FINISHED! An Afghan in 3 Months

Hello:

I have finished my Transfiguration OWL Afghan, WITH a border.  I used the beautiful Eight Pointed Flower Square by Julie Yeager.

The challenge was to "vanish over 2,400 yds of yarn."  I hooked up a square and weighed it to get an idea of how much yarn I was using per square ( about 124 yds), then multiplied that by 20 squares.  Already I had 2480 yds of yarn.  That didn't include the yarn to sew everything together, or the border rows.  I would easily make the required yardage.

The next part of the challenge was to learn and incorporate a new technique in the making of the afghan.  I learned a new method of starting and then joining crocheted rounds, Air Crochet. It is absolutely beautiful.  It really makes the joins invisible. Now that the Winter Term is almost over, I should have a bit more time (when I am not frantically knitting socks for Sock Madness), so I hope to do a demonstration of the technique here.  Though, if you follow the link I gave, you can just learn it that way.  It takes more time because you have to completely finish off every round.  And, that means a lot more weaving in.  I think it is worth it in the professional look of the finished product.

Because I know I have a problem with finishing, I made myself state in my OWL proposal that the half-way mark would include 12 squares, SEWN TOGETHER.  This was probably the smartest thing I could have done.  Every time I finished 4 squares, I ... sewed them together.  Then, I ... sewed that row to the rest of the afghan.  It is amazing how little finishing work you have to do if you finish as you go.  I don't know why I avoid this with knitting and crochet.  I mean, when I cook, I always clean as I go.  I put away ingredients as I use them so that when I am ready to pop what ever I am making in the oven, or sit down to eat, there is very little clean up.  Because of the new start/join technique (air crochet), I was weaving in each round as I finished it.  That meant that the only weaving in I had to do was the sewing ends.  Again, I did that as I sewed.  When I started the border rows yesterday, I had only to sew in the last row's ends.  There was no dreaded feeling in my stomach when I started the first border row because I knew I had NO OTHER ENDS left to sew in.

One other good thing about this afghan.  I often wing the colors of crochet squares as I go.  Because you have to submit a plan for your OWL before you start, I had to really think about the plan of each square, what colors I was going to use, and how I was going to hook it together.  I think you can see a bit of the two rugs in the above photo that inspired the colors.  Also, it was really nice to have made a plan in advance of how I would rotate the various color combinations.  If you look closely though, you will see one random variation of the color scheme.  I had to throw one odd square in, just for fun.  It was completely spontaneous.  I can only change so much.

Here is what the back looks like:

 

I would like to thank the designer of the square, Julie Yeager, for such a beautiful design.  I think it takes a strong square to make an entire afghan, and not look boring.  This square allows for so many color combinations. 

A complete success.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a new afghan.

Fast Post Before I Leave for Stitch Night

Spring is coming!

Hello:

Quick post because I have been stitching more than posting, and then, even this is not of all that I have been working on, but I have hit the "half-way mark" on my Transfiguration OWL Afghan which is 12 squares sewn together.  Whew!  Can we say run on?  But I need to post fast...

Here it is:

I LOVE IT!  And I still need to show you all how I am doing the color changes and take some close ups of the joins because they are invisible.  I kid you not.  Such a pro Hooker.

More tonight of the stitch meet up.

Peace.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with half of an afghan.

Honestly, this is a view from my back deck.

Train Knitter

Hello,

[warning!  further down there is photograph of a piece of art that is a male nude]

My daughter, Moogie, was home for the weekend.  It was her 21st birthday.  So good to have her home, but of course, all the fun with her played havoc with my knitting.  The above photo?  Not me!   I took her to the train station this afternoon,

 and as I was driving home on the 90 fwy, she sent me a photo entitled, "Train Knitter."  So if you were the knitter on the Seattle to Portland train at about 2:20 pm, That is a photo of your knitting!


We went out for dinner so the Doc could buy her her first legit drink, and I made her a strawberry cheesecake for her birthday cake.

Then on Saturday afternoon, we went to the Bellevue Arts Museum.  They have 3 very cool exhibits going, a Bamboo one, a Fiber one, and a Paper Cutting one.  For those of you not from Bellevue, our museum shows "Art/Craft/Design."  It's not your typical famous painting museum.  For me, though, especially with the Seattle Art Museum just across the lake, it is perfect. 

This weekend was the last days for the bamboo exhibit.  I took some photos, but then I realized that while I could photograph the fiber and paper cutting exhibits, I wasn't supposed to photograph the bamboo, so I won't post those.

I will just say, really amazing shapes.  I kept thinking of knitting and cables. 

The fiber exhibit had all different expressions of fiber usage.

