What is it? Well, you sign up, are assigned a group, your group rides the TTC (knitting all the while, or possibly crocheting since I’ll be there ^_-) to four yarn shops, and all of the groups meet up at the end to compare purchases and get prizes. At least, that’s the description I’ve been given; this is my first year participating!

I will, of course, be blogging after the fact, to let you know how it went and show you what I bought! In the mean time, you can watch my Twitter feed (or the box over there on the right side of this page) for updates! I’m going to try to take pictures and tell interesting tidbits of stories throughout the day. You don’t need to sign up for Twitter in order to follow me tomorrow, just go to http://twitter.com/fantasticmio and possibly refresh the page as the day progresses, and you shouldn’t miss a thing!

Things kick off at 11am (Eastern)!

Until then, check out the progress on my “Eventually Granny Square” blanket:

It just needs the border and then I’ll have an actual finished object to show off! This one is special in that I don’t know who it’s going to be for yet. Once I’m finished I’ll do up a pattern for those who want to try it at home. If you’re new-ish to crochet and are going to try this, I suggest you learn how to make a traditional Granny Square first. (I do 2ch in the corners, and no ch stitches anywhere else, but this pattern should work just fine with any pattern that has the Granny Square look to it… in fact, ANY square that has the “granny” border on it would work)

Anyhow, it’s not a hard pattern at all; the only part I had to figure out, really, was the valleys between the squares, and it’s actually pretty easy to do. ^_^

I know there aren’t any “crochet police” so you can do whatever you want, but honestly, please feel free to actually *finish* a blanket. Any blanket.

I only bring this up because, despite the fact that you have more in-progress blankets than you can *find*, you still started two more in the last 3 days.

You know I still love you, regardless of what you do,
mio

This morning I started trying some of the patterns. Now, this is a book made up of crochet border patterns (obviously), and while each pattern also has a “in rows” version, they are primarily meant to be worked in the round. Specifically, around *something*.

I wanted to get started right away, though, and I didn’t want to have to fuss with the math of getting the right number of sc stitches around a motif, or for that matter, wasting time making the motif to begin with (before you say it: most of the motifs I have worked up already are not square, and would have lead to even more math. Time’s a tickin’!)

I tried the first border I had bookmarked (#26), using the “in rows” version and felt that I didn’t really get a good feel for the border as half of the stitches were backwards. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal to me, but this was a stitch of particular interest because I’d never heard of it before.

So… there’s a border I want to try, I want to do it in the round, and flat, and don’t feel like making a motif of some sort first. What did I do?

Thank you chainless foundation sc!

Someone on Twitter asked me once (and I appologize for not answering your question there, I didn’t see it until just recently!), how I come up with design ideas. Apparently the answer is: laziness and happy accidents. ^_^

Ladies and gentlemen, I have mastered the bullion stitch!

Tutorial to come just as soon as I get more batteries!

Well, I’ve done one better… I found the actualy blanket itself! As I was laying it out I took note of various lessons we can learn from it.

1. Don’t ch3 between EVERY cluster of 3 dc stitches, unless you want a really holey and ruffly shawl of some sort.

2. Don’t use yarn you’re allergic to. (I’m itchy just from laying it out on the bed to take the pic!)

3. Some kind of border wouldn’t kill you.

Like I said, I made this “blanket” back when I first learned how to crochet. It brought back some fun memories, too.

For example, my vision for this blanket was simple. “I like rainbows!” and “rainbows are seen in the sky!”. I had odds and ends of this yarn – enough to make the rainbow part – but I didn’t have any blue. So, Mom and I headed out to Michaels.

Michaels was having a sale! If memory serves, this yarn was on for 50 cents a ball. We bought a few balls. Enough to make this blanket shawl, anyway!

So, when I finished this thing (?), obviously I had a TON of the light blue yarn left over.

My next Big Plan was a ripple blanket for my brother and his at-the-time-girlfriend. I asked my brother what his favourite colour was which, apparently, is the wrong question to ask a Monte Python fan. Since I had all of this sky-blue yarn, I decided to make them a blue blanket. Makes sense, no?

The plan was to gradually shift from navy blue, through blue, to a medium blue, to the sky blue. It was to be glorious!

