I am back!

I have taken an incredibly long break from posting here over the last several years. My complete focus was on my teenagers as I followed them and guided them through their busy high school years. Now that I am about to be an empty nester, I thought it might be a good time to start my blog again.

My fiber passion has kicked into high gear again in the last several months with a lot of focus on crocheting blankets thanks to Lucy's wonderful designs over at Attic24. Finding her blog over five years ago re-ignited my passion for crocheting blankets (my first love as I was taught by my great-grandmother as a child). Here are a few of the blankets that I finished in recent years while away from the blog:

A Granny Stripe afghan for my daughter when she left for college over a year ago:

A Granny Patchwork Afghan modeled after one made by Lucy on Attic24:

This one sat for a year with a border that I was very unhappy about since I had forced myself to use yarn left over after completing the squares. The colors were not ideal, so I finally decided to order more yarn to create a border that I love! Here is a photo of the blanket with the old border:

As you can see, the older border emphasized the pink in the blanket too much when my original intent was to bring out the warmer tones and let the brighter squares pop here and there. The new border achieves this effect a lot better, is wider like Lucy's original version, and coordinates a lot better with my home's decor.

Lastly, I used left over yarn skeins from my original Granny Stripe, my daughter's Granny Stripe, and another baby blanket I had made awhile back to create this stash-busting Neat Ripple blanket:

I was so happy with the experience of making it and with the end product that I definitely see a lot more stash busting in my future (More on that in an upcoming post).

Currently, I am working on a Granny Stripe for my son who will be off to college in the Fall. He needs one just like his big sister! Here is the beginning of his afghan made in colors coordinated with his school colors and with colors approved for their marketing materials:

As you can see, I have a passion for making blankets. It is in the genes; my great grandmother, Mom Jo, was known for making an afghan for each one of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. She was from a very large Italian family! Here is a photo of the one she made for me that I use to this day:

I hope to match her blanket-making prowess. I am well on my way with the one I have recently made and several that I made in past years but never documented with photos, unfortunately. Happy blanket-making everyone. 

Just Because It Makes Me Happy!

I don't have a lot of new knitting/crochet to share today since I had a busy (wonderful) weekend attending my cousin's wedding. I got to knit a bit more on my cardigan, but there isn't much more to show. However, I wanted to share this picture with you just because it made me happy. 

I took it on a glorious Spring day last week when the sun was shining through the window for one of the first times in what seems like forever. It hit upon my crochet in a way that made me smile.

Looking forward to the small patch of fabric that is now the Granny Patchwork Blanket to grow enough to join its big sis, Granny Stripes, on the couch. Hopefully that will happen in time for the cold weather when it appears again come Fall. 

On a side note, I had a lot of fun reminiscing with my aunt about how we both learned to crochet with my Great Grandmother (her grandmother) teaching us as children. I hadn't realized that she had recently begun crocheting baby blankets again -- one for her new grandchild. It was a lot of fun learning that we shared this connection even though we live so far apart.

Steady Progress

The end of the school year always means a lot of grading for a college professor, so as you can imagine, yarn work has had to take a bit of a back seat lately. However, I have made steady progress on a couple of items I have introduced here before.

I am finding that the Granny Patchwork Blanket is very nice to pick up on evenings when I am tired and unable to think too deeply about fiber arts. Each square is made in exactly the same manner. I have also decided to plan each row of squares in advance (as Lucy on Attic24 did) since it makes the project more portable. I am really started to get excited about how well the colors are coming together. Lucy talks about "soul" colors as I have mentioned before, and these are definitely mine. They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside when I see them.

The picture below shows all of the squares.

On the knitting front, I have mostly been working on the sweater I am designing for myself. This process is so much fun, and I wonder why I waited so long to try it! If any of you are considering designing your own garment, just jump into it. Really, what is the worst that can happen; it is just yarn. Here is the back piece:

As you can probably tell, this will definitely need to be blocked, and once it is, the lace will open up quite a bit in the central motif. One element of this design that I am so pleased by is that I was able to get the honeycomb stitch into it in a way that did not simply mimic the traditional Aran look. I wanted a touch of Aran but with the twist of a lace motif that resembles cabling. 

I have started the front pieces and hope to keep chugging along on this sweater until it is finished. Usually, I tend to knit many different things at once without sticking to any one project for any length of time. I guess you would call me a process knitter since I am never too concerned about how long it takes me to finish something unless I am knitting a gift or test knitting for a designer. However, this time, I really want to finish this project as soon as I can just to see how it all turns out. I also need to calm those negative voices inside of me that keep telling me "it might be too small" or "the color isn't going to look right on you." I know that once it is finished and blocked, everything will work out. Once it is completed, I will write a longer post on my design process and about all of the helpful resources I used to make it happen. It really has been a simple process and one that I am enjoying.