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!