Hi...and a blanket

Thanks for your warm welcome back to blogland, I really appreciate all the comments and new visitors to my page, all thanks to the generous Vanessa over at Coco Rose Diaries, undoubtedly one of my favourite blogs. One of things I'm really enjoying this week is having my comment form back! I couldn't manage my comments with the Etsy template- so do bear that in mind if you're thinking of buying a pre-made template. I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately, really gathering inspiration for the year ahead, and also connecting with hundreds of you over on Instagram. One thing I have been rather lazy about during my break from blogging has been properly visiting favourite blogs, however. It's so nice to connect with people like this! And I'm so grateful that you visit me and comment here, too. I've been using Bloglovin' lately, a great app version on my phone, in fact. It's good for reading blogs and discovering new ones, but you can only 'like' rather than comment. Do many of you use Bloglovin'? I really must gather all my blogs on there and add them to my sidebar list here. Also, I am loving my mustard background. I just love mustard, LOVE IT.

So anyway. Yesterday I gave this FINISHED OBJECT (yes! I know!) away to some friends who just had a baby...

Hi, baby Elliott. Welcome to the world. 

His mama and papa asked me to make this ages ago, inspired by a picture my friend had seen on Pinterest (where else?), so I duly ordered the yarn then completely avoided making it for about two months. Mainly due to deadlines, but also black yarn avoidance. 

Working with black yarn is a lot easier if it's chunky (like this), and in daylight. If you're thinking of embarking on a black project, make sure you're choosing a yarn that doesn't split easily, and perhaps invest in a hook that lights up! 

I kind of made the Hi baby blanket pattern up as I went along. 

BUT. I used chunky yarn and a 6mm hook. 

6 x 100g balls of black

2 x 100g balls of white

Foundation chain was worked until about 105cm long. Work in htr for about 16 rows. 

Then on row 17, 20htr in black, then change to white for 15 sts, change to black for 11sts, then back to white until you get to the last 20 sts, which are worked in black again. Turn. 

Row 18 is worked in reverse, then repeat the rows until you've worked 15 rows in total for your 'i'. Then switch back to black for 15 rows, then construct your 'h'. You basically work as for the i, matching the crown of the h with the long stroke of the i. it's all worked by eye really! the top of the h matches the top of the dot of the i, so it's nice and neat, and the posts of the h are the same width as the i. Then 16 more rows of black! It was 88cm in width for the edge- just 2 rows of simple dc around the edge to finish it off nicely. 

It's cot-size, as you can see here, modelled in George's cot bed, so in the end worked out about 90 x 107cm- an ideal lap blanket! Relatively quick and simple, too. 

See you soon hooky amigos

xxx

Horizontal Box Stitch- a tutorial post

I've been wanting to make a new blanket for George for rather a while now. He's much too big for the little pram blankets I made over a year ago, and he needs something that will keep him cosy in his cot bed. As with the large blanket I made for Albie, it would need to be made of acrylic yarn to keep costs down and to be fully machine washable. I toyed with the idea of using Drops Paris cotton aran, but I'd need a fair amount of that particular yarn, so I opted for my favourite acrylic- Stylecraft Special DK. I bought a beautiful selection of boy colours from Deramores (where else?), and the whole lot came in around a tenner. BARGAIN. You can see the yarn in its unsullied state in this post. I loves it. I have used three new colours of this yarn: petrol blue, old gold and spice (orange). And added my favourite Sherbert (pale turquoise) and silver (pale grey). Here's how the colour sequence works in my swatch...

Anyway, I decided to make the blanket in a vintage-style stitch. So here it is: a recipe for horizontal box stitch. I love its texture and how very very simple it is. And so I desperately wanted to share this FREE pattern with you; it's taken from one of my patterns in 500 Crochet Blocks, and I've added details on how to make it blanket sized at the end...

You will need:

DK-weight yarn

4mm hook/US size G

Abbreviations (UK crochet terminology):

ch= Chain

tr= Treble crochet

dc= double crochet

tch= turning chain

st= stitch

sk= skip

Horizontal Box Stitch Pattern:

To begin, ch multiples of 20 +3 tch. 

Row 1:

3tr into fourth ch from hook

sk3, 1dc into next

3ch

3tr into next st

then continue in pattern: (sk3, 1dc into next, 3ch, 3tr into next st across), 1dc into last ch. Turn. 

Row 2:

Ch3, 3tr into first dc

1dc into 3rd ch of 3-ch

3ch, 

3tr into side post of 3-ch

Continue pattern thusly: (1dc into third of 3-ch, 3ch, 3tr into 3-ch) across, 1dc into last st. Turn. 

Row 2 sets the pattern, so just keep on repeating that until the blanket has grown to the length you'd like. 

