Victorian Baby Jacket in PINK!

Our niece is expecting her second child this July.

I had already decided to give her the two baby blankies (here) and (here) I crocheted previously.

We were anxiously awaiting to hear if they were having a boy or another girl.   

While we were at Walt Disney World our niece texted us...

Another little princess for them!   

We were so pleased.

And then...

I saw this adorable little pink and white Victorian BABY Jacket on Pinterest. 

I fell in LOVE with this FREE pattern (download available here).

It's perfect for a PRINCESS!

Could I crochet this?

I have to try it.

I'm GOING for it. 

Now mind you I have only ever crocheted one baby dress (for their first baby girl, Hailey) so this is a new challenge for me. 

Luckily I have a skein of Caron Simply Soft yarn in Soft Pink in my stash.

I love it in PINK!

My first try of the foundation chain and first two rows was off...my BAD...I didn't read the pattern correctly. 

 So I drew a rough diagram to help me out. 

 My second try was better. 

 I'm a visual person and I like diagrams along with the written instructions.

I just wish more designers would include them.

Wish me luck with this one!

More information on this project available on Ravelry (here).  

Little Blackie the Blankie

Last night I finished my black and white ripple Vintage V-Stitch Blanket. 

 This is the blankie where I goofed on the double V-stitchs in the "mountains" of the pattern. 

 And since I liked the look of my goofed stitches I kept going. 

But... my blanket is a little smaller due to my error modification.

Doesn't "Blackie the Blankie" pop next to my red, pink and white Gingham Afghan?

I had thought to make the "Blackie the Blankie" larger by expanding the border but I decided I liked the simple V-Stitch border of black.

So I stuck to the pattern.

Love, love both of these baby blankies.

"Blackie the Blankie" measures only 22 inches by 24 inches.

It could be used for a newborn, an infant car seat, a stroller or at least be a doll blankie.

I've already picked my colors out of my yarn stash to crochet a five-color blanket...

...but this time I will follow the pattern. 

We leave next week for Florida and Walt Disney World so this project will go with me. 

I did something funny had a Senior Moment yesterday.  

Hubby drove me to my hair dresser yesterday and dropped me off. 

Checking in I discovered my hair appointment (which is always on a Tuesday) was for Wednesday this month.

So I had to call Hubby back and he didn't get the message until he was already home.

It was funny...we had a good laugh...

 ...and it was no big deal since we are retired and didn't have anything planned for the day.

The kicker was my iPhone going off while I'm there reminding me of my hair appointment the next day. 

LOL !

Let Me Tell You The Story...

Oh, yes...the story of the Vintage Crocheted Blanket. 

 I was so proud of myself figuring out this ripple pattern. 

 Patience less me taking the time to draw a diagram and practice test after test repeat until I was satisfied I had "it right".

Although... as I worked it up... the thought crossed my mind my pattern didn't look exactly like the pattern in the photos. 

My "valleys" were identical but my "mountains" seemed a little off.

 I told myself it must be the light or the angle of the photo.

Then I started to play around with the new crochet diagram software (Crochet Charts - StitchWare.com) I purchased.  

As I was trying to construct the diagram for this ripple I realized I didn't crochet my double V-Stitches correctly. 

Duh...this isn't a hard stitch to do. 

And because of that I didn't place the hook in the right spaces around those stitches.

So my "mountains" weren't quite as steep as shown in the photos.

After realizing this I practiced a few rows on my test piece and finally managed to get it done correctly so it looked like the photos.  

However, I decided not to frog my blankie.  

It looks nice as is so I will continue with my erroneous pattern version.

That's all for now on this blankie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remember my black and white motif?

You know the cute, little granny square I was playing around with in black and white yarns? 

Here's my rough first diagram of it. 

Still have to work on it a little bit. 

Move the symbols closer together....

What do you think? 

 Have you tried making your own diagrams?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My funny for the day:

(Source:  Pinterest)

Vintage V-Stitch Crocheted Blanklet

Remember this Black and White beauty from Pinterest?

Source:  Pinterest

I ordered this downloadable $5 pattern from ChurchMouse Yarns & Teas (located in the state of Washington).

 It's a ripple pattern using V-Stitchs and Double Vs. 

 I know from experience that I have to read any ripple pattern over and over again and I have also found that drawing a stitch diagram of the repeat (pattern didn't come with one) helps me tremendously. 

 I'm a visual person. 

 I'm not a crochet designer and hand drawing a crochet pattern diagram isn't easy for me.

I would love to have a computer software program I could use to do diagrams. 

 Years ago I did some internet research to see if there was any software program out there dedicated specifically to making crochet diagrams that was easy to use and not expensive.  

I didn't find anything then.

But I googled again today and was surprised because I found something interesting called StitchWork Software (see video below) that I will have to check it out in more detail later (i.e., cost and if it works on a MAC).

Anyways I drew up scribbled a hand drawn diagram to follow.  

And believe me it's easier to read that those scribbles then to try to read the typed pattern.

Because I always lose my place when reading them.   

   

I won't go into how many foundation chains and first row trys I had to do.  

It was MANY!

You have to get that first row right because everything depends on it being correct.

So I practiced and practiced.

Went to bed dreaming having nightmares about this crochet pattern.  

Oh, I even googled "vintage V-Stitch afghans" and found a similar free pattern (here) based upon the V-Stitch and Shell combination - and it was pretty.   But the mountains and valleys were steeper than I wanted.  I played around with this pattern, trying it out and decided it wasn't the same as the one I ordered.

I also found a similar ripple diagram for reference (here).

The point is... don't forget to check out the internet - there is a wealth of information out there to help us crocheters out.

If you don't know how to do a V-Stitch there are videos on YouTube to watch.

Once I figured out the repeat pattern and how I wanted to start and end the row - as a straight edge - it went pretty smoothly.  

I used a foundation chain of 160 as suggested.   That sounds like a large afghan but it's a ripple and comes out smaller then a straight across afghan would for that many chains. 

So this is baby size blankie.

The second row is a little tricky but I finally determined stared at the photo over and over until the light bulb clicked where to put the hook in what spaces.

Now I can say it's an easy repeat in many ways, easy on my hands to crochet, easy to follow, easy to see if you make a mistake.  Yes, I admit every once in a while I'll miss making a V-Stitch and do a double crochet in error.   Now I've learned to look back at my repeats before I leave that row. 

Because you "turn" at every row the pattern is the same look on either side.  

And just with the practice sessions and a few rows done I have the repeat memorized.

The pattern gives instructions to make as a 2-color, 5-color and a 10-color version.

I know I will have to do a full blown color version!   

So what do you think of this ripple pattern?  

Do you love it or not?