Fireside Cheerful Complete

There is a chill in the air and the skies are overcast and gray......

But, no matter the temperature outside, the warmth and coziness of a blanket can always be close by.....

This is my Fireside Cheer or "Cheerful" as I like to call it.  The colors are bright and cheerful and favorites of the person for whom this was made.

The pattern is Fireside Cheer designed by Anne Halliday, one of my very favorite designers, and can be found in Afghans For All Seasons  page 106.

This particular blanket is headed to upstate NY to a lady that used to babysit my sister and me as infants.  I hope it will bring her lots of warmth and happiness through the cold north country winter.

This was a large project.  I'm happy to have completed it.  I just need to give it a wash on gentle with a little Woolite and get it packaged to ship to it's destination.

Joy in completion.

HDP

Attack of the Killer Fringe!

Well, not quite...

These are the "million and one" ends that need to be woven in on my current afghan project. 

Four hundred sixty-two to be exact......No, no, I didn't count each one.  There are 231 rows in the pattern and there are ends on each side to be woven in....

This is going to take a while....

Let's see, if I work on weaving these ends in each day for the next five days, that 92.4 ends each day.....

Good news is the body of the afghan is complete.......now what am I going to do about all these ends?

Joy in completing a major milestone and moving on to the next!

HDP

Cheerful Update

I'm making good progress on my Fireside Cheer afghan project.  I'm just below the halfway point.  I'm hoping to be working on the second half come Monday.  

Maybe I'll get in a little crochet time this afternoon; here's hoping and fingers crossed!  :-)

Joy in a beautiful day.  

HDP

Fair Isle Update

Yesterday, I got to a point on my Fair Isle project to update the lady for whom I'm making the blanket.  I wanted to be sure she was happy with the direction I was going.....

Originally, we had decided on this pattern, but as I started to make it, I really wasn't happy with the way the design within the blanket was forming.  The yarn I'm using has a very definite stitch definition and the long double crochet "X" that you make was looking really "hokey".  I think that pattern would look good in a more "fuzzy" yarn or perhaps a sport weight.

So I headed to another fair isle style pattern that I've made before.  It's called Fireside Cheer (pictured below)...

This is a blanket pattern I'm very fond of and I think is quite pretty.  I made the above for myself several years ago. 

If you remember, the colors we chose for this project were turquoise, mauve/pink and an aran.  I started the blanket using the turquoise as the main color, as this is the recipients favorite color.  I'm using the aran and mauve as the accents.  

I sent her an e-mail last night to show her my progress.  I also wanted to see if she would like the aran as the master color instead of the blue.  I felt I was at a good point, and had enough time, to start over and do the pattern with the color switches.   She replied to my e-mail not to change a thing.  So, with that being said, I'm moving forward!

I hope this will be something the receiver will like and enjoy using.  This blanket will evolve as the additional bands are formed, the ends woven into the fabric, and a pretty border crocheted all around it.

Joy in a day full of crochet!  :-)

HDP

On the Horizon...

...a new project!

I had a nice lady contact me recently about making an afghan or blanket for her mother for Christmas.  After many e-mails about patterns and yarn colors, we have finalized a decision.  I'll be making this beautiful afghan pictured above.  The pattern is from Mosaic Magic Afghans Made Easy by Lily M. Chin; one of my favorite afghan designers I might add!   

The colors we chose are very feminine and pretty.  The mother's favorite color is turquoise and we decided to pair it with mauve, using aran, a soft white, as an accent color.  It's a winning combination and I hope both the giver and receiver will be thrilled with the blanket.

I always enjoy the planning stages of a project.  Getting out the calculator, figuring out how much yarn will be needed in each color, finding a good buy on the yarn, and looking for coupons.  It's all part of the fun.  In this case, I was excited to see that Michael's is having a Family and Friends Sale and has a coupon out for 20% off your entire purchase; good through today.  Yipee!

My current project is about two weeks from completion and then I hope to get started on this.  My goal is to have the fair isle completed by the end of November so I can ship it to the giver in plenty of time for Christmas.

Joy in the planning!

HDP

I got a new book today...

I saw it, as I was pulling into the drive yesterday evening.  That little brown box on the front door step.  Written on it, were the magical words that read....."Amazon".  (Big smile, toothy grin inserted here.)

I love Amazon; they have great prices and I even had a $5 off promotion code they had sent me for some reason.  So I got got an exciting new crochet booklet at a VERY good price!  Here it is...

It's a new Fair Isle afghan pattern book with 5 gorgeous patterns.  I'm especially drawn to the Southwest Warmth one pictured on the right.  I've never tried the technique that is used to make these.  And, I'm thinking this might be something to start once all the holidays are over.  But, I'm so excited to have it and be able to drool over the beautiful patterns. 

Joy in a new booklet!

HDP