Bunny Blanket Buddy Completed!

First, I hope you all had a very Blessed Easter! We were with family on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and we had a very nice holiday weekend. I thank the Lord for this holiday we can share and be thankful for what He has done for us.

It's finally finished! And just in time to give to my grandaughter for Easter! Yeah!

Now, I have to tell ya what happened with the eyes (things happen for a reason)... I mis-read the bottle of fabric glue (which I was going to use to attach the googly eyes) and would not have had enough time to glue them on and have it dry to give to her. No problem, I figured I would simply crochet some eyes.... Nope! My case of crochet hooks was nowhere to be found (it was hiding from me, I just know it! Ha ha!) So my daughter Taylor came to my rescue and said, "Mom, how about if I make you eyes with my plastic canvas?" "Yes!" I said very excitedly. (Can ya picture it?)

So we cut it to size and she got to work on them. I figured I would just whip stitch them on and add tiny eyelashes. Mind you, this was all happening on Easter morning. I would see my grandaughter early that afternoon! Yikes!

Anyway, all things worked out and here's the finished blanket. I'm so pleased with this one! And I like these eyes so much better. :O)

Notice how I attached the ears? I used really big buttons! I saw in a magazine an amigurumi bunny and the ears were attached like that. I thought it looked so cute, so I decided to do these ears the same way. Like a lop-eared bunny.

You can see one of the hand pockets here.

Here she is trying it on! I think she really liked it. She didn't say much though... I think she didn't quite know what to do with it. Ha ha! That's her daddy (our oldest son) with her. :O)

Okay.... maybe not? Ha ha! Don't ya just love that face? LOL! I'm sure though that she'll get plenty of joy out of it. Nothing like snuggling up in a comfy play blanket. Ooooh, I just wanna kiss those cheeks!

The hand pockets were my own addition, and were not in the original pattern from Vanna's Afghans A to Z. Also, changing the ears and using the stitched eyes instead of the googly eyes was a change from the pattern. Finally, instead of 38 rows around the blanket, I stopped with 35 rows, and it was still plenty big enough for her! I'm so happy with how it turned out. :O)

Bunny Blanket Progress

Here are the pieces before being attached, or stuffing the muzzle. I also haven't gotten the googly eyes yet. But I wanted to share the progress so far. I have today and tomorrow to get this done! Yikes! This is for my grandaughter for Easter.

The ears & muzzle are just put in place on the hood, but I wanted to show how the ears are white on the inside and pink on the outside, so I turned one the other way. The original pattern shows the ears attached to stand up, but I like them laying down, and I think they would fall kind of down when it's on her head anyway. :O)

Here's both ears as they will lay when attached. Also, I changed the ears slightly from the pattern. I thought the pattern's ears were too straight, so since I'm making these ears lay more like a lop-eared bunny, I widened them a bit towards the bottom, which you can see with the ear on the left. I like them much better. :O)

I've also added hand pockets to the two side points of the blanket. I plan to make it so my grandaughter can pretend to be a bunny with this blanket! I'll post pictures tomorrow (hopefully) of the finished blanket. This blanket pattern was from the book Vanna's Afghans A to Z.

I've got a few more surprise details to add. What are they? Well.... you'll just have to wait till my next post to find out! Ha ha!

Bunny Blanket Buddy started

Here's my progress so far on the Bunny Blanket Buddy for my Grandaughter for Easter. I found this pattern in the book Vanna's Afghans A to Z (page 12) It's called a Blanket Buddy and it will have a hood in the corner that looks like a bunny face. I am also planning on adding a few more cute touches which I will show you as I do them. I can't wait to give it to her!

I think I'm on the 24th row here and I need to do 38 rows before starting the hood. Darn, those rows take forever to get to the corner as the blanket gets bigger! LOL! I know it looks like the start of a pinwheel! Ugh! But I will block it when it's done and that will fix it.

Closeup of the stitches

Winter Love Afghan - changes/progress

Here's an update on my Winter Love Afghan. I've changed how I was connecting the squares together, by using the Flat Braid method. You can find a video tutorial HERE. I love this method!

