Do you remember the Ravelry crochet-along afghan squares I posted each month last year?  Guess what – they’re all joined together!  The ends are all woven in!  It is FINISHED!

24 squares, each using a ball or so of Cleckheaton Vintage Hues 100% wool.

Joined using Bendigo Woollen Mills 12ply Rustic, in the colour Midnight Tweed. The joining method is Priscilla Hewitt’s Flat Braid Join (there are even videos on YouTube that demonstrate how this is done) and the edging is Chris Simon‘s standard edging (found under the Afghan Joining Hints link on her blog).  I used over 3 big balls of the Rustic – that’s over 600 grams just to join and edge!  And each of the 24 squares was a 50g ball – go on, do the maths!  That’s a big, heavy, warm blanket.

Although I’ve photographed it on the spare bed it’s actually living on the couch. Perfect for winter nights! Here’s another photo, just because I love it.

Thanks for the birthday wishes and the thoughtful comments on my last post! I’m really interested in your opinions on how we see things and how our views change. I’m still pondering.  And contemplating colour.

All the blocks are made, I’ve played around a little with layout, the Rustic wool for joining has arrived from Bendigo Woollen Mills.  I’ve decided to use the flat braid join, as I did last year.  Now I just need to do it.

Maybe by the end of 2010…

The last two squares for 2009 are done.  Falling Star (Ravelry link) is a lovely pattern – easy to work and effective.

The last one for the year was Double Framed Lace.  I chose this pattern instead of the Craftster one.

There is a story behind this square. Somehow during the year I began using more than one ball of yarn per square but only in this colourway. That meant that when I got to doing the last square I didn’t have enough yarn. And it’s been discontinued.  I did lots of internet searches on etsy and eBay and elsewhere in an attempt to track another ball or two down with no success. So I put a post on a wanted thread in a Ravelry forum.  About half an hour later I received a message that a very generous person who had read my wanted post remembered it when she saw two balls of Vintage Hues in this colourway offered on the Aussie Swappers forum.  They run a karma swap, where you offer up a couple of balls of yarn to anyone who wants it, and the person who claims it then offers up some yarn to anyone who wants that yarn, and so on.  It’s not a direct swap – it’s just karma!  So She Knits claimed the yarn for me, put up a couple of balls of her own yarn to continue on the karma swap, and then Silver Creek Spinner sent the yarn to me!  I was so excited to have enough yarn to finish my blanket, and just blown away with the kindness of strangers.  I must have been good to someone in a former life!  Thanks again to both ladies.

Both squares are crocheted in Cleckheaton Vintage Hues with a 6.5mm bamboo hook, as usual.  I’ve ordered some Rustic in Midnight Tweed to join them – each colourway contains some dark blue, so lets hope that I’ve chosen wisely.  No promises that it will be finished before the end of 2009 though.

I was a little late off the mark with my November squares.  Neither of the squares chosen by Ravelry or Craftster really took my fancy.  Eventually I substituted both of them with other patterns I had come across.

First, Eternal Braid.

Worked in Cleckheaton Vintage Hues, with a 6.5mm bamboo hook, as is the next square.

This one is called Drop in the Bucket.

I am currently working on the December squares and am hoping to finish them off in the next couple of days.

These were completed in the car trip to and from the country last weekend.  I’ve quite pleased at how I’ve stayed on top of getting two squares finished each month.  Only four to go for the year now, but then the challenge of assembling them into a blanket.  The first is called Birthday Flower.

The pattern for the next square wasn’t the one specified in the crochet-a-long.  The one they’d chosen really needed a couple of different colours of yarn to work well, so I substituted it with the Pineapple Granny 12″ square, adding a couple more rows to the outer edge to bring it up to size.

Both squares are crocheted in Cleckheaton’s Vintage Hues, using a 6.5mm bamboo hook.

I’m heading off to the country again this morning, but this time without Mr Thornberry and the kids.  The girls in my book group have planned a weekend away – and some of them want me to teach them how to crochet while we’re there.  Yarn and hooks are packed ready to go!

It’s a little strange how one month I can barely be bothered crocheted the two CAL squares, but the next month I’m raring to go!  The September squares are done.  The Craftster square is Vera’s Spike Stitch Daisy.

The Ravelry square is New Year’s Eve.

This was a really enjoyable and effective square.  Both are done in Cleckheaton’s Vintage Hues, with a 6.5mm bamboo hook.

I suspect that part of the reason that I enjoyed crocheting these two so much was that I’m procrastinating a little with my square for The Quilt Project.  I’ve finished the main central doily and four little flower motifs, and am a bit paralysed about what to do next.  I’m also extremely intimidated by the quality and creativeness of the squares already completed and showcased on the Flickr group.  Wow, these women are amazingly talented!  I keep trying to reassure with something I read on a blog recently – that you need some plainer/simpler squares so that the others can truly shine.  Looks like that’s where I fit in!

Off to a garage sale and the Made’n’Thornbury Market this morning while Clare is at gymnastics class, then off to a fun-filled afternoon of HAC craft with Kirsty helping us to make spool holders.  Sounds like a great day ahead!

This month’s Ravelry CAL squares weren’t all that inspiring – or perhaps I’ve just been in a fabric mood instead of a yarn mood – and it’s taken me until almost the end of the month to do them.  The Craftster square is the Popin’ Square – essentially lots of dc, some chain spaces, and popcorn stitches.  I hadn’t done popcorns before, so at least I learned something new!

So many people had trouble with the Ravelry 12 inch square that I decided to do the 6 inch square instead and make it larger.  I’m glad that I did.  The pattern is the Jupiter Granny Square. 

Both squares are worked in Cleckheaton Vintage Hues, with a 6.0mm bamboo hook, which should have been 6.5mm.  I forgot to check what size hook I’d been using for the CAL before I started these squares.  Fingers crossed that they’ll still match in okay with the others.  It was a pleasant change to crochet in thicker yarn, because I’ve been busy with the 1.25mm hook and red thread for the past couple of weeks. 

It took me until the end of the month to do the May CAL squares, but I completed the June ones last week!

The Bold Square.  Crocheted in Vintage Hues with a 6.5mm bamboo hook.  Super easy but not overly exciting.  I do like the other June square:

This one is called Frilly Flower.  Also crocheted in Cleckheaton Vintage Hues, with a 6.5mm bamboo hook.

Now half the blanket squares are done!  Another six months worth of squares, then the challenge of what to join them with, and which method to use.