Ta-dah! Around the Bases CAL

Hi everyone! 

It's been a busy week here at Casa del Westlund, making and posting teddies all about the place and working on other orders. So far we've raised $110 for the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre! Thank you to all who have supported so far :) 

This week I also managed to (finally) finish the Around the Bases Crochet-Along!!! After 16 innings, the finished afghan is 51"x55" (130cmx140cm) - the perfect size to keep someone's knees warm next winter. 

I started this project as a stashbuster, both to use up my bits and pieces of Stylecraft Special DK, and to challenge myself to use clashing and contrasting colours without worrying about it. The end result is bright, crazy, messy and just gorgeous! When I ran out of one colour, I just Russian joined the next one on and carried on crocheting :P 

I've learned some new stitches, and also valuable lessons about counting, frogging and fudging.

It has been great fun to do - thank you to ChiChi from KeitoPalette for an excellent and entertaining pattern :)

Summer Mosaic & Around the Bases CALs - Update #4

Hello everyone! 

What a week! Both of us have been dealing with some bad health stuff this week - Anne's dad is unwell again, and Kiah and I have been up at the Lake helping out our next door neighbour who has brain cancer :(  

However, I did manage to get up to date on my CALs last week, so let's see how they're going at the moment :) 

Around the Bases CAL by ChiChi Allen

Week 3 was a block stitch, and I chose to use tropical colours for the blocks and cream/white for the chain stitches in between. 

Week 4 was star stitch - a new one to me! It took a bit to get the hang of it, but I got there in the end! I have no idea if my stitch count is correct, I guess we'll find out next week :P

JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL

Clue 4 was growing the circles even bigger! I think I got the post stitches in the right place... 

Clue 5 was making 6 triangles :) So many ends! I know logically there weren't any more ends than making the squares, but (1) there were six of them, not two and (2) they hung down like a giant fringe from the long edge, which was just miserable to look at. I did get them all stitched in eventually though, but my poor index finger was sore typing at work the next day from pushing the needle through!

The pile is growing now :) This week we will be making the circles into octagons (with millions of popcorns) - my prediction was correct!  

Summer Mosaic & Around the Bases CALs - Update #3

Hello everyone! 

It's that time of the week again - see how my CALs are going at the moment :) 

Around the Bases CAL by ChiChi Allen

This week was popcorn week! ChiChi suggested doing the popcorns in a different colour to the rest of that row/section, and who am I to refuse to learn a new skill. Since I'm doing this CAL as a stashbuster, the popcorns were a great opportunity to use up some smaller scraps. 

Lots of popcorn colours! Green, three different purples, and blue :) 

I really love how this afghan is coming out so far - bring on next week!! 

JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL

This week we paused work on the large circle motifs to make some squares! I did have to make one little change to the pattern - in Row 5 I had to change the long stitches in the corners to dtr, otherwise there was no way the poor thing was going to sit flat.

I haven't done any blocking yet - I will just do that at the end when the blanket is all put together (or not, it might even out nicely by itself!). 

I suspect at this point that the circular motifs will become octagonal, and then the squares will be in the centre two positions. We shall see if I'm right over the next 4 weeks! 

And the rest

I've put aside the CALs and the order pile for the moment to try and get a prototype baby blanket done! Cross your fingers for me that I can work fast enough, and also get the instructions written in an understandable way ;) Photos soon!

What projects have captured your attention this week?

Summer Mosaic & Around the Bases CALs

Hi everyone! 

For at least the next couple of weeks, you're mostly going to get CAL updates from me - I hope that's ok! I'm so excited about the two CALs I'm currently working on :)

JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL

Clue 2 of Julie Yeager's enticing Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL came out on Saturday, Australian time. This week we made our circles bigger, and added more overlay stitches. They kind of look like clocks at the moment!

I love the colours - it just looks like a tumble of summer to me :) 

Around the Bases CAL by ChiChi Allen

I've written about this one before, a few weeks ago, when I was figuring out which square to use in the centre. There's a round up of lovely big afghan square patterns in that post if you want to have a look! 

This Monday (Australian time), the "First Innings" pattern was released. It was pretty straightforward, and I've already used up almost a whole scrap piece of one colour! Stashbusting for the win :D

So bright and cheerful, and I can't wait to see how it ends up! 

I hope you are all managing to keep up with your projects and WIPs! 

Around the Bases CAL - Afghan Square Round Up!

Hello everyone! 

It's been another hectic week here, but I've managed to tick one thing off my list - my centre square for the Around the Bases CAL, starting on August 9! 

I'm going to use all Stylecraft Special DK for this afghan, choosing colours with a random pull from my bag of scraps and rejecting only if I've used the same colour in the last 10 rows already. It's made for some interesting colours so far... but that will be part of the charm!

