Whole Lotta Knittin' Goin' On...

Oh my!  I have been a busy bee since I was last here...

I am quite proud of these adult size fliptop mittens.  For some reason I struggled much more with these than I did with the ones I made for Mr. Boy.  But in the end they came out very lovely and deliciously warm. 

 Above is my very first successful adventure into the provisional cast on.  This is actually a practice/experimental hat that I wasn't really expecting to love as much as I do.  I just wanted to try out a double sided beanie with a seamless provisional cast on and I didn't want to "waste" any "nice" yarn.  Funny thing is I love this hat! I used left-over cheapy cheap baby yarn thinking that it would just be an "extra" hat to store in the car for when I forget my hat or whatever, and then I ended up truly loving the style, fit, softness, warmth, and even colors so much that it quickly became my favorite.  Perfect for those wishy-washy Spring days when the weather can't decide if it wants to be nice or blustery. Those two layers block out the wind and those bright colors remind you that yes, it really is Spring even if the wind is trying to give you frostbite. 

The pattern is actually for a men's hat, but it is so cute on my girlie head that I couldn't believe it.

Above is the exact same pattern.  This one made for my brother with only a single layer as written and requested.  This is the third one of these I have made for him since he either loses them or claims they don't fit. But I think he's just a hat hoarder. 

The poncho that I started literally years ago and finally finished this winter just as it was warming up. It is lovely and warm and soft as kittens and I plan to live in it next fall and winter.  I don't have it written up in Ravelry yet partly because ponchos are just not that cool anymore and I feel like a weirdo for still loving them as I do and partly because I forgot.  Maybe I'll get to that some day and add a link.  Maybe not.  

 

Socks! Two pair of actual, genuine, bona fide, knitted socks! I am super excited about this new skill of mine because it has been a long, slow, road, of gathering knitting skills like breadcrumbs until I felt confident enough to even try to knit these babies. I think I will just leave this picture up here and make my next blog post an entire post about socks because I have a lot to say about this development. Unfortunately I actually sort of overdid it while making that 2nd pair- too much knitting with not enough rest in between and I have a little Repetitive Stress Injury going on so I'm taking a break from knitting anything for a week or so- which is how I ended up writing up this blog post instead... 

And here are some Irises from my garden because they're pretty and because I am just so darn stoked to even have a garden.  

There's probably going to be a lot more garden talk going on around here from now on. Fair warning. 

Slippers!

I have been trying to write this post for the past week or two.  I've started on it 3 or 4 times, and then something distracts me or I just don't feel like it so I think, okay, I'll do it tomorrow... then repeat.

I don't have much to actually say, I guess.
So, I'm just gonna show you these slippers I made as Christmas gifts.

Nola's Slippers
Various worsted scrap yarns used
Size 9 Circular needles with yarn doubled throughout
Raveled

  

The first pair went to my mom, the second to my brother, and the third I made for myself.
If you're looking for a great easy slipper pattern these are the ones. They're basically booties made for adults.  They're knitted flat then grafted on the bottom.  You don't actually have to use kitchener stitch, but I did so there wouldn't be a seam to walk on.  This was my first time doing kitchener.  I used this video to show me how and I was so surprised by how wonderfully easy it was! Yay!

The only thing that was kind of annoying about this pattern was the picking up the stitches around the foot part.  And that was annoying only because the stitches are super tight at first and I'm still a little challenged at picking up stitches, but this pattern taught me a lot about how to do it correctly and make it look nice, so that is a good thing.

Truth be told, this pattern actually looks a lot more eh... sophisticated when you use only one or two colors, but I was determined to bust some of my stash so I decided that warmth trumped sophistication and since no one is likely to wear these anywhere but home, who really gives a hoot.

Let me say that these are wonderfully warm and comfy slippers.  They are a bit slippery on a hard floor, just like socks, but they are so warm and if you use wool then your feet won't sweat at all when wearing them. I have already worn mine so much that they look like something passed down from my grandmother.

Here's a little something I'm working on for a friend who just adopted a baby boy.

These pictures are actually just two sides of the same swatch.
Isn't it precious?

Happy New Year!

You are an obsession. You're my obsession.

A few months ago, I wrote this post about shawls and how I finally "get it" about why everyone is so crazy about them.  Well, here's my next confession:  I am obsessed with shawls now.  I honestly can't figure out how I ever survived and thrived without them.  AND I finally knitted one with some of that stash yarn I was talking about in my last post.

