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

Advertisement

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.

Back to basics

I am developing a bit of a yarn crush for James C Brett Stonewash. The yarn itself is not lovely (100% acrylic) but the colours are very pleasantly subtle, and when mixed with other yarns it makes a nice blanket overall. You might remember these Granny rectangle blankets from a while ago, well I have now made them in two new colourways:

Made in James C Brett Stonewash SW14 with Sublime extra fine merino wool 448 (organza) and Drops merino extra fine 01 (off white); and James C Brett Stonewash SW11 with King Cole Majestic DK 2649 (grey) and Drops merino extra fine 01 (off white).

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.

September challenge – a big one

Those of you who know me will know that my preference is for small, achievable projects. A fortnight is about my maximum length of time on any one project, and any longer sees me straying well outside my comfort zone. I don’t know what the hurdle is – uncertainty that the project will get finished? Worry that I will waste a lot of yarn? Whatever the reason size has always been a problem for me. So this months challenge is something big – an adult size throw or blanket, made in an adult colour palette:

It is based on a granny rectangle, so is a fairly safe project, but it has felt like a long haul getting this far. The yarn is all Jamieson and Smith Shetland 2 ply jumper yarn, and came from the stash of my lovely friend Maureen. When it is finished I plan to donate it to the Day centre that she volunteered in, and hope that they will be able to sell it to raise funds. It is not the jumper that she planned on making with the yarn, but I feel she would have approved.

Some of the colours are discontinued but the ones I can still identify are: Charcoal 81, Green 65, Maroon 43, Pink (FC22 mix?) and Blue (FC 37mix?). I made it on a 4mm hook.

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.

My work is done

We had some very welcome visitors just before the October break and I had the pleasure of introducing the Granny rectangle pattern to one of them .
One tutorial later and a couple of weeks of her own work and this is what she has come up with:

Made in Stylecraft special dk Plum (1061) Petrol (1708) and Grape (1067) on a 4mm hook.
I think that is quite an achievement.

Charity blanket no. 27: apple harvest

I may have lost count of the number of charity blankets I have made this year, but I think this is number 27:

The pale green is from a friend’s stash and the other colours are Rico baby classic dk: cream (02), greige (17) and green (28). It is a granny rectangle pattern with 28 rounds, made 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.

It’s parcel time

This is charity blanket number 27, plus a couple of earlier editions, that are ready to be wrapped up and sent off to Birth Companions.

I have enough yarn left for quite a few of these but I would like to try some new things too….

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. 22: sea greens

This is the blue end of the spectrum from my friend’s stash basket:

I did add in some of my own yarn to make up enough for the blanket, including the remains of the second ‘homemakery’ colour pack. The yarns I added were Rico baby classic dk cream, ice blue, smokey blue, turquoise, and petrol. There is some Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino in the mix too – possibly Denim blue and Pool, but I would have to check…
Now this is a colour combination that I would happily repeat…

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….

Charity blanket no. 19: Orla again?

Another stash busting blanket – this time from a lovely friend who is a fellow colour-enthusiast. The bag of yarn that she gave me produced this lovely palette:

There is a definite nursery feel to it, and I spent ages wondering what the colours reminded me of. Iced gems? Party rings? Mini eggs?

But I think it might be good old Orla Kielly again:

What do you think?

Twiddlemuff no. 7: back down to earth

It seems that I have not finished with this particular colour-way yet. Following on from my Down to earth blanket and scarf, we now have the matching twiddlemuff!

It is made with two Granny rectangles joined-as-you-go at the edges on the inside (I really am getting the hang of this now!) and a more traditional Granny stripe on the outside.

I have now run out of the deep olive green, so this might be the last in this particular series.

Charity blanket no. 18: easy peasy lemon

Is there a category of failing New Year’s resolutions because you have done too much of them? I wondered at the beginning of 2017 if I could make 17 baby-sized blankets for charity.
Well it turns out that I could and have, and indeed it seems that I have the motivation to carry on and make some more:

This one is in Peter Pan merino baby ‘lemon’ and King Cole Drifter for baby ‘meadow’. Photographed against our lovely Viburnum bush – it is one of the highlights of May for me.

Charity blanket no. 17: Raspberry ripple

So this is it – my seventeenth (and last?) charity blanket for 2017:

Made in Hayfield double knitting with wool ‘blush’ and Sirdar Crofter ‘Flora’, and photographed (quite fittingly) on one of our flowering raspberry bushes.

Charity blanket no. 12: down to earth

When I was younger I wished that I had a sister so I could go ‘shopping’ in her wardrobe. Now I have the chance to go shopping in my mother’s yarn stash, and I am enjoying it just as much as I imagined!

Made in King Cole Panache, 2068 (Biscuit), Sirdar Harrap tweed 0101 (Gallop), Patons Diploma Gold 06200 (Gold) and Rowan Silkstones 827 (Olive grey). There is a lot of variation in the thicknesses of these four different yarns, but they are accommodated easily by the Granny Rectangle pattern without distorting the blanket at all. I think it illustrates how versatile the pattern is.

Charity blanket no. 10: the yarn diet

I heard this phrase recently and thought of you all! I suppose if a regular diet is less food in more exercise out, then a yarn diet is less yarn in more projects out. So in that spirit this blanket is made from various yarns from my mother’s stash:

Plus one ball of Rowan felted tweed, shade 151 ‘bilberry’ which I think just lifts it colour-wise.

Charity blanket no. 9: Lily the pink

I love these colours – hot pinks muted to a lovely warmth with a charcoal background….

Made in James C Brett DK with merino DM23 (charcoal), Rowan wool-cotton Flower and Drops cotton-merino Lavender and Heather.