A Make-a-Month 2023: April

Finally ~ the gift blanket!

 

Finally ~ the gift blanket!

I've felt like that three times already in recent months, and blanket number four will soon be finished too ~ it's a good feeling to have 👏 

As I mentioned back in November, I bought this selection of yarns from Wool Warehouse as I didn't have the colours I wanted to use in my stash.  I know, right ~ looking at the size of said stash it hardly seems possible, does it 😄

All the time I was plodding away on the using-up-the-oddments blankets, these zingy bags of colour were calling my name!  I was very good, though, and just carried on.....not least because I already have three or four WIPs lurking in the guest bedroom patiently awaiting my attention😏

Finally, though, I was able to make a start on the gift blanket and as you can see, once again I used my tried-and-tested favourite chevron pattern from The Gentle Art of Knitting by Jane Brocket.  Whilst I kept the length the same as in the pattern, I made it almost half as wide again ~ it really is a very large blanket!  And trust me, it started to get a tad cumbersome to manoeuvre by the time I was about two-thirds of the way through ~ mind you, it did keep me nice and cosy so that was a welcome bonus 😉

As you can see I used a lot of different colours in this blanket, 20 altogether.  I wanted to create something reminiscent of the myriad shades of autumn leaves.  I am pretty pleased with how it's turned out ~ I think the the colour scheme has a somewhat art deco-ish look to it.  I used Stylecraft Special DK, my usual go-to yarn for blankets; it's ideal as it's soft, machine washable and hardwearing, everything you want in a blanket really.

The colours I used for the chevron stripes are: Jaffa, Saffron, Gingerbread, Walnut, Dandelion, Dark Brown, Spice, Bottle, Mustard, Copper, Sunshine, Khaki, Tomato, Meadow, Gold, Green, Clementine, Grass Green, and Greengage.  To finish off, the simple border was my usual three rows of half treble crochet (US half double crochet) for which I used the shade Camel.

I made it as a gift for my very dear friend, Olive, who I only get to see a couple of times a year now that we've moved up here ~ she seemed very pleased with it, thankfully!  Hopefully it will remind her that I still cherish our friendship, even though we no longer live across the road from each other 😊   

A Make-a-Month 2023: March

A new stitch

 

A new stitch

This has certainly been very much the case these past few months but I am starting to feel the call of working on other stuff, like the garden for instance.  Methinks crochet is on the cards to be relegated to the evening for a while 😉

During my "where's my mojo gone" hiatus, though, I fell in love with a new-to-me-stitch: the interlocking block stitch.  Marion, of Wool Thread Paint fame, made the most beautiful blanket: The Blair Atholl Blanket.  I fell in love with it straight away and as soon as the pattern was available, I snapped it up!  The trouble was, of course, that I had a) promised myself to use up as much of the leftover yarn odd 'n' sods as possible (hence the two new sofa blankets) and b) I had that gift blanket to get done.    

So a compromise was needed....and I tried out the stitch on a couple of dishcloths 😄  I was able to use up a bit more of my cotton yarn stash, so that was a plus!  It's such a simple stitch and creates a lovely "fabric" effect, which I really like.  

I've still got a fair amount of cotton yarn in my stash, so there's plenty for dishcloths for a good while yet!

And in my defence, I feel I should point out that some members of the current dishcloth collective are starting to look a little tatty, so they will soon be joining the cleaning cloth group who hang out in a bucket in the cupboard-under-the-sink😉

A Make-a-Month 2023: February

Still stash-busting!

 

Still stash-busting!

As I mentioned on Monday, despite my lack of posts I have actually been working through the infamous yarn stash 😉 Before I made a start on the new gift blanket, I thought I'd use up the oddments of yarn that there wasn't enough of to follow a specific pattern.  In the end, I had just enough to make a couple of blankets, which I didn't feel were suitable for gifting as they are such a mish-mash of odds 'n' sods.  We now have two new blankets for our sofa, though, so I am still a very happy bunny 👏

I started this one last October (!) but got a bit bored making the solid colour granny squares, so decided to complete it with sections of granny stripes top and bottom.  I finished it with a simple border of three rounds of half-trebles (US half double crochet).  Personally I don't think it's a particularly attractive blanket but at least it helped to use up those oddments LOL  

When the not-so-pretty blanket was done, I decided to plough on with the oddments before starting the new project, this time making a granny rectangle.  As with the previous blanket, it was finished with three rounds of half trebles.  If I'd had a little more yarn I would have done an extra round or two but I used it all up, even using most of my scrap yarn ball!  I actually rather like this blanket 😊

The little bit of leftover yarn is now the beginning of a new scrap yarn ball ~ I simply join my scraps together with a Russian knot.  I can't remember where I first came across the technique but here's a link to a tutorial on Dora Does if you don't know how to do it.

I finished the new gift project, so photos to come in another post 😊 I'm also on the home straight now with a second "new project" so will be sharing that with you soon too 😄