Quilting and Sewing WIPS

 Self designed quilted purse.  It's unfinished because I don't know what to do next.  Hopefully inspiration will strike one of these days.

 A Walk in the Woods quilt.  Pattern from the Stroll the block site.  I have 11 blocks finished and the 12th (and last block) is started.  Of course the blocks are only the beginning.  They need to be attached together, backed and quilted.

 Bird quilt.  Also from Stroll the Block.  The bird bath square is my own design and is from the walk in the garden quilt series on the same site.  I think I have 7 or 8 blocks done for this quilt. 

 Winter wall hanging.  I think this probably came from a magazine from Reiman publications, called Crafting Traditions.  It is no longer published.  This needs quite a bit of work,  The appliques need to be blanket stitched on, and it needs backing and quilting.

 Stroll the Block quilt.  This was a free block of the month pattern at HGTV quite a few years ago.  It needs a border, backing and needs to be quilted.  I do not believe that the pattern is there anymore.

Fall wall hanging.  Just needs some hand quilting done.  I believe that this was also a pattern from Crafting Traditions.

In addition to these, I have a bunch of snowmen blocks somewhere, (I love snowmen!),a half finished paper pieced wall hanging, featuring a lighthouse, and an assortment of pieced and paper quilted blocks that I made, just to try out various patterns.

Crochet Wips

I have tons of these, starting new projects is my specialty!

 Scrap tote, my own design. I was trying to use up odds and ends of yarn.  Just needs a top border and some sort of handles to be finished.

 63 squares heirloom afghan.  I have this mostly done.  I need to make a few more squares, and start sewing.  I started out making the pattern pictured,but I made squares from other sources as well.  This might be my oldest crochet WIP.

 Friendship afghan.  These 8 inch squares were sent to me by ladies on the Crochetville forum.  I have enough of them for a nice sized afghan, and have them all bordered.  I have sewn together three strips of 7 so far.

 This started out as a bottom up cardigan for me, but I know it won't get worn, so since so far it is just a rectangle, I will probably turn it into a baby blanket.  Its nice and soft, and the color is a lot brighter than it looks here.  The yarn is TLC Amore, which is not much fun to crochet with.

 A  sideways scarf.  I didn't like the pattern I was using, so I frogged it back to the first two rows.  Since I went to all the trouble of working into a long chain, (one of my least favorite things to do!), I am hoping to find another pattern that will work.

 Cool stripes hat, almost finished.  This is for one of my grandsons, and the third hat I've made from this pattern.  It's all single crochet, so it gets boring, but I like the end result.

 Simple lattice scarf.  This is my own pattern, and about the only thing that I could do with this yarn.  Its a very thin yarn, with tufts on it.

 Bernat CAL afghan.  I think this is quite possibly one of the ugliest patterns I've ever done.  I do plan to finish it, but I don;t know what I will do with it.  I have seen some finished versions of the pattern that looked really good, but I thought the Bernat example was unattractive, and so is this one.

 Granny Stripes afghan, pattern from the Attic 24 blog,  If you've never seen this blog, check it out, it's one of my favorites.  I will probably turn this into a toddler size blanket and donate it to the local pregnancy resource center.

 Crocheted mittens/fingerless gloves.  I like these, but I am thinking about frogging them.  I don't think I will use them, and all that single crocheting is tedious.

Cardigan for me.  This is my third attempt at a pattern in this booklet.  They are well written, and my gauge was right on, but even the smallest size turns out too big for me, (and I ought to be wearing  a bigger size than that!)  I am now using sportweight yarn and an F hook, for a pattern that calls for WW yarn and an H hook.  We'll see how it works out.

Knitting Wips

I am the world's slowest knitter.  I can do lots of stitches, but I'm awkward and I have to be really careful not to drop any, because I can't pick them back up properly.  Generally, I stick to the super simple patterns, but someday I would love to knit a sweater and a triangular lace shawl.

 My grandma knit slippers like these for us every year.  When I saw this pattern, I decided to make myself a pair.  They are pretty simple, but as I said, I am slow.

 Scrunchable Scarf.  Nice easy pattern, which uses only knit and purl stitches.

Garter Stitch Scarf:  the only thing I can do with this very soft and fuzzy yarn.  I was given two skeins of it, and am working on the second one.  I expect the scarf to be between 60 and 70 inches long when it's finished.


