2023 Reflections + My Word for 2024

Posted on December 31, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! Well here we are, on New Year’s Eve, reflecting on the past twelve months. I’ve enjoyed watching on Instagram other people’s reels of their favorite moments from the past year. I had a very difficult time, myself, limiting my pictures to create a ‘year in review’ reel. My garden produced so many beautiful flowers this year! It was an absolute joy to tend to them.

If I had picked a Word for 2023, it would have been ‘Create’. With two large crochet blankets, a crochet sweater, a few wreaths and so many floral arrangements, I was able to use my creative energy in so many ways! It was such a fun year for creating.

Following on from Páraig’s post on The Three Hairs, I’m going to pick a word for 2024. It’s the same word that Páraig picked, actually: Purpose. Between a church sermon, a book, a tv series, and a blog post, too many sources were trying to teach me about the importance of purpose to ignore it.

For me, I’ll be focusing on doing everything with purpose. I’m going to work on eliminating ‘going through the motions’ and instead, concentrate on being present – especially with repetitive tasks.

Of course, there is the task of finding my purpose. That’s possibly a big task, but I think my purpose is to serve in small ways. My (or your) purpose doesn’t have to be to solve the world’s problems, but could be to bring joy to the world in the little things that we do. We’ll see how my journey goes. 🙂

collage from 2023: Gardening pal Susan, Traveling with husband Páraic, two crochet blankets, roses from the garden, crochet sweater, meeting with family, a dried floral wreath and biking with my husband.

I truly have had so many wonderful moments this year. I really enjoyed visiting with family and friends. I have one friend in particular with whom we love traveling to gardens together. My husband and I continue to travel and explore new places. And I’ve enjoyed lots of biking this year, especially with my husband.

It’s not always sunny, the flowers don’t always grow and sometimes the bike rides are really hard. But it’s important to remember that ‘this too shall pass’ – sometimes quickly and sometimes not so quickly. I’m grateful to have learned to be patient in this regard.

I’m thankful to be celebrating another New Year’s Eve! I wish you and your loved ones the very best for 2024. May all of our dreams come true! ❤️

In Peace,
Dana

Wait! One last winter project: A crochet blanket

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Mominthegarden

Hi there! As I mentioned recently, I crocheted a blanket for my first daughter when she went to college a few years ago (you can see that blanket here). So of course when our second daughter was getting ready for college, the topic of another blanket came up. I wanted to make one for her, too! She started college this past fall, and I finished her blanket this winter.

Crocheting is a hobby I learned as a young girl and have enjoyed doing ever since. I like to learn new crochet techniques or try new patterns. I especially like working with lovely colors. Sometimes, the hardest part of a project is finding the right pattern to use with the right colors. It took me a long time to find the right pattern that was a good fit for my daughter. But after going through many, many patterns, we found one that was perfect! She then picked the colors, which are beautiful earthy tones of greens, brown and burgundy and cream.

The pattern is called Geometrics and is by One Skein of Love. At 92 pages long, the pattern is incredibly detailed with lots of pictures to ensure you keep on track. I found it to be a good pattern and enjoyed the rhythm of making the blanket. It was a little unusual for me, as it is made row by row and not in rounds. Also, the border is made up of two layers (front and back) that are crocheted together. That was a great way to avoid weaving in all of the ends from every row!

I used Caron ‘Simply Soft’ yarn, which is my favorite for blankets. And I used Amour Crochet Hooks by Clover because they are really comfortable.

Cliona and Dana holding the crochet blanket

Ta-da! Here it is! It is large enough to cover a single bed.

Cliona and Dana wrapped up in the crochet blanket

My daughter likes it!

Geometrics pattern by One Skein of Love (crochet blanket)

It was so neat to watch the pattern unfold with each row! Honestly, this was not a difficult blanket to make. It is all single and double crochet (American stitches). 🙂

Geometrics pattern by One Skein of Love (crochet blanket, the border)

The backside of the border is dark sage green and is as pretty as the burgundy on the front. I actually left a row of green showing on the front border, as I liked the two colors together.

