Oh my Lord - I have just found My next BIG project. Have you ever just looked at something and just known that you NEED to do it? For the last two years my partner has watched me crochet gift after gift for other people, and just give them away. I haven't done anything for him (Cthulu excepted) and he does remind me of it. Most often, he will ask me when I am going to make a blanket for him. It is a question that has been in the back of my mind for a long time now. I know I need to make him a blanket, but I have never seen a pattern or an idea that has really been "just right". Until now. I present to you:
The Star Wars blanket!
I came across this pattern accidentally on Facebook. It is mostly designed by Ahooka and the how to guide, including technique videos, crochet charts, bonus patterns, and handy tips can be found on her website, here.
My biggest decision now is how much of a big project to make it? The website says that the original pattern works up at 100 by 120 cm. That is no where near big enough for my partner. It would make a nice lap blanket for him, but he is almost two meters tall, so it wouldn't really be comfortably snuggly. So how do I make it bigger? Use a thicker yarn and a larger size hook, or do the absolutely crazy and make it a corner to corner (C2C) blanket? A C2C blanket would be pretty darned big, and should certainly cover enough of him to be snuggly. But would it be too big? Is there such a thing as a blanket that is too big? Look how big I made the creeper blanket....
I think I just talked myself into a C2C blanket.....That would be a real labour of love right there....
Edit: I have decided not to do a C2C blanket. I have instead decided to keep the original style and technique, but to add extra designs. Following the links on the website, I was able to find 18 extra squares to add to the blanket, (including the Kylo, Rey, etc found on the designers Etsy page), and think I can make the blanket big enough that way. Bonus!!
Yeah, I'm easily excited, but I'm happy to say that the yarn for my mum's Sophie blanket arrived today!
I had to go to the sorting office and pick it up, but that's ok. It's here, and now I can try and get it finished before the 17th!
I also got my circular needle for the Easter scarf I want to make. I know too well that it will be months before I start on the scarf as it is for myself, but the intent is there! That must count for something. :D
Still no lobster clasps though.....
Disaster has struck! I have run out of at least three colours for my mum's blanket and while I can order more, Wool Warehouse is out of stock of multiple colours, and since it has been a year since I ordered the original balls, I can't get the same dye lots of the colours that are left.
Fortunately, Sophie's Garden is a pattern that lends itself to improvisation! All the colour changes mean that hopefully nobody will notice if the colours are slightly different shades, or if other colours drop out of the blanket altogether.
I have completely finished the first four parts of the photo tutorial now, which means that Sophie's Garden is now complete. When I next pick up my hook, I will be starting work on Sophie's Universe.
So, this is what it is looking like as of writing this, and for once I didn't crop the cat out of the photo because I think it gives a nice sense of size, (This is Wicky, who is just one of my three).
As I am now out of several colours, I am forced to stop working on Sophie. It is a major blow, as my Mum's birthday is the 17th April. I really don't have time to be twiddling my thumbs....
Guess I better pick up my Persian Tiles for a while!
Get it ouuuuut, get it ouuut, get this song out of my head....
Seriously, that song is driving me crazy! Every little girl I know is still Elsa crazy, even after all this time. So when it came to my niece's birthday, no other theme would do!
As my niece did not yet have a blanket - which has since become a family tradition - I wanted to make her a blanket with a Frozen theme. A C2C character blanket was on the cards, but then I came across this Dusty Snowflake throw from Red Heart. I love the Red Heart patterns because they come with nice instructions, but many of them also come with video tutorials for those who find written instructions difficult.
I didn't use the recommended yarn because trying to get the Red Heart yarn in the UK worked out at over £10 per ball. Instead I used Caron Simply Soft - 6 balls of 'Paints' in the Oceana colourway, and 4 balls of 'Party' in Snow Sparkle. As usual, I got my yarn from Wool Warehouse. This yarn was super soft, but still acrylic for better washing and manhandling.
