love-in-the-round

emerging out of a several month hybernation ….. the winter makes me become a bit anti-social. TADA! the sun came out today and spring is on her way. i wanted share two baby blankets in the round that my sister, kath, just posted to our family etsy site! hooray!

they are simple and colorful. a perfect size for a new baby to cocoon in. these are just a start to what i know will become a tiny obsession in the next couple of months until i run out of colorful yarn (god forbid!). so please feel free to donate (dump) any colorful acrylic yarn you might have lying about … my yarn box is running thin.

be sure to check out the etsy site: www.etsy.com/shop/webercrafthouse.

watch for updates … finished mixed media piece pics and ideas for a new weaving project!

Kat’s quilting question

I’m back from my travels. I got to see so much beautiful art and architecture, drink Italian coffee, eat sausages and sauerkraut in Austria, hang out with friends and family in Ohio, and after all of it Read and I still like each other. Success on all fronts. I’ll post some trip highlights later.

For now, a question from Bethany’s sister Kat (contributor and photographer for the Weber family etsy site).  She wrote in the comments section of Freehand Baby Quilt, and I realized in trying to craft a response that I wanted to share the links with everybody. So Kat – hope you don’t mind that I turned your question into a post.

For a beginning quilt collect fabric scraps from family and friends. Buying fabric can get expensive. With scraps you can play around and if it looks horrendous, you can scrap and start over without feeling guilty.

If you haven’t quilted before I think it’s helpful to buy a little booklet on quilting basics at the fabric store. Or you could research the basics online (Sew Mama Sew has a nice tutorial). I made my first quilt without researching anything, only to find out later that there are a bunch of little tricks and techniques that really help.

As for freehand vs. pattern, I think that the only necessity is a plan. Doesn’t matter whether that’s your own sketch and some templates cut from cereal boxes, or a pattern you buy at Joann Fabrics. There are so many clever, fresh quilt ideas online…here are a few I thought you might like:

Wee Wonderfuls makes beautiful yet simple quilts. It’d be easy to frame a bunch of scraps in white for a quilt like this.

Artists and friend Bonnie Hull from On the Way used men’s shirts from goodwill to make a quilt. Excellent thrift-store-hunting inspiration.

Orange flower: sketchbook just posted yesterday about hosting a piece-along for a zig-zag quilt (a project partly inspired by this quilt from Purl Bee). It got me thinking about making one…

image from The Purl Bee

 

Hope that helps Kat! Please send me pictures of your quilting process. 

rainbow blanket

first final project from the mass of colorful acrylic yarn

it turned out beautiful! not sure if any of the future acrylic yarn projects will be able to top it.

maybe i’ll just make a series of rainbow blankets … or scarves as we are finally feeling the winter weather out here in cincinnati.

yarn!

i found a sweet box of yarn at an estates sale last saturday!

yay!

 

so on with the big circle blankets… no fear of a yarn shortage in the near future!

also – an update on the blankets: i am about 2/3rds finished with one. suggestions are gladly welcome!

 

i've gotten to the hard part now...

 

fun layers

blankets blankets and more blankets

i am slowing settling into my new apartment in cincinnati after several years of life adventure in texas. part of settling in is getting out my blankets to start crocheting again. while some may pick up a cross-word puzzle book… or play with their i-phones… in the ten minutes i have here and there (which quickly turn into hours) i crochet.

for the past couple of years i have been on this kick crocheting large, crazy colored, circle blankets. im not sure how it got started. the very first one – which i call mine – was crocheted out of bits and pieces of yarn that i had collected over 4 years of college, 1 year in over-the-rhine, and 1 year in denton, tx.

the original... sits on the back of the big leather couch

since the first one i have lost count of how many i have finished ( i went a little crazy…) between christmas, weddings, and birthdays – many loved-ones have found themselves gifted with a blanket.

my mom's blanket in action (emily, a sister, on left & mom on right)

so here is what i am currently working on…

not just one...

but two blankets in progress

i don’t have any pattern for the circles… i just feel out when to increase around and sometimes drop in a different crochet pattern to add interest in the round. color-wise: i tend to stay on the cool side of the color wheel using blues, greens, purples – with highlights of yellow and red.

i did step out of my comfort zone with the black yarn (see the blanket on the right) – i had inherited a bag of accent yarn that was spun with black as the base color. so decided (against my gut instinct) to go for it and use the furry black yarn that i had been avoiding. i am a bit unsure right now about how it will turn out in the end. Any suggestions about using black yarn? and weaving in color?

p.s. to all of ya’ll who do have a blanket: i would love to receive a picture of you (and maybe someone you love) snuggled up in it! i would love to start a blanket-love album …