Stickytapeandstring

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More Stripes

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Hello, this week I worked on a second striped scarf.   This one has a lot of the blue colour I used in my flower hats.   The pattern is slightly different although on the same theme as the pink striped scarf I made last week.

The pattern of thin and thick stripes is really interesting and the scarf is fully reversible.   The two sides do look quite different and I love the effect that results from turning the work at each end.

The scarf would be a great project for anyone just beginning to crochet for the first time.    There are only three stitches to master and one of those is chain which is about as easy as it gets.   However, the first row after the chain is very fiddly and I ended up having to do mine twice when I made this second scarf because I managed to get two stitches into one chain loop!

One very satisfying aspect of this pattern is that there are no ends to finish off.   All the ends are ‘hidden’ in the fringing/tassles.   🙂

This has used up the last of the yarn I had left over from my flower hats!    I will be reviewing my stash for the next projects but in the mean time have been out buying more gorgeous yarns.    I will write a post on those later in the week once I have taken some photographs.

That’s all for now – have a go at one of these stash busting scarves – they grow really quickly and the finished item is really  lovely.   If you would like the pattern then it is available on my blog under the patterns section or if you find the ads annoying, visit my Etsy store where I will be listing it for a small charge.

Happy Crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Stripes scarf

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This project is made with the same yarns as my flower hats.    I had quite a bit of each colour left over but not enough to make any more hats in the same design.  I fancied a change anyway so decided to attempt a scarf.

I have collected a lot of images of scarves on my Pinterest boards.   The style I am working here is one of my favourites to wear.    It lends itself to using many colours and as such is perfect for a continuation of my stash busting hats project.  This yarn is a mix of cashmere and merino wool so is beautifully warm to wear.

I began by working a chain to the length of scarf I wanted to produce.    This seemed to go on for ever!    There are 330 stitches in one row of my scarf and the finished scarf measures   160 cm/64 inches long by 15 cm/6 inches.     I made up the stitch pattern and colour banding as I worked the piece but kept careful notes.     I will write up the pattern and put it up on my Etsy store.

This project did not work well on my commute as it grew quite quickly and used several balls of yarn at a time.   I have a separate project worked in parallel so that I could make use of my commuter time!

To finish off the scarf I considered adding more flowers but they didn’t stand out as well as I would like against the stripes so instead I went for fringing.    I have used up all my spare yarn of this type now and listed both the hats and this scarf on Etsy.  I hope you like them 🙂

Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Sunshine Flower Blanket – edging

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This weekend I tackled the final stage of the design of my Sunshine Flower Blanket, the edging or border.   I wanted to use all three of the flower colours in the edging to bring the blanket together.   I also wanted to end with the red colour as that gives a strong border.   At first I was planning a repeat of the band using the three colours in increasing widths.    However, I didn’t feel that that would give  enough of a statement edge and also would have needed to be blocked in order to make it lie flat.

I couldn’t find a pattern that fitted with the rest of the blanket design in the way I wanted.   Finally, I decided to design my own edging after checking out a lot of different designs on Pinterest and in my various stitch bibles.

I came up with the design you can see in the picture below.   The first round is a simple band of Citrus then I worked a round of petals in Honeysuckle to echo the flower design and behind those, larger petals in red.    It took a few attempts to get the right degree of fullness in the petals whilst ensuring the edge would lie flat.  I am very pleased with the end result.    I would be happy to share the pattern for the edging if anyone is interested – please let me know by sending a comment 🙂

I have now finished the blanket.   I hope you like it.  It has been around six months since I started the project but I have worked on other items in that time.   I will be listing the blanket on Etsy or I might try Amazon Handmade but I will be very sorry to see it go!  I also plan to make two matching pillows as I have a couple of the flower squares left over and I think I have enough yarn too.   I will list the pillows on Etsy but might keep one to remind me of this lovely project 🙂

I have already started planning my next blanket project and will share as soon as I have fixed on a design.   I am also working up sample blocks from each colour in a range of cotton yarn that I was given at Christmas.   I think those sample blocks will end up in a sample colour blanket.   As ever I have far more project ideas than I have time.   A problem we all have I expect….

Bye for now, happy crocheting!!

Annie 🙂

 

Sunshine Flower Blanket – update!

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Hello – so excited to report the progress on my Sunshine Flower Blanket.

As you can see I now have all the large flowers added and I am working the final vanilla band before adding the edging.    I am going to edge it with the three colours I used for the flowers but I have a few more rows of Vanilla to work before then.

