I made this for a friend's baby shower last year.  She was expecting (and eventually had) a girl.  It's made up of Birthday Flower Squares and Flower Burst Squares.  The yarn used was Caron Simply Soft and equivalent mill ends in White.  The total dimensions are approximately 3' by 4'.

The afghan is made up of 6 of each of both types of squares in alternating rows.  The motifs are attached with slip stitches through the back loop only, leaving the front loops defined.  The border consists of some base rows of sc and a bobble edging.  I fiddled around with existing patterns until it ended up looking the way I liked, but a close one is this. 

After weaving the tails, I used a dot of Aleene's OK to Wash It fabric glue to secure the ends.

Thanks for looking.

Full shot:



Flower Burst Square:



Birthday Flower Square:

I made this for a my cousin and his wife, who had a baby boy earlier this year.  It's made up of motifs from Red Heart's Circles in Octagons Throw.  The yarn used was Caron Simply Soft in White, Dark Country Blue, and Soft Blue.  The total dimensions are approximately 3' by 4'.

The afghan is made up of 63 of the octagons / circles, 48 squares linking them together, and 28 triangles to make the edges even.  The border consists of one sc row of white and two sc rows of each of the blues.  I realized later that I could have added four more triangles to make the blanket a perfect rectangle, but ultimately, I think it looks neat with the "cut off corners" look.  The motifs are attached with slip stitches through the back loop only, leaving the front loops defined. 

After weaving the tails (and man, there are a TON with this pattern), I used a dot of Aleene's OK to Wash It fabric glue to secure the ends.

Thanks for looking.

Full shot:



Close up of motifs:



Close up of borders, corner:

I made this for a friend who had a baby girl.  It's made up of motifs from Coats and Clark's Sunrise Sunset afghan pattern.  It's approximately 3' by 4'.  The yarns used were Caron Simply Soft in White, Soft Pink, and Orchid. 

I added a white border of dc with corners of 3 ch to make each of the squares larger and to keep the finished product light-looking.  The motifs are attached with slip stitches through the back loop only, leaving the front loops defined.  The border is made up of sc rows of the three colors with 3 sc in the corners. 

After weaving the tails, I used a dot of Aleene's OK to Wash It fabric glue to secure the ends.

Thanks for looking.

Full shot:



Another full shot:



Close up of squares



Close up with edging

I made this for a friend's wedding.  It's a king size version of Lion Brand's Circles to Square afghan, using Caron Simply Soft in White, Bone, and Dark Sage.  I chose those colors because green is in my friend and her husband's decor.  The approximate dimensions are about 110" by 100".

The original pattern has three motifs--small, medium, and large.  I made a bunch of only the small and medium motifs and pieced them together in the alternating pattern below.  The motifs are attached with slip stitches through the back loop only, leaving the front loops defined.  The border is made up of sc rows of the three colors with 3 sc in the corners. 

After weaving the tails, I used a dot of Aleene's OK to Wash It fabric glue to secure the ends.

Here's a funny anecdote about the gift.  I was meeting my friend for dinner and was planning on giving it to her then.  I underestimated how heavy it would be and as I was walking to the subway, the gift bag in which I was carrying the blanket broke under its weight.  I had to rush back to my place to get another container in order to make it to dinner on time.  The only thing suitable that I had was the kind of cardboard box used to store reams of copy paper.  Hence, her wedding gift was given to her unwrapped in and in an Office Depot box.  Classy!  Thankfully, she liked the blanket and overlooked the packaging.

Thanks for looking.

Full shot:



Closer look at the squares:



Close up of edging:

I made this for a friend's son.  It's 12 squares of Waldo's Puzzle made with Caron Simply Soft in White (or equivalent mill ends) and some rainbow pastel yarn I had in my stash from so long ago, I don't know what type it is.  The total dimensions are approximately 3' by 4'.

The middle interlocking rings are made of the pastel yarn and the remainder of the squares are white.  The squares are attached with slip stitches through the back loop only, leaving the front loops defined.  I added a three-row border: 1) sc all around with 3 sc in the corners, 2) sc, ch 1, sc, with 3 sc in the corners, and 3) repeat row 1.  I wove a long chain of the pastel thread through the gaps of the second row.  I originally wanted to add a full sc row of the pastel, but I didn't have enough and I really wanted to use up all the pastel yarn (gotta bust that stash!).  It ended up working--the weaving had a really nice effect.

After weaving the tails, I used a dot of Aleene's OK to Wash It fabric to secure the ends.

Thanks for looking.

Full shot:



Another full shot:



Close up of squares:



Close up with borders and edging:

I see deals on Ebay where mill end yarns for brand name yarns (e.g., mill ends for Simply Soft) are offered at great prices.

I'm working on a large afghan project, and am also cheap by nature, so buying this instead of at retail prices appeals to me.

What are mill ends?  Are they comparably different than yarn that isn't a mill end?  How do they stack up against each other in quality, color (aside from normal dye lot issues), texture, durability?

Thanks.

Here's a blanket I worked on as a friend's wedding gift. 

It's a queen size afghan (about 90" by 90") made up of 64 squares of the Pinwheel Square from Dayna's Crochet. 

The blanket is done in Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue and White. After weaving the ends in, I used a dot of fabric glue (Fabric-tac and Aleene's Fabric Fusion) to secure.  The final product is washable.

The squares are supposed to be 12" in the pattern.  I used fairly tight tension and a G hook; combined with the natural thinness of Simply Soft, the squares ended up being about 10".  I added a dc border to increase the size to about 11.25". 

I joined the squares with slip stitches done on the underside.  The border of the entire afghan is comprised of a few rows sc in the same colors.  The corners of each square are three ch sts.

I started the afghan in December 2007 and just finished!  But that includes long breaks from working on it, including one that was about five months.  I am so glad to be done and to be able to give it to my friend and his wife! 

Thanks for looking!

Laid out on a sofa


Close-up of squares


Close-up of stitches


Close-up of square borders


Close-up of joining stitches on underside (on the left, you can see where I wove in a white end)


Close-up of afghan border

For my holiday baking this year, I made spritz cookies.  It was the first time I've made them; I meant to last year, but ended up going with quick breads instead.

I used the Kuhn Rikon clear barrel press.  Easy to use and highly recommended!

Although there are recipes included with the press, I used the vanilla and chocolate spritz cookie recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, 12th ed.  (The most recent edition is the 14th ed.)

I put them into clear tubs from Plastic Container City, a wholesale place that provides food containers to grocery stores, bakeries, etc.  No more heavy and expensive tins (and the high postage costs to go along with them)!

Here are some vanilla and chocolate cookies along with the disks used to make them:





And some more chocolate ones:





Here they are all wrapped up:



Thanks for looking!

Celtwich's Celt's Vintage Crochet, a free site that had a ton of cool motifs, doilies, laces, and other old patterns, shut down.  I read on Crochetville (I lurk and am not a member) that the site was shut down by its owner b/c people were making items out of the patterns and selling them.  I haven't made anything on the site, but really enjoye perusing through it and mentally filing away things I wanted to make "someday."  What a shame.

I've been wanting to learn thread crochet and make my mom and MIL lace shawls for some time now.  I'm finding some really cool pineapple and non-pineapple motifs and doilies that I could replicate to make shawls, but I'm afraid that it will look like they're wearing tablecloths.  Well, it's 'cause they are.

My fellow crocheters, do you think it will look odd?  "Oh my God, she's wearing a table runner!"

(FTR, I'm aware of Doris Chan's book "Amazing Crochet Lace" but would not be using patterns from the book.  I'd be using actual motifs and doilies like the ones on "Celt's Vintage Crochet.")