Ravelry link  

Araucania Atacama- now discontinued  

I was worried about trying to knit one because as I've said before I am a s l o w knitter.  Also, most of the patterns I see getting ooohed and ahhhhed over are lace knit shawls and despite the undeniable beauty of the lace knitting.  I am just not there yet and don't know if I ever will be. Aside from the mind-numbing complicatedness of the lace stitch patterns,  I'm just not a lacey shawl kind of gal so I'm not motivated to figure out how to do something that's, strictly speaking, not even really my style.  But I found this pattern for the Mara shawl and I thought it was perfect.  Exactly the kind of thing I might actually wear and easy as pie to knit.  Now this shawl consists of a whole lotta garter stitch, so if that's not your thing, then you probably wont like this pattern, but while knitting this one I discovered that I really love the garter stitch, especially with a yummy dk variegated yarn.  For the first time in a long time I found myself enjoying a knitting project so much that I really didn't want it to end.  And of course, I finished this one amazingly quickly because I was enjoying it so much.  

Here's a close up of the color and the stripes I added to make the shawl bigger. It's still not as big as I wanted it to be, but I really used up every scrap of that yarn that I had and it's now discontinued, so that's that.  A word about this yarn:  Yummy!
This is 100% alpaca, which is a very warm fiber.  In the garter stitch it is so squishy and delicious.  I put this shawl on my shoulders any time I'm feeling chilled and in no time at all I am toasty warm.
(I had no idea that just putting a little something warm on your shoulders could make you feel so warm!  I am so in awe of that new discovery.)
Alpace, like wool, can be a little itchy, but so far I'm persevering because I love the warmth so much.

Another confession:  I already bought some more yarn because I want to make another one of these, but next time in a solid color and much bigger.
Yes... obsessed.  

And just to ease my troubled conscience about the abandoned ripple blanket, I also finished a sweater that I started last year and that was languishing in my UFO pile.

Yarn:  Caron Country

I actually kind of forgot I had started this one.   I think I got discouraged because I knew I wouldn't quite have enough yarn to make the sleeves for this sweater long and at the time I really wanted it to be long sleeved, but after pulling it back out I decided that short sleeves would be just fine and in fact I really actually love the short sleeves.  I think for a long time I thought short-sleeved sweaters were kind of silly.  Like those open-toed boots that were all the rage last fall/winter?  I thought, "What's the point?  If it's cold enough to wear boots/a sweater, then wouldn't you need to cover your toes/arms?"  But living in Houston, I'm now understanding how it can be chilly enough to want a sweater, but not cold enough to need a long sleeved sweater.  And if it gets colder I can always wear a long sleeved shirt underneath and really that's about as cold as it ever gets in Houston.  (Still don't really get those open-toed boots, though.)

And that's about all I can tell you about this sweater.  I have no idea what pattern I used or if I just made it up as I was going along. All I know is that it's a top-down raglan knit in the round and that the yarn is super soft and lovely and machine washable and if it holds up well I'll definitely use it again.
Perhaps on another shawl?  

Playing Hooky (no pun intended)

I have a few confessions to make...

I've been playing hooky from my ripple blanket.  It's not that I don't love the ripple, but sometimes, you just need to think about/ look at/ fixate on another project before the one you're working on is finished.  I used to have a real problem with this until I decided that I would only work on one project at a time.  But seriously people, ripple blankets take a really, really long time to finish.  Especially the particular ripple I love to do which consists of nothing but single crochet through the back loop (sc tbl) until the end of eternity.  This magical stitch makes a beautiful fabric that is cozier than should be possible, but that has a wonderful dreamy drape to it.  It even makes really cheap acrylic seem wonderful.  But it is boring! (Of course, if this blanket was for me, I'd probably be finished by now.)

There's also the fact that for about 2 weeks we thought we might be moving to Chicago.  Now as soon as I heard this, I naturally thought about yarn and knitting and making all kinds of things that I don't really have any occasion to knit while living somewhere that only gets cold about 3 times a year.  I was thinking about mittens and wool sweaters, (with real wool!)  And the imagination was sparking all sorts of inspiration frenzies and visions of walking through snow in a beautiful, perfectly knitted cable knit sweater. But alas, the dream died and the job Mr. Man was hoping to get went to some other (undeserving) candidate (who probably has no appreciation whatsoever for hand-knit sweaters.)  And I had to go back to finding things to knit/crochet that I might actually get to wear here in Houston. But by then I'd already raided my stash and found some pretty awesome and some other not so awesome yarns that I'd forgotten I had.  Well, this sparked another frenzy.  This frenzy had to do with finally knowing what I wanted to make with these certain forgotten yarns.

