Flying (back) to New Zealand

Some of you will remember the original ‘Flying to New Zealand‘ blanket, which I made for my first great-nephew. The blanket has stood the test of time, but sadly the yarn that it was made in (Sirdar simply recycled) was discontinued some time ago.

I have been looking for a replacement for those lovely chalky colours and natural cottony feel, and have come up with this:

Made in Scheepjes Softfun Denim (2489), Slate Blue (2602), Cloud (2530). Mist (2627) and Lace (2426) on a 4.5mm hook. The pattern is Attic 24’s Neat ripple pattern, and my blanket is 7 ripples wide. It took two balls of Denim and one ball each of the other colours.

Rainbow ripple blanket no. 3

And now – a pale pastel version of my Rainbow Ripple blanket.

This one is made using colours from the Scheepjes Softfun Pastel colour pack, plus a couple of extras to complete the palette: Light rose (2513), Starfish (2620), Banana (2496), Mint (2640), Sky (2613, not in pack), Orchid (2657) and Flamingo (2653, not in pack) plus Snow (2412) as the background colour.

Rainbow ripple blanket no. 2

As promised – a pastel version of my Rainbow Ripple blanket.

This one is made using the softer tones from the Scheepjes Softfun Rainbow colour pack, plus a couple of extras to complete the palette: Rose (2514, not in pack), Soft Coral (2636), Canary (2518, not in pack), Apple (2516), Cool blue (2603), Violet (2519) and Pink (2480), plus Snow (2412) as the background colour.

Little squares blanket no. 3

This has been in my WIP pile for a while, and I am so pleased that I have finally found some time to finish it.

Made in Stylecraft Batik Pistachio (1910), Rose (1916), Sage (1908), Old gold (1902) and Silver (1917) and Drops Merino Extra Fine Off White (01). See my original little squares blanket post for links to the inspirational blanket by Little Dove, and a really useful tutorial on continuous join-as-you-go corner-to-corner crochet!

This one was made on a 4.5mm hook, measures 66cm x 55cm and weighs 330g. It took one ball of each of the Batik colours and four balls of the off-white.

Rainbow ripple blanket no. 1

I have been having fun with a Scheepjes Softfun Rainbow colour pack, and this is what I I have come up with:

I used just the bright rainbow colours for this one – Candy Apple (2410), Pumpkin (2651), Bumblebee (2634), Emerald (2605), Dark Turquoise (2511), Deep Violet (2515), and Hot Pink (2495) plus Cobalt (2626) for the background blue. It took 20g each of the rainbow colours plus 150g of Cobalt.

The pattern is Attic 24’s neat ripple pattern and is 7 ripples wide and 44 ripples long. This is split into 21 rows of rainbow ripples, a block of 18 plain ripples in Cobalt in the middle section, then 21 rows of rainbow ripples in the reverse colour order. I made it on a 4.5mm hook, it measures 72 x 54cm with the border and weighs 250g.

I am thinking about doing a pastel version next…

Little squares blanket no. 2

I have had another go at a Little Squares blanket, this time in a sport weight yarn:

Made in Scheepjes Stonewashed Moonstone (801), Crystal quartz (814), New Jade (819), Amazonite (813), Green agate (815) and Smokey quartz (802) om a 4mm hook. It is 63 x 50cm in size and weighs 285g. I suspect that was 1 ball of each of the five colours, plus 2 balls of Moonstone. I made the border by doing 3 (UK) double crochets into each cluster (so 12 per square) and finished off with a round of (UK) half treble crochet. 

I am not always the biggest fan of thinner yarns, but this grew very quickly and I think the stonewashed palette suits the blanket well.  

Colour recipes

It is a bit of a bug-bear of mine that so many crochet posts on social media are simply pictures, with no accompanying information about yarns, stitches, colours or techniques. Presumably the intention is for the reader to be impressed with the author’s skill or colour choice, but then what? What is to be learned by knowing that other people are making things that you admire, and no more than that?

Long-term readers of this blog will know that I always end a post by giving details of how the project was made. My initial reasons for this were quite selfish – I wanted to use the blog as a personal log, so that if I needed to repeat a project I would have a place to come back to with enough detail written down for that to be possible. I do still use it for that purpose quite often.

The second reason was more public-spirited – I am a teacher by training, and a learner by inclination, and I wanted to share my learning so that other people could benefit from it too. So here, for anyone who is interested, are the colour recipes for my granny rectangle baby blankets. If you find them useful I am glad, and if you do use any of them I would be delighted to know.

colour-recipes-2021Download

Sophie La Giraffe baby blanket

This was a request from a family friend, for a baby blanket with mustard in it, and I was sent the picture here as an inspiration

The stitch has quite a few names – I have seen it called moss stitch, linen stitch and woven stitch in various places, and an Internet search tells me it is also called seed stitch and granite stitch too! Despite the complexities of naming it, it is very simple to do, and there is a good tutorial, and chart, on the ‘Look at What I Made’ blog here. It is stitch number 18 In Sarah Hazell’s book 200 crochet stitches, for those of you who have it.

Made in Rico essentials soft merino Aran, colours silver grey (096), saffron (066) and cream (061) on a 6mm hook. Mine is 70 x 55cm, it weighs 310g. It is 100 stitches wide and 16 stripes long, each stripe is 8 rows. it used 3 balls each of grey and cream, and one ball of mustard, with a bit of each left over… I would happily make another one. Commissions anyone?

