Grey is definitely a baby colour

This is the second time I have been asked to make a baby blanket in grey so I think it’s definite now – grey is a baby colour.

Mine is made in Drops cotton merino light grey (20), medium grey (18) grey (19) and off white (01) on a 5mm hook. The pattern is my favourite Bertie Baby Blanket by Little Doolally and just in case you are wondering if it is worth spending £4.80 on the pattern the answer is yes! I can’t count how many of these I have made now and every new colour combination gives me a little zing!

March challenge – a tumble of turtles!

Apparently the collective noun for turtles is actually ‘bale’ but I like the idea of them tumbling towards the sea after they have hatched, so I have renamed mine…

Made in Scheepjes stonewashed XL in Turquoise (864) and Amazonite (853) on a 6mm hook. I made the pattern up but if you want a nice straightforward turtle pattern in 4 ply yarn I can recommend Tracy Braybrook’s no fuss turtle pattern on Ravelry here. I made hers first so I could get an idea of the proportions then winged it with the XL yarn afterwards – just for fun!

Going to cable class

I recently had the chance to attend an advanced crochet class hosted by Black Sheep Wools near Warrington in Cheshire. The class was led by Gina Couch who is a Rowan tutor and we made a Celtic style headband in Rowan Cocoon.

It was necessary for me to practise a bit when I got home, so it has been joined by a few friends! Mine are made in Rowan Cocoon Alpine (802) and West Yorkshire Spinners Retreat Pure (10) both on an 8mm hook, and finally Sirdar Harrap Tweed Chunky Purdey (104) on a 7mm hook.

The pattern we used was Gina’s own, but it is essentially a 4 strand cable pattern and surprisingly not difficult to master with some expert tuition and a few hours of practice!

I had a lovely day at the class, and definitely improved my cabling confidence. If you would like to see a picture of the lovely ladies I was with, here we are towards the end of the day looking very pleased with ourselves!

February challenge – crochet starfish

I set myself the challenge of creating some new sea creatures this year – and this is my first one…

The design is modified from a pattern by Barbara Summers who blogs at Microcknit creations
Mine are made in Scheepjes stonewashed Rhodochrosite (875), Morganite (874) and Coral (856) on a 6mm hook. Each one weighs about 15g.
My next project is something with a shell… Any guesses?

January challenge – the big ripply one

This was of course a December make but I couldn’t do the big reveal until after Christmas, so it has now been re-named:

Made in Drops Nepal off white (0100), light grey mix (0500) grey mix (0501) and medium grey mix (0517) on a 7mm hook, using Attic 24’s neat ripple pattern. I used 9 balls of white and 6 each of the greys and had a little of each left over.

I started with a chain of 129 stitches to make the blanket 9 ripples wide (97cm). This worked out quite well yarn-wise as each ball was enough for 4 rows, without any mid-row joining. The blanket is 37 wide ripples long (170cm) which will hopefully be a good size for snuggling under.

December challenge – Arctic ice shawl

Shawls are definitely not in my home territory, and lacey ones are a foreign country to me, so when I bought the yarn to make this shawl it felt like embarking on a journey.

The pattern is by Carmen Heffernan and is available on her blog here

My thoughts on the pattern? It is a simple repeat decreasing slightly on one side, increasing more on the other to create a crescent shaped shawl. I had originally planned on saving some of the yarn for the edging but felt the shawl wasn’t really big enough, so carried on until I had used all 100g, and chose a different yarn for the picot border. It definitely needs the border, and the increase edge of the shawl was very keen on curling inwards, so I did block it too.

The yarn is Knitting fever painted desert pure super wash Australian wool in colour 07 Artic ice (their spelling!), The border is Coop Knits Socks Yeah! in colour 120 Azurite. I used a 4mm hook for the body of the shawl and 3.5mm for the border. This one is a Christmas present – so I had to keep it under wraps until now!

The best kind of thankyou

Sometimes a thankyou doesn’t need to have any words at all:

One grey baby blanket, being appreciated by its owner (and mum!)