Travel Blanket: Rodanthe-Prius Block

Continuing in the theme of the Family-Life-Travel-Map Blanket (you can see the last post here), I present to you the Rodanthe-Prius block.

This trip was a whirlwind.  We took a red-eye out to Boston, rented a car, and drove out to my grandparents on the Cape for 24-hours.  The next morning, we drove ourselves on up to Albany, NY, where we were picked up in my hubby's parents' gold Prius and whisked into the Adirondacks, where his family owns a house and we connected with his Grandmother and cousins.

Rodanthe-Prius Block

And that night it rained.

The following day, we got into that same Prius, squeezed in the back seat with Hubby's brother, and drove for seven hours.  We stopped.  We stayed in a hotel.  We got up.  We drove 9 more hours.  In the rain.

And we arrived at a giant, 12-bedroom house in Rodanthe, NC, several hours into the Outer Banks, and crammed in there with Hubby's 31 cousins for a week.  We were on the Bay Beach, and less than a five minute walk from the Ocean Beach.

And it rained the first two days.  And drizzled on and off.

We were splashed with rain, splashed with sea spray, and splashed with sun.

And then we packed up, squeezed back into that Prius, and drove up to Pittsburg, where we flew back home, and the other three continued on their way.

While in Rodanthe, I purchased a skein of yarn at Knitting Addiction to commemorate the drizzle.  I adapted the pattern from a few others and used the following strategy to make the raindrops.

Bobble: y/o, insert hook into next stitch, and pull loop through.  y/o and pull through 2 loops.  *Y/o, insert hook into the same stitch, and pull loop through.  y/o and pull through 2 loops.  Repeat from * 3x.  There should be 5 loops on your hook.  Y/o and pull through all 5 loops. 

Row 1: Foundation Single Crochet to desired length
Row 2: 1sc, (sc, hdc, bobble) to last stitch, 1sc
Row 3: sc all the way across
Row 4: 1sc (hdc, bobble, sc) to last stitch, 1sc
Row 5: sc all the way across
Row 6: 1sc (bobble, sc, hdc) to last stitch, 1sc

Blanket at Current Stage

Row 7: sc all the way across 

Repeat Rows 2-7 until desired size.

Of course,  I ran out of yarn.  Surprise!  I decided to compliment by using a nice, golden yarn from the Beverly's near us (where I get a nice teacher discount!) to compliment, and to remind us of all that driving time!

I think the square came out alright.  It's not blocked quite correctly, and so I'll probably re-do parts of it, but it goes well in the general blanket.

Ravelry Project: Block
Ravelry Project: Blanket

Travel Blanket: San Francisco Bay Area Block

As many of you know, just after our wedding and honeymoon, I moved out to the San Francisco area to be with my new hubby, who had been living out here since he scored a job in Silicon Valley about 8 months prior.  Well, it seemed more appropriate to put the block to represent that move after the honeymoon, because that's when the stuff came out, and that's when we moved into an apartment together, and that's when this place started to be more than just a place we slept and ate.

Almost.  It still doesn't feel quite like home.

It's been long enough, though, that we can distinguish this area and this part of our lives, and therefore add a block to our blanket (details).  The block I chose to make was based off a pattern on Ravelry called San Francisco, which featured a silhouette of the Golden Gate Bridge (which honestly we never go on, we just use the work-horse Bay-Bridge), against a rainbow setting sun.

We'd never seen a rainbow.  We'd never seen the setting sun.  We'd seen fog.

And so I adapted the pattern for a better size, changed the background to be of a single, marbled silk yarn in seed stitch, that almost gave the look of fog rolling in, and stitched it up.  I'm pretty satisfied with the result.

Ravelry Project

I also wanted to make a general public service announcement.  Firstly, I just realized that many of my ravelry links are probably inaccessible if you don't have a ravelry account.  Please let me know if you have issues with the project links, as I can certainly fix those!

Secondly, the school year started up a few weeks ago, and to those who don't know, I'm a teacher, and so I've gone back to work and am busier than ever.  From here on out, the blog will probably only be posting about once a week, simply because I'm not sure that I can craft much more than that!

Let me know what you think of the block, or if you have any suggestions for the blanket!  I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out, but you never know!

Travel Blanket: Wedding Block

I've recently finished all of the blocks for my Travel Blanket that I've needed to date (you can see my last post about it here).

