outside! Because of all of the color changes, it also has a lot of ends to weave in. I'm weaving in all of the ends after every day or two of work to keep that chore manageable and to keep the ends from getting in the way. As the rounds get bigger, I'll be doing more work between the rounds so I won't have to keep weaving in so many ends. The yarn for this project is a 80/20 acrylic/wool mix. The wool adds a wonderful softness to the yarn and seems to reduce the splitting while I work, while still allowing the blanket to be put in the washer and dryer. I can see myself using this yarn for other blankets!

Finally, I've also made some progress on my Festival of Stitches shawl designed by Lisa Hannes. I finished the center triangle and started on one of the sides. Unfortunately, I had the center triangle pointing the wrong direction when determining which was the right side and which was the left. So, my side section is pointing in the wrong direction:

Festival of Stitches

The caramel piece on the side should be going straight out to the right instead of turning upwards, so I'll have to rip out that section and start that part again. I kept feeling like something was wrong while I was working on this section, but didn't realize until today what it was. Luckily, I didn't get really far on that section and because of the different colors of yarn I should be able to slide a needle into the side stitches of the center triangle and then easily rip out the side section stitches. But I'm saving that for another day....

Well, that's all for now.I have so many projects that I want to work on all of the time that it's hard to decide what I want to work on each day. I sure wish there were more hours in the day! But this is definitely a good problem to have!

Nancy