Octagons & Squares Project

Greetings to all!! Hope you have all been keeping well. Seems we are having a heat wave here in Vancouver as the last couple of weeks has brought us some gorgeous sunshine and summer time temperatures after what seemed like a never-ending rainy winter (by far better than the -40 stupid Celsius I grew up with on the Alberta prairie so I'll stop complaining now lol)...

Here's a few updates before we show off the next project coming off the hook...
First ~ Congrats!! to Jenna & Neil on reaching, and surpassing! their goal of raising $15,000 in support of the Make It Happen Documentary. We love you guys for what you do for all of us handmade artists and can't wait to see the final results next year. Way kewl!! You 2 rock!! Have a super summer and we'll see you at the Holiday Make It show at the end of November.

Next up ~ a couple of reminders of upcoming craft markets... 
May 11 & 12 is the Great Canadian Craft Spring Fling at Canada Place. A fantastic way to spend Mother's Day with Mom, Grandma, aunts, or any other special "mom" in your life.
May 25 &  26 is Portobello West Summer Market at Creekside Community Centre. Check out some of Vancouver's own fabulous designers and have a stroll along the water's edge at False Creek.

Now... coming off the hook...
This project was The Crochet Crowd's Afghan Club début challenge. Sponsored by Red Heart Yarns, this free pattern is called Octagons & Squares. Over 500 photos have been sent in to date, with more being uploaded all the time. Ours is a personal project for our grandson, Cole ~an old-school Spiderman fan~ for his upcoming 5th birthday.

Photo by ccthompson

We did change the recommended yarn to get the perfect red and blue needed, with the black and a darker grey for accent. The gauge is the same, as is the size of skein. It does cost a bit more per skein, but the Bernat Super Value yarn is definitely worth it if you're looking for extra softness to snuggle under. The grey centers will become the large blue and red octagons, with the smaller red- and blue-centered squares in between. We'll share our progress with you in upcoming posts. In the meantime, follow the info links above if you're interested in starting your own Octagons & Squares afghan...

What's on your hook (or needles) right now? Any special handmade art projects on the go or recently completed? Go ahead & share them with us...

Keep safe & keep well... we'll see you next week, here In The Parlour =)