First up we have Nashua Vignette:

It looks like a lovely yarn, doesn't it.
Well, it isn't.
I bought this yarn years ago (it's now discontinued) to make a sweater, but once I started knitting with it, I hated it.  For one thing it is incredibly scratchy.  For another thing it's really... sproingy.  I don't know any other word to use.  What I'm trying to say is that even though it's a worsted weight yarn it behaves like a bulky weight yarn once you start knitting or crocheting with it.  It just... sproings up! I had a lot of this stuff, too because I bought enough to make a whole sweater, (but not a bulky sweater because, let's face it, Kate Moss I am not, and who else would look good in a bulky sweater?)  It's just been sitting in my stash for 5 years or so but a few weeks ago I had an epiphany about what to make with it.  

Can you guess what it is? (See how sproingy?)

Okay, I'll show you...



Yeah, that's right, I made another Half-granny shawl.  This one was made more for warmth than for prettiness.  I don't really have any plans to wear it out in public.  For one thing, it's huge!  I was trying to use up all that yarn (I still have one ball left.)  And I found a surprising amount of other scraps of very similarly colored yarn hiding out in my stash so I threw that stuff in there too.  Now I have a shawl that I can wrap around myself whenever I have to go outside to let the dog out or whatever, but don't feel like putting on a sweater or jacket. Or just for when I'm cold inside, which happens to me a lot. This shawl is very warm, and it of reminds me a little of the kind of thing you might see on an ancient Italian widow. I kind of hated every minute of working on it because of that crappy yarn, but I do have the satisfaction of knowing that it's no longer in my stash and it is exactly what I was wanting when I decided to make it.  My favorite part is the little picots on the edge.  I need to use more picots.

Okay so even though I do have more to show you of my "playing hooky" projects, I have no more pictures so it will have to come in the next post.

Meanwhile I'd like to know if anyone else is having this playing hooky problem.  Also if anyone else has any yarn in their stash that they hate and don't know what to do with it.  Anyone?  

Do you tawashi?

A tawashi is actually a japanese word for a specific type of scrub brush, but the term has expanded in the crochet realm to these cute little thingees that people started making and using as scrubbies for their dishes.  

I came across these first on etsy.  What caught my eye in particular was the fact that they were made out of acrylic.  Cheapo acrylic yarn, the scratchier the better.  I had always followed the yarn commandment that says, "Thou shalt only use cotton for handmade yarny kitchen thingees."  But much to my surprise acrylic does an extraordinary job of scrubbing dishes. I even scrubbed my lasagna pan without soaking it first with above tawashi and it took no time at all and nowhere near as much elbow grease as it usually would.  Hmmmm... looks like I'll have to take back my vow to never ever buy Red Heart Supersaver again.

I used this pattern to make the tawashi above.  The crochet part was super simple, but I had to watch a video  I found on ravelry to understand how to put it together.  So I made a little picture tool to show how it's done in case anyone wants to make one.
  

When I looked up "tawashi" on Flickr and ravelry I found that people are cuckoo for these things.  Sort of like useful amurigami.  For me the awesomeness of tawashi all lies in the idea of maybe never having to buy a sponge again.  And the fact that you can throw them in with your regular laundry. Because I've always been a little creeped out by the whole sponge crawling with bacteria situation.  Speaking of which, supposedly tawashi made from acrylic is so good at removing food particles from dishes that you don't even need to use soap. (Of course, I still will use soap, but how cool is that?)  There is also some Japanese yarn that has been treated with silver ions to make it anti-bacterial.  Yarn made especially for tawashi making! But I'll stick with my Red Heart stash for now.

So far I've just tried this one pattern, but I found all kinds of super cute tawashi pictures on Flickr.

Here are some of my favorites: 

1. ks-00b, 2. redblueset2, 3. Leaf tawashi, revisited, 4. Heart Tawashi, 5. it's the circle of fish...., 6. Veggie Tawashi, 7. Happy little orange, 8. granny_square tawashi, 9. Strawberry Tawashi, 10. japanese tawashi, 11. 978452904249 natural tawashi, 12. paw_print

Happy tawashi making!

Updated to add video link on 10-5-2012.

