Off the hook: Striped Afghan

This is a project I started a while back and hit a snag and put aside. The pattern is Lion Brand Yarn's "Wind Chime Afghan" in Vanna's Choice yarn. You crochet the strips and then connect them together with a chain of stitches. My first two strips went together find, but the next joining ended up with one strip longer than the other. At that point I put the project aside. Last week I took it up again and decided to bail on the connecting chains and just crochet the strips directly to each other. This meant unraveling strips I'd already finished and buying more yarn to make up for the reduced width caused when omitting the chains. But I probably didn't spend much more time on this than I would have if I'd battled with the pattern as written. And, most important, the project got finished and out of my UFO collection. I really like the way it turned out.

I Won!

I entered Piney Woods Tatter' Valentine giveaway and won 3 balls of Valdani perle cotton, size 8, in 3 different shades of red, plus beads and buttons. Rachel, the Piney Woods Tatter, makes beautiful tatted brooches with button centers. Now to decide what to make out of her generous gift!

Another ancient project finished: tatted pillowcase edging

Finally finished this tatted edging and finally sewed it onto a pillowcase. I guess I started this project 3-4 years ago and never got around to completing it until recently. The pattern is "Leaf Braid" from Mary Konior's Tatting with Visual Patterns, which she described as the "easiest pattern in the book." I doubled the pattern on itself so that two rings of the braid connect into a wider braid. The thread is size 20 hand-dyed thread in a colorway called "Candy Corn." It's been so long since I bought the thread on eBay that I have no record or recollection of who I bought it from.

Sweater Models

Here are my friend Megan's daughters wearing two of the sweaters I made and gave to them. It's great to see how they look on real kids for a change.

Off the needles: Bandana Cowl

Here is my beautiful daughter modeling the alpaca cowl I knitted. The pattern is Bandana Cowl, a free pattern from The Purl Bee. The pattern gave me quite a lot of practice doing short rows; I think there were over 30 rows of short rows to create the bandana point. The yarn is a tweedy alpaca that I bought at last year's Carolina Fiber Fest. It is sooo soft. I have a good amount left so need to decide how to use it.

Off the hook: Sweater #12

Another sweater using a pattern that was originally published by Doreen Knitting Books, Volume 100, in 1950. The main yarn is Bernat's Waverly in "Fresh Flower" color trimmed with lavender Lion Brand Baby Soft yarn.

Off the needles: Baby Sweater #11

This is another sweater using the Maddy Kids pattern called Girl's Smart Topper. It's knitted in an aqua acrylic.