The blanket is getting quite big now – I think it will be around 1.5 meters square when I finish it.   My earlier posts on this project give you the source for the pattern for the large flowers (A Square A Day by Tracey Lord) and the colours I am using.   I will happily make the pattern available for the smaller flowers and the overall design if anyone would like to see it.   Please just leave me a comment (there is a link above and below this post).

I have already started on my next project so focusing on getting this one finished has been a bit of a struggle!  The rounds get so long towards the end so it feels like you are not making progress and the ends take a long time to weave in.   I am so pleased that I wound most of them in as I was working the squares.   I worked a lot of the squares on my daily commute so always made sure I had a needle with me to finish off the ends as I went.   I certainly wouldn’t like to start on all the ends from scratch when I had finished the blanket!

That is all from me for now – the next time I post on this project will be to show you the finished work which I will probably list on Etsy as a one off.  🙂

happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Granny Square blankets

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A short post to share a couple of my projects from last year.

When I first started crocheting as a little girl I used to make granny square blankets with all my scrap yarn.    I used to knit a lot so I had quite a bit of scrap yarn left over!   I loved making the blankets and quickly progressed to buying odd balls of remnant yarn from our local wool shop with my pocket money!

I came back to crochet last year and again started with granny square blankets.    I made a huge blanket for our living room first.    My children had just had their rooms decorated and both asked for a blanket for their beds.    You can see the results below.    These blankets are very basic in terms of the stitches used.    They grow really really quickly and you can work them in front of the TV once you get into the rhythm!

This is the blanket my son wanted….

The blankets are very warm.   I think the ‘holes’ actually help the blankets hold the warmth – if that makes any sense.   They do munch an awful lot of yarn so really are excellent for using up scraps but if you are buying yarn to make them you should beware of the overall cost and choose a yarn to suit your budget!   As a guide these blankets are made out of Aran weight yarn and each weighs 2.7kg which would mean around 54 x 50g balls.   However, the blankets I made here are enormous, 2.5 metres square 🙂

This is my daughter’s blanket….

When I finally managed to convince them that the blankets were big enough I had to put an edge on them.    My son didn’t want anything ‘too fancy’ so his was just a couple of coloured bands.  My daughter went for a small scalloped edge.   The edge on my daughters took some time to do but again I think that was because of the sheer size!!

That’s all for now.   Only to let you know that I plan to make some smaller versions of these to sell in my Etsy shop as they make lovely cot blankets and I find them very relaxing to make.

Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

 

 

Flower Hats

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These Flower Hats started out as a stash buster project.    I was looking through my stash and found I had a number of balls of lovely soft yarn.  The yarn is a mix of merino wool and cashmere in various colours.   However, there was not enough to make a blanket.  I had no more than two or three balls of any one colour.

I needed a project that would make the most of this beautiful yarn so I decided to have a go at making a hat.   They were very quick to make and are a lovely snug fit.   The hats looked a little plain so I added flowers to the headband.    The flowers were great to make my commute – I made strings of them without finishing off the ends.   Later I used the ends to attach them to the hats.

Flower Hats

These little hats have been very easy to work on the train.    They only need one ball of yarn and they are nice and compact even when finished!    I will share the pattern I created if anyone is interested.

Over the next couple of weeks, I am planning to complete a few more of these hats.   I will also make a scarf to match but there will only be enough yarn for one scarf so that will be a bit special.   Getting creative on my commute turns an hour of ‘dead’ time into an hour of special time.

I listen to audiobooks on Audible whist crocheting away and the journey whizzes by.    Sometimes when I am working over the weekend at home on my projects I listen to Audible because the books from my commute have become hard to ‘put down’!   Audible normally offer a free trial – you can download one book for free without commitment to see whether you like it or not.    I need to tell you that I am a member of the Amazon Affiliate programe.   This means that if you click on this link below or any other link in my blog I might receive a small income at no additional cost to you.

When I am finished I will list the Flower Hats and the scarf on my Etsy store.    I haven’t actually set up my Etsy store yet as each time I try I seem to be missing a bit of information or a photo.   In fact, I will put out a blog post on preparing to set up an Etsy store!    UPDATE – my Etsy store is now up and running but I am still waiting for my first sale!!  You can visit me here – Stickytapeandstring – Etsy shop.  I also plan to check out Amazon Handmade – has anyone used that yet?   Let me know how it goes 🙂

Happy Crocheting,

Annie 🙂