crafty pictures!

[snugglekitty]

I just finished the lap blanket I have been crocheting for the past few weeks. This post shows the process of its creation. The finished blanket is at the bottom of the post.

First, I started with some colors. As I wrote in a previous post, most of these yarns were recycled from old sweaters - the others were random leftovers from mine and bbbsg's stashes.

Here, I followed my template pattern exactly. This gave me a three-colored spiral about six inches across. But I wasn't done!

My next attempt was to do the same pattern with six colors. I doubled the size of the first row, so the circle in the middle is larger. This is when it was about the size of a dinner plate, and I realized that I didn't like the way the colors were contrasting.

I frogged it back and started over, this time with only six stitches in the first round. This is my following the increases in the original pattern (six in the circle) until it was the size of a large pizza. As you can see from the picture, it's not at all flat. This means that it doesn't have enough increases per round. Too many, and it gets wavy.

Another shot of the floppy version, the position I used to try to figure out how much of the circle was missing. Back to square one.

The finished product in all its glory! It measures about 44 inches across. Shown on the chair that I made it for.

Yay! Now, I need to work on the Chicken Viking hat for Princess N, finish some socks for 7j, and start a pair of wristwarmers for myself.

Comments

[cutieperson]

Chicken Viking?!

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

http://alohamedia.net/sarah/hats/chicken-viking/

:)

[cutieperson]

wow. did i mention wow? and i thought the Cthulhu-esque floppy-eyed hat we picked up for N was weird!

also, the blanket is gorgeous.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. :) That's the one they picked, out of three baby hat choices.

Thanks. :) I'm very happy with it.

[girliegoalie.livejournal.com]

that is really nice

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was a surprisingly unstressful project for how many changes I made to the original pattern, which makes me feel as though I'm starting to get the hang of this.

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

Very nice!

Almost nice enough to make me consider taking up crochet again.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I like projects that are primarily double crochet the best. I like how it looks, and how it feels to do it.

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

When I crochet, I tend to work very tightly. This makes my hands hurt and the resulting work has the structural integrity of sheet steel -- would make superb interior walls, predecorated.

Which is why I don't crochet. Then I see cool stuff like this and think: "I should try this again." Somehow though, I never overcome the tightness.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Huh. You don't have tension problems with knitting? That's interesting. I wonder what would cause that. :)

Have you tried using larger-than-called for hooks?

[hugh-mannity.livejournal.com]

Tried that. Didn't make much difference. I think the cause is me being concerned that the fabric will be too loose and floppy. As a result of the tight tension, my hands hurt, and that makes me clench up on the work and work even more tightly.... It's a wierd circular clenching thing...

[artemis44.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, that is gorgeous! I'm very impressed with the problem-solving as well... that was the part that made me crazy when I tried to knit!

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

thank you. :) The problem-solving can be kind of fun, once you get it. Unfortunately, there is basically no knitting without problem-solving... sometimes even following a pattern exactly doesn't do what you want it to do.

[bluepapercup]

woooooow.

I am really impressed. Plus, it's really cool!

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I can't believe I finished it in just a few weeks. It was a really fun project! I think it would make a good baby blanket, if made out of cotton.

[rantfaery.livejournal.com]

That's really, really pretty!
Chicken viking hat?!?!??! This, I will HAVE to see. :-)

[cathijosephine.livejournal.com]

Rock on!