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2016 Crocheting Goals

I’m going to take a slightly different approach this year.  Last year was the first year that I created crocheting goals for myself. And although there was a lot that I did not complete, I think in the first half of the year I got a lot more done than I may have in previous years.

Instead of going quite as structured as I did last year with laying down what projects I was going to do in which month, I’m just going to make myself a project list of things I want to get done.  I will start this list out with some semblance of the order I want to complete these project in, however, I expect it to be more of a living, ongoing, occasionally changing list – especially with regards to when I get custom orders from my Etsy store. So here is the first draft of the…

Stitched In Love Crocheting 2016 Project List:

  1. DONE – Sweet 16 Afghan – This is started and needs to be done soon because it will need to be mailed out as soon as I can.  It’s already going to be late for her birthday.  There’s just so much going on right now!
  2. Buddy’s Afghan – I have designed an afghan pattern in honor of each one of my new babies.  As soon as the Sweet 16 Afghan is done, I need to get working on Baby #3’s.  I’ve already done quite a bit of R&D (i.e. Pinterest pinning) and I’m pretty sure I know what I want to do.  I even have the yarn. Now I just need to sit down and start work/writing the pattern.
  3. Christmas Stockings for Family – I think I’m just going to continue working on the Christmas items after the immediate projects are wrapped up so that they don’t just get put off until the end of the year and not get done again. I need to finish the stockings for the new baby and myself. Then I would like to do some embellishments on everyone’s stockings, including names and maybe some holly berries and leaves.
  4. Christmas Tree Skirt – I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to this one and have not yet decided what I want to do for this exactly. However, I might see if I can get a plain, solid tree skirt on sale after the holidays this year to use as a backing for mine to lend more durability to it and potentially act as a background depending on what design I settle on.
  5. Afghan Christmas Present #1 – I have three different afghans that I want to make family members for Christmas gifts.  Hopefully I can get them done in the first part of this year and then just block them and package them come Christmas next year.  These projects are going to be difficult to post about while maintaining the Christmas surprise. I might have to  come up with some creative pictures of extreme close ups and do some fun editing to disguise the true results.
  6. Afghan Christmas Present #2
  7. Afghan Christmas Present #3
  8. Curtains – We have  a great big bay window in the new house and instead of putting up some boring curtains or sheers, I really want to crochet some pretty lace-like curtains that I can just slip onto some tension rods for a sort of 3/4 cover.
  9. Rugs – We also have all hardwood floors in the new house which we have refinished with a beautiful dark stain. But we need several rugs in multiple areas of the house. I also want to do a “street and lawn” rug for the kids’ room
  10. Happypotamusses for kids – I thought about doing these for their birthdays or for another holiday through the year, but I think I’ll stick with making these and saving them for Christmas next year.  The designer of this very cute stuffed animal has actually designed quite a few others, so I’m actually thinking about making the Hippo for Bubba, an Elephant for Sephy because she loves them, and something else fun for Buddy instead of just doing 3 hippos in different colors.
  11. Mitten Ornaments – Another small gift for the family members to make and save for next year.
  12. Top for myself – Finally on to non-Christmas items! Hopefully by this time I will have been able to loose some baby weight and can make myself something pretty.
  13. Dress for Sephy – I’d like to try again in making a dress for Sephy, this time in a very light weight yarn, or even thread.
  14. Parasol – I would still like to try and get this thing made. I have two different umbrella frames ready to use for it.
  15. Masquerade Masques – My sister is having a Masquerade Ball for her Halloween party next year and I want to make the masks that my Husband and I wear. I also have a whole Pinterest board for this one!

It will be interesting to see how much of this I will actually be able to get done this year. Fifteen doesn’t sound like a lot on this list, but with 3 afghans plus a tree skirt that is basically a whole afghan itself, it is definitely going to be a challenge.

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August – Square Fifteen

spanish tile

August – Square Fifteen

I know that I said I would start in on the parasol once I got the July squares done, but time just keeps getting away from me and I’ve had to re-prioritize my projects.  If I want to get The Granny Square Project done in time to give it as a Christmas present, I’ve got to go ahead and see if I can finish the squares in the next month here.  I’m not sure how long it is going to take me to join them all.

I have a couple of small birthday presents that I want to see if I can whip up real quick this week.  I’ve also been working on the dress I wanted to make for my daughter.  Unfortunately I ran out of yarn and had to order the color online because I can’t find it in the stores and the dress is sitting in the cupboard waiting to be finished.  And finally, I’ve got something that I need to crochet for the four of us for my son’s 1 year pictures.  I won’t say more than that because it’s going to be a very fun surprise.  But I need to get started on that too!

In the mean time, I’m afraid the parasol will just have to wait till this winter, likely after little man’s birthday party.  I did however, find a pattern that I like for it and I really can’t wait to get started.

As a result, here is August’s first square.  The pattern can be found here.  This is another one I’ve got mixed feelings on.  Instead of working the granny clusters in a chain space, it calls for just working them between the previous row’s clusters.  That always feels very clumsy and tight to me.  There were also some instructions missing in the first round that I had to figure out, and each round starts unnecessarily (to me anyway) in the middle of the corner cluster instead of at the beginning  of it.  Normally you would slip stitch over to the corner space to start the next round, where as here you’ve often created the corner space by completing an hdc in the top of  beginning chain 3/dc.  I always hated joining that way, but it’s probably just a personal preference.  I had to leave off the last row to stay within my seven inches.  And my last row is worked with half-double crochets instead of dc’s.  I don’t really like the rounded off corners and I think I might go back and change that.  It would probably fit better with the rest of the squares anyway.  But this one also has the front post stitches that I love again to give the 3-d appearance of red ribbon behind the black frame.  I really like how that looks.

I have to actually buy some yarn for the next square I have planned because I don’t have the color I need.   I need some dark burnt orange and that’s not a color I typically work with.  I do believe this will be the first yarn I’ve bought for this project.

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