The United States of America Afghan

Well, I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately.
The kids are all back to school now and I finally got this behemoth finished.

It seemed like a great idea to work on small squares over this hot summer.
Then you don't have a big heavy afghan in your lap while you are crocheting.
Unfortunately, there comes a time when you have to put it all together. Blah!

And this one weighs a ton. No. Really.

It's all cotton yarns. Mostly Lily Sugar 'N Cream, some Paeches and Cream, and some bernat handicrafter cotton yarn too.
Heavy!!! (Images are clickable for enlargement).







Even while standing on the bench on the deck, I couldn't fit it all in the shot.






So then I just took some photos in sections. Yes, that's my shadow blocking the entire state of Montana. Didn't think I could be larger than the Big Sky Country now, did ya? LOL!! Rrrrroar! I'm HUGE! LOL!!






The blanket measures a whopping 86 inches tall by 46 inches wide. It fits top to bottom over a king sized bed but has the width of a twin. I suppose it could be a Twin coverlet with some states draping down to the floor at the foot of the bed. If you hung it you'd need a vaulted ceiling for sure! LOL!!






Then I flipped it over so you could see the back. Someone always asks to see the back.

I used more graphs on this than any other blanket I've ever made 50 state graphs, and 5 I made at that Celtic graph generator site to spell out The United States Of America. So 55 total graphs make up this monster of an afghan. I used a long sized H afghan hook and for the edging around each square and the whole afghan, I used a regular size H hook.

The black is not cotton yarn, but Caron One pounder and some I Love This Yarn from Hobby Lobby too.

I'm thinking if and when it gets washed, the cotton will shrink up slightly but the black which holds all the squares together will remain the same size sort of firming up the blanket. This is my hope anyway.

ALSO, I finished my IN Crowd Fall challenge too. (These photos are clickable for enlargement too).






This is one side of the hot pad/trivet.






And here's the other side. You've seen this. But I added "Indiana" and "The IN Crowd" and sewed a plastic white star button for Indianapolis. (If it's used as a trivet, I'd keep that side down to the counter. I'm not sure if it would melt LOL!!!!

I used a tractor graph I found at a sweater knitting site. I changed the colors so they would reflect what a John Deere tractor would look like. The background is yellow to represent corn. That's basically what we have here in Indiana. Cars, and corn. LOL!!!

I made the sun using the largest plastic sewing ring I could find. It's meant to be a sort of hook for hanging it up on your wall.

We're supposed to add our Fall challenges to our etsy shops. I really love this. It will be hard to part with. :/

Anyway, sorry again for being gone so long. Hope I made up for it in this post. :o)

Harry Potter Skull Potholder

Since the Happy Hooker Chain Gang is disbanding, I am copying and pasting my two projects from over there to over here.

This is the Skull Potholder from Happy Hooker.

I "Potterized" it. :o)

.......(It was my first post there).....

Hi guys!
Thanks for letting me join your group!!! I was told it would be ok, ONLY if I made a Potter Potholder skull.
So I worked this up yesterday.



(clicky)
I used gold and crimson red Caron yarn to represent Gryffindor. I used the H hook, but it's still so huge!
After I finished, I surface crocheted his glasses on with black. I made him a scarf with the same gold and red yarn, attaching it on to his neck area there. For his scar, I used a metallic gold crochet thread and used four at once. It really sparkles in the sunlight. Hope you-all like it!

.......

I'm sorry to hear the Happy Hooker Chain Gang has folded. I know everybody there probably has a million other groups they all belong to and it's hard to visit all the sites regularly. Thank you, BellaKarma, for all the time and energy you put into making it a nice place to visit. I'm sorry I didn't peek in often enough. (Insert embarrassed emoticon here). You're so funny and witty. I know you will probably have formed five other groups after closing this one! :o) Best of luck!!!!

Clam Bag

And finally, this is my Clam bag, (the Fat Bottom Bag from the Happy Hooker crochet book).

I finished this a while ago but the weather was so crappy I finally just gave up and took pictures of it indoors.
(Images are clickable for enlargement)






(Front and back sides)









I already explained to you all in a previous post what yarns I used. (Lion brand Chunky in Pacific Blue and Denim Blue.) Also a thin, fluffly strand yarn by Yarn Bee called Luscious. (From Hobby Lobby).

I decided to try the striped effect by alternating the yarn colors. I think that turned out really neat. (Yes, I still say "neat") LOL!

It was so bulky from combining the regular yarn with the whispy yarn so I only did half the amount of rows the pattern called for in the middle section. To me, it kind of made the shape of a clam shell by not having it be longer. (This plus the stripes also made it look "clammy". ...LOL!!!!..."clammy" Tee hee!

It's hard to tke pics AND hold the bag opened! If my pics are too large or take up too much space, just let me know and I'll redo it.

State Square Afghan - Work In Progress (WIP)

Is anyone else working on the State Square Afghan? I think it will look great once it's finished but it does tke a lot of time.

I took photos today of the nine squares I have done. (Images are clickable for enlargement).





I'm doing mine entirely in cotton yarns, (either Lily Sugar 'n Cream, or that brand at Walmart that is the same - Peaches 'n Cream, or Bernat cotton), and I'm bordering them in Caron one pounder in black. (I couldn't find any all black in the yarns mentioned above although I know they do make it).

I'm doing them in the tunisian stitch using a long size H afghan hook.
I decided to add the initials of the state because I soon realized that, for some states, it was difficult to tell which end was up. I would die if I put the afghan together and then found out Tennessee was up-side-down!!!!!! :o)

I only work on them between other projects and so it's taken a year to do these nine. I'll probably just whip stitch them together when I start joining them.

I made an extra Indiana one for a Fall Challenge contest the IN Crowd is currently having. The challenge 'What, (to you), represents Indiana at Harvest Time?'
I figured I'd make the square into a pot holder. But I need to add some things overtop of it now, (like corn and harvesty things). Here's photos with the square I'm talking about. It's the one on the right that is not bordered in black.





Maybe I'll just get some buttons in the shape of fall harvest items and just sew them to the square. I think it should have some batting in the middle and maybe a fall patterned fabric on the back. I know they sell John Deere fabric but I don't really want to spend money on this project. Corn fabric would be awesome! Or just black and white checkered fabric just because it's Indiana.

Anyway, that other thing in the photos to the right is my latest purse.
It's also made of Sugar 'n Cream cotton yarn. Single crocheted. Very soft and nice.
I put a brown bunny button on it.
The color is Country Brown Ombre. It's kinda "woodsy" even with that dash of teal throughout. I added a side pocket on the outside for chapstick or something that size. I'm going to put this in my etsy shop.

The Beatles afghan

I made this for my youngest son who loves the Beatles and wanted their logo on a blanket. (Images are clickable for enlargement).





It's very wide (42" X 69") so I had a hard time trying to fit it all in one shot.
I used a size P cabled hook.






He wanted it to be thick and warm for winter so I attached a fleece back to it.
The Yarn is Royal blue and periwinkle. The fleece is royal blue.

This is the first fleece backing attachment I've done.
I used a leather punch for making holes in the fleece, a small thread crochet hook (to bring the yarn through the hole), and then a larger hook to make a single crochet stitch. Once completely around the edge of the blanket, (the fleece is now firmly attached), I switched to a size J hook and more periwinkle yarn to go around with a scalloped edge.