Quiet but not idle

It seems to have been a while since I have blogged, but I have not been idle! I have reverted to my old friend the granny rectangle, and have been busy making (lots of) baby blankets:

These ones have been safely received by pramdepot and will soon be part of their magnificent baby boxes which are put together from new, recycled and gifted items to support vulnerable mothers.

For these blankets I start with a chain of 21, which gives me a 5 granny cluster mini-rectangle, then build up 28-30 rounds of granny clusters to make a blanket of roughly 60 x 50cm.

The octopus is a little extra – pattern from crochetforbabies here.

Debbie Bliss ombre spin your granny blanket

It was always my intention to try another spin your granny blanket in rather nicer yarn, and this is it:

Made in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Apple (002) and Citrus (018), and Ella Rae Cashmerino Sport Goldenrod (06) and Ivory (13) on a 4.5mm hook.

Mine took 2 balls of dark green, 1 ball each of mid green and yellow, and 3 balls of ivory. It measure 67 x 48cm and weighs 275g. I used the same layout as my first spin-your-granny blanket, so this was a rather quicker project with less frogging!

When in doubt make a charity blanket

My default project has been baby blankets for as long as I can remember, and it seems fitting in these difficult times to make some for charity.

The pink blanket is made in James C Brett Stonewash shade SW5, and Drops merino extra fine colours 40 (powder pink) and 01 (off white). The blue blanket is made in James C Brett Stonewash shade SW10, King Cole Majestic dk shade 2650 (duck egg) and Drops merino extra fine colour 01 (off white). Each blanket used 1 ball each of the Stonewash wool and 2 balls of the other colours.

Just in case anyone hasn’t come across it yet, the Granny Rectangle pattern is by Crochet again, and there is a very good tutorial for it here. Mine start with 5 granny clusters and are 30 rows round. I start with the plain pink or blue, then the Stonewash, then the white, and 30 rows allows you to end in the white.

And finally – my chosen Charity for these blankets is pram depot, a charity that gives recycled baby clothes and equipment to vulnerable new mums and their babies.

We miss you Debbie Bliss

It seems often to be the case that when I hit upon a yarn I really like it is discontinued. And as that is exactly what has happened with Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino, this blanket is probably the last of a line:

Made in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino Teal (340203), Duck egg (340026) and Spearmint (340303) with Scheepjes Merino soft Raphael (602) on a 4.5mm hook.

This is another Bertie baby blanket. Mine started with a chain of 92, so is 91 stitches wide which is 9 pattern repeats, and 28 pattern repeats long. It measures 71 x 52cm and weighs 300g. It took 2 balls of each of the three blues, and three balls of cream.

April challenge – beating the blues

You might remember my pink waste-not-want-not blanket here. Well I have now branched out into blues.

Now I look at it the colours are remarkable similar to my 4-ply bluebell blanket of some time ago, but this is a rather more practical make in dk.
Made in Sirdar snuggly 100% cotton DK in Rhino (759), Spearmint (767), Light grey (757), Ice blue (765) and Cream (761) on a 4mm hook.
My blanket is 51 ‘crosses’ wide and 49 pattern-repeat rows long. It measures 74 x 58 cm and weighs 375g. I used 2 balls of each colour plus 3 balls of the cream.

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…

When pink or blue won’t do

I had a commission recently to make a baby blanket that was ‘not in baby colours’ and what fun I had completing it;

Made in Drops cotton merino off white (01) and medium grey (18) and some precious discontinued Rowan wool cotton clear (941). I think they work really well together, and hopefully the new mum will agree too.

I started with a chain of 101 which gave me 7 repeats of 14 stitches plus 3 and used Attic 24’s neat ripple pattern. My blanket measures 69 x 59cm and weighs 300g. It took 2 balls each of off white and clear, and 3 balls of medium grey, as I used that for the border too.

One for the boys

Couldn’t resist the temptation to make another Bertie baby blanket in Drops cotton merino, and this time it’s one for the boys:

The colours are cream, ice blue, light grey and jeans blue and I used a 5mm hook, starting with a chain of 91 stiches to make a 9 motif wide blanket. The final blanket measures 77 x 60cm and took 4 balls of cream, and just over 1 ball of each of the blue colours, and weighs 350g.

And I managed to take a photo in some spring sunshine!

Sirdar no. 1 baby blanket

Teddy is back, and this time with a Granny rectangle blanket made in Sirdar no. 1 yarn:

I found it a little thicker than my normal baby yarn, and it definitely has less twist in than I would like, but the colours are pretty and the finished blanket is wonderfully soft.
Made in Sirdar no. 1 spearmint (205) and wishbone (202), and Rico baby classic dk ice blue (023) and turquoise (025) on a 4.5mm hook.

Sitting pretty

I had been saving this one until we had a fine day to take a photo, but I decided to just go for it!

Made in Rico baby classic powder, light grey and dusky pink with Drops cotton merino white, which gives the blanket just that bit more weight, and warmth.
It is a granny rectangle (of course!) starting with five clusters of three stitches, and I used a 4.5mm hook.

Charity blankets 23 and 24: There and back again

Two long train journeys at the start of the school holidays saw the production of these:

Still working through my friend’s stash!

Charity blanket no. 21: so nice I made it twice

I was so pleased with the colours of my ‘Orla’ blanket that I set to and made another one almost straight away.
This time I did have to buy some yarn as I had run out of the orange tones.

I went with Sirdar snuggly 451 ‘mousse’ for the lighter orange and Debbie Bliss Rialto dk 23088 ‘apricot’ for the rust colour. I think the rust lifts the whole blanket….