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Crochet blog – update #7

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Hello and welcome to my 7th update.    I am still aiming to do these weekly but my week was crazy busy last week and I didn’t make enough progress to tell you about!

Over the last two weeks I managed to complete the squares for my hearts and spots blanket.  Here are the last four rows.    These are not laid out in the order I plan to put them together here but you get the idea.

The original colour layout looked like this.    I will be joining the blocks in this order more or less.

The heart squares are less stable than the spot and solid squares so rather than make it random I am rotating the three designs which means that a heart square will always be surrounded by solid/spot squares.  Here are the finished blocks in their colour piles!

I have been working on joining methods.    For my sunshine flower blanket I wanted to make the joins as invisible as possible.    This hearts and spots blanket will make a feature of the joins.    I am using the mid colour from each of the sets to join the blocks in each row.    For the joins between rows I haven’t decided what to use yet.    I might carry on with the mid colour of the previous row or might use the bold colours.

Away from this blanket I have been trying to get organised.    I recently published a couple of posts on daily and weekly planning with free printable planner downloads.  I have also been working on a stash catalogue which I will share in a separate post but this is what it looks like.   Here is the file as a free download.   The file is A5 size so you might need to resize it if you would like a different format.    If you have any problems with this please let me know and I will resize the file for you!   stash catalogue (15714 downloads )

I have quite a large stash of yarn (!) and much as I try to make use of it before buying more yarn, it doesn’t seem to reduce any!   I hope that having it catalogued and available to browse through will improve my ability to create ideas to use it all.   One thing I have found is that as I go through the backs of cupboards and packing boxes to look at all my yarn, I am falling in love with it all over again.    I have found some yarns I didn’t know I had!    I read an article on yarn stashing and I know I am not the worst for this.   I do not have any yarn deliberately hidden from my family.    I loved one story I read, of a knitter who had removed a bath panel to create a new hiding place for an extreme stash 🙂

That’s all from me this week.   I will go back to joining squares and cataloguing my stash.    I hope to be able to edge the hearts and spots blanket next weekend and to share the final pattern.   Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Crochet blog – update #5

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Hello and welcome to my fifth weekly update!

This week has been all about getting my heart and spot squares finished.    I have completed all the blocks for four of the colours.   Sewing in the ends has been a long long job!   I laid out the finished blocks  in the order I want them to sit in the finished piece and I am preparing to start joining them up.   I plan to join them using the mid shade in each colour way but I might change my mind on that after testing a few styles.   Here is the layout I am working on.


The picture shows almost all the squares in a row and there are are another eight rows to complete!  I was given a single ball of every colour of Paris Drops cotton yarn for Christmas and this is the project I came up with for that yarn.   The pattern would be great for using up oddments though and the design would look very different with random colours instead of these single colour stripes.   I am planning to make it again mixing all the colours up as an experiment 🙂

Yarn Review –  Drops Paris – this is a strong cotton yarn that works up using a 5mm hook/needles.    The yarn comes in a wide range of colours – 47 available at the time of writing.  Some of the colours say that they are made from recycled denim and those tend to be more harsh in texture.   In general the yarn is relatively soft for cotton.   Drops Paris is made up of many thin strands and does have a tendency to split.  This means you have to watch carefully as you work but if you do find it splitting it is easy to pull back out and correct.    One really big plus for me is that I have hardly found any breaks/knots in the yarn.   It is very reasonably priced – I am picking up odd additional balls as required for around £1 per 50g ball.

Stash buster project – Even though this blanket project is a stash buster itself, using small bits of yarn, I am still finding that I have oddments left over.   As a break from sewing in the ends on all these blocks I came up with a use for those oddments.    This is a hair accessory I made.

I have put up a separate post  – hair accessory instructions in case you want to have a go at this.    It is soooo quick and I am really pleased with the results.    I am using fairly thick cotton per the review above, but if made using lighter, softer acrylic yarn the strands form lovely spirals which you can mix and match with the straighter ribbons.

In other (non-crochet) news, I have been working on two knitted blanket patterns which I will be sharing next week.   One of them is a chunky, soft and cosy blanket made with some lovely 100% merino wool (shown below) that I picked up at a craft show.   The other is a much lighter baby blanket with stripes and hearts.   I am looking to back the baby blanket with fleece and put some crochet edging round it but at this stage the blocks are waiting to be sewn together.

I think that is all I have this week – back to sewing in ends and sewing up blocks for me!   Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Hair accessory

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Hello!    I wanted to share this free pattern for a hair accessory with you.    Most of my making time at the moment is going into a large blanket made of smaller squares.   I am spending all my time making these squares and finishing off the ends.    The work is a stash buster in its own right as it uses small quantities of yarn to make each square.   However, I am still finding myself with some very small oddments and it hurts me to thrown those away so I have come up with this design to use even the smallest pieces of left over yarn!    Here is the finished result.



Instructions – Hair Accessory.

To make this you need small oddments of yarn, an elastic hair band/tie and the size of crochet hook appropriate to your yarn.   In my case I am using left over Drops Paris yarn which takes a size 5mm hook.

Start by making a magic loop that goes through the middle of the hair band.   I found this a bit of a mind bend to start with!   I am including a picture below so that you can lay your work down and copy mine if that helps!

Work 12 DC (SC US) into the magic loop.    You might need to vary this according to the weight of your yarn.   It doesn’t really matter how many stitches you put into the loop as long as you can pull it tight to circle the hair band – see below.

Without breaking the yarn work a chain to the length you require.   This will form one of the ‘ribbons’ in the final item.   If you are using light/acrylic yarn then the ribbon will spiral so you may need a longer chain.   In the yarn I am using the ribbons do not curl much and I used a chain of between 12 and 16 in the finished piece pictured.

