All the flowers reminded me of visits to the beautiful Bellingrath Gardens, over in Mobile. There are so many flowers in such a variety of shapes and colors!

This is a stashbuster project-- no yarn used but what’s already in my stash. This should put a good dent in my supply of Caron Simply Soft!

Yarns used (to the best of my knowledge, as some are partial skeins with missing labels):

Simply Soft:
Watermelon
Autumn Red
Red
Persimmon
Lavender Blue
Off-White
Violet (Not sure. It’s a plummy purple.)

Pound of Love:
Antique White

The pale pink may or may not be Simply Soft. It’s a similar weight and sheen, but I bought it without a label at the thrift store, so I’m not 100% sure.

It’s on temporary hold, unfortunately. I still have the last four squares to make, and then the assembly and border. I hope to pick it back up again before the end of July. Looking forward to seeing it all put together!

I’m back from vacation and starting to stitch the squares together! :o)

Because I used thinner yarns than suggested, it came out more as a large lapghan than a person-sized afghan. I thought about making more squares to add to it, but… well, I was lazy and didn’t want to bother. (g) So I just added a wider border than called for in the pattern to add a little extra size.

For the border I worked a couple rounds of cream, first… Then I added border #149 from Edie Eckman’s wonderful Around the Corner book of crocheted borders. I’m not sure how many rounds it has in the book, but it’s a simple matter to add or subtract a few. (I love that border. I’ve already used it in a couple of other afghans. My husband likes it so much that he suggested using it to make an entire afghan. (g) That might be pretty, but I think it would drive me insane. It’s a slow-growing stitch pattern.) Then I crocheted another couple rounds of cream, I think… (Sc in every sc and ch-sp… and do whatever seems “right” with the corners, to increase enough to keep everything flat.) After that, I crocheted border #45 from the same book (changing colors every round). At that point, I started doing my own thing. I think I repeated the second round of #45, to begin with… Then I worked a round of (sc, ch 3) around the whole thing… And finally, I added a slightly scalloped finishing round. Basically, it’s this: Work (sc, ch3, sc) in ch-3 space, sc in next st. Do that all the way around… and that’s it.

I still have the loose ends from the border and the joining to weave in, but I may take my time on those. This hot weather makes it uncomfortable to hold the blanket in my lap. (And I’m tired of working on this project!! It’s a nice pattern, though. :o) Lots of room to play with color placement-- and enough variety to keep you interested.)