Ice Yarns on Parade

Yarnnut.com kindly provided some yarn so that I might work up some of my patterns, and they might feature some pics along with either links or printed copies of the patterns. I regret that I am this late in showing off these pictures of hats I have made with the Ice Yarn Macaron that I was supplied.  Here are some pics:

These are iterations of my rice stitch hat, the pattern for which is posted herein as a free pattern.  

All of my hat patterns are free in order to encourage creativity and charitable donations.  Please enjoy.

Story Time: Christmas Blanket

 

The sides are a little ripply.
I didn't follow the pattern instructions
to alternate smaller corner 
increases

Detail of the center.
Final blanket is about 54" square

A friend made a brilliant suggestion of telling the stories behind various finished objects. My first thought: "Blog content!" So here we have the story behind this blanket.

I had quite a lot of green yarn that I had bought for another blanket project. Long-time viewers of my YouTube channel will recall a blanket project I called The Big Green Monster. I recall working on it during some live streams, even. About 2.5 skeins in, I got bored, so I put it aside. At some point I decided I wouldn't pick it up again to finish, so I had several more skeins of yarn and a partial blanket to find a use for.

I had ordered the Christmas yarn from Herrschner's using a substantial discount. They had emailed me this discount code when their database told them it had been over a year since my last order. In addition to a few other things, I ordered two skeins of this Christmas yarn. I had started several different projects using this yarn, but decided against them all. None of them looked right because the variegated yarn was just too busy for the design. 

I then remembered having created a Spiral  Granny Square blanket, based on a design by Krista of The Secret Yarnery. I thought it might be a good way to use a substantial amount of both yarns. It worked! I showed progress on Instagram and on YouTube and received a lot of encouragement.

I had my Hat Not Hate YouTube live stream on July 25. I offered the blanket as a reward to anyone who would sponsor a substantial amount of the postage required to send the hats to Hat Not Hate, as well as  for other giveaway prizes. A generous viewer stepped forward to offer that sponsorship. Now that the blanket is finished, it will soon be off to the sponsor. She has already told me she plans to display the blanket on the back of her sofa during the Christmas season. She is happy. I am happy it will go to a good home. UPS is very happy at the money I've already spent on postage, and they will be happier still in coming weeks as I send this blanket and the hats off!  (Alas, the sponsorship amount has already been spent on giveaway postage, so the rest comes out of the Bearded Yarn Pockets, which aren't all that deep!)

Perhaps not a terribly riveting story, but I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The leftovers. There are still quite
a few untouched skeins of green