i added two colors for the ocean, teal feathers and water green for the water and foam as the waves hit the shore. i’m not trying to make a realistic picture here, just using colors that remind me of that long ago beach, so i’m putting them in the order that i like best and think are most appealing.
some of my favorite childhood memories are of visits to my grandmothers house each summer. she lived in vancouver and i loved how green everything was there compared to my prairie home. she also lived within walking distance of the ocean and we spent many days playing in the sand and surf. so when meg asked for a new summery afghan to go in their wicker swing, i had to make something that was reminiscent of those carefree days. i’ll save the garden theme for another day but here is the start of my ocean dreams throw.
three shades of cream/light brown for the sand
i’m in a esk kal and adapted it so i could make dresses for my girls instead of a blanket (i know it’s a stretch, but trust me it worked ;))
i still want to do a proper photoshoot when i am done, but meg tried on one of the dresses to day and i took an (embarassingly poor) cell phone picture of it.
i’m not sure whether to sew solid color underskirts for the dresses, or just make coordinating leggings. what do you think?
please forgive me for my long absence, these last few months have been challenging to say the least. my middle child has had some serious health issues that have taken up most of my time. we are hoping/praying that he is stable right now and i may be able to get back to making doll stuff and checking in to my various forums on the net, at least a little bit, anyway.
so one of my favorite yarn stores eatsleepknit is having their yearly yarnathon, and this year looks like a winner as far as i’m concerned. they are allowing us to add projects together for the kals, cals and booster club prizes, so i can work on my doll stuff and actually have it count! 
i’ve started a new blanket for the girls couch. i’m only being cautiously optimistic ’cause i started a christmas one O_O. and i’m working on some shawls that will hopefully get done in time to wear before summer hits. everything is being done in malabrigo lace so far. its the softest lace yarn i know of that doesn’t have cashmere in it, and eatsleepknit has tons of colors!
here’s a sneak peek at my christmas blankie.
i worked on it over the holidays, so took my “on the road” pic already in hopes that they have that badge again this year. if not it seemed appropriate anyway to do a snowflake afghan in the snow.
i’ve been working on this afghan for a couple of years, including a stop when i ran out of yarn and had to order more! i really wanted to do at least one blanket in a really fine scale, so this is done in cobweb weight yarn using a 1mm hook.
now i’m just trying to decide whether it is done and can be blocked as is, or do i need a border to really make it look finished.
what do you think?
i finished up my may cal. it went together pretty fast in spite of being laceweight, probably because i loved the colors and couldn’t quit working on it.
here is meg lying under it for scale on my bed.
can you tell those are some of my favorite colors?
i am a somewhat obsessive crafter, so i always have a bag of stitching to take with me on a moments notice. we went on a day trip to jasper and banff and i took along my current cal to work on in the car. here we are stopped at abraham lake where i a took a “beach shot” on the shore line. i love the contrast of the bright clear colors against the misty background
just in case i didn’t have enough blankets for my girls, i decided to make another one for the may cal. i’m using three colors of malbrigo laceweight from eat sleep knit – azul bolito (dark blue),jewel blue (light blue), and sauterne (yellow) i just loved these three colors together so couldn’t resist. it took a lot of crocheting and frogging, but finally i decided on the design. here are all the centers done and a few of them put together.
i love the way the colors go together. what do you think?
there has been a horrible wildfire raging in the fort mcmurray area. almost 90,000 people havve been evacuated and are waiting to find out if they have homes to go back to. included in that number are my brother and sister in law who don’t have to wait to find out… they already know that their home is one of the over 2000 structures that has gone up in flames so far. we would have helped out anyway, but with that personal connection i wanted to do something just a bit more special. so along with other things i made up a few crocheted bunnies to send to children affected by the fire.
here’s the first
and all three together
if you want to help you can give to the red cross or samaritans purse and designate it for the wildfire relief
the alberta and canadian govts are matching all donations made to the red cross by canadians through the month of may, so your gift will multiply!
thanks
i mixed about three different shades of blue in a dye pot. no idea of how much. just kept adding till i got a deep royal. i started with dylon ocean (light blue) and blue jean (dark blue) then added a whole bunch of blue food coloring to brighten it up. white vinegar and salt as mordants. vinegar because i was dying wool, and salt because the dylon dye called for it. simmered it on the stove for about 45 min. periodically pulling the swatch out to check the color. then rinsed thoroughly in cold water once i was done. the result was that the red turned to a gorgeous deep plum color and even the purply black seems more purple, so i ended up with a deep tone on tone purple. it was even better than i had hoped. i thought it would be purple with black but the black seems to have lightened up and the toning is much more subtle. overall i’m thrilled and hope my niece will like it too.
when i took this picture i realized i had made a mistake down in the first pattern repeat so had to very carefully clip it out res-stitch it. now i’m really glad i made a swatch and had a bit of extra yarn in the right color!
this was as close as i could get to the new color.it’s showing up a little redder than it should be, i just couldn’t get the true color. it is about that dark , but is a tone on tone blackbery purple. the pattern really shows up now and i love it!