Raspberry ripple blanket

Half-way through February and I've just remembered that I'm due a blog! It's another blanket one I'm afraid.

I am all about the blankets.

In 2012 I made my nephew a Spiderman inspired giant granny square blanket for his bed. You might remember it, it's this one here. Well, last year my sister asked me to make a blanket for my five year old niece, as she was having her bedroom decorated. My sister picked out the colours from my own giant granny square blanket to fit in with the colour scheme - she went for a pale pink called 'Fondant', a lovely soft 'Plum' and 'Cream'. They're Stylecraft Special DK yarns, which is my favourite yarn for blankets as it's soft, cheap and easy to work with. I'd previously found a pattern by Lucy of Attic 24 for a lovely ripple blanket which I'd been dying to try out for a while. So, full of enthusiasm off I went, thinking this should be a lot quicker as it was only single bed sized, rather than the double bed style of the previous two blankets.

I got through the first few colour changes quite quickly...

I loved the colours and the ripple effect. It's a really easy pattern, basically just lots of treble crochets (UK terminology), along with increases and decreases.

I hate those bamboo hooks (from the first pic), much happier with a metal hook in hand

And then, somewhere around a quarter of the way into the project I completely stalled. I was sooooooo bored of the ripples. I think the fact that I was doing seven rows of each colour was what did it - as there were much fewer short term goals. With my original blanket I'd work until I finished a colour, but with this I didn't even want to pick it up, as the colour change was so far away.

Eventually I got to about halfway through - but by now it was late July and the present needed to be ready for Christmas (I'd already missed the May birthday deadline) - so I had to get cracking!

 This is probably the best photo for the colour of the plum

I think one of the main difficulties I experienced with this project was the closeness of the stitches. With a granny square you're making as much progress in the spaces between stitches as you are with the stitches themselves. With this everything was stitches.  

E V E R Y T H I N G.

 

I do rather like the colours though, several people commented on how it looked like ice-cream...

 ...the general consensus was that it looks like neapolitan ice-cream...

...although I suspect that's because of the way the plum colour comes out very dark in photos...

I prefer to think of it as my raspberry ripple blanket

This photo makes my eyes go funny, it's like a Magic Eye puzzle

I decided against doing a border for this blanket because the edges were all neat enough, and so it didn't seem to need one. Also my niece's taste is quite girlie but not particularly fancy, so she wouldn't want any additional frills. I think the plum makes it quite a sophisticated colour scheme for a 5 year old!

It was difficult to get a decent photo of the ripples at the top and bottom of the blanket. I always struggle with photographing the finished item in a way which shows it off properly. The top and bottom edges are a lot more regimented than the picture below makes them appear because, as my friend @CrochetedZombie would say, I'm a tight hooker!

(It's being modelled on a king-sized bed here btw, I didn't seriously misjudge the size of the blanket)

So I finally got a wiggle on and actually finished it in November, leaving me with time to do those snowflakes from the last blog. Yes, I am a crochet addict. I finished this blanket with a claw-like, aching hook-hand, and launched straight into making 60-odd snowflakes.

I gave it to my niece for Christmas and she loved it, so I was very pleased. :)

BOO-YA BLANKET!

Being a glutton for punishment, I'm actually in the midst of another blanket, which I started in late December. This one is a surprise though, so it's top secret! Well, except on Twitter anyway, where I keep posting excitable pictures. I can't wait to properly show you that one.

See you in March then... x

A New Year - and snowflakes

Happy New Year to you! I hope 2014 treats you kindly.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to do more blogging - hopefully at least once a month. We'll see how long it takes before I fall off of that wagon! If you know me on Twitter then maybe you could nag me about it come February...

I've started off the new year with two new projects - one of which I'm very excited about. In the past I've made blankets for my nephew and my youngest niece, but not for my eldest niece yet. She's looked longingly at the blankets I've made for the others at Christmas, so this year it's her turn!

I'm notoriously slow at blankets. I start off with all the enthusiasm in the world, then slow down as that enthusiasm dwindles, until in the end I stop entirely. Then several months pass, I remember I'm meant to be giving it to said child for Christmas, and then I suddenly have a big mad rush to get it finished. This time I'm starting nice and early in preparation for how apathetic I'll become. Also, there are lots of colours involved to keep me interested, so hopefully it won't be so much of a slog.

I'm making her a granny square blanket. I've not done one of these in blanket form before - only giant granny squares. I've made a start already, with 7 of the granny squares, so I'm 3% of the way there - wooo! It'll be for a double bed, so it's a pretty big challenge. I'll keep you updated on my progress (hopefully)!

1 down - only another 224 to go

I think I'd probably better sew in the ends as I go.

The other project I've started is a scarf. I currently have no idea who I'm making this for - I'm sure someone's birthday will come along and I'll realise they're perfect for it. I started out following an entirely different pattern which just wasn't working out. It was originally meant to look like this and the very lovely @UnderMeOxter was incredibly helpful in converting that picture into a pattern for me to follow. However, I just couldn't get to grips with it. I think the yarn isn't suitable for the pattern as it's not very stretchy.

A hot mess

I've found a pattern which suits the yarn far better now, and it's coming along nicely. Hopefully I'll be able to show you that soon.

