New Baby! and Knitting!
My neighbor just had her first baby...a little girl. My mom called me up and asked if I could make a blanket and toy set for her. She wanted them knit, but when looking through Ravelry, I found a beautiful Tunisian blanket that I just had to reproduce. At first I was afraid of learning a new, and what I thought would be complicated, crochet technique, but it is so easy! The stitches are very simple, and the effect is a cross between traditional crochet and knit. I just love it!
1) My trail swatch with my first attempt at the shell border, viewed from the front of the blanket.
2) The back of my trial swach, before border.
The only problem I am facing is my lack of an afghan hook. Oh, I can fit all 156 stitches on my normal crochet hook, but it is a huge pain, and I loose shaft space as I need a rubberband wrapped around it a bunch of times to provide a stopper so the loops don't fall off. Unfortunately Walmart does not carry afghan hooks, and JoAnn's is 1 hr away (I go to school in the middle of nowhere). I could order one, but 1) I lost my keys along withthe mailbox key, much to M's annoyance since we now have to share keys and haven't gotten our mail in a week, and 2) my mom wanted this done fairly quickly, so I really don't want to be waiting a week for an afghan hook or paying up the wazoo to ship it in 2 days. I think I could probably get it done in a week, but this week needs to be spent studying for finals next week. Maybe I'll have it done by the end of finals, as it is still going fairly quickly, even with the short normal hook.
Now I just need to figure out what animal to make as a toy. My mom asked for an elephant, but I told her she could choose something else. I've done so many elephants lately! I thought maybe a bear, dog, or rabbit...but she goes and suggests a monkey 0_o So now I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I keep going back to the elephant...I think it would be so cute in pink and yellow stripes (like my original elephant in green and yellow), with white ears, tail , feet, and trunk. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I currently have 1 elephant on my needles (although I only have 1/2 the head left, so maybe I should just finish it). I want to get the blanket finished first though, priorities and all that n_n
1) My trail swatch with my first attempt at the shell border, viewed from the front of the blanket.
2) The back of my trial swach, before border.
The only problem I am facing is my lack of an afghan hook. Oh, I can fit all 156 stitches on my normal crochet hook, but it is a huge pain, and I loose shaft space as I need a rubberband wrapped around it a bunch of times to provide a stopper so the loops don't fall off. Unfortunately Walmart does not carry afghan hooks, and JoAnn's is 1 hr away (I go to school in the middle of nowhere). I could order one, but 1) I lost my keys along withthe mailbox key, much to M's annoyance since we now have to share keys and haven't gotten our mail in a week, and 2) my mom wanted this done fairly quickly, so I really don't want to be waiting a week for an afghan hook or paying up the wazoo to ship it in 2 days. I think I could probably get it done in a week, but this week needs to be spent studying for finals next week. Maybe I'll have it done by the end of finals, as it is still going fairly quickly, even with the short normal hook.
Now I just need to figure out what animal to make as a toy. My mom asked for an elephant, but I told her she could choose something else. I've done so many elephants lately! I thought maybe a bear, dog, or rabbit...but she goes and suggests a monkey 0_o So now I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I keep going back to the elephant...I think it would be so cute in pink and yellow stripes (like my original elephant in green and yellow), with white ears, tail , feet, and trunk. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I currently have 1 elephant on my needles (although I only have 1/2 the head left, so maybe I should just finish it). I want to get the blanket finished first though, priorities and all that n_n