Firstly, I finished the block that represents our wedding (not strictly a place or trip, but important enough to add)!

The pattern, Royal Romance, was easy to crochet, and fit well into the general form of the blanket, although this is by far the stretchiest and thinnest block we have.  I used a hook size larger than what it asked for, and the block was almost too big!

The yarn was some chocolate sock yarn I had left over from Dad's Double Helix Socks and a cream and gold weave I got at the local yarn store.  The combination was absolutely perfect!  The colors were creams, tans, and browns, (with gold accents) and all of the decorations had candles, which shimmered jut like this block does!

Tune in next time to see more about the other blocks I've done!

Ravelry Project: Wedding Block
Ravelry Project: Family Travel Blanket

Travel Blanket: Ocean City Block

You've heard by now, I'm sure, of the travel blanket I'm making for the family.  Well, this past vacation, I added on a simpler block, to balance out some of the more complex ones.  This was, again, originally a dishcloth pattern, but it worked quite well for these purposes.

The yarn was purchased at The Salty Yarn in Ocean City Maryland, a store on the boardwalk with a vast array of crochet kits, a room of yarn, and more.  It boarders the ocean and has kites flying outside, like a true shop on the Easter Seaboard, complete with the overly friendly staff.

I purchased two skeins, one water and one sand, not sure what I'd do with either, and I just love the way it turned out.  What do you think?

Here's the blanket so far.

Ravelry Pattern
Ravelry Project: Block
Ravelry Project: Blanket

Travel Blanket: Boston Cobblestone Block (Take 2)

As I wrote previously, I made a Cobblestone-themed block to represent where I come from - Boston - in our family travel blanket.  I also mentioned that I would probably end up frogging the whole thing.

And I did.

So here's the update of the block.  I used the same pattern as before, I just actually used it correctly this time, and I love the results!

When I looked at it at first, it was very oblong, so I decided to block it, trying to make the cobblestone ridges stay more in place, before I added the single crochet around the edge.  It worked so well, that I actually undid all the edging on all of the other blocks, blocked them, and re-did the edging.

I made one more change before I put them all back together: I decided to use a braid join.  Previously, the single-crochet edging had pulled at the blocks and made them pucker as they tried to line up with each other, so I did some research on different kinds of crochet-joins, and decided to go with the Flat Braid Join to give the squares some breathing room, and I love the results!

What do you think?

(Oh, and you can see that I attached the Roberts "R" Block as well.)

Ravelry Project: Boston Cobblestone Block
Ravelry Project: Blanket

Travel Blanket: Roberts "R" Block

For those of you have have been following, I've been posting about the travel blanket that I'm making for our family.  (You can see all of the blocks posted to date on the bottom of the page here.)

Today, I'm going to show you a block that represents the time my husband and I spent together in college, where we met.  The block features the emblem "R" of the school, and used up some old yarn, which was a bonus.  I haven't finished the single-crochets around the edge yet, but as of my departure for Maryland, here it is!  Hopefully there will be more to post when I get back.

Ravelry Project: Block
Ravelry Project: Blanket

Travel Blanket: Boston Cobblestone Block

I've been continuing with my progress on my travel blanket, which I've decided to make more into a Family-Life Blanket (see my last post about the Worcester Woods block).

The next block made represents where I come from.  For those who don't know, I grew up right outside of Boston, and went to high school in Lexington, so I'm steeped in the heritage of the area.  As such, after much deliberation, I finally figured out what my block would be - cobblestones.

I used the Ballband Dishcloth pattern that I had used before, but I forgot to knit the first row of the bumps, so it ended up being a little flatter.  Ah well.  It still works, but I might re-do it.

Anyway, now that there are four blocks, I decided to go ahead and seam them together.  The seams pulled a little bit and shrunk the blocks, so again, I might re-do that, but here's a picture of the project so far!

As you can see, I left some holes in the spiral for some blocks I haven't done yet, but it's definitely coming along!

Ravelry Project: Boston Cobblestone Block
Ravelry Project: Blanket

Travel Blanket: Worcester Woods Block

If you've been following this blog for long, you know that I'm creating a travel blanket out of squares that represent each trip we take as a family.  You can click here to see where I've written about the Erie Canal and Bahama Cruise blocks.