There was quilting but not quilting you might expect (sorry, I didn't get the artist's name for a few of these):

close up of the quilt

fiber and some type of like puff paint (again, sorry no artist's name):

And Crochet (this one is by Jo Hamilton and is called "Bridging Shine."):

And a close up of the face:

There also was an exhibit of the paper cutting artist, Nikki McClure's work.  Her stuff is amazing.

 Again, thinking of knitting, I kept thinking how cool her work would be as an illusion knit.  Since it is just positive and negative space, it would translate really well into that medium.

Other than partying and museuming, I did work on my afghan for my Transfiguration OWL.  I am using the beautiful Eight Pointed Flower by Julie Yeager.  I have finished 2 rows (8 squares), and almost 2 more squares.  I need to have 12 squares finished and hooked together to meet the OWL half-way mark this month.

I am really happy with how it is turning out.

As is Beena.

 Peace.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with 2 rows of an afghan

ANOTHER ANOTHER Knot in Vanna's Choice Yarn

Hello,

More fog.  When will it end?  Sometimes I feel like I'm in a post-apocolyptic movie...

Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand

I don't like to write negative things.  Normally, I just don't discuss a product, show, book, etc. if I don't like it.  This is something most Children's book reviewers do.  Or don't do.  I mean, they are sent many many many more books than they have time or space to review.  If they don't like the book, they write nothing.  They don't mention it at all.  When you have limited space, why waste it on bad writing?   This makes sense to me.  Also, I hate to hurt people's feelings.  Ok, little chance what I write in this blog will get out very far, but still. 

This morning I was all set to write a glowing post about Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand.  I usually go with pretty cheap acrylic when hooking afghans, because acrylic = cheap.  I figured that "Vanna's Choice"  ?  really?  a Celebrity Acrylic Yarn?  How ridiculous.  Also, I hate brands named for people.  Call me an anti-consumeristic rebel.

Or something like that.

Anyway, I am using Vanna's Choice for my Transfiguration OWL afghan for HPKCHC.  The afghan where I am using the beautiful Eight Pointed Flower Square by Julie Yeager.  I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I love the feel of this yarn.  It is soft and squishy.  Yes, it is.  The colors are deep.  It is a bit splitty, and I have to watch for that, but otherwise, it is hooking up soft, squishy, lovely squares.

Then, as I was hooking my 6th square this morning, I found a knot in a beige ball.

Ok, that wasn't a horrible problem.  But, I thought, really?  I mean, it's acrylic.  It's not like they are dealing with a natural fiber that has a staple length.  Can't each piece of yarn be a set amount?  Like, long enough to fill an entire ball for sale?  I guess I don't know enough about how acrylic yarn is made.  But I just cut the yarn at the knot, and went on.  I had just finished 1 round of single crochet with chains ... well it's in this clever pattern, the place where you turn the flower into a square.  I needed 2 rounds of half double crochet (hdc) in beige, before I changed color again, for the complicated color scheme I am using.

Back to the yarn.  I am cutting the yarn at the end of each round anyway, because I have become obsessed at trying to make my joins completely invisible.  It wasn't so bad that I had to cut the yarn there.  I started the first hdc round and found ANOTHER KNOT! 

Really?  2 knots that close together?  What was the point of connecting such a small piece?  They couldn't just connect a L-O-N-G piece with the first knot?  As I was in the middle of the round, I just kept hooking, hoping the knot would be invisible at the back of the square.  I finished that round (invisibly, I might add), and started the last hdc round.  Oh Dear!  ANOTHER ANOTHER KNOT!

 So, someone had the cheap idea to just tie in 2 very small pieces of yarn to this ball.  This is not $50 yarn.  But it is not the cheapest acrylic, either.  The ball was not sold as a "second"  or "mill end."


I have had good luck with Lion's Brand Yarns.  They have many choices that are reasonably priced and decent quality.  I am ridiculously saddened by this.  I thought I had made a GREAT find.  I love to make afghans, and I was willing to pay the bit more for softer squishier... better acrylic!

I stopped after the last knotty round. 

I have been trying, with this afghan, to have a back as beautiful as the front.  Should I just rip these rounds back and throw the yarn out?  I will have to buy another ball for sure.  UGH!

Peace.
yours,
f1bercat
taking a deep breath and trying to put the fact that her yarn has 3 knots in one ball in perspective... I mean no one is sick, or worse.  It's just yarn.... sob.

The First 3 Squares

Hello:

Super weird weather here;  freezing fog.  We are having "dead air" where there is no wind or rain, and our air quality is getting poor, so the county has issued a burn ban meaning no wood fires in fire places, wood stoves, bonfires, fire pits, etc.  I have never seen anything like this.  It's a fog that never burns off.

Anyway, I have finished the third square of my Transfiguration OWL Afghan. Again, I am using Julie Yeager's Eight Pointed Flower Square.

