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!)

An Irish blessing

I recently had a commission for a baby blanket and the chance to play with some new colours for the Bertie baby blanket pattern. The request was for a green blanket and yes, the baby has an Irish mum so perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised. Anyway this is what I came up with:

Made in Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino mint (03), Ella Rae cashmerino sport fern (14)and Ivory (13) and Scheepjes merino soft Michelangelo (603). Although I have mixed three different yarn types they are remarkably compatible, with very similar yardage and just the hint of a sheen on the soft-fun.

The yarn is lovely, and it is a shame that the baby cashmerino is discontinued, but the Ella Rae colours actually match some of the old Debbie Bliss ones, and this is certainly a combination I would use again.

Now for the technical bit. I made it on a 4.5mm hook and it is 9 motifs wide by 28 motifs long. The finished blanket measures 73 x 52 cm and weighs 305g. It took 2 balls each of the green and grey colours and 3 balls of ivory. And it is the squishiest blanket I have made yet!

Jaxon baby hat

Remember ages ago I made a little toddler cardigan in aran cables? The back of the cardigan was a lovely textured stitch with alternating double and treble crochet and I recently found a hat pattern in the same stitch. The stitch is called ‘up and down’ and there is a chart of it here by Dedri at ‘Look at What I made’ who used it to make a dishcloth! In the hat the stitch is worked in the round.

The pattern is by Expression Fibre Arts and is called Jaxon I used Rowan baby merino silk in Teal (677) and Rose (678) and it took 35g of yarn per hat. I used a 4.5mm hook for the main body of the hat and 4mm for the edging. They are really rather sweet, and the baby merino silk is just as soft as a baby hat should be…

November challenge – Scheepjes skies light XY scarf

This was a crochet-along gift from a lovely friend, who chose both the yarn and pattern. It was quite challenging for me as it is made in double crochet throughout but into the back loop only – a stitch which seemed remarkably unforgiving of any variation in tension.

The pattern is Mijo crochet’s XY scarf and the yarn is Scheepjes Skies light in 17 Circumcumulus and 116 Cumulonimbus. I used a 4mm hook and started with cumulonimbus.

I love the texture of this stitch, the subtle colour variation in the yarn, and how well it photographed in today’s winter light.

October challenge – waste-not-want-not blanket

I bought some Sirdar snuggly 100% cotton a while ago, made some swatches to try a ripple blanket with it, then decided it just wouldn’t do and left it in my stash unused. I really hate waste, so I made myself go back and re-work it into a new swatch – with this result:

Made in Sirdar snuggly 100% cotton in cream, rhino, light grey, mauve and powder on a 4mm hook. The stitch is ‘crossed trebles’ and you can see a chart for it here.

Mine weighs 360g and took 3 balls of cream, 1 of rhino and 2 each of mauve, light grey and powder. It measures 73 x 58cm and is 51 ‘crosses’ wide, which I think means I started with a chain of 105. I’m quite keen to have a go at one in ‘boy’ colours now…