Goodnight Summer

I am boycotting summer.
I'm just over it.  I am so done.

Merriam-Webster defines boycott as - to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (as a person, store, or organization) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions


Every year around this time I start yearning for Fall and the end of summer.  But this year I'm in a downright protest against summer.  Here in Texas we're on the 900th day of 100+ degree weather, not to mention one of the worst droughts these parts have ever dealt with. (Okay it's not really the 900th day, but that's what it feels like.) I mean we didn't even get a real Spring for crying out loud! No rain = no flowers.  I mean the trees are just gasping out here, folks.  


So I was walking through my local craft store sometime last week when I came across this:

Now, usually I scorn the putting out of the holiday things months before the actual holiday, but this year I almost did a little dance! And I thought, "Darn right! If the craft stores can start preparing for Halloween in August well then so I can I!"  And right then and there I decided that I'm just not dealing with summer anymore.  As far as I'm concerned it's time to start preparing for falling leaves and cornucopias.
So there!


And here at Casa Moi, that means it's blanket making time!

This one is going to be for Mr. Boy.  He's pretty much grown out of all his baby blankets, and when I made this one for my friend last year, he loved it!  So I vowed to make him a Granny of his own.

I chose to use the colors from Goodnight Moon because he can just stare and stare at that book for... well... minutes.  He's a 3 year old boy after all.  So no one activity can generally keep him occupied for more than a few minutes.

And I'm also making a baby blanket for a friend who's expecting and whose baby shower is coming up on September 17th.  But I can't show you pics of that one yet because you never know whose watching.

So I'll be a busy, busy, crocheting bee for the next few weeks!

South Bay Shawl reveal!

This summer has been crazy so far, what with home improvements to be done and high school reunions to attend.  But things seem to be slowing back down again.  So let's all hope that I actually start blogging more often again.

Here's the finished project that I teased you all with in the last post:

It turned out to be a shawl that I made especially to wear to my high school reunion, but never actually got to wear it because it was never cold enough inside the ballroom.  Just as well probably, because the shawl might have been a little too busy to go with the dress I chose, but I was working with stash yarn, and I didn't have enough to make it elegantly all one color. (This shawl was quite the yarn-eater, especially considering that it's a lace pattern.)

Pattern is called the South Bay Shawlette, and it's a free pattern from Lion Brand (but you have to sign up to their websight to see it if you're not already a member.  But it's free to do so and as far as I can tell they don't send too much spam.)  You can see how gorgeous the pattern is in the above close-up, and it's suprisingly easy to do, especially if you just follow the diagram. This was the first pattern where I virtually ignored the written pattern and went strictly off the diagram, but I'm pretty sure if I'd only had the written pattern to go from it would have been a much more frustrating pattern.  As it was, it almost crocheted itself.  Very easy and very nice results.  I plan to make another one eventually, maybe in all one color, or maybe in an ombre of a different color pattern because even though at first I only changed colors because I realized I didn't have enough yarn to finish, once I saw the ombre effect I really liked it.

I used two different kinds of yarn, both cotton.  The two darker colors were Omega Sinfonia and the lighter blue was Nashua Creative Focus cotton dk.  Now I love me some Sinfonia because I love mercerized cotton and I love not having to pay a fortune for it, but that Nashua yarn was so much more luxurious than the Sinfonia.  It's egyptian cotton and it really is significantly soften than the regular ole cotton that I'm used to.  The only down side to working with it was that it was so splitty, so I had to go super slow on that last section, but after blocking that light blue yarn was even softer that before!

Here's a couple of (really terrible) pictures of me wearing the shawl:

Please everyone, just concentrate on the shawl.  See how pretty that shawl is?
Too bad I didn't get any pictures of me looking fabulous at the reunion in the dress with the shawl, but such is life.

Here's a couple of pictures of the finished floor for those who wanted to see that:

We LOVE our new floors! 

Tapestry Crochet Reveal

Hey! I'm finally ready to reveal my little tapestry crochet teaser I showed in this post.

I've been wanting to try tapestry crochet for ages, but I was too intimidated for a long time.  It just looked so complicated and intricate, and though it sounded easy to do, I just couldn't believe it really would be.
Well guess what... it really is as easy to do as it sounds.

Tapestry crochet is crochet's version of fair isle knitting.  But like most things crochet, it's waaaaaaay easier to do than fair isle. And, as far as I'm concerned, way more fun, too.

