Rusty Nail Afghan

Believe this is the last picture of Rusty Nail you saw in the works.  I had worked on this ghan in the fall while traveling with 2 girl friends to Hilton Head.  Was making good head way with it, until the holidays came upon us, work got busy, as did family needs.  So, I packed it up again with me when I headed back to Hilton Head the last couple of weeks with Dear Hubby.  

As you can, it got finished!  Yeah for another completed afghan.  I had fun with this one, as the squares and rectangles were lots of different sizes...if you count, there aren't even the same number of squares in each row.  It was like putting a puzzle together, though at times a bit tedious, I do like how it turned out.  The colors always vary a bit in pictures and believe it's true color is somewhere between how dark the first photo looks and how much lighter the 2nd one looks.  First photo, also doesn't show all 5 rows.  This ghan ended up a very nice family size and will keep several people warm.

You see it laid out drying after being laundered, and if you click you see I used a little bit of a different edge on this one.  Sometimes I like a regular straight edge, sometimes I like a little something different.

Lots of travel in this afghan, if you consider it traveled with me twice from Ohio to Hilton Head SC and back, AND think of where all the separate squares came from.  Some of these squares are knitted and some are crocheted and they came from many many different pairs of helping hands.  It's edged and joined with several different shades of orange to help bring in all the various colors.

I'm going to try something a little different with keeping our stats.  I'm listing our end numbers from 2015 and will subtract our current number as means of keeping our goal in front of us.  I'll show the goal number in Red.  Let's strive not just to match last years numbers, but.........work towards even more.  Thank you for all you do.  As time goes on, we won't see the year end numbers, we'll see the previous goal and subtract the new donation from it.  Hopefully we'll find this helpful and not too cumbersome...if so, we'll return to our previous format.

2016 DONATIONS:
Hats:  394
Scarves: 179
Mittens/Gloves/Wrist Warmers: 110
Slippers: 104
Rain Poncho's:  105
Cotton Washcloths: 444
Afghans:  20 -1 = 19
Socks: 201
Cowls/Hoody Combo's, headbands:  11
Shawls and shrugs 1
Misc: items like personal care and things don't fit into above categories aren't counted

I have quite a bit of catching up to do with opening boxes (delayed due to the wkend and then holiday on my return), so please stay tuned for donations from: Frances M from New Jersey, Diane L from California, Ruth A from Virginia, Emily K from Nebraska, Barbara F from NY, and AnneMarie from NY; as well as other ghans I worked on while away.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Rusty Nail Afghan in the Works

 Here's Rusty Nail in it's previous stage when you saw it with 2 rows joined but not attached.

It's growing now with another row joined and then attached (top 2 rows).  Working on the sizing for 3rd row with the 4th row there to aid in the guide which is joined but not attached.

And here with row three almost completely joined.  Looks like I need to make another square, or check my stash to see if I have one I can slip in.  It's always very hard to tell how much the knitted squares will grow once edged.  See the 5th one in the 3rd row in the 2nd picture.  It has some cool detail in texture design, just needed to be stretched  out with the crocheted edging.  This photo is a bit dark and it's very gloomy outside and even with lights on inside, it's hard to get the colors exactly right in the photo.

What are you all working on?  Our  homeless friends need your help.

**psss did you see the fun yarn bowl above?  The tangerine square is still being edged and the yarn is in my yarn bowl.  This is the yarn bowl I painted with my Darling Daughter.

2015 DONATIONS:
Hats: 448
Scarves &  Infinity Scarves: 187
Mittens/Gloves/Wrist Warmers: 113
Slippers: 105
Rain Poncho's:  105
Cotton Washcloths: 454
Afghans: 24
Socks: 201
Cowls/Hoody Combo's/ 18
Shawls 2
** pending scarf panels 10

Misc: items like personal care and things don't fit into above categories aren't counted

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Rusty Nail Afghan

Rusty Nail as it was designed some time back accompanied me to South Carolina on a girls trip recently.  I was able to work on it in the car coming and going.

Aside from the different light and the colors looking a bit more reddish in the 2nd picture, here it is as a work in progress.  As you can see the squares are very different in size and style, some are rectangles,  some squares, some knitted, and some crocheted.  Due to the huge difference in size I've used almost 3 skeins of yarns in the beginning edging and joining.  After returning home and searching for additional yarn (that I thought I had that matched)...

Here's the next design stage

I've moved what was to be the 2nd row down to the make the 4th  row, and then re-arranged a few other squares to keep things as balanced as something this different can be.  Looking at this picture I see I need to move the granny square in the middle of the 3rd row so I don't have 3 of those in a row diagonally.  Will probably switch it out with the bigger orange square that's currently 2nd  in that same row.   Separating the 2 completed rows with the idea that when I edge and join the others with a slightly different shade it will be less noticeable and look more like a blending of all these shades of orange, peach, tangerine, and rust.

Fingers crossed this plan works as well as I think it will.


2015 DONATIONS:
Hats: 353
Scarves & Infinity Scarves: 167
Mittens/Gloves/Wrist Warmers: 111
Slippers: 91
Rain Poncho's:  105
Cotton Washcloths: 364
Afghans: 22
Socks: 201
Cowls/Hoody Combo's/ 18
Shawls 2
Misc: items like personal care and things don't fit into above categories aren't counted

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.