I am still trying to decide how I want to seam the squares together.

The squares will have either a navy or a "claret" (dark red) single crochet border.  These will alternate so I never have two squares with the same color border together.  I hooked the first two squares together with a contrasting color (beige) that is visible from the right side.

I hooked the third square on with an invisible seam.

At first, I thought I would go with the contrasting color seam showing.  I have 3 votes so far:  2 for invisible, 1 for seam showing.  Now that I have the two to compare, I am thinking that I like invisible better.

What do you think?

I need to have at least 6 squares finished, and seamed by the end of the month, along with all my other knitting.  EEEK!  I need to decide this soon.  Until then, I will keep making the squares. 

Let me know which looks the best.

Peace.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in a freezing fog.

Please, Help Me Decide How to Join These Squares

Hello:

For my OWL (a project that should take 3 months) for the HPKCHC, I am making a 20 square afghan.  Each square will be 12 x 12 inches and there will be some type of boarder. 

I have made many afghans over the years, but given them ALL away, except for the one I made as my wedding gift to my husband which is on our bed though looking a bit thin after 30 years and many washings (our cats love to sleep on it ...)  We really need some nice afghans for both the living room and our TV room (that's what we call the family room).

I have been so inspired by the BAMCAL group I am in (it's the 2013BAMCAL this year).  I loved almost all of the squares we made last year, but I didn't want to make a sampler, so I went back over the squares I made as I was hooking together Himes's ghan, and chose a few to think about.  Then I took a really good look at the rug in the living room, and decided to make Julie Yeager's Eight Pointed Flower with LOTS of color changes.

The OWL prompt I chose is for Transfiguration, and it is to Vanish a large amount of yarn.  For crocheters, that means 2,400 yds.  I used about 124 yds for each square I made last summer, so if I make 20 squares, I will already be over the minimum at 2483 yds, even without the crocheted border.

 For the OWL to be accepted, you have to do a bunch of preparation and submit a real project proposal.  I NEVER do this type of thing.  Honestly, I always just wing it.  I make afghans without making sure I have enough yarn, and if I run out and can't find the right color, I just add a new color.  My stripes are always random.  And so on.  I had to be really disciplined this time. I was not very exact with my squares last year, and few are really 12 x 12, but this square was right on.  I knew if I had gauge, I could be sure my squares were the right size if I followed the rounds I added on to make my 2012BAMCAL squares.  I actually made a little "template"  so I could decide color changes in advance, and have some uniformity and plan to it all.

The pointy things are supposed to represent the petals.  I am working with an old version of Paint, so cut me some slack.  I was able to use the fill tool and find some colors that were close to colors in my rug to make up some possible color combinations.

One of the other really cool things about this OWL is that you have to use a new technique.  I asked in one of the Gryffindor chat threads, and someone suggested Air Crochet, Paperclip method, and invisible seaming.

I already use the seaming method (more on that in a bit), but both Air Crochet and the Paperclip method of starting rounds were new to me.  I will not try to explain them here, but might do a tutorial in the future.  Anyway, WOW!  I can't believe how much neater my squares look with these techniques.  Air Crochet is an especially neat way to start a round with a new color, and finish that color off at the end of the round.  The  Paperclip method is much like an Air Crochet beginning, but since you are not changing color, it shows how to finish that round and then continue on to the next round with the same color.  Honesty, sometimes I can not find where I began a round.  Also, I often can't find the final join. 

So far I have finished 2 squares.

I need to seam as I go.  First because I don't want a ton of seaming at the end.  But, secondly, I put in my proposal that the 50% mark would be 12 squares finished and seamed.  The last 50% will include the border, so I wanted to be ahead with the number of squares at 50%. 

The question is, how to seam them?  Usually, I make all of my squares have the same color border, then seam with that color.  But I don't want to do this.  I am going to use the navy and the claret in alternating squares, and I want a third color for the seam, I think... So, I was thinking the beige, or perhaps the olive green for the seam color.  Most likely the beige.  Should it show?  or should I just do an invisible seam and have the blue meet the claret?

This shows the squares seamed together with the seam showing:

and up close:

This is the backside, or what it would look like if the seams were invisible from the front:

I had planned to make the final rounds of each square a sc (single crochet) round.  But now I am wondering if that round will get lost with the seam.  Hmm, maybe I should make the pentultimate round sc and the last round hdc (half-double crochet).  That would make them just a bit wider, and then they would show up better with the seaming.  I think I will make my 2nd pair of squares that way, and compare the two sets.

I would really appreciate any input.  Again, I am leaning towards having the seams show.  This is a pretty busy afghan, so why not make it even busier?


Peace,
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with afghan squares.

