Afghans

My first afghan had gone really well, and I was able to finish the whole thing for under $20, so I decided to make some more for presents, I started one for my sister in law and one for my cousin.

After the first afghan I decided I only wanted to use chunky or bulky yarn because I felt it would go faster than the worsted weight yarn. I used Hobby Lobby's "First Love," variegated color, "Lovely" for my sister in law's

and 4 colors of "Tender Touch" for my cousin's.

Red velvet, peony, tangerine, and butter.

The "First Love" afghan is a treble crochet, which worked out beautifully with the variegated yarn. And I loved that I didn't have to change yarns to get a different color. I ended up edging it with a solid color to give it a finishing touch.

The "Tender Touch" afghan is a rippled afghan, that looks pretty dramatic. 

 It starts with a chain of about 180, 6 double crochet stitches, then 3 double crochet in the same stitch, 6 more double crochet, then 3 double crochet together. Repeat until the end of the chain, then have 2 double crochet together for the last two stitches in the row.

 Once I figure out how to create a diagram, I'll post one, but until then I'll have to stick with this.

Both of these projects were actually finished about a month in advance of when I needed them. They each took about a month, but it's totally worth the time. Of course I forgot to keep track of how many skeins I used, which might be a good thing because they weren't the cheapest yarns.

With these I learned more about how important it is to count your stitches, and how you may need to reshape your finished work. The ripple afghan looked much thinner at the top, and wider at the bottom. I'm pretty sure that's because as I turned the work the bottom got stretched out, and the top hadn't been stretched yet.

Beginning Crochet

I decided to begin Crocheting, my first project was a couple of small squares that I was going to sew together to make a blanket with but the small squares are a lot of work... 

Long story short, it became a scarf. I then made a matching headband to go with it, super cute right?

Anyway apparently after that I decided I could make an afghan. Easier said than done. It took about three months because I chose to work on it off and on, and my deadline was three months away. What can I say, I'm a procrastinator.

 I used Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn" because it's 3.99/skein and comes with 355 yards. It's nice knowing the cost averages out to about 1 cent per yard. It took about 6 skeins total, but I probably could have gotten away with 5 if I was doing all one color.

 The stitch is a double crochet in the front loops only. (At the time, I didn't know the difference between both loops and what I was doing.)

 I was making it for a twin size bed, so I laid it out on my queen size to compare, although at this point it would be much too late to go back and fix any width problems.

The blanket continued in stripes, and of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product.

The biggest mistake I made here was not leaving a long enough tail, it was a problem that didn't come to light until it was washed, and started unraveling in a few places.

At any rate, my first projects went great, and I love my new hobby!

Deco-Mesh Fall Wreath

     So if you haven't been in Hobby Lobby lately, you probably haven't seen all of their Fall and Christmas stuff they've had up since June. If you have, and your'e like me, it's really tempting. I love Fall and Christmas and love making decorations.

     Any-who, I decided to make a Fall Deco-Mesh Wreath. I got the 24" wreath frame and 2 spools of brown Deco-Mesh that were 5" wide. Then came the fun part, the picks and leaves!

     Guesstimating the amount of picks I would need, I ended up with about 30, which may be a few too many but, I like my wreaths extra full. Almost everything I grabbed was from the "Fall" section, but I did grab two floral stems since they were 50% off. The whole thing ended up being right around $70. 

     I put the wreath together and probably could have used another spool of Deco-Mesh, but I spread it a little thin, and made it last. Then I started weaving the leaves into the wreath, following with the picks. Don't be afraid to put things close together, it helps fill in the gaps left by the Deco-Mesh. 

All in all, it took about 2 hours but it was totally worth it to get a wreath that had everything I wanted in it, including the cutest little Turkey!