SSK Minis For Granny Stripes

Last Friday I showed my SSK Haul and today I wanted to highlight the mini skeins I collected to help fill in color gaps for my granny stripe blanket.

I don’t tend to yellows or oranges so I grabbed a couple of those. And also some darker colors and variegated skeins. I think at least one of them has some sparkle in as well. Another bonus is that my SSK conference swag bag is big enough to fit my growing blanket. So these are added to my big bag of scraps and minis all zipped safely in the new larger project bag.

Now, how do I open up more time in my schedule to craft??

Knitting Nest

After walking about 4 miles being a tourist in Nashville, my dogs were barking so I settled in for a cozy night in my dorm at SSK.

I admittedly WAY overpacked my crafting plans for SSK. I took my spinning wheel and like 5 projects and I still bought yarn there. For this night I pulled out my Super Scrappy Granny Stripe blanket. I binged some NCIS and added two rows before sleep overtook me.

And while shopping I added several new mini skeins to stash for this one. More on that later!

Happy Crochet

Scrappy Blanket Update

Time for a scrappy granny stripe blanket update. Especially after I got all those warm minis to add to the project!

The blanket is impressively big now. I can still travel with it, but just barely. The riot of color is starting to look cohesive and almost on purpose. I do try to be mindful in my selections as I change colors.

For this latest round, I let PB pick and of course she picked teal. She came with me to the marketplace and helped choose some of the colors. She wore my conference badge and talked to the sales ladies, she was loving every minute of it. So another memory woven into this project!

Happy Crochet!

KITH Yarn Haul

In between Knitting In The Heartland events, I did some time in the market. After an initial lap around the vendors I decided to focus on mini skeins for my scrappy granny stripe blanket.

I have all my scraps organized and I noticed some gaps in the color wheel. So I tried to pour through booths and find colors to help fill out those missing areas. Mostly I need the warm colors of red, yellow and orange and some more jewel tones.

I think I did well! I also nabbed a tshirt going out on clearance, a knitting book for my friend and a couple of worsted skeins to replenish my hat stash. I am pretty proud of myself and saving most of my yarn funds for SSK this summer!

Happy Yarn!

Coordinating Minis

I did some stash diving over the weekend to find coordinating mini skeins to work with my sock snakes for Jellybean.

For the Tofutsies skein, I chose a purple skein from Leading Men Fiber Arts. The sock snake is pinks, burgundy, oranges and maybe some yellow. The purple is a definitely a coordinating contast. For the green snake, I found a Knitted Wit Smartie skein in a forest green color. This one stays in the color family.

Now I just need to run these by Jellybean for his approval and then we can start knitting!

Near The End With Day 23

I should have made more progress this weekend but I almost done with Day 23 on this granny stripe crochet blanket. It’s fairly large but I’m still stubbornly considering this a travel project! (probably will need a good wash…)

I thought I was starting to deduce the color scheme of this Queen City Yarn advent calendar. It’s not exactly a fade or a rainbow…..but maybe a cousin of both?

Now…..let’s finish this!!! Happy Crochet!!

Starting Day 15

Thanks to some time off work and time in medical waiting rooms, I am now ready to start Day 15 on my Queen City Yarn Advent Blanket.

The addition of the Amber Waves cashmere yarn is working respectably. It’s not 100% the same but I have tried a couple of different methods and I think I know what I like now. And this blanket is so busy that it’s not really going to noticeable in the end anyway.

The nurses and doctors were really impressed with my wizardry and I think they checked on me extra just to see the blanket!

Happy Crochet!

Dog And Crochet

This blog is now a crochet granny stripe blanket blog….for now. We are at Day 11 of my mini skeins and Duke is properly supervising my work.

He is adding just the right amount of dog hair dusting in my work. But he often sleeps on the job.

I recently lent some yarn to a friend for a photo prop and she returned it. It was a bunch of bulky cotton yarn in neutral colors. (See zip lock bag) And instead of putting this all away again I think I will start a chunky granny stripe baby blanket. It can be a gift or a doll blanket for PB?

I mean, why not add to my pile of active WIPs, right? Happy Crafting!

Crocheting Day 7

The blanket fever continues apace. I even took this to a crafty lunch at work and my coworkers went GAGA over it. I am just now adding Day 7 mini from this 2021 Queen City Yarns advent calendar.

Thus far I am doing okay at managing my edges and keeping a consistent stitch count. Counting the clusters helps. I also find that I must keep eye contact with this project 90% of the time and I can’t watch and craft. So for this project I am re-watching old shows or listening to media to compensate.

I adore the contrast stripes, but find I am 40% way through the blanket days and over 50% done withe my full skein. I have been weighing to watch the yarn disappear. I may have to go stash diving to find something that compliments this to help me get through all 24 days….

Happy Crocheting!

A New Tool

A package arrived this week with a new crochet tool. I did some looking around on Etsy for an ergonomic crochet hook and I found this one local-ish to me. I found the AMysticalFarm out of Missouri and loved how quickly the hook would get here.

The hook really feels good in my hand and fits better than the metal one. It also warms as I work and that is nice as well. Not to mention it is gorgeous.

The hang-up is that this hook is not a great fit for this granny stripe project. I am having trouble with grabbing the yarn and splitting the yarn. I am a lot slower with this hook. Probably just need more practice with it or need to dry a different yarn? But for now I want to ZOOM on this blanket so I am going back to my metal hook and going to find a cushion grip to slip on it.

Happy Crochet!!