Sooooo... it's been rather a long while since I've posted. I'm going to TRY posting more often, but my life is a bit of a mess, and I don't find too much time for knitting these days. :-( This summer, I'll be living with my parents up in Maine where they recently moved. This means I'll have LOTS of time for knitting. :-) But until then, we'll see how much blogging gets done. ^^

Current project: making blankets for the bro and sis as sort of going-away-to-college stuff. I had the idea before we all left home, and so it seems kind of silly that I'm doing this after my brother and I have been in school for a semester already, and my sister left home over 2 years ago to go to school.

The idea is to give all members of my family a blanket as a sort of ... "piece of love" that they could have when I'm not there. I made a big afghan for the couch downstairs in our house in Austin the summer before Senior year, which everyone in my family loves and uses. My parents took that to Maine with them, so they already have one. The colors were bright red, darkish green, and muted blue.
Here's the pattern to that one: http://home.att.net/%7EsusanBinKC/patterns/ripple.html




Then I made one for my sister over Christmas break. Here's the pattern for the motifs: http://cache.lionbrand.com/faq/506?.html?language=

It's a bunch of crocheted motifs, made in different colors (i used bright green, red, blue, and purple) and then sewn/crocheted together to make the blanket. Here's the link to the Lion Brand Yarn crochet-along blog that has all the instructions and help and how-tos: http://blog.lionbrand.com/category/crochet-along/

I'll post pictures as soon as my sister takes them and sends them to me.

It was a SUPER fun project, both because the yarn was beautiful (Lion Brand Vanna's Choice) and the pattern was challenging. It really challenged my skills at reading crochet patterns for the motifs, and I learned a totally knew way or crocheting seams. WAY cool. The method is described in the last post of that crochet-along blog. More to come when I get pictures of that.

Anyways, next up: my brother's blanket. I'm making it the same pattern as the afghan I made for my parents' couch, but instead of making it two rows per color, this one is 3 rows per color (thicker stripes). I figured that would be more... manly. o.O Colors are bright turquoise, navy blue, and pale gray. So, they're manly. But still bright. Cuz i bet it gets pretty gray in Portland where he lives.

More pictures later. :-)
Until then, happy knitting!
~YoungKnitter