I was new to crochet, and so decided to aim my sights low. I’d make a twin-sized blanket.

Off I went to buy a small handful of the other three colours of blue yarn, and I started with the navy blue. Did a bunch of rows. A row of blue, then a bunch more of navy. Then a couple of blue, and a few less of the navy. And on it went.

Of course, the blanket wasn’t just growing in length, it somehow managed to expand sideways into a blanke that was too big for my double bed. I also managed to mis-judge how many rows I’d need, and managed to not use ANY of the sky blue yarn that was the inspiration for the blanket in the first place.

Also, it wasn’t until I was almost finished the blanket that I discovered that I was really allergic to the yarn I was using. (Geez, why do my hands keep turning bright pink when I work on this thing? Scratch scratch scratch scratch….)

Oh, and it took me 3 years to finish the damned thing. In that time my brother and his girlfriend had gotten married. It was a while ago, but I think I ended up giving them this blanket for their first anniversary.

I did luck out in one department, though: their main wedding colour was blue. Success!

And yet, I’m still not clear on what a Granny Square is.

Some would say it’s a very specific pattern made up of groups of 3 double crochet stitches worked into the spaces of a previous round, in the shape of a square, like this:

Some would say that it’s the pattern of 3dc stitches that matters, and that any shape still counts as a Granny Square:

Some would say that what defines a Granny Square is that it is a square crocheted in the round, like this:

Some would say that all that matters is that it be a crocheted square…

or that it be a motif, of any description, that is repeated… (I can’t find the giant granny square blanket I made when I first learned to crochet, so here’s what I found doing a Google Image Search)

And so I ask you, what IS a Granny Square?

Start with a motif:

Make a second motif, and prepare to join on the last round:

On the corners, do a cluster of 3dc, and ch1. Remove the hook, insert it in the hole in the corner of the first motif, and then back through the working loop:

Ch1:

Finish the corner with a cluster of 3dc:

Remove the hook, insert it in the next hole in the first motif, then back in the working loop:

Pull the loop through the hole (but don’t pull the loop too much out of shape!) :

And continue as normal, doing this join in each hole along the common side.

Here’s what it looks like finished:

It’s not perfectly flat, but not as huge of a ridge as the last joining method I used.

Here’s what it looks like when you use the same colour:

Then it was many:

Then it was suspiciously familiar:

A slight side-tracking into the joining method:

And now it’s revealed!

Before adding the handle:

And finished!

(well, maybe… I’m debating adding some blue along the tops of the hexes… we’ll see!)

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my Settlers of Catan bag!

I made this for a motif swap I was in. It was a scavenger-hunt-style swap, and one of the motifs we were to “look for” was one we designed ourselves, and this was mine!

Here it is again in white:

(Um… it snows in the Yukon Territory! Snow is white! Yes, it’s all coming together now…)

Now, I’ve written this pattern in my usual, lazy style. There is no mention of how to start it, so start it however you like to start a motif made in the round. Use a Magic Ring, or just work into the first chain you made, or whatever floats your boat. I also haven’t described any turning chains. Every round is made up of dc stitches, so use something appropriate. I used no-turning-chain-dc stitches, but you could also use a ch2 or ch3. Whatever you use, treat it like a regular dc stitch for the sake of the pattern.

Oh, and don’t forget to join each round. No spirals here!

Octagon Motif:
rnd1: *dc, ch1* 8 times
rnd2: *2dc in ch1 space, ch1* 8 times
rnd3: *2dc, ch1, 2dc in ch1 space* 8 times
rnd4: *3dc, ch1, 3dc in ch1 space, dc in other space* 8 times

And here is the pattern:

Work in rows, leave a long starting tail
ch6
R1: sc in second chain from hook, hdc, dc, htc, tc. ch4 (counts as a tc) turn
R2: htc, dc, hdc, sc, ch1, turn
Repeat these two rows until you have 15 rows.
Use the starting tail to sew the bottom of the first row to the top of the last row. Weave in end.

Working in the round, make 4 sc around the tc stitches around the edge. Join to first sc. Weave in end.

(As always, please let me know if you try this pattern, and if you come across any errors!)