I'm using Vanna's Choice yarn in Cranberry, White & Dusty Green. The cranberry & green match my Living Room colors. I've got two full rows done and I need to have 8 rows for the full blanket (8 rows of 5 squares = 40 squares; 20 of each pattern)

I am anxious to get it done, but I will have to put it aside (again) for a bit to crochet my grandaughter's Easter gift - a Bunny Blanket. More on that later.... lol

These patterns are from SmoothFox's Etsy Shop. I used the 7x7 Easy Snowflake Square pattern, and the Revised Heart of a Child pattern (which I 'revised' just a little for my needs. lol)

Winter Love Afghan... beginnings

Heart Afghan progress

I had posted about this afghan before (I called it the Heart Afghan), but at that time I was doing grey squares between the red heart squares. I changed my mind. :O) Those grey squares just weren't working. The top 2 squares on the left are stitches together, but the other two are just laying kind of in place. I used Vanna's Choice (love that yarn!) in White and Cranberry.

So, I got another pattern from SmoothFox which was the snowflake square you see here. I thought it looked so cool with the red hearts! Both squares are from SmoothFox and they can be found in her Etsy Store. I used the 7x7 Easy Snowflake, and the Revised Heart of a Child (which I revised again for my needs. *wink*) patterns.

So this afghan will be great during Winter, from Thanksgiving straight thru till Valentine's Day! Sort of a Winter Love thing. LOL! Yeah! That's what I'll call it...

Winter Love Afghan

Yeah, I like it. LOL! I'll keep you posted on the progress, but I had to put it aside for a bit to do my mother's birthday gift, and start on an Easter gift for my grandaughter.

Crimson Ice Flower Granny

I've just designed my first Granny Square! It's a 5-sided Granny (so, yeah, technically it's not a 'square' LOL) I love the 3D effect, and the little "icicle" spikes keep it from curing up too much.

Crimson Ice Flower 5-sided Granny

I had fun doing this one. It just popped into my head (yet, again lol) when I was trying to figure out what to do with my Heart Afghan that I'm working on. I can't use this 5-sided one with that afghan, but I will make one sometime using this pattern.

I have the pattern available for free. You can click HERE. The pattern also has an option to add another row of white if you so choose.

Heart Afghan beginnings

Well, now that the Holidays are over, I hope everyone had a Joyous Christmas and enjoyed a nice start of the New Year. My first blog of 2009 is the start of a new afghan. Only the 2nd afghan I've ever tried, and the first one was started 35+ years ago.... and is STILL not finished! LOL


This was my own idea. Very simple really. I'm using Lionbrand Homespun yarn for the gray (Eduardian color) squares and the white borders, and Vanna's Choice cranberry color yarn for the red hearts and the white squares (which aren't done yet). I hope these two yarns will go together okay. They're both so soft!

The cranberry hearts are part of a pattern called Heart of a Child from SmoothFox's Etsy shop. I really LOVE this heart pattern, which will be in the center of a white square when finished.

Then I will be connecting the gray squares alternated with the heart squares for the afghan. This one is for me. :O) I've spent months making things for everyone else so now this is for me. My recliner is in a chilly part of the room so I can't wait to get this one done! It's going to be so soft and warm! :O)

Color by Degrees Afghan - My old/new project

Okay, I'm new at this blog thing. I actually started up this account for a contest, but since I really like crocheting and have been doing several projects lately, I thought... why not?

Color by Degrees Afghan

This is my oldest project. Color by Degrees Afghan - my own original design. My pattern can be found HERE or listed under My Patterns in the box on the right. It's a very simple afghan starting with a row of granny squares and then using only double crochet stitches & chain stitch. The design is a little unique in that I increase the width of the stripes as I go along.

I started this afghan after my mother taught me to crochet in the early 70's... some 35+ years ago! I never finished it. I took it out a couple of times and added another row or two, but that was it. It stayed packed away for years in the back shed (I hadn't even realized it had ended up in there!) A few years ago we cleaned out that old shed (turned it into a screened pool house) and I came across my afghan, still in perfect shape believe it or not! So, I packed it better and moved it into my craft area of the house.

Recently, I got back into crocheting, and am loving it! So, I dug out that old afghan. I am determined this time to actually finish the thing. LOL! Although it will have to wait till after the holidays since I am busy crocheting Christmas gifts. The colors don't match anything in my house, but that's not the point! It's the sentiment, the memories, the determination to finish it that will make it special. And the fact that it was the first real thing I actually crocheted. :O)