Karen's Striped Granny Blanket

One on the foundations of crochet is the granny square.  It's a motif made of clumps of double crochet that can be made into just about anything- the most simple being either a quilt of small squares or one gigantic square blanket.

granny square via Purl Bee

via EmpowerNetwork

Because of it's simplicity, it's also very versatile to being modified to make either elaborate squares, or as with this blanket, a more abstracted form.

I fell in love with the simplicity and sleekness of this blanket when I came across it on the Purl Bee.  Although I don't shy away from the cute or quirky, my mom has a much more classic sense of style.   She also likes things to match in a way I've never mastered.  We often joke that things have to be in "her colors"- dark brown, black, and gold usually.

Because of this blankets simplicity and sleekness, I thought it would be perfect.  Swap out that delicate alpaca yarn for a very sturdy yarn (Loops and Threads: Impeccable Solids), and you get something warm enough to survive my parents freezing air conditioning that also matches their decor.


p.s.  After all this talk about matching, let me just say that these pictures are taken on my couch, not my parents.  These couches have given up on matching and instead mean I can put basically anything in my living room and call it matching.

Ta-da!  Plus Oy very nicely modeled for me.

The basic premise is that the wider and taller granny stitch is interspersed with rows of single crochet in a contrast color.  I did my stripes at random intervals, but you could also make them evenly spaced, like in the original.

Knit Hexagons

I have this thing where I don't buy knitting or crocheting patterns.  I don't understand why I should pay for one when there are so many amazing patterns for free on the internet.  I get really irritated when I find an adorable picture, click on it, and find out they want me to pay $5 for it on Etsy or Ravelry.  It usually ends up in a little bit of cursing like a sailor as I attempt to peruse the World Wide Web for a comparable version that's free. And 9 times out of 10 I find one.  Or at least one I can alter enough to make it work.

It's not just that I'm cheap.  And for Pete's sake I'm in graduate school and am living off of loan money so I seriously need to be cheap. It's also that I don't understand why a PDF should cost that much money.

Those 1 out of 10 times when there is no better alternative I get super disappointed.  But I haven't given in yet and I am damn stubborn, so I'm thinking I'll hold out until my pattern-making skills catch up to my desires.  My inner biologist is obsessed with realistic animal stuffed animals (like this iguana) on PlanetJune and by jove one day I will make my own.

Just this week I was riding home from school and sat next to a lady knitting something itty bitty, so I asked what she was making.  She told me all about these little stuffed hexagons (or "hexipuffs") she was making from scraps and how they very neatly get put together to make a puffy little quilt.  I have tons of scraps! and I love projects I can do in class or on the train! Perfect!


But then I came home and found it on Ravelry and realized that the very cute Beekeeper's Quilt pattern costs $5.50.  I got very grumpy and spent two days mulling over whether it was worth buying it.  Was this pattern really worth caving in for?  And seriously, over $5?!  It's very small and simple.  Plus from what I read on the few blog posts I read (there are hundreds) many people ended up modifying the cast on, the increase/decrease, or the bind off.  I'm definitely not paying it if I'm going to have to change it anyways.

So my decision was made- I was going to make it up.  And if I'm  making it up then I can change it!  So I made mine a little bigger so that I can make fewer of them. Because 450 of those little buggers for just a lap blanket is insanity.  It should be easily changeable for those who want to make it smaller or bigger.

Modern Bobble Baby Blanket

I was hooked on baby blankets this past winter.  This one was actually made a few months ago for one of the cutest babies around, and I have finally found time to post it.   This ended up being more long and skinny than I intended, because I ran out of yarn, but I'm still pretty happy with the final product.

Also, this is not my original pattern, just one that I found online and loved.  It came from Moogly Blog, and was called Blackberry Salad Striped Afghan, for the bright colors they alternated between.

For my version I opted to do a more modern take and use high contrast colors.  The yarn is Loops & Threads Impeccable Solids in Chocolate and Aran.

Plus, all those little bobbles seem fun for little grabby baby hands.

The Simple Ripple Blanket

My grandmother is the queen of these blankets.  Each grandchild gets a full-size blanket in their college colors before they start their freshman year.  I've still got my red and white one in my bedroom here in Illinois.

I wanted to try out a new pattern for the baby of a friend of mine, and it seemed like the perfect one to try since it means so much to me. I found some similar patterns but they were annoyingly complicated.  I decided to make up my own pattern where there's only one pattern to remember that's the same for every line.  It's also really easy to adapt to the size you want to make.

Constellation Baby Blanket

In the spirit of free hand crochet items, I thought I'd also post my very first attempt at totally making things up: a constellation baby blanket!

A friend of mine in nursing school is having a baby!  And given he frequency with which he wears space-themed shirts, I thought this would be the perfect plan.  I looked up a constellation map online, and found a portion that would be somewhat square.  I also wanted it to include my favorite constellation (Cassiopeia) and a famous one (the little dipper).  I happened to use August 2012.

Here's the final result:

And a closer look at eat of the constellations:

Cepheus 

Freestyle Van Gogh Blanket

I love Vincent Van Gogh.  I think his art is amazing, and his personal history is intriguing.  You can only imagine how thoroughly excited I was to discover the Doctor Who episode Vincent and the Doctor.  Holy Moly. Yes, I know I'm a huge nerd for that admission.

My brother is also a lover of art.  He is by far my superior in skill, creativity, and sense of humor; he just rarely actually does it.  His ceramics and cartoons blow me out of the water and he barely even tries. So when I didn't get a birthday present done in time I knew I had to bring my A game for christmas.  I am a fast worker, but I started this months in advance and still didn't finish it quite in time for christmas.

Without further ado, here is the painting that acted as my inspiration:

I tried to pick a painting that I could simplify to a few colors and more simplistic shapes. I wanted it to be recognizable. So I ended up with this lovely painting of a wheat field with cypresses. I printed it out and broke it up into color shapes.  Basically a color-by-number kind of deal.