Crocheting a diagonal baby afghan

For years I've used a folklore pattern as I call it (one that's been passed down verbally from crocheter to crocheter) to make quick diagonal baby blankets that start with one simple double crochet shell and increases with each row.  When you reach the halfway point, you start decreasing. 

So.  I started a pretty baby blanket with Red Heart's Gumdrop in orange.  It was increasing splendidly and I was very pleased.  Last night I was ready to start the decrease row on my blanket and......blank.  Nothing.  Nada.   Now that I'm aging (and not really that old AT ALL!!) I find I'm forgetting things like that.  I tried a few things with terrible results.  I considered making a matching triangle and sewing the two together in the center, but vetoed that idea.  I looked up the mom-to-be's registry online for ideas, but I still like the crocheted baby blanket idea.  Finally, I was able to find a close proximity to the pattern I use.  Who knew?!?!?  It wasn't a folklore pattern after all!  We can thank Bernat for this pattern.  It even has a name: Corner to Corner Afghan. 

The site I found this pattern on is here and has many more things crocheted on the diagonal.  I'm going to enjoy checking them out!

Hexagon scarf

I picked up Plymouth Yarn's Encore D.K. in 11 colors at Sea Needles in Bethany Beach. They were so helpful. I'd picked out two colorways: my usual brights and a muted mix. We chatted it out and I decided that since I usually go to the bright colors, the scarf in the muted colors would be a welcome change. She explained that having two really dark colors rather than one was a good choice for balance.

Here is what I finished while at the beach:



It is a chain of 10 hexagons. The 3rd row is the joining row. I like this idea because once it's done, it's done! I didn't have a yarn needle with me and didn't remember to buy one at Sea Needles or Salty Yarns (or the Michaels I was near!) so all my ends still have to be woven in. I'll save that for a day when I'm too tired to stitch but want to move forward with my project.

This was fun, but time consuming. It occurred to me that if I stitched a bunch of hexagons with the first two steps done, it'd be quicker in the long run. So I've completed about 30 of the two-step hexs. Here's a photo of a few showing the 11 colors:



The inspirations for my scarf are the hexagon scarf and afghan at Garnet Hill. Googling this gave me a pattern for the scarf and a how-to for joining hexs while in progress.

I have a ton of Vanna White's yarn (Lion Brand) left over from the crochet reef project. I think I'll make a hexagon afghan out of that. I can combine the leftovers of this project in the afghan to enhance the mix. We'll see.

I decided that sewing the hexagons in a row then doing the next row on top and the next row on top of that is a good strategy.

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Crochet cornucopia finished

Hooray! Yesterday I finished stitching the eggplant and the cornucopia. Now I just have to enter it in the fair. :) I did the apple, pumpkin, squash, eggplant, corn and the cornucopia. Cross your fingers and wish me luch! The patterns are free on www.Lionbrand.com.

I also finished stitching a needleroll in February and forgot all about it. If I can finish it in two weeks I can enter it, too, in the fair.

Smithsonian Institution's Community Coral Reef Project

I am so enamored of this! I read about the crochet coral reef project on Stitch DC's blog. I attended a demonstration of crocheting hyperbolic planes at the Museum of Natural History in DC last Saturday. I immediately signed up to attend the lecture and workshop being held there this coming Sunday from noon to 4 pm. I'm so excited by this!!

Crocheting is the only way to easily demonstrate the mathematical concept of the hyperbolic plane. I'll let you Google it and let the experts describe the whole thing, but the bottom line is once you've completed one it looks like a piece of coral! How cool is that?!

I did a smallish one to test it out by chaining 18 stitches. Then single crochet in 3chains and 2 single crochet in the next chain. Repeat this stitch pattern until you're happy! My piece is about 4 inches deep. It grows exponentially and in doing so creates all sorts of ruffles and flourishes. Very pretty!

I am currently working on one in turquoise Red Heart Super Saver yarn. This yarn is perfect because it looks nice and has a great stiffness that enhances the coral appearance. This piece started with a chain 3, slip to join, then do 11 single crochet in the circle. My increase pattern is to single crochet in two chains, then do 2 single crochets in the next chain. It developed most unusually with it looking like a flower tube at first. Finally after 30 or so rounds, it began to flair and is now very curly and lettuce-y looking. I plan to stitch on it until the entire skein is used up. Probably a total of 200 yards (I'd already used some.)

I'm so into this idea and being a part of the Smithsonian's community reef that I volunteered to demonstrate/teach hyperbolic crochet at their table in the Ocean tent at this year's Folklife Festival. The exhibit will open in October of this year and I can't wait to see and it (and see if I can spot my creations within the reef!!).

To demonstrate a skill at the Folklife Festival has been a lifelong dream, but so unrealistic as to be unattainable. It was ridiculous to put it on my bucket list. After all, I don't earn my living as a folk artist or come from a foreign country where I am a folk artist. It was a dream. But now I can put it on my list and check it off in two weeks! I hope it's not scalding hot on the Mall, but I won't even care. :) :) :)

Tunisian crochet

Easy to do....once I figured out what the instructions were trying to say. The cover design for "Interweave Crochet Winter 2009" is drop dead gorgeous! I decided to try out the design with scrap yarn before investing tons of dollars into something I didn't like to do. The triangles that start the piece didn't look anything like the picture on the cover. I know how to do Entrelac when knitting so the basic concept was known to me. I just wasn't getting it. I must have read the instructions 97 times! Finally I tried something a little different, and, voila! It worked!

It worked better than I thought because now instead of doing the ruana, I want to just do a scarf. I'll have more fun and it'll cost considerably less. It also gives me something to look for at the Sheep and Wool Festival on May 1-2.

Instructions for Tunisian crochet and links to sites that sell the special hooks were found here.