Thanks to Kyliie and Elle for solving the mystery of this square!

It is the PUMPKIN PATCH SQUARE, click here for the free pattern

So, now that I’ve finally found the mischevious square… any ideas on what I could use it for???

The first thing that springs to mind is to make a cushion to match the afghan, but I’m feeling a bit ‘meh’ about that idea.

Maybe I could keep it aside to use in a freeform piece at some point in the future?

Or donate it to someone making a charity blanket?

What would you do? I’m not feeling particularly attached to it.

• this clearly written crochet pattern creates an interesting 12 inch square
• as written there are four colours used; the colour changes at the beginning of each round – but it also looks superb worked in a single colour
• square requires a 4.5mm hook and approx 50g of 8 ply yarn (DK)
• please read through the assumed knowledge and special instructions before beginning
• US terminology used throughout
• available as a free download – download now

Now this is a technique that I heard mentioned a couple of months back, and finally decided to give it a try for myself.

Blocking with knitting needles.

Obviously it only works for small projects.

I’ve used 2.75mm needles, which are 35cm long. It would have been even better if my needles were actually straight, but these ones are a weeny bit bent.

They’re a perfect size for blocking a 30cm/12 inch suare.

Just weave needles along all four edges. Make sure that your piece is sitting flat, and then give a light water spray all over. Lightly press if desired (although you do need to be VERY careful with some fibres).

Leave the piece to dry or cool down, before removing needles.

How easy is that???

And it saves messing around with all those pins like I usually would.

Have you tried needle blocking yet?

So I’ve started joining.

I’m using what I call a ZIG ZAG join.

Don’t know if that is the proper name for it or not, but you simply work a zig zag of stitches back and forth between the two edges which you are joining.

It’s a bit hard to tell in the photo below, but all of my columns of zig zags are completed

Alrighty then…

I feel like I’ve sickened myself of this afghan.

It’s been a Work In Progress (WIP) for such a long time… and I must have written a bazillion blog posts about it!

So…

If you’re as sick of it as I am, then you might as well stop reading right now.

Just walk away.

I won’t take it personally!!!

Honest.

It’s okay.

Go and make yourself a nice strong coffee… or fix yourself a lemon lime and vodka… or maybe a big baileys on the rocks (depending on the time of day, of course)

For those of you who are still reading – HERE IS MY PLAN…

I will finish this damn blanket…. THIS MONTH.

Absolutely.

Completely.

Entirely.

I mean, the squares are all done…

Do you remember when I went away on the crochet retreat? I had intended to join the blanket while I was gone, but discovered that I had left one square at home???

Well… it didn’t ever show up…

I’m starting to have doubts about whether I actually made it at all!

Sad.

But true.

So I had to make YET ANOTHER square, which I don’t have the pattern details on hand for… so I’ll the blog the details of it another time.

Once all the squares were EVENTUALLY done, I needed to work a border of single crochet around each one… a job which I finally finished at a crochet meet yesterday.

Here they are…

All laid out and ready to start joining…

The retreat was fabulous… magnificent… marvellous… tremendous… excellent… wonderful… superb… phenomenal… amazing… spectacular… awesome… brilliant…

Enough said – I’m sure that you get the idea!

The plan was to assemble my 2009 BAMCAL afghan while away… but I somehow managed to only pack 24 of the 25 squares!!!

Hmmm – maybe some more careful packing next time???

The general idea was that at the beginning of each month, you would be given the link to a free online pattern for a 12 inch crochet square. By working one square each month, by the end of the year, you would have 12 squares… enough to make a 3′ x 4′ afghan. Everyone in the group was working on the same pattern at the same time, so there was plenty of help if you ran into any problems.

My theory was that by participating in this project, I would develop my pattern reading skills – and it has been wonderful for that. I am so much more confident that I can master patterns written in many different styles.

Jumping in at the deep end, I decided to work on two squares each month. That way I would be able to make a large afghan at the end of the year.

Guess what I discovered?

I hate projects that go on-and-on-and-on…

It drove me mad that I couldn’t charge on ahead and finish my afghan. Sure I could finish each square completely, weaving in all the ends, and blocking them so that they looked fabulous… but I couldn’t FINISH…

I had to be patient and wait for the next pattern…

And that was super-hard… as Mr Goldfish will tell you… I am not a terribly patient woman!!!

So, I got bored by the middle of the year – and lost interest.

By the time December rolled around, I had only completed 15 squares. But I needed 25 – AAAARGHHHH!

I’ve been plaing ‘catch-up’ over the holidays, and now have 23 squares done – just two more left, and then I can start joining them.

And would you believe I’ve signed up for two similar projects again in 2010 – I must be a glutton for punishment! This will certainly test my patience…

Anyway.

