Starting to Put It Together

I finished all the octagons, squares, and triangles. I'm starting to sew everything together. In my stash, I found a large ball of white, Mary Maxim Mellowspun DK yarn, the same weight as the Stylecraft Special DK used in the afghan which I'm using to sew things together. Using the hidden seaming technique, the white yarn is not visible. Basically, the edges just butt up to each other for a smooth join.

Aligning the 'x's helps keep the edges even with each other. Supposedly there are the same number of stitches in each side of the adjoining shape but I do a bit of easing when things don't seem to be lining up.

I'm this far in the process:

I gave it a light steaming to smooth things out a bit. Acrylic yarn doesn't like high heat as it can 'kill' the acrylic and make the fabric floppy. I dampened a linen tea towel and used it as a pressing cloth. 

I've also started making more octagons and have two finished. I'll also need to do three more granny squares and two more side triangles.

Yesterday was our monthly stitch day. I worked on a couple of projects but mostly gabbed with the other stitchers.

Then I came home and finished the Teresa Kogut 'Jingle Bells' ornament with the bells I had purchased the day before at Kimat Designs' booth at the Quilting at the Lakes quilt show in Buckhorn. I also ordered some '2025' charms which will arrive tomorrow. I like to affix them to ornaments as I finish them. If course I couldn't just order a couple, rather there are dozens coming so I'll share the surplus with my fellow stitchers. 

Jeanette has made it a goal to FFO something every week. That's a bit ambitious for me but I'll definitely be doing more fully finishing for the next little while.

The bells themselves don't 'jingle' but the effect is there. I have two other patterns in this series:

and

that I haven't stitched yet. I did, however, complete her other star ornament  in 2022 which I need to locate and FFO.

XS149 Star Shaped Snowman

Looking back on my blog post on the subject, I mused about adding 'bling' to it. Great idea. Maybe on the tips of the boughs and on its eyes.

• I watched the rest of the first season of 'Departure' on Netflix. I found it to be a bit contrived but do enjoy anything Archie Panjabi is in. It's also probably one of Christopher Plummer's last roles. The second season starts with another transportation disaster. Of interest to me was it starting at Union Station in Toronto and involving crossing into the US at Windsor. Once the disaster happened, I determined it to be pretty similar to the formula in the first season. Lots of 'red herrings'. Sometimes I get confused/frustrated with too many of them.
• I also started watching the Netflix docuseries on the Dallas Cowboys. Skip was an avid NFL fan so it's kinda comforting watching it. I remember him talking about Jerry Jones and have seen Jimmy Johnson interviewed. He was a bit of a dick in the early years with the Cowboys. Skip would have enjoyed the doc and would have filled me in on a lot of the public's response to the various events depicted.

16 Octagons

I didn't have anything scheduled this morning so I started the 16th octagon. I finished it early this afternoon. The last one is in the bottom row, second from the right - mustard edge.

Just for a change of pace, I'm going to start doing the triangles except for the bottom ones because I'm definitely going to add 4 more octagons to the bottom. 

This is the order Lucia Dunn used in her colourway. I love the randomness of it. Kinda reminds me of how my mind works. It would probably drive crazy any folks that crave order or who want to use a colour palette suiting their décor. I think a turquoise or more purple would look cool, too.

This would be such a great design for using up lots of colours in the same weight. The centre part is usually one of the 'fans'. All octagons use the same colour for the 'x' rounds and the round two rounds below - Buttermilk in this case. The last 5 rounds alternate with that colour and whatever colour will be on the outermost round. 

I'm going to weigh each colour of the remaining yarn after I do the triangles and will use the 'heaviest' ones for much of the next 4 octagons. 

I haven't really looked at what the border is like but will investigate and also take a look at what variations other people have done. If I have to buy more Astra yarn for the border, I'm OK with that. 

Very Close to Perfection

Today was the first day of school for many folks who either work in or attend an educational setting. It also marked the beginning of my 19th (!) year of retirement. I had put in 30 years and was close to the 85 factor (age plus number of years of service). I decided to retire 4 months early rather than start a new school year and bail part way through. Also, Skip had already been retired for 8 years and I didn’t want him to have to wait any more for me. 

This morning I slept in. Then posted this sassy photo on Facebook whilst still in my pyjamas.

I then puttered around a bit, had a coffee, did a couple of crossword puzzles and prepared myself to go out for a ‘To Hell With The Bell’ lunch with former colleague and fellow retiree, Cindy. Two of the other invitees were away on holiday.

Back at home after lunch I got set up out on the deck and finished up Octagon #14.

It was so pleasant sitting out on the deck. I treasure these days because it was so hot so much of the time this summer and soon it will be too cool.

There are still lots of bees enjoying the flowers.

With supper finished I’m getting ready to head out for my Tuesday night crafty group. I’m taking my crocheting and some pencil roving for one of our participants who is learning to spin. 

All it all it has been almost a perfect day.

 

12 Down, 4 To Go

I finished #12 a little while ago and did a half-assed photo shoot on the kitchen floor.

I filled in with a few of the granny squares. 

The little tags correspond to the numbers in the pattern. I erroneously started an octagon and got as far as the fans only to realize I was following the colours of one of the grannies and there were no fans, or any other rounds. I'm keeping that erroneous one and will finish it as one of the 4 extras once I'm done the original 16 octagons. There will be more than enough yarn to do more tiles. I might even be able to crank out 8 more as I'm just finishing the first ball (of 3) of Buttermilk.

I don't have a deadline in mind - they're just so addicting to crochet. I finish one colour and have to start the next colour right away.