 
Learn to Knit Afghan from the book of the same name, by Barbara Walker.  My colors are two shades of  sage green, brown and  cream.
I am really tired of this one, so I'm going to quit at 49 squares and make a  throw. I have 9 or 10 squares left to make, and then all that tedious sewing together.....

Cross Stitch WIPS

I started cross stitching when my children were little, and all three are grown up now.  The front porch design has probably been a WIP for 15 years!  Cross stitch is harder for me than it used to be, because my eyes are aging.  I might have to get some sort of magnifier.

 I like samplers because it's easy to keep track of where I am.

 I optimistically started this in the fall of 2009, with the goal of finishing it in 2010.  maybe 2011?

 Front porch picture by Paula Vaughn.  I've been working on this for a l-o-n-g time!

 Winter homestead scene.  This is on 22 count Aida, so I'm not sure if I will ever finish it. It's hard for me to see where to poke the needle.

 The beginning of a Welcome sign.  Its meant to fit into my wall hung coat hook rack, which has a place for a needlework design.  I filled it with a piece of fabric temporarily, (5 or 6 years ago!).

This is a design printed on even weave fabric.  It is meant to be embellished with cross stitch.  I was attracted to the kit, because it said quick and easy on the package.  Well, it's easy, but not really so quick!

The First of the Wip Posts: Embroidery

The top one is an embroidered panel, which I intended to incorporate into an old fashioned apron.  I'm not sure if I will still do that, since my mother in law made me a really nice apron a month ago, and I don't use an apron all that often.  I found the pattern for this on-line a while ago, and traced it to the fabric with a water color pencil.  (I hope the marks wash out!)

The bottom one is a pillowcase border.  If I ever get it finished, I will make another one to match.  I bought the transfer for them at Hobby Lobby.  I was surprised at how inexpensive transfers are.

It's a New Year. Not a clean Slate though!

Over the years, I've tried and enjoyed lots of different crafts.  As a result I have a lot of unfinished objects,  (UFO's) or works in progress, (WIPs)  I'm going to post many of them in my blog, with the hope that at least some of them will become finished objects in the next year.

Nate's Afghan

I noticed that I hit 50 followers a few days ago.  This was a totally amazing thing to me, so I decided that I needed to get to work on another pattern.  I had already made this afghan for a Christmas gift, so I took it out of its wrapping so I could write out the pattern.

I apologize for my lousy photography.  I could blame the gloomy weather, but the truth is that I have a hard time getting good pictures, even when the lighting is perfect.

Nate’s Afghan

Link to Pattern PDF file

I made this as a gift for my son.  I wanted to make a warm, masculine afghan that I could finish quickly.

Afghan is worked holding two strands of yarn together.  You could certainly use a single strand of yarn with a smaller hook, but your afghan would be smaller.

Size:  mine turned out to be about 54 inches square.

Difficulty:  advanced beginner

Materials:

WW yarn in two colors.  I used  approximately 1500 yards of yarn (a little over 4 skeins of  Carons Simply Soft and just under 4 skeins of Bernat Super Value)  I used black and a medium shade of green

Size N hook

Yarn needle

Abbreviations used:

FDC- foundation double crochet

DC- double crochet

Ch-chain

BPDC  back post double crochet

FPDC  front post double crochet

St- stitch

Sc- single crochet

ss-slip stitch

Special stitch:  DC two together:  wrap yarn around hook once, insert into first stitch, pull up a loop, wrap yarn around hook, pull yarn through 2 loops on hook, wrap yarn around hook, insert hook into next stitch, pull up a loop, wrap yarn around hook,pull yarn through 2 loops on hook, wrap yarn around hook, pull yarn through remaining three loops on hook  (if you usually do this stitch differently, do it your own way, it will look fine)

Pattern:

NOTE:  Ch 2 always counts as the first stitch

Every row has 112 stitches

Turn at the end of every row

Ridges created by FPDC and BPDC should always be on the front of the afghan. 

First row:

FDC 112  (or make 112 DC into a chain., I hate working into a chain, so I like to use the FDC method)

To start with a chain, Ch 114 and dc into 3rd ch from the hook and every chain to make 112 DC's in your foundation row.

Row 2 and 3:  Ch 2, dc to end

Row 4:  (begin mesh pattern)

Ch 2, Dc in next 6 stitches, **ch1, skip a stich, DC in next stitch, ch 1 skip a stitch, DC in next stitch, ch 1, skip a stitch, DC in next st, ch 1, DC in next 8 stitches**  Repeat ** to ** to the end.  (yes the beginning has 7 DC, but you end with 8 DC)  You should have 8 mesh sections in this row, each with 4 ch 1 spaces.

