Temperature Afghan Update

Hi Everyone,

Well the saying goes, "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry...",  and that is how it is with the temperature afghan.  I was doing well, and was about to catch up with this week, when my BFF told me how she had done the math and her afghan would be 17 feet long! HELL'S BELLS, RADAR!

I had to stop, measure what I had and math.  I hate to math, incidentally, so I didn't like doing it. What did I come up with?

22 feet.

If I kept with the current plan, my afghan would have been 22 feet long, and a bit more, before the border was added.  I had to come up with a plan B....22 feet was like 3 times my bed size!

The progress I had made before the decision to scrap

So, Plan B.  I decided to make 7-round granny squares.  Each round will be the high temp of the day, 7 days a week - 7 rounds.  That will give me 52 squares. Since 52 is really hard to make into a rectangle, I decided to add 4 accent squares, one for each corner of the afghan, which will mean I can do 8 rows of 7 squares.

Artist's rendition of the proposed Plan B

I upped my hook size to a J (6 mm) and began the crocheting.  Each square is 8 inches by 8 inches.  By my estimation, the afghan with border, should JUST cover my California King bed come next January.  Time will tell!

The great thing about this was that doing a square with a whole weeks worth of temperatures took about the same time I was doing EVERY DAY for 1 Row!  so this idea is also saving me time and space.

To keep track of the weeks, I simply looped masking tape through the hole in the round 7 and labeled the week number

So I wanted to show you what the first 3 weeks of the year, according to our insane weather here in Northern Virginia has been....

Week 1 - warm moves to colder

Week 2 -  colder moved to warm. Yellow meant high 60's and 70's!

Week 3 - pretty greens

I'm a big fan of week 3, because it just happened to be so symmetrical!

So that's all for me currently.  I'd love to hear how everyone else is doing on your projects  Leave a comment or link to a picture?

Curious about the Temperature Afghan and what it's about?  You can visit THIS POST and join in on the fun, if you like!

Happy Weaving,

~Moxie

Granny Stripe Tote - My First Published Pattern!

Well this is exciting!

A few weeks ago, around Thanksgiving, I started to go to bingo with a co-worker.  I needed a bag for my daubers and do-dads that I take with me to Bingo, and I couldn't' find a bag in my collection that held what I wanted.

So I wrote a pattern!

A word of advice - when you are writing a pattern, test it in something smoother than jute twine!

Here is the bag:

Nice, right?  You'd like to make one I bet!

Here's the Pattern:

Granny Stripe Tote - Small

Pattern by Moxie Fireheart  © 2016

Dimension:
Tote: 8″ (W) x  6.5″ (H)  x 4″ (D) (exclude handles)
Handle: approx. 18″, 1 pair

Material & Tool:
1. Jute twine (2-ply), 127 yards

2. Cotton yarn (medium weight, 4ply), approximately 10 yards
3. Crochet hook, I / 5.5mm
4. Tapestry needle
5. Safety pins

Abbreviations: (in USA terms)
sl knot = slip knot
st = stitch
slst = slip stitch
ch = chain
hdc = half double crochet
fo = fasten off
Rnd = round

blo = back loop only

CROCHET PATTERN

Base (work on right side only)
Base chain – sl knot, ch 16.
Rnd 1 – ch 1, 2sc on next st, sc each ch on next 14 sts, 3sc on next ch (the first ch of the base chain). Turn sideways and continue along other side of the base chain, sc each ch on next 15 sts, slst to the ch st at the beginning round. [34 sts]

Rnd 2 – ch 1, *sc on next st, 2sc on next st, sc each on next 14 sts, 2sc on next st, repeat * 2 times, slst to the ch st at the beginning round. [38 sts]

Rnd 3 – ch1, *sc on next st, 2sc each on next 2 sts, sc each on next 14 sts, 2sc each on next 2 sts, repeat * 2 times, slst to the ch st at the beginning round. [46 sts]

Rnd 4 – ch1, *sc on next st, 2sc each on next 2 sts, sc each on next 18 sts, 2sc each on next 2 sts, repeat * 2 times, slst to the ch st at the beginning round. [54 sts]

Rnd 5 & Rnd 6 – ch1, sc each on next54 sts, slst to the ch st at the beginning round. [54 sts]

Body

Rnd 1 - ch1, sc on each sc, blo. slst to the ch st at the beginning round.

Rnd 2 - ch1 , sc each on each sc, slst to the ch st at the beginning round.

Rnd 3 - ch2, hdc each on each sc, slst to the top ch st at the beginning round.

Rnd 4 - ch3, dc each on each hdc, slst to the top ch st at the beginning round.

Rnd 5 - repeat round 2

Rnd 6 - ch3, 2 dc in same stitch, *skip next 2sc, 3dc in next sc. repeat from * around. Skip last 2sc, slst to 3rd ch at beginning of round.

Rnd 7 - ch3, 2 dc in space between last two skipped dc's.  *3dc in space between 3dc clusters. Repeat from * .  Slst to 3rd ch at beginning of round.  Change to cotton yarn.

Rnds 8 & 9 - repeat row 7, change back to  twine

Rnd 10 - repeat row 7,  Change to cotton yarn.

Rnd 11& 12 - repeat row 7, change back to  twine

Rnd 13 - repeat row 7

Rnd 14 - ch1 , sc each on each dc, slst to the ch st at the beginning round.

Rnd 15 -  repeat row 14. Finish off, weave in end.

Handles (make 2)

Rnd 1. in cotton yarn, ch 5.  sc in each ch across. ch1, turn [4 sts]

Rnd 2. sc across, ch1, turn.

Rnd 3. repeat round 2 until handle is approximately 17 in. in length. change to twine.

Rnd 4. as evenly as possible, sc around perimeter of cotton yearn.  2 sc in each corner.  Finish off, weave in ends.

Assembly

Using twine, attach handle on each wide side of bag, using whip stitch.  handle should leave approx 3" gap in middle of area. weave in ends.

HERE is the pattern in PDF for those of you who would like it.  I will be posting to Ravelry, Pinterest, and Facebook as well.  I hope you will share with everyone!

And if you happen to make the bag, please let me know how it turned out, send me a pic or comment on Facebook or here or even Ravelry once I get it uploaded!

So I got a set of 12 daubbers from my husband for Yule, and needed a bigger bag.  I love my granny stripe bag, but it is just too small now to fit the like, 20 daubers I have!!  I thought about making the pattern bigger, and I may some day, but I wanted to do something else...so I began searching.

After a day or so, I found a pattern that I liked, and decided to alter the color's based on on what I saw examples on Ravelry and pinterest.

This is the pattern....and this is how it turned out for me:

Cool, huh? I'm pretty psyched!

In a few days I'll show you week 1 of the Temperature Afghan I posted about last week!

Happy Weaving!

~Moxie