Dana running with the Geometrics crochet blanket

I think it looks fabulous (great pattern)!

It certainly was a busy winter for crocheting this year. I wonder what project will be next? 🙂

Thanks for visiting!

In Peace,
Dana

Perfect for wrapping up in!

A crochet Farm Animal Baby Blanket

Posted on April 18, 2021 by Mominthegarden

Hello and welcome to my blog! Did you ever come across a gift for someone in particular and think ‘this is perfect!’? Isn’t that the greatest feeling when that happens? That happened to me recently, when I came across a pattern for a baby blanket. Now, honestly, I think all children enjoy farm animals. But this particular friend who was expecting her first baby has farming in her blood – and a tractor in her wedding pictures to prove it! So I decided that this was the blanket that I’d make for them.

The blanket itself is a ‘corner to corner’ pattern, meaning that it is made diagonally from one corner to the opposite corner. I found the pattern, which was easy enough to follow, online at crazy patterns. The fact that I already had in my ‘stash’, every single color that I needed was rather amazing. See, it *does* pay to stock up on all different colors of yarn! I used my favorite yarn, Caron Simply Soft.

The animals and sun are applique, meaning that they are made separately and then sewn on top of the blanket. My favorite aspect of the blanket is that there are moving pieces: the horse’s mane and tail, the pig’s ears and tail, the chicken’s beak and feet, and the cow’s udder and horns are all moveable. Actually, the original pattern didn’t have an udder. So I went looking for an udder pattern and added it. I think it is the best! The pig’s tail is curly, which I think is very cute.

After making the blanket, then making each of the animals, and then sewing them all on, I took a little break! Luckily, the baby decided to take her time getting here. 🙂 The pattern called for one simple border of a single row of a similar stitch to the blanket, in white. I did that, but I didn’t like it. I then tried a few different iterations, and undid them as well. Funny enough, I asked my kids’ input and between their idea and mine I came up with a border that we were really happy with.

It was made, washed, dried, and wrapped in lavender in time for the arrival of the little one (yay!). It is such a wonderful feeling when a handmade gift is appreciated. I’m happy to say that they really liked it.

Here’s to finding the perfect gift!

In Peace,
Dana

This is what a ‘corner to corner’ blanket looks like while in progress! The awkward part is that all of the colors are attached as you use them (see top right picture). I took over our ottoman for a while, so as not to get the skeins of yarn tangled!

completed farm animal baby blanket with different borders

So here is what the blanket looked like as I figured out the border. The top left is without any border. The bottom right is the original pattern (which I undid). I definitely wanted to have red in the border, but it was a bit harsh on its own. The compromise was to add the sun yellow and then white.

You can see the ‘moveable’ pieces in this collage. The beak, the cow’s udder and horns, the horse’s tail and mane are all moveable. The top right picture doesn’t have the final color of white on the border yet.

Dana and completed farm animal baby blanket

Ta-da! I was quite pleased with the final outcome!

some silly pictures of posing with the baby blanket

It was time to have some fun with the blanket photoshoot! I did a ‘running’ picture when I made my daughter’s Elmer blanket, so I thought I’d do that again 🙂

I like to challenge myself with new projects and with this one, the animals were definitely something new for me. I enjoyed learning how to make them. The eyes were tricky. There are plastic eyes you can buy to attach, but I never like that idea for baby blankets (choking hazard?). So they are all a bit different.

The pig was the first animal I made. 🙂

The cow looks a bit bare without any spots!

I really enjoyed making this blanket and seeing it come together with all of the animals. I’m a very slow crocheter and I only worked on it in the evenings and weekends. It took about three weeks to make the body of the blanket and then another two weeks to make the animals and finish the blanket. It was time well spent. I wonder what my next project will be? 🙂

A heartfelt blanket :-)

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Mominthegarden

Bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis)

Hi there! How are you? I hope you are safe and well, and able to do things that bring you joy. Today’s post isn’t about gardening, but about my second hobby: crocheting! I really enjoy having projects to focus on. As it turns out, at the start of our ‘stay at home’ orders due to Covid-19 here in Ireland, I was asked to make a blanket for a sweet little girl who liked pink and purple. This was a perfect distraction for me, and a project which I really enjoyed!