At stitching on Monday I hauled out the long-neglected Newcastle Bouquet which I abandoned back in  2022. I did a bit on it at my last Elim retreat last fall. I had taken several UFOs and on the Friday spent an hour on each one. I plan to do that again at this fall's retreat.

One thing that held me up was the transition from one page of the chart to the one below. This was printed before Teresa used a three-row shaded area to align pages. So today I made working copies and taped each page to the one below. That should help with finishing the basket and lower motifs.

One big modification I did was doing the letters in Algerian eyelets rather than clusters of four cross stitches.

I only had to modify a couple of letters - K and R - from the original pattern. 

I'm motivated to do more work on this project. 

Jeanette has an ambitions plan to fully finish one project a week. Finishing takes a long time and includes locating all the necessary materials, deciding on what and where to cut, whether to pad with batting or not, what trims will be used, etc. I have a stack of projects I've finished stitching that need to be fully finished as well. I'm setting my goal at finishing one every month.

Although I enjoy the stitching and am OK with not finishing things right away, I do have some cute projects that really should get fully finished.

Hard to believe September starts tomorrow. 

Snow Friends, More Octagons, and a Very Cool Google Feature

I cleaned out a basket in my office and unearthed this piece I stitched and abandoned possibly 25+ years ago.

It's 'Snow Friends' by Imaginating of Crossed Wing Designs. I think I still have the chart which is a good thing because when I did a photo search on Google Chrome, there are a bunch of little birds feeding on seeds on the ground and a LOT of snow.

There was a lot of detail - backstiching and French knots. I like the sunflowers, mittens, and little birds. Maybe I'll finish and frame it. I could do the snow with half cross stitches which would make the task a bit easier. 

I finished the ninth octagon today and started the 10th. I took the finished ones outside for a photoshoot on the glass table on the deck.

They're in no particular order. I weighed the remaining Buttermilk skein after having completed the 9th octagon and still had 20+ grams left with almost half the afghan finished. There are two more full 100g balls so I might have enough as is to add 4 more octagons and the corresponding triangles and squares. That would make the final size approximately 120cm x 150cm or 46" x 57". There is more than 50g left in each of the other colours. 

I have discovered an excellent photo search tool already on my iPhone. It's through Google Chrome. Basically you open a new Chrome page and on the top right there's a squarish icon.

Tap on it and it opens Google Lens. You can either take a photo of what you want to identify or if you already have a photo, tap on the picture icon on the bottom left and it will take you to your photo library on your device.

Tap on the photo in your library and within seconds it will tell you what the photo depicts.

That's how I got the details of my unfinished project after all these years.

Try it! I think you'll be as impressed as I was.

Octagon #7

Last night I completed the seventh octagon. The colours are Fondant, Mustard, Spice, Pistachio, Duck egg, Storm blue, and Buttermilk. This one didn't have too many mistakes - possibly only a couple of counting errors on single crochets which would get corrected on the next round.

I took the first six outside yesterday for a photoshoot on the glass patio table.

Filling in with some of the granny squares.

When the stitchers were here on Tuesday, I remembered I had crocheted this afghan YEARS ago using acrylic yarn (probably worsted weight) I bought at the now defunct Zellers. It's pretty big. All the centres were done with yellow yarn. I whip stitched the hexies together and didn't leave a ridge. That worked well because all the hexies had the cream colour as the outer round. However all my octagons have different outer colours so I'm even further convinced I'll seam them together invisibly - using a type of ladder stitch.

I remember making it and then deciding to enlarge it. Because I hadn't added a border, it was easy to just add more hexagons. It's been folded up in a closet all this time. 

I have nothing on my calendar for today so will probably crochet another octagon. I might even do some stitching. 

I hauled out a UFO on Monday at stitching - Teresa Kogut's 'Newcastle Bouquet'. There isn't a 3 row shaded area to easily stitch from one page to another so I need to make a working copy of the pattern and tape some of the pages together. Photos will follow...

A Stitch Day, Garden Walk and More Octagons

Yesterday I had Jeanette, Marilyn, and Barb over for some stitching. We had a very pleasant time talking about our projects, future plans, and life events. We're looking forward to our guild's retreat at the end of September.

I mostly filed away a bunch of random floss from projects I've finished stitching and have emptied the project bags. Then I worked a bit on the Bees in the Greenhouse project. I finished the flowers in the second panel which were supposed to be echinacea. However the called-for colour was coral and not to my liking. I made them Black-eye Susans instead. 

The pattern called those bees, Sweat Bees - not as chubby as the bee in the first panel. They have green legs.

Later that afternoon I took a couple of photos in the garden. I love the bright colours of the zinnias.

If I get around to it next spring, I'll plant more resplendent ones - with more and denser petals.

I love the sunny 'faces' of these guys - a type of Coreopsis.

I finished another octagon yesterday 

and one today. I did a big boo boo on one of them and didn't discover it until a couple of rounds later so didn't frog back. I compensated for it so it's not really obvious and certainly I can live with that. 

6 down, 10 to go. 

I haven't done anything about getting more of the pale yellow 'buttermilk' yarn. It's used for at least 2 rounds of each octagon and granny square including the 'x' rounds. The pattern calls for 3 - 100g balls for the 16-octagon blanket I may do another 4 plus corresponding granny squares and triangles. To conserve this colour I could just use it on rounds 11 and 13 (the 'x' round). I plan to use invisible seaming so and use any colour for that. 

Will start Octagon #7 tonight.

• Have been watching 'Dept Q' on Netflix - kinda creepy but good.