Why Not? Blanket

The yarn was on clearance. I bought all that they had, and made this little blanket. Yarn was super chunky, so I went with the new square pattern that I learned two posts ago- to avoid having too many huge holes. Blanket is thick! Warm! About a yard x a yard.

Small Multi-color Afghan

A long while back, I had some odds and ends in some brighter, pastel colors, and I decided to work it all into little squares, as there wasn't enough of any of them to work out a pattern for something larger. After finishing a couple more projects, and discovering a bag full of old yarn at my parent's house, I had some more scrap yarn to work with, and made up more squares to go with the original batch.

Each square is about 4 inches wide/tall, and I decided to make this blanket 10 squares by 10 squares, to make it larger rather than smaller. It did end up pretty big for a baby; my mom said that it was about "crib-size", but I could also see it being about the right size for a toddler. It's pretty gender-neutral, doesn't really scream all pink! or all blue!. I also added a border around the edge, of one row of single crochet and another of half-double crochet to hold it all together, weave in seams, and add some sturdiness to some of the slip stitch edges on the squares. I used the same white for the border as I used to slip stitch the squares together on the back side.

I did still end up with 3 extra squares, to start off the next little-square project.

Green Afghan- New Square Pattern

I learned a new pattern for a granny square, and decided to make an afghan out of it. This pattern is a little less holey than traditional granny squares, and has an X-shape built into the pattern. I had to learn how to make 'clusters' to make this pattern, but once I had made one or two of these squares I had it down. I think it turned out pretty nice, and I like knowing how to make more than just my standard square. This blanket turned out to be a pretty good size, as pictured. The entire blanket was done in a light green color, and there's a two row, single crochet border around the edge to hold it all together and tuck in loose yarn ends.

As a reminder, since I know a couple of my friends out there are on their way to becoming aunties and uncles- unless I mention that a project was for someone, all blankets and hats are up for grabs, until donated to charity. Hats go to the UIC hospital, blankets get donated through Project Linus ( http://www.projectlinus.org/ ) to various hospitals throughout the area. So: this afghan could be yours, for your home or as a gift for friend or family member, just let me know if you want it! Otherwise, it will go on my pile and eventually be donated to Project Linus.

Works in Progress

Hat Donation!

Another 25 or so little baby hats got sent off to the UIC Hospital! Photos taken in my laundry room to protect cat-dander-free integrity.

Smaller Afghan

I had some leftover pink and purple from other projects, not enough to just toss aside, and all of the same weight. Made alternating stripes with the two yarns, and bordered the whole thing with some fancier yarn that I had a fair amount of (I think I bought it thinking I would make something big, I used to have several skeins, but it ended up just supporting other projects). This picture makes the blanket look big, it's actually only about 4 ft x 2.5 ft (roughly).

Large Afghan

Another large afghan, primarily in purple, with stripes of various colors (mostly other yarns that I had just a little bit left of).