21 of 30 done

which makes 9 octagons left to do, 16 squares and 18 triangles. This sounds like a LOT,  but it shouldn’t take too long. Because I have so many of the octagons, I am tossing up whether I want to start joining them together now, or waiting until all the bits are finished. I’m liking the idea of getting the rows done before all the fiddly bits. But..what color do I sew them together with? Ah, the pattern says main color. That’s handy, coz that was about the color I was thinking of using.

If you wanted to do this using cheapish acrylic, these are the ‘recommended’ colors:

MC = Turquoise. Marvel 1008 or Thoroughbred 2009

A = Dark red. Thoroghbred 2010

B = Light grey. Marvel 1022

C = Curry. Marvel 1029

D = Dark green. Marvel 1020

E = Mist. Marvel 1039
So far I am up to starting the second ball of grey, making the total cost for THAT yarn, 7$. If the rest of the afghan uses two balls each, that makes this a 42$ blanket.

Moorish Mosaic Afghan picture error

I was happily working M16, and decided to look at this picture from Crochet Garden to confirm I was on track. By my calculations, M16 is the 3rd motif from the right, on the bottom row. This motif doesn’t have an A row at the end. I got a bit panicky and asked a friend their thoughts. They also dont think it has an A row at the end. And we both think that the last letter on the chart IS an A. I think the last five letters are D, B, C, C, A. Or possibly B, B, C, C, A – but definitely an A at the end.

Looking at a couple of other MMA’s, I found this one, showing M16 (3rd from right, on the bottom again) with an A row. There is also this one, (M16 being 4th from the right TOP row). Just found another one, and it too, hows an A row on M16. Though, on that last one, where I have a B color on R4, they have D, and the last five colors are B, B, C, C, A.

I’m really not fussed enough to go and change mine…well..I could…nooo no no no.

ETA: for the record, you need to make 16 little squares, using all 4 colors, 4 times each in the middles.

Gluten free Orange and Polenta mug cake

I want to make this Cranberry Orange Polenta Cake, but of course I don’t have an orange here. I do however have orange juice. Being that way inclined this morning, I wondered if I could make it in a mug cake size.

I worked out what I needed sort of following the usual mug cake versions:

3TB gluten free plain flour

half teaspoon baking powder

1TB polenta

4tb sugar

2TB oil

2tb orange juice (or juice of one orange?)

2 bantam eggs (or one large regular chook egg)

I mixed up the dry ingredients in the mug first. Added the wet and mixed it all well. Then zapped it on high for 3 mins.

The result? A slightly too sweet, not very orangey, moist mug cake, with nice little chewy bits. Orange zest would *make* this.

ingredients (minus the eggs)

Gluten free, lactose free orange polenta mug cake mix. Quite sloppy.

cooked mix 3 mins later

lovely and moist – not very orangey though.

Baking idea

I quite like the Chocolate Mug Cake recipe someone gave me a while ago, and now that I can make gluten free ones, I am wondering how feasible it would be to spend some time measuring out the dry ingredients into zip lock snack bags to hand on hand for a quicker snack. The recipe I use has 4tb SR flour, 4TB sugar and 2TB cocoa. The Gluten Free version I’ve made, because I only have plain gluten free flour here, uses 4tb gf plain flour and 1ts baking powder. So, my idea is to put the flour/baking powder, sugar and cocoa in the baggies, and store those in the freezer.

For the record, my microwave needs longer than 1.5 mins, and 1ts baking powder may be too much. I’ll try that with half a teaspoon next time I think. Another I idea I had, was switching the milk to orange juice (I like jaffa flavor), or maybe adding some mint.

messy gluten free mug cake

oopsie

I was happily creating motif 12 and came almost to the end of round 6…only to find that I’d forgotten a cluster on round 5. Thankfully I could tease out the end of the round 5 color, frog it a bit, tied on more of the same color, and finished it off. I might need to do a bit of creative sewing in of the ends, but I was very glad I didn’t have to frog all of round 6.

 

gluten free date scones

oops, 2 clusters instead of 3

teasing the tail out

undone

redone

yay, all fixed

(picture of gluten free scones just to make a nice even number )

What else? Moorish Mosaic Afghan

I have now completed 10 motifs, plus the extra row one. I think M3 needs to be redone with the same brand of yarn, rather than the sparkly one, or an extra row added. If I don’t pull my finger out and get these ends in I will be cursing like a trooper when it comes to getting it all together. That may well be a weekend project. I’m finding it interesting that there is only one instance of color E so far though.

 

M5

M6

M7

M8

M9

all 10

Maybe I should do a few of the little motifs.

Moorish Mosaic Afghan motifs

I’m sick of squinting at the chart, so I am going to try and get them all down here.