As great as the blanket was - and it was very soft and warm - I wanted to include something that she would appreciate immediately. Sticking with the Frozen theme, I found some Anna and Elsa patterns on Ravelry. Unfortunately, the patterns are no longer available for free as the patterns have been sold to a publishing company, but the patterns work up really well and are well worth buying, should you have any Frozen crazy girls in your life.
Fortunately for me, whatever I make for my niece is very much appreciated. These items were made for her birthday 18 months ago now, and the blanket has got so much use it developed a hole!! Fortunately it was a nice easy fix, and she can use the blanket again. I love it when things get loved that much. <3
This is a tender subject, but one that is particularly close to my heart.
After my son was stillborn in October, it was so sudden and unexpected that I had no clothes or anything to put him in. And to be fair, even if I had had, he was way too tiny to wear anything at all. The hospital were kind enough to provide some items that had been knitted by local volunteers, but even they were too big. Distressed at seeing him in ill-fitting clothes, and upset that my son was to be the only baby in the family that didn't have a blanket made by myself, I set to crocheting him a little hat and sleeping cosy, and a blanket which we delivered to him at the chapel of rest a couple of days later. They fit him perfectly which made me feel much more comfortable, and I didn't feel like he was being left out.
In the days that followed, I thought about how crocheting those items had helped me process what was happening, and how nice it would be to be able to provide other parents with something similar. Nobody can take away what you are feeling at that time - nothing can make it better or stop it hurting. But seeing your baby in clothes that actually fit gives a sense of dignity to the baby. It really does help, in its own way.
So in the months leading up to Christmas I crocheted my backside off! I scoured the internet for 'preemie' clothes that I thought were tasteful, and made them to a smaller scale. I can't remember the patterns that I used now, as I memorised the process of making them, but I made many little hat, cosy and blanket sets for the hospital. I also made dozens of slightly larger hats.
These little hats and cosies don't take up much yarn, and they are a great way to use up the ends of balls from other projects. For blankets I just did large granny squares. Where I didn't have a lot of one colour, I did randomised stripes of similar colours. A solid granny square works very well for larger or ICU babies that require fewer holes, and I made a few of these also:
I haven't made any of these blankets recently as I have a lot of other projects going on, but I intend to continue making them once my crochet calendar cools down a little bit! If you have some spare time and a bit of spare yarn, I can highly recommend making some blankets or little hats like the ones here. Maternity wards are crying out for donations such as these because many families take their clothes and blankets home and don't return with them or, as in the case of my son, the clothes and blanket are cremated with the baby. They are not re-used.
Stash busting, and doing a good deed at the same time. What could make you feel better?
With April looming fast - and therefore my mum's birthday - (and in the absence of any lobster clasps!!) I have had to turn my attention back to Sophie.
I say that as though Sophie is a chore - It really isn't. I love watching Sophie work up, and it's really going to be a wrench to give it away! And after showing Sophie to my sister, my sister has decided that she would also like one, just the same. This is the same sister that I am crocheting the Persian Tiles for though, so she may have to wait a while. It's nice to know that my efforts are appreciated, mind!
There is not much of Sophie's 'Garden' left before I start into Sophie's 'Universe'. I have just started part four of the photo tutorial, and the circle is just starting to square off. I adore the treble clusters that are making up the leaves in the corner - they and the popcorn stitches make me think of tulips, while the bright yellow makes me think of daffodils. I really hope that my mum sees the same things in it.
I have just over three weeks to get Sophie finished - While my mum is currently busy potholing and spelunking in the Peak district, she will be back in time for her birthday.
Fun, fun, fun!!
It was my son's teacher's last day of school today. We only got a couple of days warning and didn't have a lot of spare cash lying around, but he was incredibly upset about her leaving and wanted to give her a present. Of course, he only decided this yesterday, at about 6 o'clock in the evening... It's par for the course with him really - Like when he decided at the last minute that he wanted his name on the Creeper blanket I had already designed, got supplies for, and started making....
I don't really mind - but time was very short. He decided at about 6 o'clock in the evening, on a night where I had other arrangements that would keep me busy until about 11pm, and he needed the gift by 8:30 the next morning.... So what to do?