Tree of Life Afghan

Well, after some reflection, I decided to start the blanket with two special blocks -- one to represent my childhood and where I grew up, and one to represent the same for my husband.  Well, since Randall was born first, his block is first chronologically.

My wonderful hubby grew up in the only house on a tiny dirt road in a little town in Middle-of-Nowhere Upstate New York.  His house backed up to a pond, followed by miles upon miles of forest, where he and his brother used to pine away their days.  And so when it came time for him to choose his pattern, he asked me to look for patterns with trees, which he then narrowed down to a tree set from the "Tree of Life Afghan", which you can see on the right.

This wasn't terribly hard to do, and once he had chosen a nice pine-toned yarn for the block, I knit it up in just a day or two.  I also have been adding a row of single-crochet stitching around the edges of each block in all black, which I have been using to seam together all of the blocks.  Since some are knit, some are crochet, and they all have different patterns, this seemed like the best option.

Ravelry Project: Worcester Woods Block
Ravelry Project: Family Life Map Blanket

Travel Blanket: Bahama Cruise Block

Finding a monkey in our suite after a formal dinner.

Previously, I posted about my decision to make a travel blanket of yarn from different trips, including my Erie Canal Block.

Well, I have made the second one!  This one represents our honeymoon on a cruise to the Bahamas.  Of course, it's nigh impossible to find a quaint yarn shop in Tourist City, Bahamas, and so, after the advice of a few friends, decided to spring for a representative hank from elsewhere.  It is, after all, our honeymoon.  And it really was a nice one, despite the cold weather and several days at sea without much to do.

I decided on Handmaiden's Double Sea Silk, made from 30% Seacell (which is based on Seaweed) and 70% Silk, from colorsongyarn.com in the colorway of "Ocean."

Travel Blanket: Erie Canal Block (PATTERN)

About a year and a half ago, I realized that I had a problem.  I would stumble across quaint knitting shops, find a beautiful hank of yarn, and buy it, without having any plan for its use.  Needless to say, I quickly built up my stash.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Well, I also like to travel.  A lot.  And so it wasn't long before I came to this conclusion.

Any time I go to a new city or on a trip, I allow myself one hank of yarn.

Randall and I sitting on the roof of the boat.

This hank had to be related somehow to the trip, whether it was through color, texture, material, or a combination.  Then, I would use each hank to make one blanket square, where the pattern somehow related to the trip.  Eventually, I should have enough blocks to make a Travel Blanket!

And then, a few months later, I got engaged!

It was perfect!  I could start the travel blanket with places that Randall and I went together!

That summer, I accompanied him and his family on a self-toured Erie Canal House Boat Cruise aboard the "Cayuga."  It was wonderful!  We stopped at all sorts of places along the way and found tons of farmer's markets and cooked peach pie and played cards!

Working on the color sequence of my project on the boat.

One stop we made was in a quaint Pittsford, NY.  Now, having gone to college in the area, I knew the town, but it was an entirely different world seeing it from the canal at 6 miles and hour!  And in Pittsford, our first stop of the trip, we stumbled across (okay, I looked up) a lovely yarn store called The Yarne Source.

There, I managed to get my mother-in-law of inHIShandsart hooked on knitting.  Now, she carries around a project, too.  Fourteen of the hanks I got were for a separate project to work on that week (more on that later), but I did get one hank for the Travel Blanket.  It's a beautiful sort of canal color, and soft, a silk and cashmere blend.  And now, I have finally finished the square!  I based it off of Terry Morris Design's Rippling Water Square Pattern.

Here is the exact pattern I used:

Cast on 62 Stitches with size 7 needles.

• Row 1: Purl
• Row 2: Slip one stitch, (slip 2 to CN, hold in back, k2, k2 from CN, k4) x7, slip 2 to CN, hold in back, k2, k2 from CN, k1
• Row 3: slip 1, purl
• Row 4: slip 1, knit
• Row 5: slip 1, purl
• Row 6: slip 1, k4, (slip 2 to CN, hold in front, k2, k2 from CN, k4) x7, k1
• Row 7: slip 1, purl
• Row 8: slip 1, knit
• Row 9: slip 1, purl

Repeat Rows 2-9 until the square is the desired length.

For me, this made an 8.5 inch square.  See how it makes a beautiful rippling effect?

What do you think? Has anyone else made something like this?

Ravelry Project
Ravelry Project: Blanket