Stained Glass Afghan Completed!

 I had 14 days to finish the Stained Glass Afghan, I DID IT and I lost 2 days because of birthday parties!!! I'd estimate about 75 hours of work over 12 days. Approximately 6+ hours of crocheting a day. My hands need a rest!

To see the progress from the beginning and to find out more about the yarns used, click over to the first post here.

Stained Glass Afghan WIP Day 9

 This was the progress up until last night on the Stained Glass Afghan.

Stained Glass Afghan Day 8

 All I am going to say today is that the corners are done and I am moving on to the border to make the circles squares. I won't say more because right now I want to say a few choice words about the first border row that I have been trying to figure out only to learn that there are many errors in it. If I go on I will end up in a rant and off on a tangent. You don't want that. LOL. :)

 

Stained Glass Afghan WIP Day 7 plus a visit with SANTA!

 (I'm trying to start the Stained Glass blog posts with pictures of something besides the afghan so that if my Mom wants to be surprised, the afghan pictures won't show in the preview on Facebook...)

 Santa came to preschool today!!! He's an awesome Santa and is so patient with all of the kids! Today my kids had their Christmas Party at school. Food, Santa, presents, singing and candy! They had so much fun!

Now for progress on the Stained Glass Afghan. Today I finished the last round of the circles!

 

I started on 1 of 4 corner motifs. After all 4 corners are done, I do a few rounds of black to make it a square, then a join, then border!

4 days left to finish it!!!! It's crunch time!!!

Stained Glass Afghan WIP Day 6

I had to take 2 days off from working on the afghan. Sunday we had a birthday party for my now 5 year old and Monday was his actual birthday, so we celebrated that day as well. :) He had a LEGO gold mining cake. See the "gold" in the cake? The digger is digging it all up. lol

 
But here is the progress for today!

Stained Glass Afghan WIP Day 5

Chugging away! I'm on round 11 of 13 for the circles. Next will be corners, borders to make it square, then joining and a few rows of border all around. Notice the bottom right circle? That's what it looks like on the back. Do you see all those ends that will need to be woven in!? Ahhh! That will take at least a day!

 I don't expect any progress to be made tomorrow becasue my big boy pictured at the top and below is celebrating his birthday! He'll be 5 on Monday!
 

Stained Glass Afghan WIP Day 4

I'm really liking the progress! I love it with the orange, it's really starting to pull it together. You can see the black one on the bottom right, that is beginning the next round!

Tips for how to work with Red Heart Sashay or similar mesh yarns

Scarf Vader

I recently got an order for 11 ruffle scarves and an order for 2 more. Let me tell you, by the end of those 13, I have it down to a science! After I finished those two orders, I had done nearly 30 scarves  in the last few months. Today I want to share with you some tricks that I learned along the way.

Red Heart Sashay and Premier Starbella are both yarns that are more like a fabric. They are mesh with a thicker border on one side, sometimes with a metallic thread running through it. The part you crochet into is the side opposite of that thicker side.

Sashay and Starbella both begin in a skein. You can pull from the center or from the outside. If you pull from the center you will find that you will need to untwist it every few feet or so. I don't know about you, but when I get going, I don't want to stop and untwist. Working from the outside is ok, but it rolls all around and isn't my favorite way to work. Also, while you are working the yarn, you need to pull open the mesh so you can get access to the holes in order to insert your hook. What I find worked really well for me is to start from the outside, spread the mesh with my fingers and wrap it around a toilet paper or paper towel tube at the same time. This is what it looks like when wrapped.

So now you have it wrapped around a tube, you could work it from here, but it will keep rolling away from you. Next I put it on a dowel rod, and put it across the top of my feet so it can freely roll without going all crazy! Another option would be if you have a freestanding toilet paper holder that you could put it on. I didn't have one and I am a big fan of working with what you have.

You can see here it is on the dowel and resting on the top of my feet for easy rolling.

My favorite way to work with this yarn is with this video below. In the example, they use Starbella, but it works the same with Sashay.



Have you made any ruffle scarves? Have any tips to share with me? Comment below with any advice you might have!

Stained Glass Afghan WIP Day 3, gingerbread men, and destruction!

Today was NOT productive! My husband was off from work today so I was less productive because of that as well. But what really put me behind was last night after I finished row 9 on all 12 circles, I realized I did it wrong! So I had to "frog", that means rip it (see how it sounds like a frog?!) all out and re-do the whole row. So this morning I started all over again on the row.

Row 9 done WRONG! BOOOO!

Row 9 done RIGHT! Ahhh!

 This little boy is also quite distracting with his cuteness and putting his Darth Vader mask on the Christmas Soldier cookie jar that I pulled out of the Christmas decorations today. Did I mention we put up our tree today too?!

 But this cute little boy picture above, quickly broke my cookie jar. :/

And the other little boy broke my necklace. See why I got nothing done today?!

 But the best part of the day was seeing them in their Christmas program! Aren't these little gingerbread boys and girl so cute?!

My number 1 job and priority is being a Mom. So yes, these distracted me from what I wanted to do, but I wouldn't have it any other way! Might I miss my Christmas deadline? Maybe. But they will never be 3 and 4 years old again.

Stained Glass Afghan WIP Day 2

It's the second day of work on the Stained Glass Afghan gift. I feel very accomplished at finishing through round 8 but I know my progress will get slower and slower as the rounds get bigger and bigger. For now I am happy with the progress!

Through round 7.

Through round 8.

Stained Glass Afghan WIP

Today I am finally getting to start on my Mom's Christmas gift. A few months back she mentioned that she liked one that I shared on my Facebook page.

I bought the book from a wonderful lady in a crochet group I belong to, I bought all the materials, I made a test square to make sure I liked the colors. Then the holiday rush hit and it got pushed to the back burner. Fast forward a few months to today! Finally I get to start on it! I'm going to share my progress with you as I finish each round. It will keep me accountable right? I don't want to let you guys down! So here's the progress as of 6pm est on December 11th, 14 days till Christmas.

Updated 12/25/12: Did I finish in time? Click here to find out!

Info:
Pattern- Stained Glass Afghan
Yarn-  Red Heart Soft in Cherry Red, Guacamole, Honey, Tangerine, Teal, Turquoise, Black
Hook- H

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Completed!