Finished All the Squares

Hello:

I love these mornings when there are clouds on the horizon. 

I have been working monogamously on the Graduation Afghan for my baby, Pookie.  He graduated from high school in June, and will leave for college in 1 1/2 weeks.  His college is in New Jersey, so he will need a warm blanket.  I made most of the squares last year, but they sat in a bag in the cave (our sub-basement) while I made 3 other afghans. 

I had forgotten how pretty the colors are.  The Doc asked why I wasn't using Princeton's colors (orange and black).  I started this afghan when Pookie was a Junior in High School.  When I knew he was applying to Princeton, I asked him if he wanted me to change the color, or make a different afghan, and he said, no.  He didn't want me to jinx him.  Also, now, he said he doesn't want his room to be all orange and black. 

Yesterday, I finished the last row of squares.  I am making six rows with five squares each.  I needed four more squares.  All of the original squares are from the 2012BAMCAL Group on Ravelry.  For the last four squares, I chose 3 squares from the 2013BAMCAL Group, and added my own design, Spider Square.  

The first square I used is  Squaring the Big Circle by Kate Jenks.

This square is very very easy.  It looks great with lots of color changes.  It's almost like a big round granny.

The next square is a 6 in.  Diamond in a Frame by Rhonda Rowley.

The BAMCAL Group has two 12 in. squares for each month, and one 6 in.  Sometimes I make four of the 6 in. and hook them together into a "foursquare."

Never Fading Flower

Sometimes, I hook four different 6 in. squares together.

Sometimes, I take the 6 in square, and add some type of border, or just keep crocheting until it is a 12 in.  That is what I did with this square. Because the square is very open, I didn't want to make a solid frame.  And, I wanted to skew the square.  So I chained a sort of web, and then attached that to a square frame.

The third square is Cocoa Puff by Melissa Green.  She uses Triple Crochets (tr) in a cool way that adds texture.  You can see this in the puffy white round in my square.

The last square is my Spider Square (have I mentioned that I designed a square?)  I added more rounds so that the 6 in square is now a 12 in.  I used inspiration from the Not in the Middle square by Pia Linden, a Swedish designer.  She says in the pattern that she didn't actually design the square, but more figured out a technique.  I used some of her idea and then added my own.  I am not 100% happy with what I hooked, I tried to use the white yarn to make the extra rounds look like bricks with white grout.  I wanted my Spider to look like he was in the corner of a brick wall.  But as I hooked I got another idea of how to change it to make it look more "brick-like."  I will certainly make another version of this very soon.  Anyway, this how it looks.

This will be the very bottom square on the right side of the afghan so it looks like the spider has just crawled onto the afghan.


I have hooked all the squares together into their rows of five, and added a row of white dc to the top and bottom of every row.

I will start hooking the rows together today.

But, not right now.  I just had some wonderful news.

Right now I will head to the kitchen to bake a batch of brownies.  Then run to the store to get some beautiful flowers.

Our Eastside Stitchers Group has grown by 2 very new members.

Welcome Twins!  And Congratulations! to Hrvdmnky and her DH.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet ... as a new... Yarn Auntie!