When you have the chain to the length you require work back along the chain either using slip stitches or DC (US terms SC).   The SC will give the effect of a cord, DC (SC US) will give a thicker strip.    Finish off the strip with a slip stitch into the outer edge of the DCs in the magic loop.  This will reinforce the join between the ring and the strips and make the item more robust.

Join in other colours to the DC’s in the magic ring and repeat the steps above to add more strands to the accessory.   Keep these close together on one side of the ring so that the other side can sit against the wearers head without making it uncomfortable.

Finish the piece by sewing in the ends but this need not take long as you can run the loose ends down the length of the ribbons very quickly!    And that is it – you can play with colours – match them to other garments or use any random oddments in your stash!    These could look lovely on flower girls if they were worked all in cream/white or could be made to match the colours of flowers or bridesmaids dresses.

Hope you have a go at this and enjoy the results as much as I did.    I think it is a really fun way to use up tiny scraps of yarn and a lovely break from big projects.  Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂

Stripes Scarf – Blue

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Here is a blue version of my Stash Buster Scarf.   I wrote up the pattern that I created when I made the pink/purple version and realised that I didn’t have yarn quantities so I made it up again in blue so I could get the weight of yarn required.    I also took photos during the making process so that I could add them to the pattern.

The pattern uses five colours and I happened to have four blue shades in my stash so went with those plus white to make five colours for this design.

I wanted to be able to explain in pictures the way that I finished the scarf off without needing to weave in ends.   I also wanted to show how I added in additional yarn to bulk out the fringing.    The finished pattern is up on my Etsy store which you can reach on the following link.

Stash Buster Scarf Pattern

This pattern is very easy so would suit a beginner and can be made up in whatever colours you choose.   Sounds dreadful to be thinking about Christmas as we are in May currently but I think this would make a lovely handmade gift and you can pick a colourway to suit the person it is for.

I have listed the pattern on Etsy but you can grab it here for free on this download. Stripes scarf (14241 downloads )
Happy Crocheting!

Annie 🙂

 

Knitted Blanket

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Now for a knitting project 🙂   I have been doing a lot of crochet lately and I miss having two needles on the go.    I grew up doing a lot of knitting and only recently started my crochet journey.    I bought this lovely super chunky yarn at a recent craft show.    This is 100% merino wool and beautifully soft.     I have three packs of 10 x 50g hanks which all need to be hand wound before I can start.    Time to enlist some help from the family!

I have decided to knit a blanket with this lovely yarn.   It needs to retain the softness of the yarn so the stitches must not be too tight.   The back needs to look respectable so that limits my options a bit.   Another challenge I have is that I have no idea how far the yarn will go.    I found a helpful calculator on Pinterest which I have put on my ‘Design’ board and based on that knitted up a square that I thought would use one ball.

For the blanket I decided to use circular needles and knit it in one go rather than have several squares to join.   The back of the blanket will be smoother and look better without joins.   To keep the stitch loose I decided to go up one size from the recommended needle size.   This puts me on massive 10mm needles 🙂

I picked the blue for the edges to frame the work with a darker edge.    I have estimated the use of the colours to try to use up all the yarn.   I can get hold of more of this but it comes in 10 hank packages which would make it quite expensive if I only need a little more!

The stitches I picked for the squares were ones that had a reverse side that looked good.   The only squares that don’t look as good on the reverse are the cable squares and I love cables sooooo much that I had to include some anyway 🙂

Here is how the project looks at the moment.    I will post again when I have finished and I will be writing up the pattern so I can list both the pattern and the blanket on my Etsy store.

I am not the fastest knitter by a long way but this knits up so quickly.     That is the beauty of knitting in a heavy gauge yarn!

That’s all for now.   I am going to review my stash to find inspiration for my next project 🙂

Happy Knitting!

Annie 🙂

 

Sample Squares

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Last Christmas I asked my husband for what he thought was a very strange present.  I asked him to get me one ball of each colour of a certain type of yarn.     I wanted to be able to play with the colours and to put together a blanket design based on all the colours available.    The yarn I had picked was Drops Paris.   I chose this because I wanted to work in heavy cotton and this yarn is so inexpensive it made the project affordable.     Apparently ordering the yarn one ball at a time was quite a lengthy process so my husband called the online retailer and some very helpful people processed his order by phone!

I designed a pattern for a small square and produced one of every colour except black.    I decided to use black to edge all the squares so didn’t want a black square.   Here is a picture of my finished set of one of every colour sample squares 🙂

I designed the blanket by laying these all out on the kitchen table and moving them around until I saw the design I wanted.   I then worked out how many more squares of each colour I needed and calculated my yarn requirement based on that.   I have placed a yarn order and I am now waiting for delivery.    Whilst waiting for the yarn to arrive, I used the single ball of black yarn that I did have to edge a few of the squares.   I am never sure whether I want to edge in black or white but I do think black is more practical.

When the yarn arrives I will be able to make up the rest of the blanket and will be sharing photos here.   I will put the pattern and the finished product up on my Etsy shop.   I have found this method of designing very quick and easy once I had made all the small squares.   It did take quite a long time to make up the sample squares though and I have ended up with a few that I will not be using.   I wouldn’t want to do this with a more expensive yarn.

This is the final theme for my project.   I have arranged the squares in a rainbow with a pastel, muted and bright row of each colour.   This is only possible because of the large range of colours in this particular yarn.   I hope you like the idea 🙂

If anyone would like the pattern for the coloured square it is available in the patterns section of my blog.     The blanket would be  a great stash busting project if you have a lot of oddments of yarn of similar weight.    I would recommend  using one colour for the edging of each square to pull the blanket into one design.

That’s all from me for now.  On to the next design…..

Happy crocheting!

Annie 🙂