The really special thing about this CAL is that each one is going to be unique, because WE get to choose the starting square! 

I spent quite a long time on Ravelry looking at different square options, before narrowing it down to a shortlist and coming to a decision. It was really hard! I ended up deciding on a square and then converting it to a rectangle - after Sophie and the Lily Pond, I need a break from square afghans :P 

But what to do with all the other pretty squares that I found? It seems a shame to just forget all about the lovely crochet that I found... 

So, shared here for you (and me) are the big afghan squares that tempted me the most as the centre square for this CAL :) They are in no particular order, and all pictures are from the pattern pages and belong to their respective owners. 


Tropical Delight
Published by Mellie Blossom

Cost: Free! 
Link: http://www.mellieblossom.com/free-tropical-delight-crochet-pattern/

Starburst Square
by Tera Kulling

Cost: Free!
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/starburst-square-2

August Sun
by Donna Kay Lacey

Cost: $1.99
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/august-sun---wwbamcal

Firenze
by Julie Yeager

Cost: $2.99
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/firenze-afghan-block

Grand Granny
by Angela Harriman

Cost: $1.00
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/grand-granny

Daisy Centre Mandala Square
by Zooty Owl

Cost: Free!
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/daisy-centre-mandala-square

Denna Square
by Polly Plum

Cost: Free! 
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/denna-square

The Enchanted Garden
by Courtney Jones Laube

Cost: $3 + $1.99 for the Crocodile Stitch Flower pattern
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-enchanted-garden-tote

Sophie's Garden

Cost: Free!
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sophies-garden

The Darkness Held at Bay
by Shan Sevcik

Cost: $1.50
Link: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-darkness-held-at-bay-10-and-12-block

So, what did I go with in the end?

The Darkness Held at Bay, with some extra rows of bphdc after the centre square to make it rectangular, and then an extra row around the edge to get to the right stitch count :) 

What do you think? Are you interested in joining this CAL too?  Which afghan square would you use to start with?

Hugs,

Michelle

Busy Times! Plus, the Great Destash

Hello everyone! 

It's been a mad couple of weeks here, and things are finally starting to settle down. The weather has also been freezing cold - I am trying to be glad of that so that when I am sweaty and miserable in the height of summer I can honestly say I wish it was wintet ;)

New Job

On July 1 I started a new job, as Secretary to our local Rotary District Youth Exchange Committee. I've had to hit the ground running on that, as there are two big events coming up at the end of July! It has been a steep, steep learning curve, but I'm starting to feel like I might know what I'm doing. Incidentally, if you know anyone who is in year 8 this year and might be interested in a year away at school in another country in 2017, learning another language, let me know! I can put you in touch with the right people ;)

As part of that, I really needed a place to work and store all of the associated paperwork in our apartment. Kiah heroically sacrificed (and tidied and cleaned!!) part of his mancave for me, and we borrowed a desk and a chair from my parents. It's taken several days to organise, but now I have a desk and a printer and easy access to the files, as well as a designated spot for me to go and work. This is as much for my brain as anything else - it is easier to physically go and sit somewhere to do a specific task, than to mentally have to change gears, or feel that I'm always on duty. 

New Patterns

It was a total headache trying to get our new patterns up for sale! Based on my Flame Motif, Anne designed the Bonfire Beanie and I designed the Moroccan Doorways Mini Clutch - you probably saw the blog post about these last week :) Of course, in this crazy, fast-moving world, it's impossible to know what is going to be popular or not... If you have a few moments on Ravelry this week, could you visit our patterns and give it a favourite or a queue, even if you don't want to buy? 

DeStashInator!!!

My biggest achievement this week has definitely been weeding over 9kg of un-needed yarn out of my stash! I always buy more yarn than I need, even for specific projects, and the excess has just been getting more and more out of control.

I first shared with my close Aussie yarnie friends on Facebook and shifted about 5kg through them, then listed on a yarn selling Facebook group and by 11:30pm last night it was all sold! Now we are making the post office very happy (and rich), posting yarn all over the country! 

It's hard to say goodbye to yarn, especially yarn I wanted so much and bought for special projects. However, realistically I'm not going to use this stuff, and if I want more I can always go to the shops or the online yarn warehouses and buy more! Better money in the pocket than too much yarn spilling off the shelves, right? 


New Project

And, just because I'm never busy enough, I'm starting a new project soon - the Around the Bases CAL by KeitoPalette! It looks like heaps of fun, and a good way to use up my scraps and bits of Stylecraft Special DK. I'm still looking for a good centre square though - do you have any ideas for me? 

Hugs,

Michelle