Wool-Aid

Found a great charity group on Ravelry that specifically focuses on wool items for children.  Wool-Aid sends most of their items internationally and focuses on wool, which provides the most warmth.  They take items for children of all ages.

Here is my first package to send to them, which includes a lot of items that I made years ago that had to intended recipients.

Moorish Mosaic, finally!

Almost immediately after it was published, I bought yarn for Lisa Naskrent's Moorish Mosaic Afghan.  Eleven months later, it is finally finished!

The only modification I made was to skip the triangle motifs intended to fill in the sides in favor of doing a few extra rounds for the border.  I love this pattern!

 Ravelry linky

Project Linus - Reverse Mitered Block

My Stitch'n Club at Nationwide is starting blanket project to benefit Project Linus.  To help everyone get started, I wanted to find a couple simple patterns that could be easily used with any yarn and any gauge.  For the crocheters, it's the Corner Stripe Square by JudyK.  For the knitters, I wanted a mitered block pattern but most of the ones I was finding started with a large number of stitches for the cast on, then decrease to a point.  I wanted to work in the reverse direction to make it really simple to get the proper size.  While this is probably not an original idea, I have searched for this pattern and could not find it anywhere.  It is similar to this pattern by Ari Whitlow, but without the yarn-overs.

Enjoy!  I will add pictures soon!

Pattern
cast on 3

row 1: kfb, pm, kfb, k1
row 2: sl 1, k across
row 3: sl 1, k to 1 st before marker, kfb, sl m, kfb, k across

repeat rows 2 and 3 to desired size, ending on row 3, bind off

Notes
kfb - knit into the front and back of the stitch
pm - place marker
sl - slip
sl m - slip marker

Stash Update

April 1st is Flash Your Stash day, so here is my annual picture (only a day late)!



To be fair, this includes WIPs as well (see the 4 crocheted blankets along the right side of the photo?).

When I started keeping track of my stash and actual usage in 2009, I had a little over 44,000 yards in my home.  A few months later, I peaked at over 46,000 yards.  Today, I have just under 30,000 yards and lots of plans.  Maybe under 20,000 by the end of the year?

Magic Carpet Blanket

I am so excited!  I have another pattern being published in the Spring 2011 Interweave Crochet, which is due out closer to the end of the month.  They've shared their preview here.

The pattern will be available for download on the Interweave website at some point, if you don't get the magazine.

And now that it's public I can share my pictures!



And one of the girls playing on it while I was taking a break from the seaming: