Ta-Dah! JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL

It's done! It's finished! And I absolutely love it :D We took advantage of the glorious spring sunshine and went downstairs to our apartment courtyard to get some photos :)

I've been having such a wonderful time with JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery CAL - it's my first big project using 100% cotton yarn, and the Moda Vera Portsea Cotton from Spotlight has worked up excellently! The finished afghan is quite light weight, and I can see it being just perfect for when the breeze comes up on the balcony at the lake on summer evenings. 

I joined the pieces using slip stitch in the back loops, from the reverse side. This made nice even joined with the little front loop ridges on the front, and only low ridges on the back (as opposed to chunky single crochet ridges, which I don't like the feel of). It came together pretty quickly!

I chose to leave the corner pieces off - they were "optional" in the pattern, and I quite like the octagonal shape without them :) The border took a little bit of adaptation, but really it was very simple and straightforward.

And, it really does look like a tiled mosaic! Such a talented designer - if you haven't checked out Julie Yeager's designs on Ravelry yet, I thoroughly recommend her work :) 

Have you made any of Julie Yeager's patterns before? Link to your photos/blog/Ravelry project page in the comments and we can all have a look!!

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!  

JulieAnny's Summer Mosaic Mystery Afghan CAL - Part 1

Hi everyone!

Just because I don't have enough things to do, I've picked up another CrochetALong from one of my very favourite crochet designers, Julie Yeager. I made her Stained Glass Afghan last year, and loved the design! It's still on the couch being used to keep us cosy (and fabulous!) during this stupidly cold winter.

The new CAL is the Summer Mosaic Mystery Afghan. The pattern calls for Scheepejeswol Stonewashed XL which is so pretty, but so expensive to buy here in Australia. I have substituted Moda Vera Portsea Cotton - still 100% cotton, but only 8 ply, and only $2.20/50g on sale at Spotlight! One day, when we win the lottery or Kiah becomes a rich and famous nurse, I'll splurge on some Scheepjeswol yarns :) 

I love the stonewashed look of this yarn - and such pretty colours! I'm using the Camel as the main colour, with Turquoise, Purple, Green, Navy and Burgundy as accent colours. 

The first clue came out last Friday. I wasn't going to do this CAL, I was going to just collect the patterns and get to it when I could. But then Mum was at Spotlight, and she rang to say that the Portsea Cotton was 50% off and she had an extra 15% off voucher... I can't deny those sorts of signs from the universe! 

I've decided to have Purple as my accent colour A, and I'll decide which letter the rest of the accent colours correspond to when I see the next clue :P 

The pattern is very straightforward so far - very clear wording, and stitch counts after every row! 

I'm glad to have had some overlay crochet experience before, both with Sophie's Universe, the Stained Glass Afghan and of course our very own Flame motif :) There hasn't been much overlay crochet yet, but looking at the teaser photos there's a bit more to come!

The ruffle in the centre is made using fpsc and chain stitches - quite effective! It's going to need some careful blocking though because cotton has very little natural stretch, so where I have sewn the ends in looks a bit wonky at the moment.

I guess at least with all these CALs and projects humming along at the same time, I'm never going to have to wonder what to blog about! :)

Love these colours :)  

How many WIPs do you have going at the moment? 

Hugs,

Michelle xx