Tiny Striped Turtle

I found this cute little amigurumi turtle pattern here. No problems with the pattern. I used scrap yarn and 9mm eyes. I'm on the fence about the size of the head. Sometimes when I look at it -- it's fine, other times when I look at it -- it's too big. Either way it's cute!


My Ravelry project page for Tiny Striped Turtle.

Upside Down Sweater

This is an Upside Down Sweater, you can wear it two ways -- one way is with the k2p2 band as the collar and front edges (left picture) or "upside down" with the k2p2 band as the bottom edge of the sweater (right picture). The design intrigued me immediately upon seeing the pattern and I had to knit it! I've listed my changes to the pattern below and while I do love the sweater I love it only with the k2p2 band as the collar. The upside down way feels slightly twisted and the collar, which is now 1" of k1p1 ribbing doesn't lay nicely.

Notes:

The pattern was written for Plymouth Yarn - Ashton (50% Baby Alpaca, 40% Fine Merino, 10% Silk) but I substituted Naturally Caron - Country (75% Microdenier Acrylic, 25% Merino). I used 9 skeins (185 yards, 85 grams) of Charcoal.

Because the sweater is suppose to be worn upside down, I didn't really understand why you would have a shoulder seam for one version and not the other, so I put the last rows of the back, the left front and right front on stitch holders and eliminated the shoulder seam entirely by grafting the front pieces to the back.

The k1p1 ribbing needs to be more than 1" -- maybe 2" and even consider doing a k2p2 ribbing to match the big band.

I lengthened the sleeves (I like lonnnng sleeves!) and knit them in the round so I didn't have to seam those as well. Increasing a circular k2p2 pattern by 2 stitches every 6 rows proved a challenge! There was a lot of frogging and experimenting. How you increase and where makes a difference as evidenced by this:

Pretty increasing

Not so pretty (frogged!)

My Ravelry project page for Upside Down Sweater.

Victory Junction Afghan #4

This is the second summer I've been able to make and donate two blankets (The other afghan is here) to Victory Junction, a summer camp for children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. At the end of their camping experience each child gets to take home a hand-made afghan and a hand-made teddy bear.

This blanket was made from a granny square called "Fox's Little Boxes" and it worked up incredibly well in the Victory Junction colors of red, yellow, green and blue. It's a quick and easy pattern to use and follow.

Details:

Each square measures 7" using a J hook.

Red Heart Super Saver colors Cherry Red, Paddy Green, Bright Yellow, Royal and Aran.

A total of 30 squares -- 8 green, 8 yellow, 7 red, 7 blue

The squares were staggered in a pattern of:
GRGRG
YBYBY
RGRGR
BYBYB
GRGRG
YBYBY

The afghan measures 35" x 41". This is a little short of their requested minimum of 35" x 45" so next time I'll add another row to the length.

Edging:
Row 1: Dc into each stitch and ch 1 space of the last row working (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) into each corner.
Row 2: *Sc, fpsc* (front post single crochet) around the blanket working 3 sc's into each corner.
Row 3: Sc around the blanket working 3 sc's into the middle sc of each corner.

Notes:

The last row works (3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc) into each corner and all of the previous rows worked (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) into each corner. I kept forgetting to add the additional dc's for the last row!!! In the end I had to take out about 1/2 of the last rows and rework them. I kept the (2 dc, ch 3, 2 dc) pattern because if I corrected with the right amount I would have been short and had to add yarn which would have resulted in weaving a bunch more ends -- something I try and avoid at all costs!

Most of the rows begin by slip stitching to the corner to start the round and I adjusted the beginning of a few rounds by starting the new round where the last round ended. I know the pattern was easier to write by having each round start in the corner but it did reduce bulk slightly by making this adjustment.

I think this afghan would look great in random scrap colors and I will try out that idea when I make the next one.

My Ravelry project page for Victory Junction Afghan #4.