Scrap Happy Afghan -- COMPLETE!

Hi everyone! Hope you all are safe and healthy. 

I'm going to cut to the chase here -- I finished the afghan!

This blanket is made of leftover yarn from the temperature afghan I made in 2017. I had so much yarn left over (you just can predict how much yarn you'll need for a temperature afghan!) that was just sitting in a box, and I decided to try and use it up to make a small lap quilt. 

Of course, once I started crocheting, I discovered that I had too much yarn for a lap quilt ... and kept going. So the result is a full-leg-and-torso quilt!

I love the way the "repeats" get shorter each time as I ran out of yarn. Very satisfying!

I wove in the ends and made the simplest border -- just rounds of double crochet in black and dark grey. 

I'm not sure I'll have another scrappy project for a while -- though of course I have several other projects on the go! I want to thank the other ScrapHappy Stitchers for their encouragement while I made this blanket up.

ScrapHappy Day is organized by Kate and Gun, so if you're interested in participating please see their blogs. And my fellow ScrapHappy Stitchers are super creative, visit their blogs to see how they're using up some of their scraps.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, Sue L, Kjerstin, and Vera.

Scrap Happy Afghan part 5

Hi everyone - hope you are all staying safe and healthy.

I've been working on this afghan for a few months now; the yarn was leftover from a temperature afghan I made in 2017. (2017! Can you believe it?!?!)

Last month I had two and a half color passes done:

Despite the fact that the yarn is running out (hooray!), I didn't get through the four passes I wanted to. But I have done three and a half passes! And yes, Bub felt he needed to be in the picture again. Probably for scale.

And in even better news: there's very little yarn left!

By our next check in -- June 15 -- I hope to be finished with the body of the blanket and well on the way to having a simple border stitched.

ScrapHappy Day is organized by Kate and Gun, so if you're interested in participating please see their blogs. And my fellow ScrapHappy Stitchers are super creative, visit their blogs to see how they're using up some of their scraps.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, Sue L, Kjerstin, and Vera.

Scrap Happy afghan part 4

Hi everyone! I hope you are all safe and healthy. 

A month ago -- remember how different everything was then? Well, I'd done about one and a half repeats of the pattern.

And now, a month later... I've done just over two and a half repeats. I had to lay it on the floor, which meant that my cats needed to check it out too. That's Bub in the center, and "action cat" Kiki zooming in at the bottom edge.

Of course, now this is just an excuse to show you pictures of my cats. And don't we all need that nowadays? Here's one where Kiki is looking at the camera. And, being cats, of course they would never *both* look at the camera at the same time...

I'm still really happy at how this is coming together, if a little disappointed at HOW MUCH YARN I STILL HAVE LEFT. I did, however, find a local charity that is gathering yarn for seniors who are self-isolating. So anything left over -- and a bunch of additional yarn from my stash -- will get packaged up and delivered to them.

My plan is to get through another one and a half color passes, and then do a black border around the outside. I suppose I should also weave in the loose ends at some point -- my least favorite part of the project!

ScrapHappy Day is organized by Kate and Gun, so if you're interested in participating please see their blogs. And my fellow ScrapHappy Stitchers are super creative, visit their blogs to see how they're using up some of their scraps.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, and Sue L.

Our next check in is on May 15; I hope to be working on the border by then!

ScrapHappy Afghan part 3

Hi everyone -- and I hope you are all staying well. Living in Seattle we've been pretty staying close to home, which means I've had extra time for crafting. Looking for a silver lining here...

It's time for the monthly ScrapHappy Day check-in, where a group of crafters show off the projects they're making from scraps. I had a bunch of extra yarn from the temperature afghan I made in 2018, so I'm making a  stained glass afghan in greyscale. And I LOVE how it looks!

Here's where I was a month ago:

I had done one full color pass and started on a second one. Now, a month later, I've done more than half of the second color pass:

The colors look a little funny in my dimly lit bedroom, but I love how they look in real life, and I'm so happy with how the afghan is growing. On the first pass I ran out of one color, and so far in this one I have nearly run out of another. I look forward to seeing how this changes the pattern, as there are fewer colors in the mix!

