Babyblanket — CrochetAlong

The babyblanket is coming along nicely. Another 10 rows, finally the edging and we’ll be done.

Crazy to think about it.

Even though we only started in mid October it feels like I have been in this forever. We had tulips, and granny stripes, and bobbles (single- and two colored); we had the spike stitch as well as the star stitch. All in all, 110 rows in the colors of the rainbow. To make up the pattern, to write the instructions was a lot of fun (even though more sophisticated, more complex than I thought it would be).

This is where we got last Friday:

Babyblanket Babydecke Crochet AlongIf you’re interested in looking at everyone else’s beautiful blankets have a look at my Facebook account.

Last night, I finished the „prototype,“ the archetypal blanket. Like I said: Crazy to think about it …

My Green Shrug

In summer, I bought this lovely yarn (Woolhair, „Super Kid Mohair“, 55% wool, 30% mohair, 15% polyamide), green as peas, olives, the lawn – my favorite color by far. And I knew it had to become a shrug.

I had no pattern but an idea and kept knitting round after round after round (width: 180cm, height: 40 cm). Finally, two little sleeves and … no more. Because all that was left to do was an endless kitchener stitch seam from one sleave to the other. I dread the kitchener stitch.

Hence, I hid the whole thing at the bottom of my WIP basket. It’s been sitting there, patiently, for weeks until the day before yesterday. A friend was over, we sat chatting and crocheting after dinner and suddenly I felt like finishing the shrug. And I did!

Here it is:

Don’t just LOVE this color?!

The Big Knit – knitting hats with Innocent Smoothies

I first saw innocent’s little brochures at Frankfurt YarnCamp, asking for woolly hats… and I was hooked immediately. (Before that, I didn’t even know innocent existed – turns out they’re not just about smoothies, they actually care about people. Love at first sight! )

Here’s the amazing part: every little hat sold with innocent smoothies comes with a donation to help keep older folks warm, cozy, and connected through the winter. How cool is that?

This year alone, almost 12,000 hats have been knitted in Germany – some of them are actually tiny works of art!

So last weekend, my mother and I jumped in too. She knitted the basic hats from leftover yarn, and I handled the finishing touches – pom-poms, flowers, all the fun stuff (you know I can’t resist flowers 😉). By the end of the day, we had 31 hats ready to go!

If you love crafting and want to help, you have to join in! The deadline is December 1, 2013. Check the German innocent site for patterns, ideas, and all the details—or watch the English video. Trust me, it’s worth it!

Off to the post office to send our little hats on their way – who’s next?!

Crochet Along

Hooray – I finished both blankets last night! The acrylic one measures 42″ x 42″. The sock yarn blanket is almost twice as big at 44″ x 70″. I’m really happy with both. The smaller one will go to a baby in Washington, just as planned. The bigger one gets to stay with us – for now :).

I’ve been crocheting these since June 1, and believe it or not, I’m still excited. Still hooked. And already ready to start the next one.

This time, though, it’s going to be different. I designed a new blanket together with Jessica over at schoenstricken.de. It’s made of cotton yarn in rainbow colors and will end up baby-sized – about 27″ x 35″. With Christmas coming up faster than expected, we decided to turn it into a German crochet Along, that is: a CAL.

The idea actually started over the summer. I introduced the concept of a Crochet Along to Jessica’s readers as a guest blogger. CALs aren’t that common in Germany (yet), but the response was amazing. So we kept going. We started meeting once a week. I would crochet. Jessica would take photos. Slowly but surely, a colorful beginner blanket came together.

We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. The stitches and patterns have all been used before. Some I learned with Hannah. Others come from books or online sources. But the combination – that’s ours. And we love it.

Tonight we posted the first 10 rows. I have not been that excited since waiting for a test to be returned in school. Fortunately, all comments are positive throughout!! And I am very much looking forward to next Friday and the next 10 rows … 🙂