A shawl and other crochet projects

Good news! I didn't forget how to dye fabric while I was away. Yesterday I dyed over 50 yards of fabric (exhausting) and I don't think I made any mistakes. 

​On dyeing days I'm usually too tired to do anything but sit and crochet and that's what happened.

 First I sews in the ends for this wheelchair shawl to donate. The yarn is Red Heart Roll With It and I used a J hook to keep the fabric drapey. Not my favorite, but it was what I could find while on vacation and I think the colors are very pretty. That's good because I have a second one.

The goal with these shawls is a horseshoe shape so that they stay on the shoulders and long enough to cover shoulders but short enough not to get bunched up on the back against the chair. This is the second shawl that I've made with the Carrie Penny Half Circle Shawl. I did this one a little different to make a neck opening. The pattern begins with 8DC in a circle and the wedges are built out from that center. I thought it might be nice to start with a chain of 40 to get a little neckline and I do like this better. Next time I will start with a row of half double crochet to add more stability to the neckline.

The two shawls that I made would be best for little people but I saw another video from Cinnamon Stitches for the Dina Shawl that has great instructions for making a larger size shawl. I will need more yarn than the 1 cake of Roll With It that I have leftover but I absolutely have other yarns that will work for the Dina. 

I really enjoy making these. The agency that I donate through seems to ask for these more than baby blankets. I expect that they get lots of baby blankets. I'll keep making those too but will add in some of these shawls as well. I pretty much made this one totally in the car on the way home and I split up crochet time with loom knitting. It's all double crochet and chains.

There's another horseshoe shawl pattern out on the web but it has only 4 wedges so it ends up with some sharp points. I like the 8 wedge version better.

Speaking of baby blankets, I'm about halfway through the 3rd skein on this blanket. It's going to gether very fast and I think that the pattern is really pretty.

I'm already planning a few new projects. This  is a swatch for a pocket shawl that I'm going to make for Mom. She hates wearing coats so I thought a pocket shawl would be good for wall and most of winter here in Virginia. I'll start this after the baby blanket is done. This yarn is an anti-pilling line from Lion Brand.

While I was on vacation I perused a used book store and found this crochet book from the early 1980's. It has both knit and crochet blankets but I think there are more crochet options. I actually like several patterns in this book.

But I kind of fell in love with this one which Chris thinks is hideous. What does he know? What I see is a great car project because it's made of hexagon blocks. I think I would start by making all the daisies and then go back and add the green backgrounds. That would mean less yarn to carry around. 

I should have practiced first to see if I liked it but Lion Brand had a 35% off sale last week so I took that opportunity to get the yarn for Mom's shawl and this yarn (Pound of Love) for the daisy blanket. For the hexagons my plan is to do most of the background in the light green and the last round (and joining) in the dark green to give it a little more interest.

This one is put away for the time being. I'll get it out in time for the next road trip and do a practice block.

​Today I'm planning on doing some dedicated sewing and run a few errands.