Finished Object - Sophie's Universe Mandala

I started this crocheted blanket last year, after deciding that something needed to be made from the two single skeins of vintage (old) yarn in my stash. I wanted to make something that I hadn't made before, something cute and colorful. 

I found the Sophie’s Universe mandala afghan pattern and thought it was just so neat. The pattern calls for lightweight yarn, but my two skeins were worsted weight aqua and white. I figured the yarn weight didn't matter too much because I was making a blanket. The pattern calls for so many different colors, I had no good way to calculate how much yarn I would need for a little blanket, or how big the blanket might turn out once I ran out of yarn.

I wasn't at all sure how the final product would turn out. Crochet isn't like sewing for me. When I am picking out a sewing project, I can usually see the finished product in my mind’s eye.

  

Once I started crocheting I began worrying that I would run out of yarn, and I didn’t want to play yarn chicken. So, I went through my stash again and found the sunny yellow yarn. It’s lighter weight than the other two yarns, but somehow it works. I loosened up my tension when stitching with the yellow. I was pretty certain that the yellow was going to look out of place and weird when I added it. I love the brightness and cheeriness that is added to the look of the blanket.

This blanket could work as a doll blanket, as a wheel chair blanket, or a snoozing place for a cat or two. Our cats always gravitate to projects I am working on. My UFOs seem to make the best sleeping spots for the kitties. 

LINKS:

Link to LookWhatIMade.net website with all of the Crochet-A-Long with all of the instructions.

Link to the Sophie’s Universe CAL on Ravelry. 

Grrr. As I was taking the photos outside I was reminded of the importance of checking dyelots. While working on the blanket inside, I could not see a difference in the whites. As I was happily snapping away, I noticed the difference between border and the yarn at the center of the mandala and almost fell off the chair I was standing on to take the pics. 

Happy Stitching!

Spinning Wheel / Tumbling Blocks / Illusion Afghan - a Finished Afghan

We have a picture of a finished afghan made from the Spinning Wheel / Tumbling Blocks / Illusion afghan pattern.

Nicole Bush sent us pics of her son's new afghan:

From Nicole:

It took me just under 3 months to make (between work and meetings). I had to read the pattern a couple of times to get the diamond just right (my first two diamonds were wonky!) and in the end I drew a hand diagram of the stitches to make sure it was even, then it was smooth sailing....

My tips:

• Read the pattern carefully as it can be tricky,
• If you follow diagrams better, sketch the diamond while you read it, and
• Be patient.

The pattern charted out.

(Due to camera and lighting weirdness, the colors are different on some of the pics.)

Motifs joined.

My son picked the colors, the walls of his room are orange and chocolate brown, and the inside of his closet and furniture is the beige. His floor is chocolate brown wood and the same color chocolate shag carpet beside his bed. The search was on for the right colors. I used almost 2 of the large balls for each color and it fits a twin size bed.

I did NOT block the blanket or any of the motifs.

Row complete.

Our thanks to Nicole for sending us her pics. Her afghan is a work of art. 

It can sometimes be difficult to picture what a vintage pattern will look like when made with modern yarn. Generally, the vintage patterns uses teeny tiny yarns because that was what was available. We have heavier yarns that work up faster. The difference in color choices also makes a difference in how the patterns look. The colors of Nicole's afghan give a retro look to a vintage pattern. 

We love seeing what people are making with our patterns. So send us your pics of completed projects.

Happy crocheting!

Tapestry Crochet - Here's What We've Discovered About It

We have several tapestry crochet patterns for sale in our Etsy store. Periodically we get questions about the tapestry crochet and the yarns that the patterns used. The patterns are from the early 1900s - around 1913. The yarns are no longer available, which isn't that surprising. Finding a substitute can be a pain. I know I want to see what the old (vintage) yarns looked like so I know what to look for when I am out and about shopping for the latest project.

So, here's what we have discovered about Tapestry Crochet & the yarns from the Fleisher's booklet.

Fleisher’s Germantown Zephyr was likely a worsted/light worsted weight, 100% wool yarn. The yarn was sold in 1 oz, balls. Compared with similar yarns made by the parent company the balls were likely about 100 yards per skein. If you are looking for easy care, an acrylic yarn would be the way to go. Many of the acrylic yarns are virtually indestructible and machine wash & dry. If you are looking to stay true to the pattern, then 100% wool is the way to go. It would be warm; but more of a hand wash item so it wouldn’t felt after all of your hard work. 

I’ve tried and really like the Loops & Threads Impeccable worsted acrylic yarn found at Michael's. It has a lot of body and softens up after washing. Lion Brand makes Wool Ease an acrylic & wool blend yarn. Plymouth Yarns makes a really nice acrylic/wool blend yarn with their Encore Worsted. Joann's Sensations acrylic worsted weight yarn is really nice too. I’ve made a couple of hats for my kids with the yarn and really like how it works up.

