Under wraps

I have had to keep this one under wraps for a while as it is for a new baby.

Made in Drops Extra fine merino in blush (45), desert rose (46) powder pink (40) and off white (01). The stitch is linen stitch (which seems to be a favourite at the moment) made on a 5mm hook. The blanket is 110 stitches wide and 132 rows long, which gave me a blanket of 55 x 68cm, using 330g of wool. That was 2 balls each of the pinks and 3 balls of cream.

The cream stripes are 6 rows wide and the coloured stripes are 12 rows wide; the overall arrangement of stripes worked out quite nicely with the darker ‘blush’ stripes forming the beginning and end of the blanket. This one was a commission based on a colour combination by MJ’s Off the Hook here, so thanks for the inspiration, and welcome to the world baby Eilidh.

Every colour of the rainbow

I had a lovely commission recently to make some dishcloths in ‘bright or dark’ colours, and without relising it I made a rainbow!

They are ‘Even Berry‘ dishcloths, made in Rico creative cotton aran on a 5mm hook. I can’t remember all of the colours for this set, but if I was going for a whole rainbow next time I would choose red (5), fox (77), tangerine (76), green (49), gentian (87), ocean blue (82) and violet (88).

Luckily the lady who commissioned them is delighted..

A herd of sea urchins

I sell my crochet creatures in a tiny shop by the sea in the village of Plockton in Highland Scotland. Over the years I have developed a number of self-penned patterns (crabs and jellyfish for example) and added in some other sea-life from patterns I have found on the internet. What I hadn’t realised was that there are apparently some people who collect these creatures, and come in year on year looking for what is new. So, in response to various requests I have made a sea urchin or two – new for 2024.

The original pattern came from Yvonne at Bokkyshome (here). Her pattern is for the outer shell, and I then made up a sort of inner tube, increasing out to form the base of the shell so that it could be stuffed, which I think makes it a bit more robust for small hands to play with.

The variegated yarn felt just right for the job – it’s Stylecraft Impressions in shade 5401 ‘Grand canal’. Its an aran weight yarn but I think I used a 4.5mm hook as that’s what’s suggested on the ball band.

The shop will be opening soon for the summer season, and I’ll let you know if they prove to be popular.

Linen stitch tank top

I was asked by my daughter to make her a tank top for Christmas. I had one of her own knitted tops to use as a size guide and she chose the yarn. The rest of it was instinct, experience and a bit of Christmas magic!

The yarn is Jamieson’s Shetland Heather in ‘Cardinal’ (shade 323) which is 100% pure Shetland wool in Aran weight. I used 6mm hook and the body of the top is made in linen stitch. I started with a tension swatch, and calculated how many stitches wide the top needed to be. Then I made a 9 stitch wide rib in (UK) half treble crochet back loop only. I picked up the stitches from the rib in a row of (UK) double crochet, then did an extra row of double crochet increasing to the number of stitches I had calculated. I then changed to linen stitch and shaped by following the top I had been given. The arm holes and neck are finished off in two rows of (UK) double crochet – the first using a 5.5mm hook and the second using a 5mm hook.

The finished item weighs 215g and other than a bit of blocking to make the side seams lie flat that was it!

Baby bear hoodie

This was another Christmas make and possibly my favourite:

Made in Rico Essentials Mega Wool chunky in Saffron (shade 21) on a 7mm hook. The pattern is the Baby Hoodie by Adele Uyan and I made the 6-12 month size. It took just over 200g to make the hoodie, and the only modification I made was to put an extra row on the ears to make them a little larger. It’s a really well written pattern, and a quick project and I would happily make another.

Malabrigio rivers scarf

Another Christmas make, and this time the request was for a scarf in charcoal greys.

I made a Rivers scarf using Malabrigio Washted in ‘Cirrus Gray’ (shade 845). This is a superwash Aran weight merino yarn and is absolutely lovely to work with. I used a 5.5mm hook and started with a a chain of 226 stitches.

