Early FOs: Herrschner's Contest Entries

Are you ready for some more of my early work? My Mom found two afghans in storage recently.

This is the Cabbage Rose afghan by Sherry B. Raymer from Woman's Day Prizewinning Granny Squares, a book I got for Christmas one year. If I remember correctly I used Red Heart Super Saver. (In fact, I used Red Heart on both the afghans in this entry. Red Heart is the official yarn of my childhood.)

I think I crocheted this around 1993, a period when I had dropped knitting and but was into crochet. I was also really into rainbow colors. (The original pattern was in subtle pastels on a white background.)

I was drawn to the giant three dimensional roses in the pattern. It doesn't make it very practical for actual use, but it was fun to make.

Mom thinks the roses got squished during years in storage, but I think they look fine.

Here's a close up of the corner. I seem to vaguely remember going to Walmart and looking for the perfect rainbow colors.

Here is the cool part. My entry tag from the Herschners Grand National Afghan Contest is still attached. Back then, you could enter patterns that had been published by someone else. I read about the contest in a magazine I was looking through at Book Stop. (Do you remember Book Stop? Barnes and Noble bought them out a long time ago.)

I didn't win, but my picture and my afghan were featured in the Herrschners catalog because I was one of the youngest entrants. (A 12 year-old boy was also featured.) I still have the catalog somewhere.

I entered several times. I forget exactly what was entered when. I'm guessing this afghan was entered the following year. This time I designed my own.

I'm really proud of this one. Really, really proud. More so today than I was back then (circa 1994?) I wanted to crochet something that was similar to a quilt. I chose the log cabin quilt. My Mom talked about log cabin quilts a lot during that period (or at least that's how I remember it.) The center of each square is supposed to represent the hearth of the home. (At least I think that's it. If so, I got it wrong here because the hearth is supposed to be a warm color.) I also remember learning about the different log cabin layouts. This is Fields and Furrows.

When I first saw it on Monday, I remembered that I designed it myself, but I didn't quite believe it. The pattern holds up well today. I might change the color scheme and the size, but otherwise I'd keep it the same. I wish I had written it down. (Maybe I'll go back and try to record it someday.)

You'll notice entering Herrschners again is number four on my list.

PS - Squinty says hi.