African Flowers!

What started out as an innocent day of yarn organizing turned into an explosion of African Flowers.  I  had come to the sad realization that until I used up all of my yarn I would not allow myself to purchase any more yarn, I came to the same conclusion with my kitchen pantry.  So I thought about what I could do with all of these different yarns, each one was purchased to make a different project that I probably started and took apart or just didn't finish, I'm a closet starter non-finisher.  There. Now that is out in the open. So I thought about what to make and thought these colors would all look great together on a blanket.  But I needed something that would be instant gratification because I had the itch to make something.  So I went to my trusty Pinterest board and got to lookin'.  First pin on my board was an African Flower baby blanket.

I thought, this could be fun.  I would be trying a new pattern and it could be done pretty quick.  I found great directions to the African Flower tutorial here. So with a basket of yarn in tow, I went to my mom's and parked myself in front of the Hallmark channel.  I was hoping that A Princess for Christmas would be on so I could watch Katie McGrath be someone other than Morgana Pendragon.  And yes I can name most Hallmark movies.

Making the flowers was fun.  It was turning them into hexagons that made things a little crazy.  I had to take them a part several times but I think it worked out.   Putting them together was a lot of work and I did not plan it out well.   Note to self don't watch TV when putting things together.  I ended up sewing the wrong side together instead of the right side (that sounds confusing I know).  Then I realized that I was going to have to figure out how to make a half hexagon.  That wasn't part of my plan either.  But you can find a tutorial for it here.

It took me about six days and I finished it up today!  It still needs to be blocked and I will redo the border.  It's not the best work I've done, but I am in love with the color. I have plenty of yarn left over to try again.  There are a couple of things I would do different next time.  For starters I would plan it out.   I would put the project down during the climactic scenes of Merlin.   I would also do an invisible stitch to join the pieces so that the blanket was flat as opposed to rigid. And I would make sure that the right side was the right side.   Practice makes perfect. 

 It also has a special place in my heart.  I prayed a lot while making this blanket.  It may sound cliche but I prayed for the children of Africa.  I prayed for the orphaned babies and abandoned children.  I have been reading some adoption blogs recently and have been blessed to hear different adoption stories, some wonderful and some heartbreaking.  There are so many babies in orphanages either abandoned or who have lost their parents due to AIDS or genocide and my heart breaks.  So every little flower on this blanket is a prayer for safety, protection and Love.  That whoever is caring for them that they could just love on those babies.  That angels would play with them while they were isolated in their cribs.   I prayed for the parents that had to give their babies up.  And prayed for their future homes and families, that God was just putting all of those things in motions for those children to be loved and cared for. I prayed for easy transitions and traveling mercies.  I prayed all these things while kissing my babies a couple of more times before bed.  I prayed that babies without father's would seek the one true Father, for He does not abandon.  I pray that someone could love them.  I hope you can pray for them too. 

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 
~John 15:7