We have not yet tried tapestry crochet, but it seems to make a thick, dense fabric, so the crochet hook used is often smaller than those called for on the yarn wrappers.

As for the color options, Attached is a link to a color chart for color available during the time period. As for the color options, we found this Fleisher's Color Chart from 1929 at VintageKnits.com. While the color chart is not the exact time period, it gives a great view of the colors from back then.

When we started looking for information on how-to do the tapestry crochet we found several sources of information. This video by Carol Ventura provides a close-up showing the difference between crocheting back and forth or working the afghan with the front facing you at all times - you crochet right to left, then left to right.  It seems like you can work your project either way as long as you work the correct number of rows. I'm not sure I could get my head and my hands in sync to work the afghan with the front facing me at all times. It does look really cool though.

One of the problems we run into with vintage patterns, especially the really early 1900's patterns is that they rarely provided finished measurements. Once you have a swatch that you like the looks of, you will be able to calculate the stitches per inch and figure out the final measurements of your afghan. I don't have a link for doing this. I'm a lazy crafter and generally go with what the number of stitches the pattern tells me to use.The pattern doesn't provide for fringe, but it is super easy to add. Verypink.com has a bunch of tutorials - she's one of my favorites sources of information for knitting and crochet. Her fringe tut is located here.

Happy crocheting!

Pinwheel Afghan - a finished object

The Pinwheel Afghan is complete. What started as a project to use up yarn from the granny square ponchos became a really bright, colorful and fun project.

Finished measurements: 38 x 64 inches.

The pattern called for a 1mm crochet hook and bunches of lighter weight yarns (28 colors to be exact). I don't have the patience to work with the tiny hooks, though I wish I did. For my afghan, I used an "H" hook and worsted weight yarns. We had a bunch of Loops & Threads Impeccable and Vanna's Choice acrylic yarns that needed to be used. I like the Impeccable yarn. It works up easily and once washed becomes pretty soft and snuggly. It wasn't splitty to work with, either.

When I started the afghan, I placed all of the yarns in a tote bag and would grab colors at random. That worked for a few "squares" but then I started getting a little crazy about which colors should be next to each other. I'm a little too tightly wound to let my hexagons create themselves.

The hexagons are easy to make and the pattern is easy to memorize. I made many motifs at my sons' baseball practices and games without having to look at the pattern. They were easy enough that I could carry on a conversation while working on the afghan.

Measurement of the each hexagon is
10 1/2 inches (measured across the middle).

The size of the afghan is smaller than the pattern, but I was running out of most of my yarns, so I stopped making the squares when I had enough motifs to lay out a lap blanket sized afghan. I steam blocked the hexagons to the same size on my ironing board. I placed pins at each of the corners, then fit the individual squares to the pinned shape and steamed away. The iron never touches the yarn. That would melt the yarn. I placed the iron about 1-2 inches from the yarn and pushed the steam button like nobody's business. I let the hexagons cool, removed them from the ironing board and moved on to the next hexagon.

Once the hexagons were pieced together we had to decide what type of edging to use. I had to have help on this because I hung up on having a rainbow edging and working in every color that I had used in the motifs. I knew the multi-colored edging would look awful, but I couldn't let it go. Eventually Alison & my crochet buddy talked me out of it. We ended up with the navy edging on the outside that really makes the afghan come to life. 

100% acrylic, worsted weight yarns:
Loops & Threads Impeccable and Vanna's Choice solids, along
with a few lost label yarns.

The pattern can be found in our Etsy store.

Project: Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan

 We asked our friend Michele, the speediest crocheter we know, if she wanted to make a "model" from one of the patterns in our stores. She picked a pattern from the 1930's - the Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan. It turns out that women in the 1930's crocheted a lot more than they do now and patterns relied on that innate knowledge gleaned when crocheting so much when they put the instructions together. These days, patterns contain a lot more detail. In fact, watching Michele right now, describing how much longer the pattern would be had it been written recently, is pretty entertaining.

So this is a picture from the pattern.

Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan

And, here is a picture of a single block from the afghan. It has taken the speedy crocheter (and mathematical genius) several attempts to convert the instructions to modern crocheting. We will be posting changes made to the pattern, and modern interpretations of the pattern over the next couple of weeks as she finishes the afghan. All of the changes will be added to the pattern.

The first change made was the yarn type. The pattern calls for Minerva Shetland Floss - a discontinued yarn. The Shetland Floss was a tiny yarn that was worked with a size 12 steel crochet hook. Michele decided that making 124 - 132 diamonds for the pattern would be too time consuming and not much fun.

The yarn Michele chose is Caron Simply Soft. Simply Soft is a light worsted weight yarn that works up easily and is really soft. The hook size she went with is a size 7. It was one size smaller than the yarn calls for because we thought it would make the diamonds a little more stable.

Using Simply Soft yarn made the finished diminished approximately 7 1/2" x 7 1/2".

More project updates will be posted - keep an eye out for them.


Spinning Wheel Cube Afghan listing on Etsy