1: D, A, D, A, D, A, A, B, A x3 D, A, A,

2: A, C x 3 D, M x 3, E x 6

3: D, B x 4, D, D, B x 7

4: M, A x 3, B, A x 4, C x 5

5: B, C, D, D, B, D, x4, B, D, D, C, D

6: D, B, D, A, D x10

7: M x 8, C,  D, D, B, D, B

8: C, A, C, B, C, B, A, B, C, B, C, B, A, C,

9: B, M, B, B, M x4, A, D, D, A, M, B

10: C x 8, M, A, D, A, D, A,

11: E, D x3, C, D, D, M x7

12: A, D, M, B, A, B, M, D, A, D, M, B, M, D

13: E, A, E, B, E x 10

14: M, D, M, B,  M, B, D, B, M, B, M, B, D, M

15: B x9, C, B, C, B, C

16: C, D, D, B, C, D x 4, B, B, C, C, A,

17: B, A x3, E, D x 3, M, D, M, A x 3

18: B, E, A, Bx4, E, A, E, B, B, A, E

19: E, C, E, C, E, C, C, M, C x4, E, C,

20: D, A, D, A, D, A, D, A, D, A, D, A, D, A

21: A, B, A, B, A, B, B, E, B, B, B, A, B, A

22: C, M, C, M, C, M, M, D, M x 4, C, M

23: C, B, E, E, C x4, B, E, E, C x 3

24: A, M, A, D, A x 10

25: B, E, B, E, B, E, E, C, E x 4, B, E

26: E x 8, A, M, B, M, B, M

27: M, D, M, D, M, D, D, A, D x 4, M, D

28: Ex4, B, M, B, E x 3, B, M, E, E,

29: M x4, C x3, M x 9

30: C, B, C, M, C x7, C, C, M, C

Dear Lord that was traumatic, and I still don’t think I got 21, 23, 24, 25, 26 right. The B’s and E’s look much the same. Either way, I’ll do what I have and hope for the best.

 

ETA, most look to be right.

Moorish Mosaic Afghan

Well, I have five and a half motifs done, though one is the wrong one (done with the rows). I have been managing one motif a day. At this rate, I will get them all done in a month. Then I have to do the little ones.

While in Spotlight yesterday, looking for pale grey yarn, I found two greens that would have been perfect for this. I was tempted to buy them, but decided I can make it with the colors I am using well enough. Who knows when I’d find something the colors would ‘suit’ better.

five done

‘row 2′ motif

motif one

Motif two

Motif three

Motif four

On Row five I chain four, rather than three to give me a wee bit more room. I better take some time today and sew some ends in before they get away from me.

Moorish Mosaic Afghan

Somehow yesterday I found the Moorish Mosaic Afghan again and remembering the yarn someone gave ben a few months ago that matched, I decided to see about making one. Of course, I dont have Interweave Press (the other source for it), so I went and hunted that down, then got the pattern out of it.

On Ravelry I found out that it has a correction. You can find this here.

I went to suss out the yarns I have, and decided they matched well enough to the listed ones: Materials: Yarn Mission Falls 136 Wool (100% merino wool; 136 yd [124 m]/13/4 oz [50 g]: #027 macaw (MC), 7 balls; #012 raisin (A), 3 balls; #002 stone (B), 3 balls; #013 curry (C), 3 balls; #531 sprout (D), 3 balls; #019 mist (E), 3 balls. The actual pattern tells me that the same yarn has 85yards/78metres per 50 grams, but the same correction page lists the above. as 8ply acrylic has about 300m per ball, the 7 balls of the main color needs about 2.5 of acrylic. I have that. I DON”Y have the ‘sprout’ or ‘mist’ (dark/light green respectively). I am thinking that chocolate and black might work well in its place. Failing that, I have a burnt orange and some of that other not-quite-olive green. I think I prefer the chocolate/black over the orange/green. Maybe chocolate and orange will work in better?

So I read the color chart list and found a row that has colors I have handy (I’m lacking a full ball of stone/pale grey), then remembered I have a scrap of a pale grey somewhere. Found that, decided that would work and set about starting one motif. It is working really well too. Problem is..I haven’t worked from a chat before, and while this isn’t an intricate chart, I still stuffed it up. I wondered why there were 30 rows for the motifs, and decided to ‘trust the pattern.’ Because, you read from left to right, and top to bottom don’t you? I started motif 2, A C B A C B M A M (etc).

Squinting at the pattern was doing my head in, so I unearthed the printer, couldn’t find the power cord, and so started writing the color combinations out…then realised I wasn’t doing motif 2…I was doing round 2 of the first 9 motifs. How clever! on the other hand, no one will have the same color combination! I think I will keep this one and substitute it for a motif I don’t much like. OR do the whole lot using the rows rather than motifs. I can get two motifs out of one by following rows. We’ll see. It could be fun.

short row mitred dishcloth

If you cast on about 40, and follow this pattern for only the first ‘quarter’ you get a mitred short row dishcloth. I don’t recommend a knit cast on.

 

(if you don’t slip the first stitches on the return row you lose the holes O.o)