Chapeau Afghan

I had found this pattern on Ravelry and loved it the minute I saw it. The pattern was in a hard covered pattern book. I checked ebay and the book was selling for $50 or more. So I sort of gave up on finding the pattern. I looked at afghan patterns on Etsy and it was in a smaller booklet that was printed in Canada and was selling for around $10 plus postage so I ordered it.

I finally got to start and decided that I didn't like 63 as the number. It would be assembled as 9 squares by 7 squares, so wouldn't fold equally. To make it equal, I added a row of black and then would need only 48 squares. When I started making it, there were a couple afghans already completed on Ravelry. As I worked along, I decided to put a row of color around my square and then another row of black. That took considerably less squares. I ended up using only 15 squares of my 48 hats. The crocheted ribbons on the hats were sort of hiter and thither, so I decided to tack them completely down. It didn't take long and I think they look neater.

If I use up my unused hats, or chapeaus they are called, I will use white yarn, so the puppy hair doesn't adhere to it so quickly.

Walter decided it needed to be used in a more pratical purpose. I had it draped on the couch and in the morning, he had scratched it down to lay upon. The little hats popped right back into shape when I shook it to put it back in place. So he proved that it was a practical as well as pretty afghan.

Calla Lily and Antique Rose Doily

I had been wanting to crochet the Calla Lily Doily for years. The Antique Rose Doily was also on my list. I saw someone put the Antique Rose Doily on top of the Calla Lily Doily and that was the push that was needed for me to finally get them done. It took about six weeks to get them both done.

Forsythia Doily

On the Crochet+ crochet site we are doing a vintage doily called: Forysythia. It is a very unusual pattern and we were stumpted at the very beginning. We had a difficult time deciding on colors. I chose the color of yellow and white as shown with the original pattern. On the next to the last round, I did a miscount and did not have enough loops to make all 24 flowers. My error turned out ok though and I ended up with 15 flowers. I plan to make another doily with lavender flowers and call it Wysteria. I'll start that after I finish another doily I was working on when our Crochet along started on April st.

Molly Anna looks pleased with it.

A Sweater for Walter

Walter came to live with me in the middle of November. I had two balls of Fancy Fur by Lion brand and bought a skein of Red Heart to make the sweater. The pattern is from the Lion Brand site. I couldn't get the gauge they wanted and finally I ended up with size 17 needles with the two strands held together for the top/sides. And used size 10 for the bottom gusset. He seems to like it. At least he doesn't try to scratch it off.