WBS Progress: Four Blankets Shipped!

And the rest of the stuff I missed... Like a tutorial!

  Since I was in a rush to finish the Granny Square Blanket and get my donations mailed to the World's Biggest Stocking Project, I didn't cover the final assembly of the squares in the last post. So in this post, you'll get a bunch more "blah, blah, blah", along with a great tutorial!

  Even though the $5,000 contest is coming to a close, more blankets are still needed for the Stocking! I plan on making eight more before the project is over, but I'll be taking a break for a bit. Yesterday was the first day I didn't pick up any crochet in... Um... In a really long time! I'd love to tell you that I used my crochet-free day to do something awesome, but in reality, I cleaned my house. Yay. Actually, I could count some of it as crochet work, because a lot of my time was spent organizing my WIP's (work in progress). I also spent some time putting together a tutorial for you, so let's move along!

It was almost a disaster, but I was able to save it! One Granny Square Blanket completed, and already shipped to the World's Biggest Stocking.

Here are the squares that I messed up. The border of the Red Squares and the centers of the Navy squares were worked with a smaller size I/9 hook. Everything else was worked with a size J/10 hook. At this point, I had only worked up to the last row of double crochet for each square.

When I first stacked them up and took a look, I thought I'd be able to go back to one hook size for the last round of single crochet. They look pretty close, don't they?

Nope, wrong! I worked the border of a Red and a Navy Square with the same size J/10 hook. It threw it off even more! I frogged the round I had made on the Red square and worked it with the smaller size I/9 hook. Perfect! I made the remaining Royal square all with a J/10 hook.

As for how I assembled the squares, I worked through both loops of both pieces to pull the whole thing together a bit. I began by working in the back loops, but that caused the pieces to (unexpectedly) ripple. 

Working through both loops solved the problem! I really expected to have better results by using the back loops, but I was wrong. Thankfully, I had only joined four squares before I noticed the problem. To avoid the extra thickness of the seam, I used a single crochet-two-together to join them.

Which leads to that tutorial! First, let me be clear that I would never claim this pattern as my own - but since I strayed from the pattern and used my own method for joining the squares, I took the opportunity to make a Guidecentral guide for the stitch!

  Call me a sell-out if you want to. But for picture-heavy tutorials like this one, it's less work for me, and works better for you on Guidecentral. Plus, I have more due in bills this month than money in the bank right now, and that's because of the yarn for this charity project! So, you don't mind clicking a link for that tutorial, do you?

Click here to learn how to use a single crochet-two-together stitch to join motifs.

  You'll also get a bonus learning how to begin the row with a standing single crochet (which is actually a standing-single-crochet-two-together), and I'll show you how to work over the tail, too! This stitch makes one flat side and one textured side, which can be adjusted by working into the front, back, or both loops of the stitch.

  Are you back? Now, let's see how I shipped those blankets!

Vacuum-sealed bags, yay! I picked up a box of these at a discount store for less than $5. I figured I could let go of one of them to ship these blankets. The plan was to stuff them into one of those "If it fits, it ships" boxes to save some money, but even mushed down like this, they didn't fit.

I had to buy a regular shipping box for them to fit. And had to pay regular shipping. And (ouch!) that came to almost $20. I arrived at the post office excited and happy to be shipping the blankets, and left feeling a little... Broke (lol), but still happy! So, remember to give that Guide a "like" for me, so I can make a few cents back, okay?

Yarn to make four blankets for the World's Biggest Stocking: $75.
Cost to ship the blankets to the Project: $20.
Amount I could possibly win thanks to the Stitch for the Stocking contest: $5,000.
That feeling that you get when you donate to those in need:
Priceless.

Click here if you missed the last post for the Granny Square Blanket

Click here to start at the beginning of this project

Happy Crocheting!