Project Gracious Parcel

I have finished my squares for Project Gracious Parcel. I found out about this project on someone's blog and thought it was really wonderful. This woman's husband is involved with Habitat for Humanity in upstate New York and so she makes blankets to go to the inhabitants of the new houses. I know there are tons of knitting charities out there and lots of places that make blankets but I liked the idea of sort of "knowing" where the blanket was going. The house they are building this spring is for a mother and her three children so she is making 4 blankets! I decided I wanted to make 4 squares out of the same yarn so they would each know they came from me but each square needed to be different. I used some of the wonderful soft yarn from Uruguay that I bought on eBay (remember that bad influence Bonnie . . .) The colors are brown and yellow and beautiful fall colors. It made me think of leaves changing on the East Coast. First I made one that was double seed stitch. It turned out well but it sort of looks like a pot holder and I wanted to make something a bit more interesting. So next I made the heart square. I got the heart pattern here. She has lots of adorable patterns for dishclothes but unfortunately most of them have too many stitches for a 7 inch square. The heart was the only one I could modify to make fit. But inspired by her designs I then made one with vine lace to think of the lovely trees and forests in upstate New York and the last one was in horseshoe lace for good luck. I'm excited to see how the blankets turn out!