Ravelry to the rescue!!
I trawled Ravelry for ages, trying to find a gift that would not only be quick to make but one that I had the supplies for in my stash. For some reason, Home Alone 2 came into my mind - the scenes where the kid gets the two turtle doves from the Christmas tree and then gives one to the pigeon lady? I decided that it would be super cute if I made two Amigurumi minis, one for my son and one for his teacher. And with his help we decided that a cat would perfect.
I found the pattern for these on Ravelry - It's the Amigurumi Witches Cat, by Lucy Collin.
The pattern is incredibly quick to work up, albeit a bit fiddly - especially if you are masochistic like I was and use the recommended colour yarn - Black! I found I couldn't tell one stitch from another, and couldn't see where to put my hook a lot of the time. But that is a problem with my bad eyes, not the pattern at all!
I used some sparkly Poundland yarn that I had in my yarn drawers with a 3.5 mm hook, and for eyes I used some 6 mm black safety eyes. I did have larger coloured eyes, but they were brown and they just didn't look right. Since black cats are lucky, the black seemed like the perfect colour to wish his teacher all the best in whatever she does next, and I did try to add a four-leafed clover charm to the neck, but it was just too big and the poor cat kept face-planting the desk!
The cats definitely seem to be a hit - Obviously I can't know what his teacher thinks until school quitting time, but they are very popular on Facebook, and my son was showing his friends on the way into school. They all made the same "Awwwwww!!" noise. So I am assuming this is a good thing!
Now there's nothing left to do but wish his teacher all the best in her new life.
At the risk of getting a bit repetitive, this is yet another post about my TH blanket club progress! It will be the last one for about 5 weeks though, because I have literally gone as far as I can go with this pack. All done... Finished... Finito...
In total I have finished 36 squares - two squares for each mini skein posted, twelve of each colourway. I was planning on joining them together in stripes, so there would have been nine stripes of twelve squares. I hadn't joined them together up until now because I was unsure how the colours sent were going to look with the colours still to come. However, having seen the colours in the third pack I am beginning to suspect that we are getting a rainbow gradient. I could be completely wrong, but we have had blue, then purple, and finally pink. And each of the colour packs has had skeins in it that are very close in colour to the previous one, presumably in case we were planning on doing stripes, or granny squares or something. On that premise, I am expecting the next colours to be along the lines of red, orange and yellow.
Assuming that this is the case - and under the assumption that I can just undo them if it is not - I decided yesterday that I actually wanted to start joining the squares together. Quite frankly I'm running out of storage space for them and am worried that I will lose squares or mix up the colourways!
My partner said that he actually doesn't like stripes so much, (and considering that almost all of my granny blankets are stripes, and I am already doing my rainbow ripple in stripes) I have changed my mind about strips of colour. I instead turned each colourway into a 3 by 4 block of colour, and joined those together. It still fits the 12 by 9 size that I am going for and although I wasn't sure about it before I started, I actually think it looks ruddy awesome!
He has good taste, that man.
I believe I've already mentioned that I'm a sucker for a good yarn box, so when it was put on Facebook that there would be an Easter collaboration between Truly Hooked, Unbelievawool, and Dye Candy, I just couldn't say no! I was a bit naughty and I ordered the larger box - A little extra cost for twice the amount of hand dyed goodness. Well, it arrived this morning and I was NOT disappointed!
Inside my box were nine mini-skeins of lace weight yarn, in very vibrant pinks, oranges, yellows and greens. They definitely made me think of Spring flowers - more specifically, daffodils. There is also a link to two Ravelry scarf patterns to use your yarn with. Both scarves are free, and have very similar looks, so I think I am going to stay inside my comfort zone and make the crochet one. I could use the yarn on something different, and I know this, but I am always making blankets. I hardly ever branch out, and a nice colourful scarf might be just the thing to get me out of the baby pool! And I get to learn another new stitch, too. These are the two scarf patterns - The Mini Mania Scarf by Sarah Core, and the Crochet Linen Scarf by Heidi Beukelman.
