That One Blanket I Worked on for a Year

Also known as the Avatar Blanket! I actually finished this blanket back in March, but never got around to taking pictures of the final product, so I am doing so today.

Ta-da!

Appa for scale

So this project took me almost exactly a year. Phew! However, the finished product was well worth the effort. It drapes across a twin really well and is super warm. I used Red Heart super saver yarn and so I just threw it in the wash (hang dry after) and it softens up a bit. Also, a lot of fellow ATLA fans have admired it and jokeingly offered me money for it (heck no!). But it's actually a pretty simple project. All in all, I'm very pleased.

Here is the pattern so you can make your own: http://kimby77.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/avatar-the-four-elements/ 

"Water,

Earth,

Fire,

Air,

Long ago the four nations lived together in harmony.

Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked.

Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them

But when the world needed him most, he vanished.

100 years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar,

An airbender named Aang.

And although his airbending skills are great,

He's got a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone.

But I believe, Aang can save the world."

~Katara, ATLA opener

Baby Gifts Are a Thing Now

I'm getting to that point in my life where people my age are having babies. This past summer I saw that one of my best friends from elementary school was going to be having a baby girl! I haven't seen her for many, many years, but I wanted to make something for her and her little one.

Firstly, I wanted to make a blankie of some sort. I didn't have a whole lot of baby color super soft yarn in my stash, so I wanted something with a lot of texture. After searching through Ravelry, I found this lovely pattern.

Unfortunately, I have a camera from like 2005, so the pictures are not the greatest. Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a new camera! But I really liked how the bobbles turned out. It's just enough texture to make this lovie an exciting, but not overdone piece.

My friend also really like owls. There are so many owl hat patterns out there that I think I looked at about ten before deciding on Sarah Zimmerman's pattern.The last time I tried to make a newborn hat it turned out WAY too small, so I decided to play it safe and make the 3-6 month old size.

I used cotton for the hats because I wanted it to be washable as well as (hopefully) comfortable. I was very pleased with how the baby hat came out that I didn't want Momma to be left out. So I made her a matching hat!

Super cute!

And with that I boxed them up and sent them off in time for Christmas! The baby is here now, quite adorable, and both her and my friend are doing well!

Fire Nation

So this is a little delayed due to packing, cleaning, moving out, and moving in, but I finished the third square!

This square was more challenging than the other two because you have to switch between colors more often, but the results are awesome. This is also my favorite square to date.

With the completion of this square I am 60% done with the entire blanket! ONE MORE SQUARE!

Earth Kingdom

After making multiple projects while working on this square, I've finally finished. I present, the Earth Kingdom square!

I think it turned out well. With the completion of this square I am approximately 40% of the way done. Yay!

Now that summer is upon us, I'm hoping I will have a little more time to work on the blanket and that I can have it done by the beginning of August. Even if I don't though, I'll definitely have it done by the time it starts to get cold.

The swirls might be my favorite part.

And of course Appa's gotta pose with the square.

EDIT: Here's the first post of this blanket saga. I did not write the pattern or create the charts. The link to the pattern is in the first post.

Water Tribe

Because this blanket project is going to take awhile I plan on giving updates as I finish things like...I finished my first square!

It only took me three weeks! Which is pretty good because I calculated that each of the four squares as 8,836 stitches in it! Holy crap! That's not even including the three rows of dark border. Completing this square means I am approximately 20% of the way through this project.

Appa modeling

I made a few adjustments to this square. First off, there are only supposed to be 94 columns, but the water motif pdf has 95, so I scratched the 95th column (the rightmost column). The pattern also calls for cluster stitch for the dark blue but I changed to half-double crochet because the cluster stitch was not working out for me.

 Swirlies!

This is not my pattern, I found it online and I am so glad I did because I am seriously in love with Avatar: The Last Airbender, on which this blanket is based. Feeling confident? Want to try to make your own blanket? Here's the link to the pattern!

ATLA Blanket Pattern: http://kimby77.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/avatar-the-four-elements/