I do not have patience to block the blanket, I want to share it with you first! It was a rewarding project and also easy to do :) I just needed to crochet and join 30 granny squares. For joining, I used a flat braid method. In case you do not know how to do that I also inserted the link to a website with a good explanation. And that it is!
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Knitting schematics scare you? Well, they scared me also. You have to calculate a lot: how many stitches and over how many rows etc etc. Seems complicated. So until now I did not really tried any complicated knitting project. Until the baby thing. How can I not make some nice baby clothes for the little one? So, I said to myself: "How hard can it be?". I mean, I am working toward getting a PhD in quantitative social sciences and I am using some pretty hardcore statistics, sure I can figure out how to make / use a knitting schematic. So, this is the story and the result of my first try at making and using a schematic for a baby vest. I learned 2 important lessons: make a swatch to figure out the gauge and use a spreadsheet type of file to draw the schematic and calculate. The file I made with an open source software (Open Document Spreadsheet) that anyone can use - is free! I used only basic math formulas that are included in the document. As always, the document can be downloaded from the Patterns section of this site. Let me know if you find it useful! But lets see an example from my calculations and how you can adapt to your specific project. My gauge is 15 stitches per 10 cm and I needed to figure out how many stitches I need to cast on to cover 59 cm. During primary school I learned to solve this in the following easy way: And the above is the formula that I fed to my spreadsheet. Now, say that you use another type of yarn so you will have other gauge, all you need to do is to change the numbers in the spreadsheet (or, of course, you can calculate by hand). Simple, no?
I always wanted to make a granny square blanket but I could not find a good reason to make one. Now that my brother and his wife are expecting their first child I got my reason to make one! I checked the stash and chose some warm colors because the baby will be arriving somewhere in autumn. So, here is what I have after 5 days of work - the diagram included. I hope to have the finished blanket tomorrow - joining those 30 squares really takes a lot of time and patience! Well, not me, but my brother is expecting his first child :) AWESOME! I am going to be aunt! AWESOME again! And the baby will also be AWESOME!!! So awesome that everyone will need to know :P So I intend to make for her / him a line of crocheted / knitted baby things that will clearly tell the world how AWESOME this baby will be ! First in line: a sleeping bag: 90% done, but I did not have any more patience and I had to share it with you :) You remember Nemo? The lost Clown Fish. Sure you do, everyone knows him. Lovely color combination on him :) My inspiration for the latest blanket I made. Again from pure sheep wool that I bought from Romania. This time I knitted it. Just because I like the texture of it. Took me a month of working on this blanket. I used a very simple stitch (a variation of garter stitch) so watching TV and knitting was no problem. Knitting should be relaxing, right? :P And just like always, for those that want to make such a blanket here are some photos and technicalities (click on the Photo and see the explanation below). My Finding Nemo blanket is almost done! But I just received a gift from Romania: pure sheep wool in natural colors. Love it! Want to start working with it. Cant. I want to finish the blanket. Pff... difficult times...
What am I working on lately.. two things: a stool cover and a knitted blanket. Progress? Well... still working... But I hope I can finish the second stool cover this weekend and then I can focus on that knitted blanket. But until I have the projects done and the pattern ready I thought to share with you some pictures. Enjoy and let me know what you think :) Here it is: my first crocheted blanket made from pure sheep wool that I bought from Romania. I am very happy with it: is warm, is pretty and static electricity is a thing of the past. And that only means that is more or less free of animal hairs! Yeey!! Happy me! I hesitated a lot what to do with the pattern. I thought I could offer it for a low price on Etsy or Ravelry and get some money to send to the animals shelters I support. But then I changed my mind because I want to believe in the goodness of people. So I make the pattern of this blanket free to download. I just hope that among those that find inspiration from my work some will also consider making a small donation to one (or both) of the two animal shelters from Romania. This said, enjoy the pattern and let me know if there is any question! In December 2012 I discovered crocheting. I started making dolls and I was over the moon happy with my new found hobby. Next I discovered Pinterest and Ravelry and lots of crocheting blogs. A new world opened to me, a world of creative people sharing their projects with the world. I was happy that these people decided to publish their projects online - it was so easy to learn from them the tricks of the trade. And so I decided to do the same: wrote on this blog about my hobby's and new found love for yarn. And of course, share my patterns and ideas for free. After a year I am happy to have invested my time into this blog - I received such wonderful messages from people that felt inspired by my projects and that was a reward in itself. So to all of you who dropped by and left a message, thank you! And come back again, I would love to share with you what I do :) |