Enough Love to Go Around Afghan Block

After about a week of this block absolutely kicking my butt... I got some much needed help from a fellow crocheter at the FiberKnots weekly meetup last night.    Ok, so me having problems with this block shouldn't exactly be surprising.  The description for the month's block did say that this block is not for beginners.... meh...  I like a good challenge!  While making this block didn't so smoothly, it didn't take all that long either.  From getting stuck on the beginning of row 2 last week to finishing everything up tonight, I'd say this block took me about 4-5 hours to complete, which I don't think is too shabby.

The pattern I used was the 2011 Crochet Block a Month filler square for January which was Enough Love to Go Around by Penny Davidson.  While I started with her directions, I have to say that I didn't follow her pattern for long.  Unfortunately I found her directions extremely hard to understand, which could be due to my inexperience, so instead I followed a rewrite of the pattern by BlameCrayons which you can find on her blog here.  I thought her directions were quite clear and relatively easy to follow even for me. 

Now that I have three 12" blocks done, I'm really starting to understand just how big an afghan made of 24 12" inch blocks and 12 6" blocks will be.  Actually, I think I need to do some math to figure out how things will go together... or if I have the correct number of square to make things work for that matter.  Well, it's too late now.  My brain went into sleep mode so figuring out a diagram for the afghan would be nothing but an exercise in futility.  Night all!

Another Afghan Block Bites the Dust!

I had a pretty busy week last week, so on Sunday I decided to sit back, relax, and spend my Sunday afternoon crocheting another block for my afghan.  Pineapple Blossom was written by April Moreland and is one of the February blocks for the CAL.  It was pretty easy as these blocks which was a good choice since my brain was so fried from the shenanigans of the week :-)

In addition to making the two different 12" blocks per month that are selected for the CAL, I'm going to also make another 6" block that is optional.  I figure that way the afghan will be more interesting to look at rather than being just made up of blocks of one size.  That way I can also choose to do a smaller block one day, rather than putting in the time to make a big one, which can take me the better part of an afternoon without any major interruptions. The real question is, which block will I start next?  I think I've managed to do both the easy ones first, so I may just be destined for failure or at least frustration until I can sit down with one of the awesome crocheting FiberKnots in a couple weeks.  Waaaaah!

A Crocheted Afghan for 2011

I finally have a project I can share with the webiverse... My first ever crocheted afghan block.  I've been wanting to make an afghan for quite a while now and just got the nerve to get started.  To keep me on track and completing this afghan in a reasonable amount of time I am taking part in the 2011 Block-A-Month Crochet-Along which is hosted on Ravelry.   I'll be making at least two blocks a month and then by the end of December I will have 24 blocks (or more) to assemble the afghan.  

So, without further ado, here is my first block, one of the crochet along January blocks, Maggie's Square by The Crochet Dude. It was a good starting block and fairly simple in construction.  Even a relative newbie like me didn't have too much trouble making it.

In order to match almost anything in my bedroom, I've selected 7 colors from Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice yarn in greens, blues, purples and a pink.  That grouping should just about cover everything in a muted color palette quite nicely.  The yarn is worsted weight,and acrylic so it should work up fast, wear well and wash easily.  Next on my list to crochet is Enough Love to Go Around by Penny Davidson.  I think this square is really going to challenge me.  Thank goodness there are some very talented crocheters in the Fiberknots to save me when the inevitable "what the hell" moment occurs!