Slow Sunday Stitching | Rainbow Afghan | Mermaid Blanket

My Slow Sunday Stitching is a crochet rainbow afghan for my bed.  Rather than measure its progress in inches, I've begun measuring the number of completed rainbows.  Nearly 4!

I finished the mermaid blanket for my niece's birthday but forgot to take a picture of it before I gifted it to her.  What you can't tell from the picture below is that the majority of the blanket is a true blanket that lays on your chest/lap, and only the bottom 15" or so is a cocoon for the feet.  It's not nearly the tripping hazard that it looks like it could be.

You can see what others are slow stitching today over at Kathy's Quilts.

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Slow Sunday Stitching | Rainbow Afghan + Mermaid Tail!

My Slow Sunday Stitching is a crochet rainbow afghan for my bed.  I did get 5 more rows finished on the rainbow afghan but fell down a second rabbit hole in my crochet time today.  A mermaid blanket!

The mermaid blanket is for my niece for her birthday.  I found it as a kit at Craftsy, and it's even cheaper now than when I bought it.  It's going together fairly quickly after figuring out how to use that huge hook.  I thought the large hook in my collection was big enough, but it wasn't the right size to get gauge, so I had to order some.  Prime had it here in a snap!  

See this adorable pouch?  I opened the box from Amazon and thought there must have been a mistake; I didn't order a pouch.  Hmm, opening it up revealed that the set of huge hooks and needles I ordered came in the cutest pouch - totally surprised and tickled pink!  You can find the set here.

You can see what others are slow stitching today over at Kathy's Quilts.

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Slow Sunday Stitching | Crochet Rainbow Afghan

My Slow Sunday Stitching is a crochet rainbow afghan for my bed.  

Yesterday was Pick Up Day at our house.  I worked on picking up all of my messes around the house.  This Ikea cart had become a dumping ground next to my longarm, so I emptied it out and put my rainbow of yarn in it next to my chair in the living room.  Then I worked on picking up my sewing room, and oh my, it's a great feeling to start a new week with a clean sewing room!  It gets the creative juices flowing for sure!

In case you're wondering about the blankets on my chair, the Ombre Trip Around the World quilt was a Craftsy kit that is no longer available, and the Eat Sleep Quilt cotton knit blanket is from the Fat Quarter Shop.  It's the perfect weight for cozying up on these colder days or putting on a layer in the summer when the A/C is just a tad too cold.

I started Lazy Waves two Sundays ago and right now it's about 24" x 72".  There are 16 colors, and the plan is to keep up the rainbow pattern as established, finishing the edges with white.  The size will be determined by the amount of yarn it uses up; this is entirely from my yarn stash, and I'm not buying any more for this project.

There's still time to make something for Christmas!  Get any Craftsy class for under $20 through tonight.

You can see what others are slow stitching today over at Kathy's Quilts.

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Slow Sunday Stitching | Rainbow Crochet Afghan

My Slow Sunday Stitching is a crochet rainbow afghan for my bed.  We've had a really cold spell here, and the covers just aren't enough, so it's the perfect excuse to make a rainbow afghan for on top of my rainbow quilt since the yarn always comes out this time of year anyway.

I started Lazy Waves last Sunday afternoon and have made this progress over the last week.  Right now it's about 12" x 65".  There are 16 colors, and the plan is to keep up the rainbow pattern as established, finishing the edges with white.  The size will be determined by the amount of yarn it uses up; this is entirely from my yarn stash, and I'm not buying any more for this project.

My grandma was an amazing crocheter, and she was the queen of hiding yarn tails.  The afghans she made still do not have the yarn ends poking out 40 years later, something I haven't mastered.  I found this tutorial on weaving in the ends, a method I had never seen before, and it must have been her trick.  I'm giving it a go this time, and hopefully it works.

You can see what others are slow stitching today over at Kathy's Quilts.

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Slow Sunday Stitching

Today was most certainly a Slow Stitching Sunday.  Yesterday I succumb to the crud my family has had over the last several weeks, and I'm lacking in energy.  But my hands are always busy doing something; they just won't sit still.  

For a long time I've wanted to make a fabric rug for the guest bathroom in aqua and red with a dash of orange and pink.  While I was in Yuma, AZ in February, I met a lady who brought this Rag Rug pattern to the ladies' sewing circle that my mom attends.  She was needing help getting started, so I offered what help I could give her.  I've had this pattern in my stash for several years, and she motivated me to finally make one.  So, thanks to Judy from Wisconsin {whom I hope to see in AZ next winter}, I'm making one!

I found some lower-quality fabrics in my stash that were just what I had in mind - red gingham, red flowers on aqua, tiny daisies on orange, pink hearts, and a bright aqua polka dot.  Then came the tearing, clipping the openings to join the strips, and the pressing.  In hindsight, I should have pressed the fabric first and then rotary cut the strips.  It would likely have saved time, and I wouldn't have had so many strings to deal with.  Since the fabrics are single-sided, I pressed them wrong sides together to keep the print showing on the outside, and it's working great.  I've finished one-and-a-half rows and am tickled at how much the prints actually show.  

There's a learning curve to get the stitches spaced evenly.  I placed the stitches in the first row close together because I didn't want the foundation fabric showing.  It's the white strip in the picture above.  I found that my stitches were too close together on the first row, so when I added the second row, it was pulling and would not lie flat.  I took out the second row and went back and widened the spaces between the stitches, and this seems to have taken care of the puckering problem.  It was like how crochet puckers when there are too many stitches for a given space.

I was thinking this would be a several-month project, but I was pleasantly surprised that it goes fairly quickly, so perhaps this will be a spring finish after all!

Linking to:

♥ Slow Sunday Stitching ♥

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