I was really ill for the whole of December and laid up in bed for a lot of it. Had this horrible heavy cold which soon became a lung and ear infection. Nothing would shift it. I'd planned to make a little crochet present for a couple of friends, just to go on their Christmas tree and bought a couple of different yarns to try out. One was white with a silver thread running through it, the other glittery white. Laying about leaking juices from my every face orifice meant I had plenty of time for crochet and so this went from being a project of about 5 or 6 hanging ornaments to SIXTY! 64 if you include the 4 I made for my own Christmas tree.

I had seen a perfect pattern made by the incredibly talented and generally amazing Lucy of Attic24 for snowflakes which were quick, easy and fun to make - I'd definitely recommend it.

 

 

 

Once you've crocheted them they really need blocking in order to look properly like snowflakes. I pinned the points of them to an old towel and used spray starch as Lucy had suggested, then left them to dry. The spray starch stops them from curling up on themselves and means they hang better. I ended up going through a lot of the stuff.

 Ooooh pretty thing!

 This was a permanent fixture of my room in December

The Leaning Tower of Snowflakes

Here some of them are, having a snowflake party...

I used different sized hooks ranging between a 3mm and a 5.5mm. I reckon optimal snowflake size was made with a 3.5mm hook.

Once dried I threaded them with small ribbons or pieces of wool so that they could be hung on a tree.

My curtains don't look this 80s in real life... 

I hope

Sorry, it's hard to see the different coloured ribbons against the crazy blanket background

Then I just choose one and popped it in with the Christmas card for that person! I tried to match the choice of ribbon to the person. Here is my glamorous assistant helping me choose...

 Bosscat says green for this one

And here's another photo of them lined up ready to party, but this time with their smart ties on. I will learn to not take pictures against my crazy blanket in future so that you can actually see some of the colours.

I made it bigger - if that helps?!

And here they are in action on my tree! I only made four for myself in the end as I ran out of wool.

Little diddy Christmas tree

- I didn't notice that a pusscat had gone on a single-photo-frame-rampage when I took the photo -

If I didn't send you one then I am sorry! I got a bit confused with how many I was making as the project just seemed to grow and grow the sicker I got. 

I'm already thinking excitedly about what to make next year. I think this is a tradition I want to keep up for years to come.

Here's wishing you a healthy, happy and lucky 2014. x

EDIT:

Someone who is lovely suggested I put up the photos I people sent me on receiving their snowflakes. 

So, now it's time for our gallery. Here's some suitable music.

Sarah

D.

Zoe

Jaf

(It was also Jaf's birthday, I don't know if you might have already guessed that)

V.

Dipping my toe in patchwork

I might make it my New Year's resolution to do more blogging. One every six months really isn't cutting the mustard is it?

This is a make from quite a while back - I reckon almost a year! I'd wanted to do some proper patchwork for ages, after my friend Martha (the one with the scarf) gave me a little tutorial in exchange for one on crochet. I'd like to make a proper quilt soon, although I'm a bit confused as to whether I'd need to put a new foot on the sewing machine for sewing through the quilting? Anyway, I digress...

What I didn't realise about patchwork was the level of maths required. You need to be pretty damn accurate or it all goes tits up. Here's some of my more recent working out for potential cushions:

 

Sewing = maths, yo

 As this was my first time of doing patchwork I decided to go for very basic squares, or else I feared it'd turn into a right bodge-job. I have some old cushion covers which I'm slowly working my way through replacing. And by slowly I mean at about the same speed that I blog at.

 

Allow me to introduce Captain Bland Cushion

I got together some pretty exciting fabrics which I've been waiting to work with for ages. I think quite a few of these were freebies from when I took out a subscription with Mollie Makes.

Mmmm, fabricy

I used a cardboard template and some dressmaker's chalk to measure out my squares, because I'm a bit lazy. Then cut them out and pinned them together in the order I wanted.

Beaut

You can't sew them together like that, so I had to unpin them back down to rows. Doh.

 

Coolcat Bagpuss helped that day

 

 This other coolcat helped significantly less. And tried to eat my bowl of pins

Once sewn together (with about a cm seam allowance), I pressed the seams so that it was neat and tidy, neat and tidy.

Next, the back of the cushion. For the lower half I did 2.5 rows of squares, and for the top half 2 rows with a ribbon on the bottom.

 Waiting to get all sewn up

Some ribbon doing what it does best - being ribbon

This was my favourite. I love the pattern and it's a nice thick fabric

Then I popped the best sides together and sewed 'em up:

 

 

...applied buttony-goodness:

 

...and sewed my button holes.

 

As I don't think things through I didn't do the button holes with the machine prior to sewing the cushion together, so I had to do them by hand (or really awkwardly with the machine). By hand was fine though. I'm glad I thought to actually do it because that ribbon is pretty flimsy.

 Et voila!

Mission complete. It was actually pretty fun this project. I've started a second cushion but abandoned it after the pinning stage in favour of some crochet makes I had to get done for Christmas. I expect I'll return to it in the New Year.

Apologies for the somewhat blurry photos

 

...the daylight was fading fast as I took them.

Full up with cushion

 

 Damn sexy

 

Right, that's your lot.

Hopefully see you before the Summer then! x