The scarf is 9 ‘ripples’ wide and took just over 200g of yarn. This turned out to be a bit of a challenge as I had only bought two hanks of yarn, and being hand-dyed it proved to be quite difficult to find a compatible third hank. I have made a mental note to myself for the future to over-buy yarn and return anything unused if necessary. I’ll let you know how I get on with that!

Toasty toes

This was a Christmas request and a highly practical one too – a cover for a super-long hot water bottle.

I did try quite a few possible stitches, but am very happy that I settled for linen stitch using two strands of Drops Karisma in Grape (83), Rose (80) and Old rose (81). I think I used an 8mm hook (sorry – Christmas brain fog!) and I had the original velour cover to use as a pattern. The bobbles were 3cm in diameter, and I made a draw-string with a chain and a single row of (UK) double crochet. The channel for the draw-string was made by replacing alternate stitches of the linen stitch with an extra chain on just one row of the cover. I think I used 4 balls of grape, and two each of the lighter colours. It’s a superwash wool, so will hopefully wear well and if necessary wash well too.

Beginners cowl

Another beginner-friendly project – the Explorer cowl:

Just in case it’s not apparent from the picture there are actually four cowls here. They are made in King Cole Explorer super chunky, using colours Drake (x2), Cook and Marco Polo on a 12mm hook. The cowls are constructed as a continuous spiral of linen stitch, so there is no seam; and all the lovely colour-play comes from the variegated yarn, so there are only two ends to sew in for each cowl.

Mine are 57 stitches round, which gave me a cowl of 28cm wide and 15cm high. The yarn is 80m per ball, and I just kept going until I ran out of yarn, so they weigh 100g! I would like the chance to make one with slightly more than 80m of yarn, so am on the look-out for a good substitute.. Ideas anyone?

Beginners bobble hat

I have given quite a lot of thought recently to beginner-friendly projects, and this is one of my favourites:

It’s a bobble hat made in James C Brett Masquerade chunky (shade MQ01) on a 7mm hook. The hat is made in a rectangle of 40 stitches wide. All the stitches are back loop only, with the main 30 stitches of the hat made in (UK) half trebles, and the last 10 stitches in (UK) double crochet. This helps to pull the crown of the hat in near the bobble. The whole hat is 40 rows long, and is joined by a crochet slip-stitch seam.

This hat used 80g of yarn, and unfortunately the remaining 20g wasn’t enough for a hand-made bobble so I used an 11cm Trimits faux fur pom pom for this one. I have since made some of my own bobbles and find a 7cm bobble maker is perfect for the job.

Tweedy scarves

I have made quite a few of these but, strangely, have not yet put them on the blog. They are made in chunky yarn for a cosy feel and a genuinely quick make.

The most recent ones use three x 100g balls of chunky yarn, on an 8mm hook, and are 28 stitches wide. The stitch is ‘linen stitch‘ which gives a distinctly knitted look, and by alternating the three balls of yarn there are very few ends to sew in.

The purple one is 21cm wide, 175cm long and weighs 265g. Those of you who have followed me for a while may notice a striking similarity to my hot water bottle covers, and like those I feel the scarves work best with a pale, medium and dark yarn in the mix.

Headband classes

I recently ran some beginners crochet classes to make twisted rib headbands and what fun we had!

We used various shades of Drops Nepal with a 6mm hook, and a starting chain of 72. The entire headband is worked in the back loop only, and most people chose to make one that was 11 ‘ridges’ wide. This takes pretty much all of a 50g ball.

It would be fair to say that I learned a lot by teaching the class, and I am delighted that everyone who attended ended up with an actual headband!

