Quilting:
I finished 3 flying geese blocks and half of 2 flying geese units on
Around the Town by Dawna Baker.
I finished the 2nd binding strip on the coaster and attached the 3rd.
I pulled out the Tree Frog Trio (designer unknown) based on
No Evil Frogs by
Royce B. McClure and started work on it again. I seem determined to make mistakes on this project. I pieced together the remaining binding strips (necessitated by an earlier mistake), and then proceeded to trim too much of the backing away from the 2nd binding strip which I had already attached. *headdesk* No fixing this one: the best I could do was make sure to pin the binding strip so that the width matches the rest of the binding. It doesn't look too bad, and since this is going to hang on the wall rather than getting regular use the half-empty binding shouldn't be a problem. After I got it pinned in place, I started stitching it down.
Cross Stitch:
Knitting:
Swedish Weaving:
I've almost finished stitching Southwest Memory from Learn to Make Monk’s Cloth Afghans by Marilyn T. Magly.
Crochet:
Finally, I got back to using up my scrap yarn a lot sooner than I thought I would. Seeing a similar afghan online recently reminded me of an afghan that I've wanted to make ever since I saw one that my grandmother's friend had made for her. She called it a step afghan, but I'm sure there are other names out there. Working from memory and making adjustments to suit my own taste, I came up with the following:
The pattern's pretty simple. All rows are worked on the right side only with a different color for each row. Gauge doesn't matter; I'm using a size J hook, but use whatever feels right to you.
Make a chain the desired width of the finished afghan; it doesn't need to be a multiple of anything. It helps to use a hook 1 size larger than the hook you'll use for the rest of the afghan. Most people make their starting chain too tight resulting in the infamous triangular afghan; using a larger hook for the starting chain corrects for this. When your starting chain is complete, switch to the smaller hook.
Row 1: Single crochet in the 2nd chain from the hook and in each remaining chain across. End off. Do not turn.
Row 2: With a new color, join with a single crochet in the first stitch and single crochet in each remaining stitch across. End off. Do not turn.
Row 3: With a new color, join with a single crochet in the first stitch and single crochet in next 8 stitches (9 single crochet total). [Front post double crochet around the stitch 1 row below the next stitch (that is, around the stitch in Row 1), single crochet in next 9 stitches.] Repeat between the [] across. It's okay if the pattern doesn't come out evenly; just single crochet in each of the leftover stitches. End off. Do not turn.
Row 4: With a new color, join with a single crochet in the first stitch and [single crochet across up to (but not including) the single crochet before the front post double crochet in the previous row. Front post double crochet around the stitch 1 row below the next single crochet, single crochet in front post double crochet.] Repeat between the [] across, single crochet in any remaining stitches (if you have 11* stitches left after your last front post double crochet, add another pattern repeat). End off. Do not turn.
Repeat Row 4 until your afghan is the desired length, adding pattern repeats at the left edge as the pattern shifts to the right. You can use the yarn ends at the end of each row as a fringe, or you can weave them all in; I'm opting for the latter since I don't care for fringe.
*Yes, 11. You don't want a front post double crochet right on the edge of the afghan; the first and last stitch of each row should be a single crochet.
Update: I found as I was crocheting this afghan that because all of the stitches are done on the right side, the top and bottom edges curl up. To correct this, I added borders of regular back-and-forth single crochet to each end of the afghan. I did 5 rows for each border, but you could make them as wide as you like. Also, I added both borders after the afghan was finished, but you could start the afghan with several rows of back-and-forth single crochet before starting Row 1 of the pattern. If you're doing fringe, you would need to attach some extra strands to the border rows since there won't automatically be yarn ends on each row of the border. Also, this afghan would benefit from blocking. You can see my finished afghan
here.
