Project...Breast Cancer Blanket and Yarn

I have been doing so many things lately and I want to tell you all about them...but do any of you get overwhelmed with the amount of things you can talk about that you hit a stale-mate?

OKay, well, I guess lets start off with what I have planned for today. I have some blocks to make for Nicole's children blankets. See, we have several blocks that came in to Knit Knack after the Breast Cancer blanket was put together so I am putting those blocks together for Nicoles two lovely kiddo's! However, there are not enough blocks so I am making a few more so the blankets are more than just baby blankets :-)

Wait...did I mention that the Arvada Knitters and a few other of her friends came together and made 8" squares to put together for Nicole? Well, we did. The blanket came out great...here are some pictures...

Nicole emailed the group to let us know that she would be at Knit Knack last Sunday. It was so exciting that she was getting out of the house! It was the first time that she was out of the house for something other than a doctors appointment. Well, what better time to show her how much she is loved and has been prayed for than to give her a blanket made with love?

This is Nicole when I first got there...

Doesn't she just look lovely and healthy?

She has no idea that the BEAUTIFUL BOUQUET of

yarn sitting right in front of her was for her to take home!

Yes...a yarn bouquet. We all donated a skein or hank of yarn so Nicole would have some great yarn to work on during those Chemo treatments...Plus...who wouldn't want a bouquet of yarn? Seriously!!!

Okay, here is the play by play...

This is Nicole when we were getting her attention...

...here, she has pulled the blanket out of the bag and is holding it up to see it in all it's glory...

Well, what good is a yarn bouquet if you don't have some

great patterns of wonderful things to make?

Gerri gave Nicole the 101 Designer: One Skein Wonders book

(you know, since she got so many one skeins)

*looks like Nicole has a tie-dyed granny square scarf in her future!!! LOL*

I gave her a stitch dictionary and the Vogue Stitchanary 4 to bring out the

designer in her...

Robyn Chachula sent her a signed copy of the CrochetMe book

Susan B. Anderson had sent me a copy of the Itty Bitty Hats book so I gave that to Nicole as well. Come on...what is cuter than a bunch of baby hats?

Here are two pictures that I took of the blanket before I gave it to Nicole.

Can you see the brown ruffle edging? That took freakin LONG!! But, I think it was the right decision because the non-structured nature of the edging was perfect given the flexible nature of the knitted squares. You know what I mean?

So, details...we all took a square out of the 200 Knitted Squares book. Great book for a project like this and definately one that I will be able to use over and over again!



Yarn: Berroco Comfort. Honest opinion...HATE it for knitting. It splits like a S.O.B. But for the crochet it was WONDERFUL!!! Actually, I think I will use it again for any crochet project (especially the new crocheted rug in the new issue of Knit Simple). The finished product is lovely and washable which is important when you are making a blanket for a woman who has two small children (can I get an amen?).



Size: I don't know what the completed size was but each square was approx. 8" and there are 6rows of five...you do the math? :-)



Edging: I went around the whole blanket a total of three times. The first one was a row of Single crochets to give me a good base to work with. Then I went around a second time and did two Half Double Crochets into each Single Crochet. The last round was putting 3 HDC's into EACH hdc from the row before. I am telling you....it took longer than I expected but I was very pleased with the results!!!



Who put it together? Well, five of us met over at the wonderful Christies house to crochet the squares together into rows. We had pizza, soda, and GREAT brownies!!!

We even got Betsy to crochet...for real...look...she is holding a hook!!!

You see those little red clips laying near the corner of the table? Those are just WONDERFUL! I have to get myself some of those for when I make blankets, bags, sweaters...you name it...they are wonderful for holding pieces together.

So, there you have it...I am not making the little blankets for the kids and hope to get them done by next weekend. I got some more squares today from a couple of other Arvada Knitters to help out and I am sure there will be some more on the way.

When I am done with these blankets we are giving Nicole all the leftover yarn! Lucky her :-)

xoxox

Marly