Crochet Celebration

The edging is done on the little 42" x 42" hexagon blanket. It's definitely the most vivid item in the house!
It was very pleasant to have this project always at-the-ready while watching television or taking a coffee break.

Fall Ahead

These blocks are destined to become a Bento Box quilt. The colors are very autumn-ish, mostly brown, gold, orange, olive and turquoise.
Thanks to Lucy at Attic 24 and the crochet tutorials she's posted on her lovely blog, I've put about a hundred hexagons together this summer. Most of the wool is Cascade 220, twenty different colors. I'm going round and round crocheting a narrow edge on it now to finish it and attempt to fence in all those colors!
I'm so grateful to have learned this new hobby, and Lucy's blog has spread through the internet and inspired hundreds and hundreds of crafty people to put bright happy colors into their lives.

The Stripe-itty Bag

This has been a fun project! Still to do: add straps and weave in tail-ends. It's made of cotton, not the gorgeous yarn Lucy used, but I'm still learning.

Lucy's pattern is posted in her blog, Attic 24. (Thank you, Lucy!)

Am I late for Mardi Gras?

As a beginner to crochet, I hooked a dozen hexagons and realized I'd made single crochet on Round 4 instead of slip stitch. The mistake made the 5th and final round on each hex look gappy.

But it was a good mistake, because when I attached the corrected 5th round on a hex, I attached it to another hex at the same time. So instead of a short stack of separate hexes, they were actually coming together in a project.

After connecting seven, I went around with sea-green and then red. It's seriously color-y and bright. It made me think of Mardi Gras and a piñata and the roof of a fabulous merry-go-round. It's about 14 inches wide.

Cotton Dishes?

While practicing round crochet, I realized it was starting to look VERY familiar! The twin to my Fiesta dishes!

I don't know if any dishware match the next practice pieces, though! They resemble little Japanese kites. They're a joy to make, and with a bit more practice, I ought to be able to get one made that's perfect.

Stitch Student

Got some much-needed practice this weekend, trying Granny Squares in cotton, wool, and acrylic. Cotton can be quite a workout, and wool has a nice stretchy quality that lends itself to the process of crochet. And acrylic! Gak! It surely has its uses, but I'm pretty sure I've bought my last skein of it.

The Grannies were coming along fine, I thought, until I realized I'd forgotten to 'chain 3' at the beginning of new rounds, so a lot of my double crochets were looking quite hunchbacked.

Then I tried Lucy's Hexagon How-to at her cheerful, colorful, helpful blog, Attic 24 and forgot the 'chain 1' between the double crochets, and it looked like I was making a bowl. So out those stitches came. But it wasn't discouraging, and I continued on.

Yellow, Squared

After watching some videos on YouTube and reading some needlework books and blogs, I tried my first attempt to crochet a square. I was totally lost for about the first hour, my hands had no idea what I was trying to get them to do. But once I ripped it out and started over about the seventh time, it was easy!
Compared to knitting, crochet seems very carefree. No stitches lined up on the needles. It's as if you make it up as you go along, as if you're creating something out of nothing.
I think BLUE would look wonderful alongside the yellow!