So here's my little bag.  Kind of anti-climactic, I know, after making you wait for weeks and weeks to see it.  Well, I have no good excuse except that it didn't turn out quite the way I had planned, and then I couldn't decide how to finish it.  And then I realized that a couple of the yarns I was using were actually thinner than the others which made the gauge go all off and wonky.

You can really see the wonkiness in this picture.  That turquoise and gold colored yarn were both thinner than all the other yarns I used and so the bag sort of indents in that little area.  Nothing huge, but just enough to make me less excited to finish it.

And then of course as soon as I started to make it I realized that if I'd made it a little bit smaller it would have been a perfect Kindle case/carrier.  And then I realized that what I really, really want is a big bag with the same general pattern and maybe fewer colors.  So the enthusiasm factor just kept diminishing until the only thing that could motivate me to finish it was the fact that I'd promised all my loyal blog people that I would show you what it was.  So there you have it.

One thing I'm really glad about is that I finally tried a new technique.  I am such a weeny about trying new techniques.  Isn't that silly?  But I really love the tapestry thing, and I plan to do more of it soon.  So I guess this was more of a practice project.  

Check out this purse I saw in Macy's... 

Pretty wild that I saw this after I'd started on mine.  I think I like the bigger checker pattern and the muted colors of this one better than mine.  

Still here!

Yeah, I've been kind of lazy with the blogging these last couple of weeks, but I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing. (Okay, well, not the whole time.)  For the past few days I've actually been working furiously trying to get my potholders in for this 2011 Potholder Swap.

I honestly wasn't sure I would be able to make it.  I kept going back and forth about which pattern to choose and then I spent a few days trying to decide about whether it was worth all the trouble it would take me, then once I'd decided it was worth the trouble I spent a bit more time trying to decide whether I could actually pull it off or not now that I'd waited until the absolute last possible moment to even start. Ha!

So here's my little lovelies...
(The colors are a bit off here, they're not quite so glaring in real life.)


And here's the back side...


So now I just have to hope and pray that they get there on time, and that the fact that the postage lady absolutely refused to put any more postage on my return envelope than the $3.26 that she says is the absolute limit for first class mail doesn't somehow disqualify me for this swap, because now that I've worked on these suckers until my fingers literally bled, I'm really excited about seeing what comes back to me.  Some of the pictures that have been sent in to the Flickr and Ravelry groups are so stunning that I'm just drooling to get my hands on some of them.

I'm also somewhat obsessed with making some more potholders.
Once my fingers heal and come unclawed from the furious crochet fest.

Here's a close up picture of my favorite one.
Notice the fancy-schmancy tags that my husband helped me make.
(Okay well he didn't so much "help me" make them as much as he just went ahead and did the whole thing.)



PS-
Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my last post.  Ya'll are all so sweet!
I had to postpone that tapestry crochet project to get these potholders done, but I will reveal that one as soon as I can.

(To find out what yarns and patterns I used click on the picture which should take you to my flickr.)




  

Creative Ennui...

Well, I'm in a bit of slump.  A creativity slump, brought on, I think, by mild exhaustion.  The husband was gone for 3 weeks on business and it's always just a little too crazy around here for crafting when it's just me and Mr. Boy.  Husband is back now, but I'm still in a slump.

In the past 3 weeks this is all I've managed to finish: 

I bought these little pillows years ago from IKEA with the intention of making all kinds of cute little cushion covers to throw around different areas of the house.  Yeah, never happened.
So I have this one done (the picture shows front and back) and I'm not even all that thrilled with it.  It's ok.  It's meh.

So my question is:  Does anyone have any tips or tricks for getting over a creativity slump?  Do you just wait it out or do you force yourself to craft until something excites you again.  Maybe brains just sometimes need a break from being all excited and crazy inspired for awhile so they create the Creative Ennui.

Oh well.
I'll leave you with this picture of a cute little magnet I saw at a store the other day.

Oh Mr. Darcy, can you fetch me my shawl?

I must admit that when I first noticed that shawls were becoming the thing in the knitting realm, I was a bit baffled.  I know something had to replace ponchos once those went out of favor, (which I was really dismayed about because I still love ponchos, but that's a whole other story) but shawls seemed a bit too... I don't know... Jane Austenish to carry over into our current modern times.  I mean shawls and texting?  It just didn't seem right.

