Circus!

From "Inside Crochet" Magazine, "Circus Blanket" by Emma Varnam

Circus! I really liked the photograph of this blanket, "Circus," designed by Emma Varnam. I figured I could crochet it by looking at the photographs. Varnam used the Corner-2-Corner crochet square method. This makes for a very dense piece.  I decided to use the granny triangle square method for this blanket so that it would be lighter for our California climate. The blanket was a birthday gift for my friend Mary Jo.

I have a lot of acrylic yarn in various colors, so I thought this would be a great way to use up some of the excess yarn. I like making blankets and afghans with acrylic yarn so that they are easy to wash and dry.

I started out fine with the pattern. Here is an early photo, along with my human afghan holder, Mr. Larry.

In progress, "Circus" Afghan

I worked on the afghan sporadically, usually at home. Once a blanket gets to be a certain size, it really isn't a portable project any longer! I think, while watching TV and multi-tasking, I got a bit confused about square and triangle placement. Somewhere along the way, I managed to reverse a square so that the pattern was wonky! I didn't realize it until it was too late to change. Also, I was under a deadline to finish this blanket by MaryJo's birthday! I ended up scraping the chevron pattern of "Circus." I added an entire round of plain white squares and then an entire round of smaller squares in mostly blues, greens and grays with a pop of bright color once in awhile. 

For the border, I crocheted a few rows of white then added the Chocolate Box Granny design in lime green. At the corners I placed a picot fleur di lis. I think it turned out nicely. It's lively and still reminiscent of circus colors!

Picot Fleur di Lis corners with Chocolate Box Granny border

The Amish and Mennonite say that only God is perfect. That's why there is a  purposeful imperfection in each of their quilts! I like that reason! I'm going with it.

Happy birthday dear MaryJo! I hope your new afghan keeps you cozy on cool nights! We celebrated with a lovely brunch yesterday at Bacaro in West Hollywood.

Brit, Natalie, Ellen MaryJo, Darcy @Bacaro, West Hollywood