Is It Yarn or Fabric?

     I saw this lovely king sized afghan on the internet the other day and did a double take.  It was on Crochet Addict, and it looked like fabric.  Was it fabric bordered by crochet, or was it all crochet? And if it was all crochet, what in the world did the artist do to get it to look like that?  I'm intrigued.

     This beauty was created by Kristin Colyar.  Come to find out, all the "fabric" squares are blended yarns.  The granny squares are 6" square (the pattern for the granny squares is here: Craft Passion). The afghan is 18 squares wide and 15 squares long, and features 40 different blended yarns.  There are 270 squares total and I figured up that this was roughly a 6 squares repeat (so 6 squares per skein). Kristin used I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby.

     I've never used this yarn, so I thought this might be a good time to check out the colors available.  It looked great in Kristin's king sized afghan.  Well, I was a bit disappointed.  I found the yarn, I counted the blended yarn colors and there were a lot more than 40, but a lot of the color combinations were not to my liking.  I found one that was OK and I bought it.  I'm going to make up some sample squares and see how it looks.  The colors look great in her afghan, so maybe once the yarn is made into granny squares I'll like it better.  The yarn is really soft and thinner than Red Heart yarn.  But I don't know if I can get past the blended colors.  I'd use Red Heart, I dearly love their color combinations, but I don't think that they have 40 colors of blended prints. I tried to look up color charts for both I Love This Yarn and Red Heart yarn on the internet and couldn't find a good chart for the yarn colors.

     I'll keep you posted on what I find out once I complete my experimental squares.

On The Internet . . .

     I saw this pattern on a dubious website, (that I'm not going to recommend the website), but I am going to recommend the blog that it originated from: Simply Crochet & other crafts.  I immediately fell in love with it and knew I had to make one.  

     I had a difficult time finding the print yarn.  I think it must be a Red Heart yarn that has been discontinued.  Joann Fabrics in Salina had it and I bought all they had, which was 5 skeins, so I'm hopeful that this will be enough to finish this project.  

   
     There are 3 strips that resemble the one pictured here, and then 2 strips that are reversed.  I have finished this 1 row, so far, and I started this project back in December 2015.  I'm only working on it during breaks at work, so it may take a while.  That's fine, because I don't need it finished until September of this year and I think I can make that deadline.  LOL

     I'm using aspen print, buff, and frosty green.  They look dynamite together and these colors make it very country looking.  Originally when I saw this pattern I thought that the aspen print was fabric because it looked more like fabric than yarn.

     As I've worked on this at work, one of my co-workers became intrigued and began asking a lot of questions.  Finally she asked me if I would show her how to crochet and I said that I would.  We had an out of town work meeting to go to one day with a long drive ahead of us and she and I were sitting in the back.  She said she would bring yarn and a hook but I didn't believe her.  People say things all the time.  But she showed up with hook and yarn and I showed her how to make a chain and a single crochet.

     By the time we got to the meeting she was "hooked" LOL.  She wanted to take her crochet into the meeting,  We talked her out of it.  At lunch she wanted to go through the drive thorough because it would take time away from crocheting to go in to eat.  We made her go in with us.  Back at the meeting we had to wrestle her crochet away from her because she didn't want to get out of the car to go back to the meeting.  On the way home, we stopped for gas and a potty break and she refused to get out of the car.  LOL  When we got home she said she was sending her daughters out to eat because it would take to much time to fix supper.  I think I created a monster!!!

     Now she's taught her daughter how to crochet, she's got 5 more projects planned, and she's starting to hang out on the yarn aisle at Wal Mart.  LOL

     One of the ladies that attended the meeting with us, told me yesterday that she got so interested in what we were doing that she has started a project and is thinking about making a temperature blanket, too.  She's saved photos to her phone so she can look at them at work to stay close to her crochet. LOL

     Whatever you do in life, it has a ripple effect that you have no idea how many people it will touch.

Hey, It's Crochet!

     I started this project originally back in February 2015 and I completed the center of it.  I was going through a stressful time and my stitches were all over the place.  It was a wreck!  In December 2015, I started getting interested in crochet again, due in a large part to The Crochet Crowd.  I picked it back up, ripped out all my stitches and took it down to the yarn and started over again.  And here it is today . . . I have the black skein to finish, then I'm adding on another 5 rows of the neon print, and finish it off with a row of black edging.  I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out.  

Groovyghan

    

 If your interested in a crochet-along I've found one I think you'll like.  It's the "Groovyghan".  I have the button along my sidebar and it will take you directly to the blog:

 Keep Calm and Crochet on UK

Once you get the instructions, make sure to click at the top of the blog on

the crochet-a-long 2016 link for the dates that the patterns will be released.

Also, sign up for the automatic updates, I did that and it is a great way to stay on top of  the CAL.

The CAL just started on January 13th and the next pattern release will be today, January 27th.

I'm using neon colors for my Groovyghan and I'll post updates as I complete each step.

That reminds me, I better get busy, I'm already behind . . .  LOL

Exhibit by Deb Waggoner

     I stopped by the Hutchinson Public Library today and viewed the January exhibit by Deb Waggoner.  Her textile art is interesting but what really stood out to me was the way it was artistically arranged on the wall.  It was almost like it was two exhibits in one; the actual textile art pieces and then the arrangements of those pieces for display.

     The tag next to this vest, said that it was completed during a difficult time during the artist's life.  It's such a beautiful piece with such hope stitched into it.

     I loved the bottle caps on this messenger bag.

     Knitted with tiny stitches.  This took a lot of patience and time.

     The tag that accompanied this piece reminded me of a quote from Dr. Suess . . .'Oh the places you'll go". 

     I especially liked the quote on the tag that accompanied this piece . . . the work of our hands,*it's never done.  How true, especially for those of us that work with our hands to create art.

     The tag that accompanied this piece identified it as "The Blessing Bowl".  It encouraged the viewer to "Look for blessings both big and small in a conscious manner".  I've been doing that as of late and truly I don't think anyone realizes just how much they have to be thankful for, or how blessed they truly are.

     What a beautiful jacket.

     The artist reception is Thursday, January 28 from 6 to 8:00 pm upstairs in the auditorium gallery.  And check out Deb's website: http://www.twowindowsdyeco.com/index.html

     Someone with considerable drawing talent visited this display and left his mark as well.