Crazy Granny Stashghan

If you Google granny stripe afghan, you can find photos of beautiful, color-coordinated crocheted afghans, many in rainbow hues, and some with elaborate borders.  And then there's this:

What I call my crazy granny stashghan.  I admit, calling it "crazy granny" is a little bit politically incorrect.  After all, most grandmothers are not crazy.  My own grandmothers were both hardworking women.  

My paternal grandmother married a Pennsylvania coal miner and raised ten children.  They never had much money, and she never had much free time until she was older.  She was a talented lady though.  She designed and cut her own patterns and sewed clothes for her kids.  She could draw and paint; I'm told she drew beautiful horses. When she was older, she loved Avon and always colored her hair and painted her nails.

My maternal grandmother married a bit later in life.  She married a widower with six children, one of whom wasn't quite two yet, I believe.  She then had two children of her own.  She was a farm wife who cooked three hearty meals a day, every day because farm work was hard work with a mule to plow with and tobacco worms to pick off the plants by hand.  She killed the chickens herself, churned the butter, and made quilts out of flour sacks.  My father, her son-in-law, said she made the best biscuits he ever tasted.  In later years, she lived with her oldest daughter, my aunt, and was the quietest, calmest person I have ever known.

I look back now and wish I'd taken more time to talk to my grandmothers, to hear the stories of their lives.  There are so many things I'll never know.

Perfect for lounging on the hammock.

This is the second granny stripe afghan I have made, both using up excess, leftover yarn from my yarn stash.  Honest, the only yarn I bought was some extra pink and teal to finish the border.  This crazy afghan is a mix of acrylic, wool, and even some cotton.  I love making these because they are so easy to do.  The only pain is weaving in all the ends.  

The End of the Never-ending Blanket

If you were a young child in the early 1990s or the parent of such a child, you may know the TV show "Lamb Chop's Play-Along," which aired on PBS from 1992-1997.  My daughter was three years old in 1992, so she was part of the prime demographic for the audience.  The show starred Lamb Chop, of course, and Shari Lewis along with Hush Puppy and Charlie Horse.  Oh my goodness, the goofy skits, the knock-knock jokes, but mostly the closing theme song!  "The Song That Never Ends."  A preschooler can get a lot of fun out of singing that one over and over and driving her mother mad, mad, mad. Lamb Chop was a lot older than she looked though.  I remember seeing Lewis and Lamb Chop on TV during the 1960s, when I was a kid.  According to Wikipedia, Lamb Chop first appeared in 1957.  The point here is that "The Song That Never Ends" has been on my mind lately as I finished up my crochet sampler blanket, which seemed to become the blanket that never ends.  But it did end.

I started making the blanket before I even knew I was making a blanket.  Back in April, I purchased 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws, and Afghans by Jan Eaton.  I thought it would be fun to try a few of the patterns.  Then in June, I showed you my first four squares.  At that point I was thinking about a little lap throw for my daughter.  As things seem to do around here, however, the lap throw got out of hand and turned into this:

Sixty-three squares of crazy.  I think when the daughter saw that I was making a big blanket for her brother, she was determined that hers would be big too.  No sibling rivalry here, folks!  Here's a view from the other side:

Is it perfect?  Goodness no.  Aside from the garish color combinations, let's just say the blanket has character, shall we?  The squares didn't turn out the same size, so there was a fair amount of adding and tweaking.  Still, I had fun doing it and almost each new square became my short-lived favorite.

No two squares are the same pattern.  Here, in alphabetical order, are the patterns I used: Alternate Bobbles, American Beauty, Anemone, Arcadia, Begonia, Big Round, Blocks and Shells, Briar Rose, Bright Flower, Candy Stripe Bobbles, Catherine Wheel, Centered Square, Chocolate Box, Christmas Rose, Coffee and Cream, Colorful Bobbles, Criss Cross, Dahlia, Daisy Chain, Danish Square, Diamond in a Square, Double Stripes, Edwardian Fancy, Four Patch Granny, Four Square, Framed Flower, Fretwork, Fudge, Gothic Square, Granny in the Middle, Granny Stripes, Granny with a Twist, Into the Blue, Italian Cross, Kingcup, Lacy Wheel, Lemon Stripe, Marigold, Nine Patch Granny, Openwork Square, Pastel Delight, Peach Rose, Peony, Primrose Square, Queen Anne's Lace, Saint Petersburg, Seville, Snowflake, Solid Square, Spinner, Square Target, Starflower, Subtle Stripes, Sunray, Sunshine and Showers, Sunshine Lace, Traditional Granny, Tricolor Square, Victorian Lace, Waterlily, Willow, Wisteria, and Zigzag Bobbles.

I think daughter plans to take the blanket back to her apartment next time she visits, but in the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy the color it adds to her room here at home.

A blanket for my baby

Back in November, I mentioned an afghan I was crocheting from a baby blanket pattern. After a year of working on it on and off, I finally finished it!  I wanted to complete it in time for my "baby" to take it along to his new apartment.  He came home yesterday to steal a rug for his living room.  I was all "Your blanket's done!" and he was all "It looks great. Nice stripes.  I'm not taking it right now."  Did you hear the pop that was my balloon being burst? Or maybe it was just the hiss of a slow leak of the air being let out. Regardless of the letdown of not hearing, "I've been hoping you'd get it done! I can't wait to take it with me!" I am happy to have completed the afghan even if it is still here instead of warming up the college apartment.

It is quite a large afghan as you can see.  The "baby" is 6'3" and wanted the blanket to be big enough to stretch from toes to chin.  Not sure if it's quite that long, but it's a big one.  And heavy.  It weighs about six pounds.  It's nice to finish a big project, but the husband is a little envious of the blanket, so who knows?  Maybe I'll have to start another one and, if I'm industrious, get it finished before we are shipped off to the old folks home.

What I'm Working On

Things have been quiet this week, but still, seemingly, not much time for creative projects.  Lately I've been working on some longer term projects.

Project one is an afghan which I'm crocheting from a baby blanket pattern.  I'm just making it much larger.  It's very thick and heavy.  Still a loooong way to go on this.

Project two is pom poms for a Christmas garland.  Clearly a lot more needed.

I'm using various sizes of Clover pom pom makers.  I was so excited the day I bought these.  I mean, stupidly excited.  Alas, they have been kind of a disappointment.  They are sturdy and don't bend up like the old-fashioned cardboard method, but I was expecting more from a pom pom maker.  It has maker in the name, after all.  I expected it to have a built-in cutting method or something.  I wanted fast, easy and fun!  Maybe it takes a glass of wine for the fun part.

untrimmed pom pom

The ad on Amazon says: "It is as easy as 1-2-3: wind, cut, tie, and remove!" They don't mention the last step: trim, trim, trim.   Maybe I overload my makers, but my pom poms come out sort of oval with wonky pieces sticking out.  Is this normal?  I don't want a premade look, but this porcupine thing is ridiculous.

Still, I love pom poms.  When I was a kid, we went to the Rainbow Skating Rink.  The older girls, the ones with their own white leather skates, tied big fluffy pom poms on their skates.  I coveted those.  Then there were the streamer pom poms that other girls attached to the handlebars of their bikes.  I coveted those, too.  In high school, the cheerleaders had huge blue and white pom poms.  There were only cheerleaders then, no separate squad of poms.  And the pom poms were BIG; they seemed at least a foot wide, not these little hand-warmer poms of today.  Need I say it?  Coveted. So now I'm a grown-up girl who can have as many pom poms as I want.  I don't know why it's taken me so long to decide to make some, but part of me is a little kid jumping up and down in excitement just waiting for that pom pom garland.