Thought I wasn’t knitting anymore, eh? After the surge of jewelry posts and crochet posts, I was itching to knit something. I missed my knitting needles so much! And so I jumped on the very crowded bandwagon and cast on for very popular Hemlock Ring Blanket for my friend Julie. She’s been sick for the past year or so, and lost a significant amount of weight, and this blanket is a little something to cheer her up (and warm her up) throughout her health ordeal.

Side shot:

Center:

The feather and fan pattern:

The edging:

Pattern: Hemlock Ring Doily Throw (here is Jared’s version, here is the Rainey Sisters’ version)
Needles: US #9, dpns and circs
Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Lake, approx. 3 skeins
Notes:

Pattern

There are ERRORS in the original pattern. I was totally fooled in thinking so many people made this blanket and hardly anyone had any trouble, so I jumped right on in without thinking. The Rainey Sisters’ pdf version has the errors corrected and re-written slightly better. I’d recommend knitting from their pdf instructions instead.

Other than that, the pattern was EASY PEASY. In fact, it was so easy, it was a tad bit boring. It looks really pretty, but it just wasn’t challenging enough to keep my interest - good thing this is only a lap blanket and not any bigger! And the bind off row - leave PLENTY of yarn for this one row. I think that row alone used up 60-70% of an entire skein of yarn. It was never-ending, lemme tell ya.

In summary: simple, easy, a little boring, but very pretty! I’ll be gifting this to my friend this weekend, along with alot of prayers for her recovery. =)

I’m not sure how many crochet-readers I have out there (my guess is that most of you are knitters and/or my personal friends)… but here’s a puzzle for y’all:

It acts like stockinette stitch, with the smooth front and the bumpy back, and the natural curling at the bottom and top. But it’s much more denser, and might I add, requires more yarn than usual.

What kind of stitch is this?

(front)

(back)

…

…

Give up? It’s Tunisian Crochet! (Or “Afghan Stitch” as some call it.) It’s a really interesting way of crocheting, because you NEVER turn your work, you are always working on the right side. And instead of working one stitch at a time on your hook, you have a whole row of them, reminiscent of knitting:

This stitch pattern requires a really long crochet hook (however long you need for your project) and is a 2-row pattern; the first row requires picking up stitches along the row, the second row is the actual working into those stitches, until you reach the end and have only 1 stitch left on your hook. And then you start all over again.

Interesting, huh? I’m liking this stitch pattern, even though it eats up yarn like crazy, it produces a warm, dense, smooth fabric (well, the smoothest you can get for crochet). I wouldn’t mind doing a bunch of squares for an afghan, it would be awfully warm and cozy. (I wonder if that’s why alot of people call it the “afghan stitch”? HAR HAR)

=)

(Note: Yarn used is Lion Brand’s Cotton Ease in Terracotta.)