I left this out of my last post because it really needs a good blocking; but since I never did do that here it is with all its crooked lines. This is a rayon boucle yarn from Numei and the pattern is a Lion Brand free pattern 'Circles to Squares Afghan'. It’s a nice summer weight ‘lapghan’.
Last year I saw this cute blanket pattern, Crayon Blanket by Melissa Dominguez, and purchased the pattern to make in the future.
Last month I spent an hour or so at Joanns choosing an array of brightly colored acrylic yarns (did you know that it's hard to find a bright yellow unless you're willing to use RedHeart).
Three days later I had almost finished the first crayon – it was basically like knitting a scarf. I tried to do the lettering in intarsia as written in the pattern (changing colors across the rows with bobbins of yarn hanging from the back of the work) - intarsia is my least favorite knitting technique; no way could I keep that up for 5 more crayons. I ripped it back and decided to do the letters in duplicate stitch (embroidering over the knitting). But I ran out of yarn before completing the last two letters. Rather than spend more $ on 6 more skeins of acrylic yarn, I decided to ditch this project and returned the rest of the yarn. (If you have the patience this really is a nicely written pattern and makes an adorable kid size blanket).
But it was a such cute idea - I really wanted to make a crayon blanket for Emily. I decided to sew one instead. Back I went for another couple hours at Joanns to choose coordinating fabrics, followed by an internet search to see what current Crayola wrappers looked like. Measured an actual crayon for proportion and drafted pattern pieces. Cut all the pieces, fused interfacing to the satin portions and batting to the lettering, appliqued lettering to the black 'seal', appliqued the black sections to the color wrapper, sewed the ends and points to the wrapper, sewed the crayons together, made a quilt sandwich of backing/batting/crayons, basted it all together, and lastly machine stitched vertical lines between the crayons and horizontally at the joins.
A few days to sew vs. a few weeks to knit.
Em's Crayola quilt:
I went to visit in NC the week before last (brought the Crayon quilt with me).
I started a small shawl waiting for the plane on Thursday and finished it on Sunday - a quick and fun knit: Annis. Its for a holiday exchange - a group of knitting friends bring a skein of yarn to a holiday gathering, everyone randomly chooses a bag of yarn sight unseen; then each knitter is to make something with the yarn to be donated to charity and bring it to the next year's holiday gathering. I was lucky to choose a bag that had a generous skein of hand-dyed sock yarn by local St. Louis dyer, Dyeabolical Yarns. I love the way this shawl is shaped and am inspired to make another in a larger version in the future. Haven’t blocked it yet so will include a photo in my next post.
After I finished with Annis, there were several days left of my visit. I had packed a beaded lace project to work on. What was I thinking!! - a bowl of beads and a nine month old walking around the furniture - definitely a recipe for disaster. Instead I went to Michael's and bought yarn to make a jacket for Emily, almost finished it before it was time to get back on the plane and head home. Michael's had Vanna's Choice Baby on sale that week and the pattern is the Storybook Baby Hoodie by Lion Brand. Hard to see in this photo but we found some very cute polka dot and striped buttons at Walmart (there are not many fabric notion shopping options in or near Havelock, NC).
It's fun being Nana.
Of course there's never been a cuter, smarter or more beautiful baby ever:
