October
2, 2004 -- Two Early "Keepsake Cover-Ups"I
don't know why I kept these other than to laugh at my horrible gauge.
(They had predecessors that were just too, too depressing so I gave those
to Goodwill during one of our moves. ) These are two of the same "Keepsake
Cover-Ups" that appears in Leisure Arts' Quick and Cozy Afghans: 
I
made them when Paul and I lived in our first flat and I was still struggling to
get a grip on crochet after my second dorm roomie, Ney, had revived my interest
in it. I
chose that pattern because in the book it is supposed to be a baby blanket at
32" x 45" and I figured I could handle a small blanket as a first major
project. Was I ever <em>wrong. </em> I
remember doing and unravelling that burgandy one soooo many times that both Paul
and Boon, our flat roomie, would make fun of me every time they saw me fighting
with it on the couch. It measures 48" square on the floor but much bigger
stretched out or in use. I had decided to quit making rows once I got it squared
off because if I did all the rows the pattern actually called for, I'd have ended
up with a really looooooong blanket! I was so sick of the blanket that I didn't
bother with the pattern border -- I just did dc's all the way around just to get
away from the endless burgandy yarn. After
giving it a rest for a few months, I went and got the really colorful rainbow
yarn as the antithesis to the solid burgandy and tried the same pattern again
-- determined to do better. In the full-view photo you see the holes in
the burgandy are bigger than the holes in the rainbow. Also in the detail photo,
you can see the rainbow shells clusters are tighter and not so floppy. So I was
improving my gauge. Hooray! 
But
I also had to cut that blanket short of the whole pattern because it was still
too stretchy and floppy. Both blankets were retired to a corner of the couch and
anyone watching TV normally used both at the same time as a lap blanket because
just one was too hole-y and air-y to keep you warm. Now
that's a nice project for the future -- re-make this pattern AGAIN and see how
my gauge now compares to my early efforts then! | 