The c2c blanket is made ‘corner to corner’

I like crocheting and creating with my hands. I have to say that I like a bit of a challenge, too, and to learn new stitches or patterns. So I went searching for something new to catch my eye for this blanket. I was very lucky to come across a lovely heart blanket from Motorave_slc on Instagram (she’s also on Etsy: Motorave_slc). I sent Jessica a message on Instagram and she kindly sent me the diagram of the blanket, which is the basis for the pattern. This was a lovely act of kindness on Jessica’s part, which I’m so thankful for!

the back of the c2c half way through

This blanket pattern is called ‘corner to corner’ (written c2c). Unlike traditional blankets which are made row by row from bottom to top, this blanket is made from bottom right corner to top left corner. The main stitch used throughout is a double crochet (American terminology) done in groups of 3, along with chain stitches – all very easy. Once you get the hang of the pattern, it is fun to make! The interesting part was having all of the colors attached to the blanket as you create it, which at some points in the blanket was tricky to work around!

The pattern had two upside down hearts

I started off watching a video tutorial by The Crochet Crowd. Over the course of nearly an hour, they covered every aspect of making a c2c blanket as well as creating and reading a c2c pattern. After all of that I was finally ready to begin!

A view of the side hearts and the border

As usual, I used my favorite yarn which is Caron Simply Soft, in soft pink, orchid, lavender, blackberry and fuchsia. I just love the colors and I thought they all went so well with the soft pink background. The size ended up being 44 inches x 35 inches – not too big and not too small. It just goes to show that it is always worth having lots of stock of different colors in the house, because you never know when you’ll be in lock-down and unable to buy more yarn! 😉

A view of the side hearts and the border

The border changes with every additional color added

Once I finished the main blanket, I then had to pick a border. I decided on a stitch that is very similar to the border I used on my last blanket (my poppy blanket). I just like that style: a simple single crochet stitch with a spike stitch.

I thought the hearts were just perfect!

I will admit to being one of the slowest crocheters ever! I just don’t go fast. And if I’m crocheting, I’m crocheting, and I’m not multi-tasking. That’s just how I do it. So this blanket took me a month to complete. I really enjoyed watching how it came together with each heart. The center part with the name was tricky. That’s all I’ll say about that!

a closeup of the corner border

A full view of the blanket

I was very happy with the finished blanket! I will definitely use the corner to corner pattern again. I’m not sure what my next project is…but I have a few ideas!

Take care and stay safe!

In Peace,
Dana

My daughter holding up the blanket for me to photograph

Being creative is good for the soul

Posted on November 17, 2019 by Mominthegarden

Starting with a simple ‘Robin’s egg blue’ base for the blanket

Creating with my hands is one of my favorite things to do. Whether it be crocheting, making wreaths, or whatever, I enjoy crafts that finish with a lovely ‘something’.

A close up of the waistcoat stitch (doesn’t look like crochet to me)

Crocheting is so much more than just granny squares (although there’s nothing wrong with a good granny square!). I made a number of items over the past few years as gifts and I felt the time was right to make something for myself.

close up of the border (variation of the spike stitch)

We’d completely ‘done up’ our family room last year: pulled up the rug, installed an electric fireplace, bought a new couch, curtains, and light fixture, and painted the room. It was a long time in the making and last year everything finally came together. We all love it, especially the couch. It is like getting into a big family bed. 🙂

The main blanket finished but not yet embellished with poppies, held by my lovely daughter. There are orange California poppies in the background of the picture, along with red poppies which are not as easily seen here.