Scrappy scarves – clusters of colour

I am a member of a local knit and natter group, which has inherited rather a lot of yarn. I always love a scrappy project – I think what appeals is the ‘permission’ to play with colour without being too precious about what the yarn cost, or whether you are making something worthy with it. I wanted to do justice to some of the smaller balls of yarn that we had, and also make something for charity. So here are two of the scarves that I have made so far:

They are made in (UK) half treble crochet clusters. I got the original idea from The Crochet Swirl, who has used them to make a glorious colour-block blanket. Mine are made in various dk yarns, on a 4.5mm hook and are 14 clusters wide. I changed colour every 2, 4 or 8 rows, with the wider stripes working better I think. My finished scarf is 16cm wide, 136cm long and weighs 160g.

I did enjoy the colour-play, and I’m confident that they will keep someone warm this winter. I notice that Knit for Peace has a call-out for adult hats and scarves in neutral colours, so that’s where these will be heading.

Small is beautiful

The yarn that I have been using to make my crocheted jellyfish has been discontinued, so in an effort to conserve stocks I have had a go at making some mini jellyfish….

They are based on a 48 stitch circle. The tentacles start with a chain of 35 stitches with two half trebles made into each chain. And the base is finished off with a little ring of half trebles where the gonads would be.

Overall I’m pleased, so the next step is to see if people buy them!

Ombre octopus and dishcloth

I feel I have gone through a bit of a crochet drought recently, then (like buses) two new projects come along at once..

They are both made with a single ball of Ricorumi Spin Spin dk in blue (010). The dishcloth has a starting chain of 33 and is made using a half treble cluster stitch that I found on The Crochet Swirl blog. Mine is made on a 4.5 mm hook, weighs 32g and measures 20cm square.

The remaining 18g of yarn was just enough to make an octopus using a 4mm hook. (The original pattern is here if you are interested, though I have modified mine a bit!)

I do have a recipient in mind for these, but Shhhhh… It’s a secret!

Good in patches

Time for a bit of stash-busting:

The colours I used are: Scheepjes softfun Snow (2412), Orchid (2657), Lavender (2658), Glacial mist (2646), Arctic (2630) and Green Tea (2639), Drops cotton merino Powder Pink (05) and King Cole Drifter for baby Fairy Dust (3355). Some of these were 20g balls from the Scheepjes Softfun pastel pack of mini-balls.

The solid Granny squares are an Attic 24 pattern, and mine are four rounds each. I was able to make four squares from each 20g mini-ball using a 4.5mm hook. The blanket is 30 squares overall and I made up some extra squares from the variegated yarn.

I used this tutorial by ‘Hooked by Robin’ for a continuous tight join as you go. It involves removing your hook after each stitch in order to pull the loop through the adjacent square, and is actually quite quick once you get the hang of it. I used this diagram from ‘Wool thread paint’ to remind me of the joining sequence.

On the plus side this was a good way of using up mini-balls of yarn, and I do think that the colours are pleasing together. On the minus side I am not sure that the cotton-acrylic mix of Softfun is ideally suited to this project. Some of my squares ended up as slightly different sizes, and my tension definitely varied during the join-as-you go stage, and the yarn is not very forgiving of this. The Drops cotton merino has a bit more give in it, and I think would make a better blanket overall.

Any way I have learned something new, and it was all done with yarn from my stash so that’s a win!

A river runs through it

This is my version of a pattern called the ‘Rivers shawl‘ by Rich Textures Crochet:

It’s a relatively straightforward pattern to make, but doesn’t appear so from the instructions! I bought the pattern from Etsy in the hope that it would contain a chart, which it didn’t, so for those of you who would find one helpful here is mine:

The pattern repeat is 16 stitches, plus one extra stitch at each end of the scarf. I started with a chain of 226, to make 225 stitches. This is 14 pattern repeats plus 1 (trust me – this works!) At the beginning and end of each row I just added one extra stitch with no chain before it, and turned. This is not quite what the instructions tell you to do, but it does keep it simple!

