Friday, January 02, 2009
Three Cute Sets - One Cantankerous Piece of Fleece!
Before the holidays I sent all of the donations that I had received for Marine Corps Kids to the bases. In hindsight, it might have been smart to keep some things for after the holidays, but I had received so many wonderful gifts and I wanted to get them to the families as quickly as possible.

Last week I got names and addresses for 3 baby girls who's daddy's are all in Iraq. I want to send them gifts quickly, so I decided to get out the Edgerydoo and make 3 blankets.

I had a very cute piece of baby girl fleece that I cut and pierced to make three receiving blankets. The first went fairly quickly. I trimmed it with pink yarn and then made a Bordering on Adorable cap to match.





For the second, I used the same edging, but changed to a variegated yarn. That one went quickly too, and I made a matching hat to complete the set.







The third one.....the third one was a challenge. All the fabric was cut from the same panel, so I'm not sure what went wrong, but the third blanket was very cantankerous. I couldn't get the hook through the fabric. I was using the same hook and the same yarn as for blanket #2, but I had no luck. I made a matching hat, then tried again to make the blanket. I re-pierced all of the holes around the fabric edge, but still could not get the hook and yarn through. I must admit that it made me a bit mad. Finally, I gave up and with a yarn needle, did a simple blanket stitch around the edging. Since I used the Edgerydoo, the pierced holes were well spaced, and the stitching was easy, but I hated the way it looked. It was so .....unfinished. In despair, I put the blanket down and made a pair of SLK Booties to send with the hat.

The hat and bootie set was cute, but I really wanted to make the blanket. In a last ditch effort, I picked up the blanket again. Using a smaller hook this time, I tried to crochet over the blanket stitch. I did a sc where the blanket stitch pierced the fabric, then did 3 sc over the yarn in between the stitches. You would think that after piercing the fabric twice, and sewing the blanket stitch, and changing to a smaller hook, the project would have been an easy one. It wasn't!

That section of fabric fought me every step of the way. I struggled to get the hook through the fabric with each stitch. It took a while, but I persevered. In the end, the make-shift pattern really looks very cute. I actually really like the look of the edging - which is sad because I will NEVER make this again.

If someone can explain why one section of fleece would behave so differently from another cut from the same bolt, I would appreciate it. I've had others comment about some fleece being very hard to work with. I have had some bad luck with one sided or super-furry fleece, but have never struggled like this before with regular fleece. The fact that the first 2 blankets gave me no trouble at all, really has me puzzled. I don't know if there is something in the way it is woven that would cause these inconsistencies.

It was very frustrating to get that last blanket done, but in the end it turned out well, and I have 3 cute sets to send to 3 cute newborns.


2 Comments:

Blogger Kathy said...

I THINK ALL THREE SETS TURNED OUT GREAT.

Blogger Treasure Ann said...

Ohhhhhhhh those crochet items are so cute! Have a Happy & Blessed New Year.

Post a Comment

<< Home

footer2.JPG