Wednesday, September 26, 2012

EtsyMom Color Palette Challenge

I am on a team called EtsyMoms over at Etsy. They are having a challenge for anyone on the team to come up with a creation using one of the three color combinations below.



You must enter your product on October 8. I like all of these color palettes, however, I've decided to go with the first one - I really like the blue, chocolate and lime - and I think it would make a lovely granny blanket? I'll be sure to post my entry when I come up with something. What a fun idea!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday!


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Daisies and mermaids

I'm almost finished with my first daisies on purple afghan for my Etsy customer, Angela. I really like how the purples make the daisy pop. Two more rows of squares and then onto the edging...

(I used Caron One Pound lilac, lavender blue, jonquil, white and off white)



If you are new to the site, you can find the daisy pattern here.

My daughter, Tillie, said she would like to be a "princess mermaid" for Halloween. I had never done the "crocodile" stitch before, but I knew that I had to use it for her mermaid tail. I've decided to make a straight skirt with some kind of pleated fin (so she can walk!) I'm still working on mastering this stitch - so I'll figure out the fin when I get there...

I found this pattern at Bernat.com. You must sign up to gain access, but they have some really lovely free patterns at their site. The Mermaid Tears Purse was the exact size I needed for Tillie's skirt, so I did not need to figure out how to alter the pattern before beginning. 




By the way, this is a fun stitch to do. The only difficult part is manipulating your work for the first "5dc down..." It's such a great scaly looking pattern though!

Friday, September 21, 2012

Nice change

I'm very happy to work up all of these daisy afghans (although I'm looking forward to getting back to some smaller, kiddie-sized blankets), but it's a nice change to come up with a simple granny pattern for an Etsy customer.

Her daughter requested green and purple, so I worked up alternating rows with multi squares in between. Here's how it came out.

(I used Caron One Pound pale green, lilac and white.)




She asked for a scalloped edge, which I think added a very pretty touch. I hope she likes it.




Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Another daisy blanket inspiration

A very nice customer named Leslie recently contacted me about creating a new daisy blanket in aqua/turquoise. She sent a photo of some lovely bedding, and was hoping to use that as a reference.




I sent over two samples (the photos are a bit dark). One using a light aqua and dark aqua:




And one with a green sc row as an accent:




She chose the second option. I'm excited to see how it turns out when they are all together. Other good news: the weekend is almost here! Have a wonderful day.

UPDATE: I have one more option. There seems to be so much blue, I thought I would try an option with a light blue and the green/aqua...




I think I like this one best with her bedding. We'll see what Leslie thinks!



Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A tough day

A year ago today my Dad passed away. I miss him every day. It seems like it was just yesterday - not a year ago - that we lost him. It's such an indescribable pain; it's a hole in your heart.

My mission today is to think of happy times, and remember him there.



Sunday, September 2, 2012

A great book

Many people have asked about the pattern for the blanket below, and I just finished up a new one, so I thought I would dedicate a post to it. The pattern can be found in the book  "Beyond the Square: Crochet Motifs". 





It's a great book full of fun and unique squares and motifs. They also use amazing colors in the photos. The background of my square is slightly different as I used a simple granny square (3dc ch2 3 dc (corner) then 3dc in each space around). That's the only difference. I highly recommend the book. 

I took a few photos of the my latest, finished blanket. I also took a photo of the back in case anyone was interested in seeing what that looks like.






Have a relaxing Labor Day!