There were also some lovely handmade buttons by Cross Crafts, some beads in case I want to add beads or tassels and, of course, some chocolate. Well, it is an Easter box after all!
Happy Easter!
Not really an update, more a shout of victory! Despite the guest skein appearing much smaller than the others, I still managed to get a full two squares out of it, with a little bit over to add to my mini blanket.
This is a successful crochet session - Although it may have been better spent leading House Baratheon to victory in the Game of Thrones board game.
These are the only squares I have done so far - I'm mainly working on Sophie for my mum's birthday, and the Persian tiles blanket for my sister's wedding. But I wanted to be sure I had enough, in case I needed to swiftly request a second skein.
Very relieved to find that's not the case.
In my spare time (spare time? That's a bit of a joke, really!) I have been working on Sophie.
She is still working up really fast, and is actually very enjoyable. This is actually my favourite project so far, I think.
With almost every round I am learning new stitches and patterns - which is always a bonus - and the step by step pattern is very easy to follow. I don't think I have enough yarn though - I only bought one ball of certain colours, and I am starting to get a little low on those colours! I have already worked through one complete ball of turquoise, and am low on the deep heather, yellow and purple. That'll teach me to use an alternative yarn!!
I am considering gifting this blanket to my mum. She is going on several trips to cold places in the upcoming year, and I have never crocheted her a gift. All of my sisters have had gifts - either scarves for themselves, or gifts for their children - but my mum has always been overlooked. Here's hoping this blanket rectifies that! It is thick and warm, though getting quite heavy, and very colourful. I think it will be just what she needs when she is whale watching in Scotland, or travelling to the Northern Cape to see the Northern Lights. I just hope she likes it!!
Pack three arrived early! This wasn't even supposed to be dispatched for another few days, so I'm pretty pleased to have it already.
This month's colour scheme is Pink! Very pink.
I am loving these colours - I think some of them are a little bright for my taste, but I think that combined with the purples from last month the bright pink will fall right into place.
I have also noticed that in every pack there are colours that are quite similar to the colours from the last pack. This is making me re-think my decision to NOT join my squares until the end. It is looking like the colours are a lot less random than I expected, and that there will always be some gradient to the colours. So maybe I should trust the dyer and just start joining the squares already?
One concern I have for this pack is that last skein on the end. It is looking a LOT smaller than the other 5 skeins. My blanket design relies on getting two squares from each skein, or else I will not have enough squares to complete the 'rectangle' shape of the blanket. I know that this pack featured a 'guest' dyer, so I am hoping that it is simply a case of the skein being dyed and wound by a different person, and therefore being wound tighter. If I don't get the two squares out of the skein, I'm not sure what I will do. It would be quite a problem....
At least the decision of which colour to start first is easy!!
I am definitely starting to get blanket club withdrawal! I am missing that lovely, squishable softness that is the merino... I know it's not long until pack 3 arrives, but in the meantime I have decided to get to work on the mini blanket I have planned with the scraps from the larger one.
I decided in this post that I wanted to do a mini circle-in-a-square design, to match the main blanket but on a smaller scale. And it's really working out quite well! Considering I only had the smallest amount of each colour left I am getting a rather large number of circles done!
As you can see, I'm being really naughty and not weaving in my ends as I go - I am sure I will pay for that later - but right now I just want something quick to work on. Instant gratification!
The squares are working up very quickly, and it is small enough (at the moment) to just pop in my handbag and take out with me. So many of these have been crocheted while in cafe's or at my mum's. So far I have six completed squares, and 29 unfinished squares that are basically just circles. I still have some ends of yarn left and I am going to join them together to make multicoloured circles.
And very soon I should have the third pack to add to it!
