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.

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?

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.

The old and the new

You might remember some hot water bottle covers that I made a while ago. Well I have had a go at re-vamping them in some new yarn:

The yarn is Drops Alaska, in off white (02) grey mix (04) and dark grey mix (05). I used a 6mm hook and the cover took 1 ball each of the paler colours and 2 balls of dark grey mix. The stitch is linen stitch.

Having finished this one I have remembered why I stopped making them – the three colour change in linen stitch leaves lots of loops at the edge of the work, and it is really tricky hiding these when joining the pieces. If I make another one I might join with half trebles rather than double crochet – a lesson learned!

Blue tweed neck warmer

I have been meaning to have a go at a three colour neck warmer for a while, and have finally found the yarn and time to do it:

It is made in linen stitch on a 6mm hook using Scheepjeswol stonewashed XL in Blue Apatite, Amazonite and Pink Quartzite. As it is effectively a three colour stripe there were hardly any ends to sew in, and it worked up very quickly. The buttons are vintage, and I think they set it off quite nicely.

It is a keeper

There has been a bit of a run on hot water bottles lately (well it is nearly November) so I have got the production line going, and come up with a new colourway:

Made in Scheepjeswol stonewashed xl in garnet, corundum ruby and pink quartzite on a 6mm hook. I think this one is a keeper.