Persian Tiles Blanket

The epic "Persian Tiles Blanket" afghan project is finally complete, and as much as I enjoyed making it I am glad to be moving on to other projects. 

This was months of work! I started it on September 7th and worked on it for a couple of hours nearly every day (minus the entire month of October when I was busy with Stephen West's "Twists and Turns Shawl") and I was finally able to get it finished today, January 10th.

Not being able to get my hands on the "Eastern Jewels" yarn kit, and wanting a larger afghan anyway, I made up my own colourway using what colours I could coordinate in "Hobbii Amigo" yarn.

I chose to finish the afghan with the "Persian Tiles Extension" border by Tracy Fear.

The border pattern is quite vague about stitch counts, and I made a rectangular afghan rather than a square, so I found my corners didn't line up quite the way they were supposed to and I worked them out as best I could.

As usual, all links are only there for your convenience and I don't receive any kickbacks from your "clicks".

Seemingly Endless Seaming

I'm now working on the "Persian Tiles" afghan again, having set it aside for all of October while I worked on the "Twists & Turns" MKAL 2022 shawl.

Although I'm not finished the afghan, significant progress has been made. Over the past week or so I've managed to get all the pieces crocheted together. I think it's looking great, if I do say so myself.

I plan to add the "Persian Tiles Extension" border around the whole thing, and it will take some time.

Unfortunately the whole border will have to be less colourful. I've run out of all of the livelier choices and will be working solely within the white through greys to black range. Hopefully it will work out okay, perhaps being a stabilizing influence for the wilder centre.

It Started Out Okay

This is the beginning of Octagon B7. I felt it started out okay, but instinct told me it was not going to end well so I took this "before" photo to record the octagon before it went bad. LOL

And indeed, as it was completed with the very bright "egg yolk" colour, my instinct proved correct.

The final photo actually looks a lot better than the octagon does in person. My camera was kind. In real life the truly garish "Cheezies" or "Kraft Dinner" type orange is very evident.

Let me explain why I let this happen. In the beginning, when I decided to do this afghan, I was not able to find a kit in stock with the original "Eastern Jewels" colorway. I substituted yarns I was able to purchase through Hobbii.com. Some were close, most were not. But in the end I wrote out my list of substitutions and I am committed to using them as laid out in the Eastern Jewels directions. If, when all the pieces are done, some stand out as truly hideous and out of sync with the others, I will redo them in a kinder colorway. 

 

While I Wait

 While I'm waiting for the Twists and Turns Shawl MKAL to start on October 6th I'm working on a large crochet project. 

It's the "Eastern Jewels" version of the "Persian Tiles" crochet blanket by Janie Crow.

I wasn't able to snag a kit with a colour scheme I liked so I purchased individual balls of yarn from Hobbii.com and subbed in my choices for the colours in the list. Some are close, others are nowhere near the originals.

This frightfully vibrant pink one is an example of where the colours could be better. When all pieces are finished I may sub this one out for something less eye searing.

Other combinations, like this one above, I quite like!

These octagons are quite large, almost 12 inches across, so they are each taking at least a full day of crocheting to complete, and there are also many smaller squares and triangles as well. Usually I don't have that much time to devote to hobbies, so clearly I won't be finished the entire afghan by the start of the Twists and Turns Shawl Mystery Knitalong. 

Come October 6th I'll put this afghan project aside so that I can keep up with the incoming weekly "clues" for the mystery knitalong. Not to worry though, I have almost an entire year before the afghan must be complete.

Late Exhibition Report

Just realized that I never did report back to my readers about my Chilliwack Exhibition entries for this year. Enough time has passed that I can barely remember what I entered let alone how each entry did! (Why yes, I DO have a very short memory!) I do recall that I entered 6 items and all 6 got some sort of ribbon. No rosettes this year, but lets see if I can search Flickr files to see what was entered and which ribbons were won for each category.

Oh. This photo is somewhat helpful. It at least shows the ribbons won in the weaving department.

A second for my Saori "8/2 Blues" yardage.

A first place ribbon for my Saori vest,

Another first for the little red cross-body bag with its handwoven Saori fabric.

The Saori woven coasters also won a first. I'll be posting a bit of a tutorial tomorrow about how those were finished. Come back around if you are interested and haven't already found my explanation on Ravelry.

The other two ribbons were won in a different department. For sewing I received a third place ribbon on the orange Runaround Bag.

And finally, in crocheting, a first for the miniature 1/4 scale afghan I made for the doll couch. 

So there you go, the 6 ribbons won at this year's Chilliwack Exhibition, though I neglected to get photos of the ribbons with those last two projects.

Tulusson's Afghan

All of the crocheting and sewing in of ends is done. The miniature afghan is finished and being blocked.

This is for the Tulusson family's living room.

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When it's dry they will be happy to post a photo of it arranged on their 1/4 scale couch.

Half Done

An itsy bitsy teensy weensy granny square afghan in the making. 30 of the 60 squares needed are now done. They are being made with fingering/sock weight yarn and a 1.75mm hook. Each measures approximately 1.75 inches square.

When complete the afghan will add a cozy ambiance to the Tulusson family's new couch.

A Bloggable Bit

You would think from the lack of activity here on the blog lately that I haven't been involved with creative pursuits that were worthy of blogging about. In actual fact I have been so busy creating that I haven't had a moment to blog about any of it. Several of the projects are top secret for now so I can't reveal them yet, but this one is bloggable. (Spell check says "bloggable" isn't a word. What does it know, hmmm?)


This bright splash of yarn is the beginning of an afghan for my 24 year old son. He will be moving out of our home in a few months and I wanted to give him a house (apartment? Condo? Basement suite?) warming present.

This will be a tartan afghan in the "Cunningham" plaid from the Australian Woman's Weekly book, "Easy-to-crochet Tartan Rugs". Our name is not Cunningham, nor are we of a heritage with customary family tartans, but it will make a beautiful afghan and a bright yet masculine spot in a bachelor pad, and quite possibly an extra blanket when needed. My son picked the particular plaid himself. He liked the simplicity of this one and it's primarily red and black colour scheme.

This is only the beginning of the horizontal stripes in the mesh portion. When it is done I will be crocheting 128 afghan length crocheted chains. They are woven through the mesh portion to form the plaid.

I made one of these for my daughter and her husband years ago, but in a different plaid.