ScrapHappy Day is organized by Kate and Gun, so if you're interested in participating please see their blogs. And my fellow ScrapHappy Stitchers are super creative, visit their blogs to see how they're using up some of their scraps.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, and Sue L.

Our next check in is on April 15; I hope to be finished with this color pass by then!

ScrapHappy Afghan part 2

Hi everyone! It's time for ScrapHappy Day!

It's been really satisfying to work on this project and I'm really happy to announce that I've made it through one color pass!

Here's where I was last time:

And here's where I am now:

I'm also thrilled that I actually finished up one of the colors! One down, 14 to go...

Here's an odd thing -- I might be running low on the black yarn that I am using as the "lead" between the greys. I wonder if I'll have to buy more yarn to finish this scrap piece?!?!? I think that's okay. There might even be some deep down in the stash, and I promise to look there first.

I have decided, however, that any leftover yarn will be donated and out of my house. Of course, that's a loooong way from now.

ScrapHappy Day is organized by Kate and Gun, so if you're interested in participating please see their blogs. And my fellow ScrapHappy Stitchers are super creative, visit their blogs to see how they're using up some of their scraps.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, and Sue L.

Our next check in is on March 15; I hope to be halfway through another color pass by then!

ScrapHappy Day : yarn as scraps?

One of the great things about participating in a stitch-a-long is that you meet a lot of other crafty folk, and then you meet their networks, and so on. I noticed that some people in my stitch-a-long take part in a "ScrapHappy Day" -- a day to show the projects you make from scraps -- and that I even knew the organizers!

A lot of my fellow stitchers are also quilters, and while I have quilted, I haven't made time to do it lately. So I didn't think I really had anything to show. And then I wondered, would leftover yarn be considered "scraps"?

Well, yes. Yes I say. And it's a lot of yarn.

How might someone end up with quite so much scrap yarn? Well, it's like this.

In 2017 I made a temperature afghan using "15 shades of grey" -- 15 shades, from black to white, reflecting different temperatures. A lot of people do their temperature afghans with a rainbow motif -- not my style -- or with 8 colors. Not me -- I went to the fabric store and pulled the largest range of black to white I could. It remains one of my all-time favorite craft projects. Here's the end of January, in the cold, dark winter:

Here's a few months in, when I realized it was going to be massive.

And here's the end of August, when I realized this massive blanket was going to be too long for a bed (but my cat didn't care).

The problem with a temperature afghan is that you don't know in advance how much of any particular yarn you're going to need. Because I wanted a greyscale afghan, I had to use multiple yarn brands ... thus increasing the chance that any one might go out of stock/production during the year. I bought one skein of each and when I ran out, bought an additional skein. In one case I managed to get the last skein listed on the Jo-Ann website in Western Washington -- and had to drive 15 miles to go get it.

But for the most part, I had extra yarn. We only topped 90 degrees F 3 days in 2017, and never topped 95, so the skein for "Elephant" was barely touched, and the white skein was untouched. Other colors were replaced late in the year, and were mostly full, too. So what to do?

While I loved the temperature afghan, the last thing I needed was ANOTHER TEMPERATURE AFGHAN. So the yarn went back into a box and into the basement.

At some point in 2019 I saw this pattern for a Rainbow Stained Glass Blanket by Pat Foster online and thought, "Oh! This might be DESIGNED to use up leftover temperature afghan yarn!:

I decided that, rather than use grey "leading" and a rainbow, I'd use black yarn leftover from this and other projects and fill in the "windows" with my shades of grey. And it's PERFECT:

Sadly the photos don't really show the different shades -- I blame the light-correction on the iPhone trying too hard! But hopefully you can see that the colors start with a very dark charcoal and are now at a medium grey.

My plans are to use up as much of the scrap yarn as I can by crocheting each color three times -- or as yarn allows. Given that I don't make a ton of time to crochet, I'm pleased with my progress so far. And it feels great to work on a project that didn't require new supplies!

ScrapHappy Day is organized by Kate and Gun, so if you're interested in participating please see their blogs. And why not check out what all the other scraptacular folks have been making out of their scraps?

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Nanette, Lynn, Lynda, Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy, Debbierose, Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan, Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean, Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline, and Sue L.

I'll be back on the 15th of February, hopefully showing off more progress!