Ok, it's not quite 25% yet, and even less so when you factor in the border, but let me dream, Ok? :P
I am actually starting to get a bit burned out by this blanket. It's not that it's taking too long, or even that it bores me. It's just that I am used to being able to do something else while I crochet. Watch an episode of something on Netflix, for example. Or listen to fellow gamers on Teamspeak while I crochet in between raid pulls In World of Warcraft. Or even play a board game during our monthly board game nights. But you can forget that with this blanket. I can usually memorise a pattern during the first or second time I use it. But this blanket? Not a chance! It is besting even my memory! So many different colour changes, different stitch counts in the clusters, even hook size changes... I am sure that before I have completed the blanket I will have beaten it, but it's taking me time.
That said, it is turning into a beautiful blanket - even if I'm not being entirely well behaved and have left some ends out. And the colours are amazing. I'm not sure about the yarn though - It is a very lovely yarn, but it has a sort of 'hairy' look. I can never tell whether I have covered the blanket in cat hair, or whether it is just the 'hairy' yarn! I guess that's what happens when you use a wool/acrylic blend yarn though. And I do keep a lint roller to hand at all times - I have multiple rollers stashed throughout the house so I can always grab one in a true cat-hair emergency!
I haven't decided yet whether it is going to be big enough. I had intended this to be a blanket that my sister and brother in law (to be!) can snuggle under on the sofa and watch movies, but it is starting to look more like a lap blanket than a sofa blanket. I might yet buy some extra yarn and either extend it, or make two. His and hers! But that will really depend on how much time I have before the wedding. They get married on July 1st, so I might not have time to get a second one done. I've left it a bit late, really...
And I almost got caught 'red handed' as it were, on Friday night! My son came home from school with a raging fever, and coughing so hard he was literally making himself sick. I couldn't get a doctors appointment for him at our GP office, so I decided to take him to the 'local' walk-in centre (which isn't actually very local to us, but short of taking him to A&E, what was I going to do?) While he dozed on the chairs in the waiting room, I took the opportunity to get some extra hooking time in, and as luck would have it I happened to have the wedding blanket on me at the time. Completely in my own world (trying to make sense of the pattern in a busy waiting room) I was completely oblivious to the door opening and closing, and wasn't really paying attention. Until over the hum of conversation I was sure I could hear my sister's voice.... "No way" I thought, and turned to look at the receptionists' window. And there...standing staring at me in shock...were both my sister and her fiancee.... I just stared back for a few seconds. I couldn't quite comprehend what I was seeing - It couldn't be them....could it? I must have looked a right idiot, with my mouth open like a goldfish, eyes wide open like a deer in the headlights!! At some point I gathered my faculties enough to slide my crochet into my bag so that they couldn't see it, before engaging in normal conversation....
I have no idea whether they saw what I was working on or not, though I am relatively sure that they don't know that I'm making them anything. I could be wrong... But there's no reason for them to connect what I was doing at the time to their wedding. I guess time will tell really. I laugh about it now, but at the time I wasn't! But seriously - What are the chances of that? Absolutely mental!
What do you do when you're feeling a bit rough, and none of your WIPs are appealing? Well, if you're me, you start a new one! I guess this is why I have so many unfinished projects on the go at the moment.
I was supposed to go to my yarn meet today, but am feeling a bit rough around the edges, so have opted for curling up on the sofa under a (not crocheted) blanket, and I have picked up a project I intended to start a year ago: Sophie's Universe:
The yarn I am using for this project is Cascade Yarns 'Pacific Chunky' with a 7mm hook. It is a lovely thick acrylic/merino blend, and it is so soft. I love soft, squishy yarn, so I can't believe it has taken me so long to pick it up - I bought the yarn a year ago. from Wool Warehouse, when they had 10% off and I could justify spending almost £100 on yarn!
Technically, I am starting with 'Sophie's Garden', the original square Crochet Along. The pattern, step by step photo tutorial and FAQs, troubleshooting, and other notes can still be found on the website at Look At What I Made.
I haven't been working on this for very long, but the design is working up very quickly. The photo tutorials and pattern are easy to follow, and the yarn is wonderful to work with (although I almost always say that!) I am not sure how large it will be in the end, using the yarn I am using. Nor do I know whether I even have enough yarn. I sure hope so! I'm not sure I can justify buying even more yarn when this is what my bedroom looks like:
Fingers crossed!!