Here’s those squares I have made to catch up.

firstly, the E-Zee V-Zee Granny Square:

then Circles on the Square:

Falling Star (only available as a Ravelry download):

then the Birthday Flower:

I feel like all I seem to be working on at the moment is these squares… It’s not that I’m not enjoying them, it’s just that I’m no longer inspired by them. But the end is near, and I’m really excited to see the finished project.

Not only that, but I have signed up to do it all again next year!

The 2010 Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long Group is already up and running over at Ravelry. I’m thinking that next year I might make the rug in more neutral colours… and include a combination of 6 inch and 12 inch squares. Then again… the new year is still a month-and-a-half away… that’s plenty of time for me to change direction and decide to go with an entirely different plan.

Everyone is welcome to join in the 2010 BAM CAL. If you are already a member at Ravelry, click here to go directly to the group page. If you are not a member at Ravelry… maybe you should be! It’s a very inspiring place.

Anyway… getting back to the details of this square. It’s called the Hometown Square by Mary McKnight, and you can click here for the free online pattern. I’ve used a 4.5mm aluminium hook, and a variety of DK weight reclaimed yarns.

Didn’t really enjoy this one much. The petal section really annoyed me. It wouldn’t sit flat, and kept jumping up – which made it look ridiculous.

So I made a modification. After I completed the square, I went back to the petal section and worked an addition round to finish off the petals. If you look at the photo, you will see the lighter blue petals, which were part of the original pattern. I then added the navy trim around them. That weighted them down, and gave the flower a more finished look.

]]> http://laughingpurplegoldfish.com/2009/11/21/hello-world/feed/ 1 http://laughingpurplegoldfish.com/2009/11/13/octagon-medallion/ http://laughingpurplegoldfish.com/2009/11/13/octagon-medallion/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:28:03 +0000 Sharon Maher http://laughingpurplegoldfish.com/admin/?p=192 Wow!
Where did the time go???
It’s been ages since my last post.

I could tell you that I’ve been spending every spare moment at the gym, and that’s why you haven’t heard much from me… I can’t very well work out and blog and craft all at the same time now, can I? But that wouldn’t be entirely true. In fact it wouldn’t even be close to true.

You’ve all been so wonderfully supportive of me with the whole underpants issue! And I really appreciate it. Thanks so very much to those who sent messages, especially those who shared some of their own experiences with me.

Now I just need to be a bit more supportive of myself.

I love the gym… when I go, that is…

Once I’m in the door, I quite enjoy it… and of course I always feel wonderful (and exhausted) afterwards… but the really hard part is forcing myself to go in the first place. I seem to come up with a million excuses, and reasons not to go. Not entirely sure why I avoid going, but it’s a negative habit which I’m trying to break.

But that’s not what this blog is about…

I’m here to share my craft

Still plodding away at the 2009 Block-A-Month CAL. For the first half of the year, I was really disciplined. I worked both squares each month, and was well on track for completing the project. But I hit a bit of a stumbling block in August. Both of the August squares used a popcorn stitch pattern, which looked good worked in a single colour… but was just already too busy for me to go all multi-coloured with it. So I didn’t make them.

Well, I did start them… but the results were really disappointing, so I frogged them. Then I couldn’t get back into a rhythm again… until now!

So this is the November Ravelry Square. It is called Octagon Medallion and was deigned by Priscilla Hewitt. Click here to see the free online pattern.

Octagon Medallion was fun to make. It’s visually interesting but the square itself is a fairly solid and stable piece, which meant that it took on a nice shape. This is one of the few squares which didn’t actually appear to NEED blocking, it just came together beautifully.

That being said… I have spoken with a number of others who complained that their squares seemed to buckle and bend, and not sit nicely at all. Having further discussed it with them, they seem to have followed the pattern correctly, but it just hasn’t worked up nicely. Frustrating, huh?

The only reason I can think for why this may have happened is TENSION. Now I can’t remember what hook size I used for this pattern, but I do work with quite a loose tension. So if you find that your work curls in those first few rounds, start again with a larger hook and see if that helps. No point soldiering on with the starting hook. The buckling just gets worse with every round.

This square is called Lovely in Green, by Dayna Audirsch. It is a free online pattern, click here for the link.

It actually worked up quite quickly and easily. I’ve used a 4.5mm hook and recycled 8ply/DK yarns. For the first two rounds I used the same colour, and after that the colour was changed at the end of each round.

• round 1 & 2 – cream
• round 3 – brown and white fleck
• round 4 – dark burgundy
• round 5 – cream
• round 6 – rivergum green
• round 7 – petrol
• round 8 – forest green
• round 9 – mid blue
• round 10 – natural fleck
• round 11 – camel fleck