Modern Take on the Granny Square

Is it me, or is the granny square (kind of) back in?

Just me? Well anyway,

I wanted to work on a new project awhile back (while pregnant) that I could do sitting/laying down/being lazy

and also that I could pick up and bring with me anywhere.

I toyed with the idea of doing a hexy quilt like Jodi… but you know… it seemed a little too daunting at the time, so I landed on this granny square afghan. 

My inspiration and granny square pattern came from this post of a BEAUTIFUL rainbow blanket by Tangled Happy.

You can find the crochet pattern here.

I should also mention that the inspiration blanket was made with really gorgeous purl soho fibers, and you can even buy a kit here.

But here is my take on it.

I used a thicker yarn and larger needle and used fewer colors, opting out of the pinks and purples since I wanted to use this in the boys' room.

My fiber choice was Vickie Howell's "sheepish" collection by Caron.

They are nice bold colors and super soft.

The inside of the squares are the following colors: Gunmetal, Grey, Navy, Robin Egg, Turquoise, Teal, Red, Coral, Pumpkin, Yellow, Olive, Chartreuse, and Lime.

The border of each square is White (which is really an off white). I also used that to crochet my squares together.

This turned out to be a fairly large blanket. I hate it when blankets don't cover your whole self.

So all in all I used about two skeins of each color, and a heck of a lot of the white (I lost count, but maybe around 9 or 10?).

As mentioned above, I love granny squares because they're portable. Just my yarn and a crochet hook (size H/8-5.00mm), and I was set. You also don't have to bring the whole project with you to keep working.

I'm stoked with the way it turned out.

It just invites you to relax and have some more coffee, am I right?

Speaking of…

Until next time!

An Introduction

He's here!

Michael Joseph

born October 25th

7 lbs. 3 oz.

19 in.

10 fingers. 10 toes.

We couldn't be more in love with this guy.

And Ben is doing an AWESOME job at being a big brother.

So some updates if you should care:

The Etsy shop is going to stay closed until at least the new year. I'm not sure what direction I'm going to head next with sales, but I thank you all for your patience.

I really am hoping to get my inventory back up for Easter and First Communion sales in the Spring! Pray for me in this regard! :)

Blog: I'll be posting my own projects in the meantime here on the blog. This guy to the left is so cute, and this face begs for some baby crafting.

Many of you have asked for templates for my Jesse Tree Ornaments. I'm hoping to at least have some rough templates for you all in the upcoming weeks in time for Advent. Wish me luck! :)

Thanks again for all of your thoughts and prayers for baby Michael. He is such a sweet baby, and we are so grateful!

"We've Moved!" Announcements

Part of me still wishes that it was me saying "We've Moved!"

but alas... it is not.

My step-brother and his wife just bought their first home, though, and I'm super excited for them.

My mom, being the fabulous paper crafter that she is, made them some announcements to send out,

and they turned out super cute.

The first is one that my mom made a draft.

That's right, folks. Not only does my make cards for us

she makes multiple variations and we usually get to pick our favorites.

Anyway, this one was my vote.

It should really be noted that I had no vote... this one was just my favorite so I wanted to share. :)

You know I'm a stickler for twine.

And look! Matching envelope... so good. so good.

The second with the keys is the one that Daryl and Christie chose.

The crazy detail of the cut outs on skeleton keys is insane, trust me.

Both are so different and so great, right?

In other news, the doc says any day now for baby two to make his appearance, so I'm making no promises for frequency of posts.

I know, as if I ever do.

Ben’s Booklist: Brown Bear, Brown Bear

 

I’ve been trying to get myself and Ben to the library about once a week lately. We are so blessed to have one absurdly close to our house, and I’m attempting to get in the routine of going weekly so that it will be an established habit when indoor activities are necessary this winter… plus it’s free… and it’s good to read.

Anyway, we’ve been checking out about 3 books at a time, one of which I base some activities on for the week for when he is “doing his work” in the morning. At first, the concept of having to bring the books back to the library was difficult, but he’s gotten the hang of it (I make a really big deal about putting the books in the library chute… it’s actually a little embarrassing but you gotta do what you gotta do).

Last week, we had Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin

 

Cognitive Skills: color recognition and pairing two non-identical objects

Ben loved this one, and I loved that he loved it. It’s low on the obnoxious scale, and if you’re not creeped out by the mother towards the end, it’s a great intro to picture books for toddlers, especially if they like animals.

 

We did two activities with this one, a coloring book and a matching game. Both printables are free (yay!) and available here thanks to Carisa at 1+1+1=1. You should also note that there are tons of other activities and printables for this book, but I stuck with the two simplest ones that I knew Ben could complete by himself while still being a little challenging.

 

 

The coloring book was a big hit, and I’m kind of ashamed to say that I was shocked when we got every color right without prompting. I shouldn’t have been surprised because he is really into colors right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then there was the white dog…

 

When Ben finished all of the pages, he was so proud! He insisted on bringing it to his grandmother’s house to show her.

 

 

 

 

The matching game was also great for us. Up until now, he’s been playing a regular matching game (with pieces from a memory card game). Those are obviously cards with two identical images, so this was a great step into pairing two non-identical objects together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was also the “work” that I left on the shelf for him, and he came back to it a number of times throughout the week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s that! We were at the library again this morning, so I have a whole new group to work with. I’m going to keep posting our “preschool” books under Ben’s Booklist in the Montessori at Home section, so be sure to check back in!