Well, I am still waiting for my lobster clasps to come so that I can make my stitch markers. I'm beginning to feel like they'll never arrive! In the meantime, I have mostly been working on my sister's wedding blanket. It's coming along nicely, and I have managed to join the first row of panels together. I will post photos in the next day or so, when the Sun comes out (yeah, right!!) and I can take advantage of the natural light.
In the meantime, I have done a lot of work on one of my long suffering WIPs - my rainbow ripple blanket.
Yeah, that is me, at my yarn meet, with my rainbow ripple. I have been working on it for about two years now - I started it straight off the back of my son's Creeper blanket, but once I started working I just didn't have the time to pick it up any more.
The design is simple - A (UK) double treble stitch with an increase/decrease pattern to create the ridges and valleys. I picked up the pattern for it at Attic 24, and I have been working on it for so long now that I can almost do it blindfolded. That is....as long as I pick up the right crochet hook. You see - the rainbow ripple has a problem, one that I am not yet sure how to solve. I picked up the wrong hook! The first two gradients were done in a size 5mm crochet hook, but for some reason it was a 4.5mm hook in the WIP bag with the blanket. So when I have gone to pick up the blanket to start the third gradient (there will be 4 total) I have done the gradient in a slightly smaller size. This has had the effect of giving the blanket an hourglass shape - It is narrower at the bottom than at the top!
I am not entirely sure how to rectify this right now. The way I see it, I have three choices.
1) I can frog it back to the second gradient, and redo all my work in a 5mm.
2) I can continue until the end in the 4.5mm and hope it eventually stretches out through use and with a border.
3) I can switch to a 5mm hook after the third gradient, and hope that there is some way to block a blanket as large as this one, and try and stretch it out.
It will break my heart to have to redo all of the work I have put into the third gradient. This blanket is large enough for a double bed, and each row takes me over an hour with 280 stitches in it. As it is only for home use, I will try and find a way to stretch it out - so I am leaning towards the third option. It's just going to bug the Hell out if me in the meantime! And I don't even know how I will be able to block something so big. But I'm not going to give up on it!!
As I am back to blogging now, it would be pretty lousy of my to not give a shout out to my partners' blog.
Blommaerts' Board Game Blog
Like me he is just really starting out in blogging, but he has some interesting board game reviews, and more that I know are coming up. He is very passionate about his games, and I definitely think that if board games are your thing, you should give his blog a look.
Enjoy!
Still no lobster clasps today! I'm beginning to think my mail man is holding out on me...
In the absence of lobster clasps, and being a bit burned out on my sister's blanket, I turned my attention to one of my long-suffering WIPs today. This is, or will be, my Square-a-day blanket, and it had very humble beginnings:
It started out on New Years Day, last year. The idea was to use my left over yarn from other projects, and to just do one small square a day. By the end of the year, I would have a pretty big blanket. Or so the theory went. I started off well, and for the first four or so months I religiously crocheted a square every day. And then life interfered a bit, and I ended up putting it down to focus on other things.... Well, other things being sorted, I was able to pick it up again on New Years Day this year, and have thus far - touch wood - not missed a day.
The plan is to do a different design for each month, so that the blanket is a sampler of different designs in all different colours. I will be joining them together in a simple double crochet stitch, and then edging in white. I have a specially hand dyed rainbow gradient to put a final border on it, when it's finally finished. I'm even being very good and weaving my ends in as I go....for once... :D
This month's design is a simple circle-in-a-square design:
I haven't decided yet whether I want to stop at 12 designs, as was the original plan, or whether I want to continue until the end of the year. The original plan would have somewhere around 365 squares (give or take - I might have to do more to make a full rectangle) whereas if I continue it would be closer to 480. I imagine it will depend on how many designs I can find that work in an 11 by 11 stitch square. The blanket is already looking pretty big though, and I'm only in the 7th month!
To make it worse, I am constantly browsing the web for more designs and patterns. At this rate, it will never actually be finished!
