New baby sling

So a friend is having a baby, and we were having a surprise shower for her.  She's having a girl, and she likes to be very girly at times, so I thought it would be fun to make her a super girly sling.  Unfortunately, my only pair of sling rings* left were black.  I thought I could either go with a girly color and a black accent, or a black sling and a super bright accent.  Since I did not give myself much lead time, the decision was made when I couldn't find a really bright linen blend at JAF.  So I went with black linen blend and a bright pink print for bias tape.

I did the gathered shoulder instead of pleated for no real reason.  I think either way seems fine.  My friend was delighted to get the sling and loved the colors - so that was a win!

*I ordered new ring slings from www.slingrings.com - I decided to go with the neutrals and colors nylon samplers, just to check out more of the colors and have them on hand.  Basically, if you're buying more than 3 of the rings in the pack, it's worth buying the sampler.  Also, I discovered that an order over $35 gets free shipping.  My expectations were low for shipping time, since traditionally free shipping takes forever.  But I was surprised!  I ordered late on Friday night, got a shipping notification on Saturday, and my rings arrived Monday!  Great customer service.

Time for new appliqued shirts!

So I was told that my niece had requested a PINK shirt with Boba Fett on it.  Well....that kind of started an avalanche of shirts.  True confessions: I tend to buy shirts to applique when I see them on clearance or a really good sale, and I don't always remember what all I have.  So when I went looking, I discovered 14 total shirts, including 2 long-sleeved size 6-6X shirts (current size), 4 tank tops, and 8 short-sleeved size 7-8 shirts.  Then there are the numerous size 7-8 long-sleeved shirts that will not be discussed....

So I started digging through appliques and fabric scraps, and eventually matched templates/fabrics/shirts together.  Nine went the Star Wars route - including 2 Boba Fetts (one is on a tank top).  I'm especially amused by the R2D2 from keyboard fabric.

And then I threw in some random others, just for fun.  It amused me to use a paw print fabric for a paw print applique.  The butterfly is leftovers of a neat print that I used for bias tape to bind a baby sling.  The Pokemon bunny is leftovers from boxers for Things 1&2.  And the skeleton animals are leftovers from a project that hasn't yet been finished.

I sent seven shirts in the first box - both the long-sleeved shirts and 5 short-sleeved.  The rest of the short-sleeved shirts and the tank tops will go in another month or two.

Snowflakes in {Whenever that's not Winter}

I was on Pinterest a few months back, which is always dangerous.  I was thinking about what to work on after finishing the current afghan, and this snowflake afghan pattern popped up!  It's the free, it's worked in blocks, it's beautiful, and it's got some interest to the blocks - looked like a total winner!  Unfortunately, the pattern is written to sew the blocks together rather than crocheting them in place, but I figured I'd just crochet them together and see how things went.

I loved the dark blue/white combination, so I went with the Peacock blue and plain white Red Heart with Love yarns.  I don't remember exactly when I started it, but it seemed to work up pretty quickly.  An added bonus was that each block had only 4 yarn ends to weave in, instead of the 8 in the stained glass afghan.  And this afghan takes only 59 blocks instead of 82.  Also, it worked great to crochet the blocks together, so that's what I'll do again.  And the second row of the border gives some additional visual interest - almost looks like popcorn.

I really like how this turned out, and hopefully the recipient will, as well.  In the meantime, I've started the second version - this time with a dark red.

Repetition is the name of the game

When I find something that works, I tend to stick to it.  This is another example. I wanted a new afghan as a portable project.  So it has to be fairly mindless to do, interesting somehow in the end, and easily carried (so made in blocks or strips).  And I don't want to have to sew blocks/strips together - I want to crochet them in place.  This afghan had caught my eye years ago, but it was finally time to give it a whirl.

I'm always drawn to the shaded colors.  I love the ombres.  I just don't usually know how to use them without making everything seem too much.  So I chose a pretty yarn and went to town!  I think the ombre here is Wildflowers.  I made test blocks with both black and white, and I think both would be gorgeous.  But ultimately, purple is my aunt's favorite color.  (I used Red Heart with Love for the solid - think it was Lilac.)

I really liked how it ended up!  This is spread out on my queen bed.  I think it's really pretty, and my aunt loved getting it for her birthday.

I also made another one for a friend, but she hasn't gotten it yet, so I won't post a pic.  Eventually I'll get it up.  In the meantime, I wanted one for MY living room.  I have blue and brown couches, so I chose a blue/brown ombre (Reef Super Saver) and started up.  My intention was to use the dark brown (Red Heart with Love) for the whole thing, but The Husband thought it would be too dark.  So I searched the super saver aisles and tried buff and warm brown (I think) in sample blocks.  Then I thought it would be neat to use them all.  So I planned out a scrappy but organized layout and even enlarged the pattern by a couple of rows so that I could lay it out the way I wanted.  I think it turned out really well!