Don't get me wrong.  I love all things Jane Austen, myself.  I've read every one of her books.  I've probably watched Sense and Sensibility at least 400 times (much to my husbands dismay.) That scene where Elinor's shawl falls off while she's taking one of those oh so English strolls and talking to Edward and he tenderly places it back over her shoulder... *sigh.*

But the point is, I just couldn't really see the need to spend hours knitting a shawl and then where would I wear it and with what?  I mean I'm pretty much a lounge pants/sweats and tee shirt kind of gal.  In the summer I might wear a dress or two, but there's rarely a need for a shawl in a Houston summer.

Then I saw a girl in Starbucks and she had a shawl wrapped around her neck in this certain way so that it was more like a scarf and she looked très soigné, and I thought, well OK, I could maybe pull that off.  And then I saw this pattern on Ravelry and I knew I had to make myself one. It kind of goes along with my whole granny craze that I've been on lately.

So I went for a little stash dive and found some sock yarn that I seriously don't even remember buying and before I knew it I had my first shawl.  Here's three things I finally understand about shawls and why people love them.
1.  They keep you so warm!
2.  You can wear them inside without feeling like you're dressed for outside.
3.  Shawls are like little blankets that are acceptable to carry around with you all day.





I actually did a little research on the shawl (because that's the kind of thing I do when I get semi-obsessed with something new) and I found out that shawls first came into fashion around the Jane Austenish times (1780-1870) along with all things in any way Oriental.  Most everything else soon went out of style (turbans) but the shawl stuck around because it served an actual purpose which was mainly keeping women warm in drafty houses. And to think I used to feel sorry for poor Elizabeth Bennet and Elinor Dashwood freezing their arses off in the English winters with nothing but a shawl to keep them warm.  Ha!

(This is as close as I get to soigné.)


Here's Mr. Boy in my shawl.  He always gets cold in the grocery store.

By the way, crocheting a shawl is so much less time consuming than knitting one.  I used sock yarn and an F hook and it still went fairly quickly.  I would have made it bigger, but I kept running out of yarn.
There are definitely more of these in my future.  I've just about worn this one out already during this crazy cold winter storm nonsense.  (I seriously have already had to mend it!)  

Granny Square Reveal!

I can finally reveal the project I've been hinting at for the last few posts!

Tada! It's my first full sized granny square blanket ever! Isn't that crazy that I've been crocheting for so long and never made a granny square blanket?! That's like Crochet 101!
(Well, I made a baby blanket for a friend a few years ago, but I don't have any pictures of that one, and it was probably pretty funky looking because I don't think I had figured out how to join them very well, yet.  So like most crafters, I just pretend that the stuff that I did that sucked doesn't exist. If I can get away with it.)

Okay so, stats:
Yarn:  This was a true stash busting project using various acrylic yarns that I had in my stash.  Some that I have no idea at all where they came from or why I bought them.  (And yes I still have A TON more stash yarn left.)  The yarns that I know of are Lion Brand Wool Ease, Caron Simply Soft, and Red Heart Supersaver. The main color that all the squares were edged with is Caron One Pound.  I have previously pledged once before never EVER to buy Red Heart Supersaver again, so let me just renew that little vow here and now.  HATE it.  And unfortunately, I still have quite a bit more left in my stash.  Why did I buy it in the first place?

When I was making the ripple in the picture above I bought some Red Heart because, well, it was so cheap and the colors are so pretty, and even though I knew Red Heart is like the Vienna Sausages of yarn, I just figured that it wouldn't be all that bad.  Heh.  Well, it is. It's that bad.  It feels like cheap carpet, it wants to "catch" on the hook while you're working with it, it actually squeaks it's so plastic.  The only good thing about it is that it softens up and actually feels pretty nice after just one trip through the washer and dryer.  Also it will last forever.  I mean it does not die.  This blanket could be found somewhere, completely intact in an empty field after a nuclear blast had removed all life from the earth. But I digress...

Size:  Throw sized about 59" by 39".  I wanted it to be something that could be put comfortably on the couch  and not overpower everything, but be big enough to curl up under.  It ended up being perfect because I used up almost every single bit of the Caron One Pound.

Joining method:  Crocheted together on the back side using slip stitch.  Sorry, but didn't take any pics of the back side before sending it off to it's owner.

Blocking method:  Just washed it on gentle in cold water and dried it on medium.  I've found that is the best way to block acrylic. Below are some pics before blocking. 

Ian loved this blanket.  I had a hard time keeping him out of the pictures.  

I see many, many grannies in my future.  But more on that next post.