Round Photos for Eight Pointed Flower Square by JulieAnny

These are Round Photos of the 2012BAMCAL Group's July Filler Square, on Ravelry.  Every month, the moderators pick a 12" square and a 6" square, then the group members vote on an alternate or "filler" 12 in. square.   There are always amazing squares suggested, and this is definitely one of them.   This square was designed by Julie Yeager, who is JulieAnny on Ravelry.  She has a group there for people who want to be kept up to date on her new designs. She also has a website.   The design is offered for free, and Julie has given me permission to post these round photos.  I also did round photos of her gorgeous Stained Glass Afghan Square. 

This is a 9" afghan block, and since we are doing 12" squares, the 2012BAMCAL group is recommending adding some extra border rounds.  I will be sure to show when the REAL pattern ends, and my border rounds begin.  Any changes I made, and my border round instructions are done in blue.  Julie's excellent instructions are all in black.

The recommended hook is an H.   

I used H for the Red, White and Blue Square  (RWB)

I used G for the Blue, Blue and White Square (BBW), and had to hook one more round of border.

Round 1:

as written 

BBW Round 1

RWB Round 1

Round 2:

as written

2dc between each stitch

BBW Round 2

RWB Round 2

Round 3:

as written

the 2 dc go in EVERY space

BBW Round 3

RWB Round 3

Round 4:

as written

BBW Round 4

RWB Round 4

Round 5:

as written

BBW Round 5

RWB Round 5

Round 6:

special stitch: 

"sc dec over 6 st":

Draw up loop in next st

skip 4 st, draw up loop in next st. You will have three loops on hook.

YO and draw through three loops.

as written

BBW Round 6

RWB Round 6

On the Red, White, and Blue square, I added an extra round of sc here with 3sc in the top of every OTHER point.

RWB Round 6 A

Round 7:

with ch6 in front

as written

with ch6 in back  

BBW Round 7

RWB Round 7

Round 8:

as written  

BBW Round 8

RWB Round 8

Round 9:

as written

BBW Round 9

RWB Round 9

Round 10:

I sc'd 12 times, then attached the petal, 

then did 11 more sc.  This centered my petals.

otherwise, as written

BBW Round 10

RWB Round 10

This is the last round of the pattern.

I measured here to see how many border rounds I would need. 

The square needs to be 12 inches.

My Round 11:
BBW

Join B with sl in first sc of any corner

ch 3 (counts as 1st dc)

*[2dc ch 2 2 dc in next sc (corner made)]

dc in next 26 sc*

repeat from * to * 2 more times

repeat from [ to ] once more

dc in next 25 sc

attach with sl st in 3rd of beg ch 3

finish off

120 dc,  4 ch2 spaces

BBW Round 11

measured

RWB version same as above but start with ch 2 (counts as hdc) and do all hdc.

RWB Round 11

My Round 12:

Join color C with sl st in any corner ch 2 sp

ch 3 (counts as 1st dc)

dc ch 2 2 dc (corner made)

*[dc in next 30 dc],  2 dc ch 2 2 dc in ch 2 sp (corner made)*

repeat from * to * 2 more times

repeat from [ to ] once more

attach with sl st in 3rd of beg ch 3

finish off

136 dc, 4 ch 2 spaces

BBW Round 12

RWB Version:

same as above except begin with ch 2 (counts as 1st hdc) and use hdc instead of dc

RWB Round 12

My Round 13:

Join color A with sl st in any corner ch 2 sp

ch 3 (counts as 1st dc)

dc ch 2 2 dc (corner made)

*[dc in next 34 dc],  2dc ch 2 2 dc in ch 2 sp (corner made)*

repeat from * to * 2 more times

repeat from [ to ] once more

attach with sl st in 3rd of beg ch 3

152 dc, 4 ch 2 spaces

BBW Round 13

measured, need one more round.

RWB Version

Join color with sc in any corner 2ch space

2 more sc in same space

sc in each hdc with 3 sc in each 2 ch space

join with ss in first sc. finish off

RWB Round 13 Final Round

My Round 14:

since I need about 3/4 in,

sl st to corner

ch 2 (counts as 1st hdc)

hdc ch 2 2 hdc (corner made)

*[hdc in next 38 dc],  2hdc ch 2 2 hdc in ch 2 sp (corner made)*

repeat from * to * 2 more times

repeat from [ to ] once more

attach with sl st in 3rd of beg ch 2

168 hdc, 4 ch 2 spaces

measured

finish off

BBW Round 14 Final Round

I want to thank JulieAnny for this amazing design.  She is so creative, yet her instructions are very clear and easy to follow.  This square was a joy to hook.

Stay safe and well.

yours,

f1bercat

shaping the planet with lots and lots of ends to weave in.