For rows 5 to 10 .  Count the ch 1 spaces as a stitch, and work the DC’s into the space into the space.

Row 5:  Ch 2, Dc in next 8 stitches, including the first ch 1 space of the previous row, ** ch 1, skip a stitch, DC into ch 1 space, Ch 1, skip a stitch, DC into Ch 1 space, ch 1, skip a stitch, DC in next 10 stitches, including last ch 1 space of previous row**,  repeat  to section in between **’s   to end, there will be 8 DC in the last solid section.  You will have 3 ch 1 spaces in each mesh section.

Row 6: Ch 2, DC in next 9 stitches, **ch 1, skip a stitch, DC into ch 1 space of previous row, ch 1, skip a stitch, DC into ch 1 space of previous row, ch 1, DC into next 12 stitches,** repeat stitches between **’s to the end.  The row will end with 9 DC’s.  There will be 2 ch 1 spaces in each mesh section.

Row 7:  Ch 2, DC into next 10 stitches, ** ch 1, skip a stitch, DC into ch 1 space of previous row, ch 1, skip a stitch,  Dc into next 14 stitches**  Repeat stitches between **’s to end.  The row will end with 10 DC’s.  You will have 1 ch space in each mesh section.

Row 8:  repeat row 6 pattern  (you won’t have as many ch 1 spaces to work into, but the pattern is the same)  (2 ch 1 spaces in each mesh section)

Row 9: Repeat  Row 5  (3 ch 1 spaces in each mesh section)

Row 10:  repeat row 4  (4 ch 1 spaces in each mesh section)

Row 11:  Ch 2, DC across

Row 12:  Ch 2, BPDC across  (this will create a ridge on the front side of the afghan)

Row 13:  Ch 2, FPDC across

Row 14: Ch 2, DC across

Row 15:  Ch 2, **Skip a stitch, DC in next stitch, Working around stitch just made, DC in skipped stitch**   (crossed double crochet made)  Repeat stitches between **’s to 2^nd last stitch from the end, DC in last stitch

Row 16-18:  Ch 2, Dc across

Row 19:  Ch 2,  **DC two together, ch 1, ** Repeat stitches between **’s to last stitch,  DC in last stitch.

Row20-23:  repeat row 18, using the ch 1 space as a stitch.

Row 24-26:  Ch 2, Dc across

Row: 27:  repeat row 15

Row 28-29:  Ch 2, DC across

Row 30:  Repeat row 12  (BPDC row)

Row 31:  repeat row 13  (FPDC row)

Row 32: ch 2, Dc across

Row 33: repeat row 15  (crossed doubles)

Row 34 and 35:  Ch 2, DC across

Row 36:  repeat row 12 (BPDC row)

Row 37:  repeat row 13 (FPDC row)

Row 38:  ch 2, DC across

Row 39:  repeat row 15 (crossed doubles)

Row 40 to 42:  Ch 2, dc across

Row 43-47:  Repeat rows 19-23

Row 48 - 50:  Ch 2, Dc across

Row 51:  Repeat row 15 (crossed doubles)

Row 52 and 53:  Ch 2, DC across

Row 54:  Repeat row 12 (BPDC row)

Row 55:  Repeat row 13 (FPDC row)

Row 56:  Ch 2, DC across

Row 57 – 63:  repeat rows 4 to 10 (mesh pattern)

Row 64 –66:  Ch 2, Dc across

This finishes the main body of the afghan.  I finished mine with 2 rows of sc worked around the entire thing.  You could quit now if you want. If you plan to add a border, don’t cut the yarn, just continue onto the border.

SC border:  Ch 1, turn, sc across.  Place 3 stitches in the corner and continue single crocheting along the side of the afghan, evenly placing stitches into ends of the rows. When you get to the corner, place 3 stitches in the corner stitch, sc across the end, and continue around the e=next side, placing 3 stitches in each corner.  Join round with a slip stitch,  ch 1 and go around again.  Fasten off and weave in ends.

I try to get the same number of sc’s down each side, so that the finished afghan looks nice and even.  I don’t think one more or less makes much difference, but a few extra stitches down one side as compared with the other side can make the afghan look lop-sided.

Note:  Pattern is untested, except by myself. Please let me know if something is unclear, or you find a mistake.
You may sell one or two items made from this pattern, but you may not sell the pattern or publish it anywhere else. Please link to the pattern if you post a picture elsewhere.