The blue scarf is in Drops Big Merino, and the autumn colourway is a West Yorkshire Spinners Aire Valley aran. Both are now discontinued. I used a 6mm hook and the scarves took just over 2 100g balls of yarn each. They are 9 ‘waves’ wide, 14 ‘waves’ long and measure 156 x 24 cm.

More rippling

Isn’t it often the case when you complete a project, that it leads to you making more of something similar?

These are variations on a theme:

The blankets are my version of a ‘West Yorkshire ripple’, which is based on a West Yorkshire Spinners knitting pattern but is actually crocheted, and made in King Cole Majestic yarn. My colours were Duck egg (2650), Grey (2649) and White (2641). I used three balls of duck egg and two each of white and grey.

The pink version is made in Sirdar Country Classic Rose Pink (855) and King Cole Majestic Grey (2649) and White (2641).

Both are made on a 4.5mm hook; start with a chain of 101 stitches and are 25 wide ripples long. In the West Yorkshire ripple blanket the blue (or pink) stripes are three rows wide, while the grey and white stripes are two rows wide. It’s a small change but very effective in ‘lifting’ the pattern, which can otherwise look a bit repetitive.

One of these is already spoken for!

Rippling along

A friend who has just become a granny for the second time requested a blanket, so I made a few for her to choose from!

The top one is made in Scheepjes Softfun Lace (2426), Orchid (2657), Lavender (2658) and Periwinkle (2619) on a 4.5mm hook. It took 50g each of the pale colours and 100g of Periwinkle, including the border.

I call the bottom one my ‘Modern Ripple’ blanket. It is also made in Scheepjes Softfun, but this time in Snow (2412), Cloud (2530), Blossom (2618) and Flamingo (2653).

I also have a blue version of the Modern Ripple – made using Scheepjes Softfun, in Snow (2412), Cloud (2530), Light blue (2432) and Sky (2613)

The ripple pattern is Attic 24’s neat ripple. The blankets are 7 ripples wide (so have a starting chain of 102) and 19 wide ripples long.

Now, I wonder which one she will choose?

Boho Spirit tiny squares scarf

Inspired by this post from Marion at Wool Thread Paint I have made a version of her granny scarf:

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Mine is made in Cygnet Boho Spirit ‘Folk’ (6464) and Scheepjes Merino soft Velazquez (650) on a 4.5mm hook. It is 21 squares long x 3 squares wide, and took 100g of the variegated yarn and 130g of the plain joining yarn. The finished scarf measures 125 x 19cm and weighs 230g.

In Marion’s version she has continued with the variegated yarn around the border of her squares, but I wanted a border colour that would give contrast throughout the length of the scarf, and for me this works.

I would certainly be up for trying another colourway, perhaps in King Cole Riot, which has slightly longer yardage than Boho spirit ( 294m compared to 240m) and also some warming wool content! Anyone want to commission one?

Legwarmers are in

I have been informed by my favourite 15-year-old that legwarmers are desirable items, and I have given myself the challenge of making her some…

The lighter grey pair are based on the pattern by All about Ami which I modified so I had a simple four stitch cable and a chart, which I found easier to follow. The leg section needs to have a multiple of 7 stitches, so some increasing took place on the first round to allow for this. They are made in Patons wool blend aran, shade 88 ‘grey’, using a 5mm hook for the rib, and a 6mm hook for the leg section.

The darker grey pair were my second attempt, using Drops Big merino in shade 03 ‘Anthracite’. I used the same hook sizes but tried Joanne’s elastic rib from The Crochet Project website, which is a bit stretchier than the usual construction. I didn’t trust either rib to hold them up so they are finished at the top end with a double layer of (UK) double crochet encasing some elastic.

They are both 44cm long and about 13cm wide. A pair took 237g of the Patons yarn, and 335g of the Drops (which is 100% wool). To be honest both sets are rather thicker than I imagined, and I will wait to see how they go down with said teenager, but they will certainly be warm in the colder days to come…