We went a bit bold with the paint in the family room – it is Adonis blue. Happy to say that we really like it. And we went bold again in pairing it with red curtains. So I wanted a blanket that would bring those colors together. Not only that, I wanted to embellish it with poppies, to tie in with the curtains. That was January 2019.

It was a painstaking process figuring out the poppy pattern!

The pistil (in black) and stamen (in bone) give extra texture to the flower.

Some things just take time, and deciding which pattern to use for the main blanket was no exception. I finally decided on a pattern that doesn’t really look like crochet. It is called the waistcoat stitch. I used a tutorial from Crafternoon Treats.

The completed poppy flower looks different depending on whether the petals are laid flat or scrunched up (my preference).

The border is where I worked in the colors of the curtains, using a variation of the spike stitch. I used Caron Simply Soft yarn, in harvest red, bone, black, off white for the border and the main blanket is in Robin’s egg blue. It is a ‘throw’ size, and if you sit nice and close to each other, it will cover two people for watching tv. (4′ x 5.5′)

Playing around with the flowers to figure out where to place them.

I ran out of the blue about half way through, but I had a trip to the States coming up, so I restocked (phew!). I finally finished the main blanket in June.

Completed blanket with poppies (winter sunlight distorts the coloring).

Finding a pattern that I liked for the poppies was a whole other challenge! Finally, I found one that had the stamen and pistil, with the bonus of texture for the pistil, and four individual petals. I really like it. I found it on crochet-ideas.com. The video is in Italian, but with subtitles, so although tricky, it was manageable.

Our family room transformed!

It took some time figuring out how I wanted the poppies to look on the blanket. They couldn’t be symmetrical – anyone who’s grown poppies will know that they grow all over the place, and never where you plan them! I also didn’t want to cover the blanket in them, as I quite like the blue and wanted to be able to see it. So they are in a bit of a cascade from one corner to the opposite corner. Voilà!

Blue Blanket with poppies + Dana in Family room

Me with my blanket 🙂

I am absolutely delighted with it, and thankfully the family like it too. I’m glad I took my time with it to find the right patterns. And I think it fits in perfectly in our family room.

Good things come to those who wait…

In Peace,
Dana

So many butterflies … of the crochet variety!

Posted on May 19, 2018 by Mominthegarden

crochet butterfly blanket (with our apple tree and cherry tree in the background)

This sounds a bit of a cliché, but creating a special, unique and personal gift is something that I love to do. There is a young special person in our lives, and I wanted to make her a gift which she would know was made just for her. Although the “perfect” idea did not come to me easily, and I did a lot of searching on-line, I think in the end that I found exactly what I was looking for. 🙂

This is my crochet “butterfly blanket”! The butterflies are crocheted and are part of the blanket (not appliqué). But I discovered that although the butterflies were so cute when I made them, the wings were curling up and then they just looked like bunches of yarn. Perhaps if I blocked them they would stay in place, but instead of doing that, I decided they would look nice embellished with sequins and beads.

the details

Yes, sequins and beads … on every. single. butterfly. … and there are fifty-five butterflies! I have to admit though, that I really enjoyed this part. I mixed and matched colors and somehow it all came together in a fun way.

more details

As for the colors, lavender, light pink and light blue are the favorite colors of our special little person. Those colors were the main focus of the blanket, with yellow and raspberry thrown in to add that splash of color. I used my favorite yarn, which is Caron simply soft. They have an amazing range of colors!

my daughter was kind enough to model the full view of the blanket for me

I have to admit that although I used a pattern to create the butterflies, there is no “overall” pattern. (You can see the free on-line MyPicot butterfly pattern here.) If I were to make this one again, I would definitely do more “before we start” planning. The complete randomness of the butterflies is O.K. by me, but for my daughter who is mathematically minded, it is very unsettling!

a relaxed look

Borders of blankets can be tricky. I played around with this aspect of the blanket, too. I used the “bangles” pattern from Nicky Epstein’s “Crocheting on the edge” book. The blanket took on completely different looks with each round of color that I added! But when I completed the blue round, I felt it looked complete. Phew! I finished it the day before our special someone’s First Holy Communion!

our little special someone is all smiles with her special blanket!

