Not bad for only working on them on the subway and on my lunch breaks at work!

I’m still debating how I want to join them together. Whip-stitch will probably look best, but sc might give it a bit more stability… I’ll have to experiment!

It was full of happiness:

See that yellow-ish yarn peeking through on the left side of the box? I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with that yarn… it was cheap, and I like self-striping yarn, and I got 10 balls of it, just in case. (I also got 10 balls of a pink-and-white striping yarn of the same type).

Then it hit me, when I was almost finished that green-and-cream dishcloth from the last post: this yarn would look fantastic in the swirly-hexagon motif!

So, I started the dishcloth pattern again, but with 30ch to begin (instead of 15 for the dishcloths). I did try 15 sts originally, but I found that each wedge was *almost* a single colour, and that wouldn’t really look nice, in my opinion, so I decided to go big.

Here is the result, pinned out (colours a bit off) :

Here’s a close-up, it’s a bit fuzzy, but the colour is more accurate:

And it’s quite drapey!

(Yarn is Bella DK Tapestry, using a 6mm hook)

This might end up being a Christmas present, too… we’ll see!

I’ve talked about gauge before. I hope we all know now that even if you get gauge with one dye lot, you might not with the next. Different colours of yarn sometimes have different gauges, even if they are otherwise the same yarns… even in variegated and self-striping yarns (I’m looking at you, Bernat Baby Coordinates White)

The other day I made this:

It’s for my cousin; she likes handmade dishcloths and her kitchen colours are blue, green, and yellow.

I also made this for her:

(it’s actually more blue than grey in person… it’s supposed to look like denim)

And then this green-and-cream one:

I finished that last one on the commute home and it wasn’t until I stacked it on top of the other two that I noticed this:

All three dishcloths were made using Bernat Handicrafter Cotton, each with a 6mm hook, each exactly the same pattern.

Luckily, gauge doesn’t always matter. ^_^

(P.S. this post documents the first finished Christmas gifts for 2010. That’s right, you heard me!)

Haley’s Comet – from Crochet Stitch Motifs – 250 Stitches To Crochet, page 61:

Mediterranean Circle – from Crochet Stitch Motifs – 250 Stitches To Crochet, page 209:

Dream Weaver:

Flower Petal Dishcloth and Potholder:

Four round standard granny square (with Boa!) :

Tunisian Short Row Dishcloth:

Star To Star – from Crochet Stitch Motifs – 250 Stitches To Crochet, page 214:

What I wanted to do was this:

What IS “this”?

Well, it’s my attempt at the short row tunisian dishcloth pattern in a blanket size. There’s six wedges, and I love rainbows, so it seemed natural to do six colours in rainbow order.

So I started the orange wedge:

Now, I started with a full ball of the red and had lots left over. I started with a full ball of the orange and ran out about three and a half rows short. No big deal! Just another excuse to go stash diving.

No more orange? $@#&!

I could probably get away with one less row, but three? And a half?

Luckily I found some in the scrap stash, but is it enough?

It was! And I’d love to show you a picture of it. But the batteries in my camera died after taking this shot:

I think it’s the finished Lollipop blanket. Do you think it needs a border?

So, tonight I started sewing together all of the finished green hexagons I had so far, using the winning layout (despite the winner being the opposite of the way I was leaning).

Here are the first two joined:

Looking good! Looking good!

What?

Oh! You went and looked at the various places I did the poll, eh? Well, aren’t you the thorough little blog reader!

Ok, I confess. I *meant* to join them the other way. I’m not sure what happened here. Don’t worry, though; I ripped out the stitching and did it right the second time:

I’m getting annoying little gaps in the corners, so I’m going to have to do something about that at some point. I’ll decide exactly what that something is once I get the whole blanket together.

Today at work I made some progress on the yellow star blanket:

I think one more work day and it’ll be done.

I’ll leave you for today with this final thought:

You know you’re a yarnaholic when you come home to find your stuffed bear reading one of your knitting books:

I’ve made a bunch of swirly hexagons up and, after consuming copious amounts of caffeine to counter the hypnotic effects, I posed them in a couple of ways for your consideration.

Which do you prefer?

Option 1 (aka Klingon Layout)

Option 2 (aka Opposite Layout)

Vote in the comments! Or via e-mail if you’d prefer: fantastic dot mio at gmail dot com

In the meantime, I’ve joined a swap on Craftster! Specifically, the Amazing Crochet Motif Swap. It’s being run by my favourite crochet pusher on Craftster, craftADDchick (some of you may remember her from the 12″ square crochet-a-long). It should be fun!

In completely unrelated news, I’ve bought a new book! You see, Charles wanted to get out of the house this weekend, and really wanted to get some new reading material so we headed off to Chapters at Runnymede. He took lots of pictures, and I bought a book:

I’ve barely had a chance to look at it, really. What post-it notes? Oh, and just ignore Charles if he suggests that I’ve been keeping the book next to the bed so that it’s handy just before I go to sleep. (My most creative time is between 11pm and 1am. It’s a curse.)

And he didn’t even buy anything. *sigh*

Anyhow, more pictures from my trip to Alberta under the cut!

Safety first:

Huge tracks of land next:

And finally, the stupid-face Michaels in hick-town Medicine Hat:

To be fair, I should post a picture of the Michaels in Toronto, oh wait!

Yeah, I’m not bitter at all…

It’s the swirly hexagon that got me! (swiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrly!) I wanted to see how many hexes I could make with one ball of Bernat Satin.

Apparently almost five. I was just one long row and one wedge away from making five, to be exact. (swiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrly!!)

I’ve decided to go with a mix of solids and two-colour hexes, so I’m well on my way to finishing the green one, which is great news!

I should probably find out how big a child’s blanket normally is, though. Anyone?

P.S. sssssswwwwiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrlllllyyyyyyy!!!