Hooked on Hooking

I know I'm not the only one out there. I hate sewing squares together. I have tried to buckle down and do it, and given up, and donated the squares to a loving home to be assembled and actually used. But, I really like the look of some afghans and other items made from motifs. So, I grit my teeth in determination, and happily began crochet 8 inch squares made in the "Arches" pattern . Then, I decided to give the flat-braid joining method a try. I figured it had to be more enjoyable than sewing. And indeed it was more enjoyable. I actually finished a small lapghan put together with squares. So now that I know I can do it, I am putting a full queen-size throw on my "works I would like to make someday" list. Which has approximately eleventy bajillion projects on it. But then, what crocheter doesn't have a wish list that long?

Is there anything more fun than crocheting for babies? I have no idea why, but I get so excited when I hear someone I care about is having a baby, not only because I am happy for them, but because my mind starts racing about all the cute baby patterns I have seen. This is a baby afghan I made from a pattern I found in the Fall 2006 issue of FamilyCircle EasyCrochet (who do not seem to have a website. What self-respecting magazine these days has no website?) I used a white and yellow variegated yarn for the main body of it, and plain white for the border. I think it looked great with the open, lacy design of the stitch.

This is an afghan I made for my sister and brother and law. It's just dc's with a scalloped edge, but the boucle yarn makes it rather beautiful. I chose a very neutral off-white to go with their decor, and I think with the simplicity of the design and colour, it's not something that is going to fall out of style.

After finally learning to make hairpin lace, I decided to make a simple afghan to practice the strips. Overall, I like how it turned out, it makes a nice, light, throw. If I use it in an afghan again, though, I think that I will likely alternate it with strips of either sc's or dc's to make a more dense fabric. This ghan is going to end up donated to that fundraiser at work in place of the ripple one in an earlier post, since my mom has laid claim to the ripple.

I made this afghan from a pattern I found on a label of Bernat yarn. I liked it, because of the lacy look of the MC. You can get the pattern on the Bernat website here , but it does require that you be a member in order to view the pattern. This afghan was originally meant to be donated to a fund-raising silent auction at work for breast cancer, but I haven't heard whether it is still happening since I agreed to make the afghan for it. I will check when go in this week. If not, my mom saw it while it was in progress, and was kind of salivating over it, so I may have a Christmas present done early for her.

Well what kind of crochet blog would this be if I didn't post pictures of some things I've made? I tend to give most of my finished items away, so I didn't have alot to post and show you here, but I promise, any new projects, I will take pictures of. The first picture is of a "Navaho Afghan" I made using a pattern from this site: http://www.steffosborne.com/knit/c-navajo.txt I decided to weave all my ends in rather than leaving them as fringe (if you read the pattern you'll understand). It's a nice effect, but wow, it was pretty tedious to finish off that way, although a simple pattern in and of itself. I don;t have the edge of the afghan in the photo, but you can get a good feel for the overall effect. The second picture and last picture are the too-short practice run of the modular crochet sweater I mentioned in my first post. There are obviously a couple of issues with it, but I think in a nicer wool, making the neck a bit smaller, and tapering the sl...