Thankfully, she smiled when she opened her gift. (double phew!!)

That’s three blankets in over eight months (I’m a slow crocheter), so now it is time for me to take a tiny break – at least from making blankets!

You will now find me in the garden on a more regular basis 🙂

In peace,
Dana

Creative Challenge Baby Blanket

Posted on January 7, 2018 by Mominthegarden

When it comes to knitting, sewing, and crocheting, my husband’s family are super talented. We benefitted from that when our babies were born all those years ago, as we didn’t just receive beautiful blankets, but lovely sweaters, too.

Both my husband and son’s aran jumpers were hand made by my husband’s Aunt (October 2004 Manlius, New York)

I did very little crocheting during those years. Funny, I don’t really remember having any free time when the kids were young??? 🙂 But over the past few years I’ve managed to pick up my crochet needle again. The thing is, like everything in life, you can’t just do the same thing over and over again. You have to either do things differently, or add a challenge lest boredom sets in!

Check the measurements on the packaging to save yourself the time and stress of measuring out (what should be) perfect squares 😉

This baby blanket project was for a very special baby. Words can’t even describe how welcomed and loved this baby was, even before meeting any of the family! So I wanted to try something new to make this gift extra-special. I decided on making a quilt on one side of the blanket while keeping my traditional crochet on the other side. The main item I wanted for this blanket, though, was the smooth binding that my kids loved to rub along their faces! “How hard could it be to incorporate those three things?” thought she to herself, quite innocently…

a view of the quilted side of the blanket sitting on what was actually my own rocking chair as a child

Well, I have to say that I learned a lot of new things with this project. I won’t give you all of the details, but the first thing was that you need to check the sizing of material when you buy it in cute little packages! The quilting material was huge and I had to cut it into small squares. 🙂

the material is lovely and soft (albeit rather funny prints!)

I also learned to make sure that I have enough material on *both sides* of the blanket when joining. On my first attempt to sew the crochet side to the quilt side I wasn’t able to keep them aligned. I can tell you that only for my husband’s patience and his help taking the binding off, the project just might have been completely changed! {Thank you husband!}

the back of the crochet squares looked kinda neat

This is the part that strains my fingers the most: joining all of the squares together!

After the mess of needing to take the binding off, I needed a new plan. So I added more squares to the quilt and adjusted the size of the crochet blanket. Attaching just the binding to the quilt with the sewing machine was so much easier now! Then I hand sewed the crochet portion onto the blanket. I have to say that I really enjoyed the hand sewing, which I would not have guessed beforehand.

sewing the binding on to the quilted side of the blanket

hand sewing the crochet side onto the quilted side

One day I’d like to improve my sewing skills. For now though, it’ll just be baby steps with projects like this one.

I can’t miss an opportunity to take a picture of a baby blanket on our family antique potty-chair

As for the teeny tiny little granny squares, I thought they were so cute to make! The colors are really fun and cheerful. I used Mango, Sunshine, Robins Egg, Limelight, Soft Pink, and Off-White. The Caron Simply Soft yarn is one of my favorites to work with as it really is so soft and is a really nice weight.

I usually stock up on Caron Simply Soft yarn when I go home to the States 🙂

I love having things from my childhood, like this rocking chair

I really enjoyed making this blanket and trying something new. There were a few things about it along the way that I just wasn’t sure about, but thankfully as time went on it all worked out and I love it! And I think our sweet little one likes it too.

A happy little girl!

Here’s to a new year and new challenges!

In peace,
Dana

Mom in the Garden

Enjoying life. In Ireland. With my family.

Tag Archives: crochet blanket

2023 Reflections + My Word for 2024

Wait! One last winter project: A crochet blanket

A crochet Farm Animal Baby Blanket

A heartfelt blanket :-)

Being creative is good for the soul

So many butterflies … of the crochet variety!

Creative Challenge Baby Blanket