To straighten off the top edge, work your final row as follows:

3ch, 3tr into dc, (1dc into top of 3-ch, 4tr into next dc) across, 1dc into top of final 3-ch. 

Then you can think long and hard about your edging! Personally, mine will be left without an edging, as is my wont lately. 

So here's how to size up your swatch to make it blanket-sized. My swatch is worked with a 20+3 foundation chain and I worked 10 rows. It worked out at about 10cm x12cm, so you'd roughly need to work 9 rows for a 10cm x 10cm tension square.  Are you still with me? I figure a cot-size or lap blanket on being 90cm x 120cm, which would work out with a foundation chain of 180 (+3 for your turning chain). Hang in there, you can do it. I want huge blocks of colour (less ends to sew in, ha ha!). I have five colours, so I need 24cm of each colour to make it 120cm long.  That means 20 rows of each colour. TA-DAH! 

I haven't actually crocheted the blanket yet. But I wanted to share my design process with you all and how I go about planning my blankets and large projects. I absolutely LOVE planning projects! selecting yarn, hooking up swatches, writing patterns. It's just my bag, baby. 

Thanks for sticking with me all the way through! Please feel free to pin and share, and for my box stitch patterns and ideas, click on the link to buy 500 Crochet Blocks. 

Happy hooking!

xxx

 This blog entry is my submission to the Deramores Blog Awards 2014. Deramores is the UK’s number one online retailer of knitting and crochet supplies. 

www.deramores.com/blog-awards

On the hook, Off the hook

This week has been pleasantly boring. I've been determined to have a quiet time after the madness of birthday/Easter/deadline in the last few weeks. So I've been knuckling down and getting the house clean, done a spot of baking and this avo I'm going to do some boring errands in the sunshine. And perhaps a spot of chazzing, too! 

So in this quiet period I've been doing some haberdashery raiding, stash building and filling my head with stitchy ideas. 

I couldn't resist buying these balls of Stylecraft Special DK for a boy blanket- I'm hoping to share a tutorial on Free Pattern Friday so I can show you what it's going to be! I am loving the new shades in this popular acrylic range- the petrol blue, spicy orange and mustard gold are just perfect with the classic sherbert blue and silver grey. Mmmmmmm colours. I don't often buy acrylic any more, but I just love the range of colours in Stylecraft. And they're machine washable- essential for little boys! 

Another naughty purchase from The Village Haberdashery. I fell in love with this Elizabeth Olwen for Cloud 9 Fabrics 'grey abbey' collection, and I'm planning on making another Colette Sorbetto top with it. With a mustard collar squeeeaaaallll! This beautiful organic fabric is just some of Cloud9's amazing collection. I could happily give a home to all of it. I first saw Elizabeth's beautiful surface pattern design in Frankie magazine a couple of months ago, and I'm totally in love. More on that another time, I think. And these rose buttons? Well, they're destined for my current WIP...

A beautiful view of my geek chic cardi in progress! I'm making very slow progress on this; I realised on Sunday that I had been using the wrong size hook for one of the front pieces and back piece. Cursing, frogging and some measuring happened. Then I realised that actually my tension was spot on with a 4mm hook and I only needed to frog the first front piece I'd made. So this will be not be finished this week! Ah well. It will be worth it in the end. I have some emerald green wool I've had stashed away for ages, which would also look fab in this pattern. 

Yesterday I decided to use some of my growing haberdashery collection and give a vintage shirt dress a new look. I removed the chipped mother-of-pearl buttons, and unpicked a tab detail on the pockets. I then hand-stitched this red ric-rac onto the pockets and around the sleeves, and added this beautiful french satin ribbon that I bought from Liberty about two years ago. I also stitched some red vintage buttons onto the front. And I'm really pleased with it! 

In other news, I've recently joined Bloglovin'. And I'm addicted. If you're a member then please follow me on bloglovin', and spread the word! I'm so pleased there's an app so I can read my favourite blogs on my phone. I don't have an iPad or fancy camera, and have found it difficult to make the time to upload pictures from my iPhone onto my laptop to blog, and I so often don't have time to catch up with reading all my faves as well. I can't believe it's taken me so long to find out what bloglovin' is! So, yay. 

I'm hoping to make time to cut my pattern pieces for my next Sorbetto tonight. Whoop! So there we have it- some projects on the hook, some off. But always on my mind!

Happy hookery and stitchery chums

xxx

Summer's End

We've been feeling it for a couple of weeks now; the shift in seasons is upon us. Long shadows, cooler nights and the call of the yarn basket are all signs I can't ignore. So it's this time of year I always begin a new blanket project. Of course, I already have the yarn for two more blankets but I got a crafty itch and I couldn't ignore it. 

About a year ago, my husband and I went along to our local picture house to watch the latest film by director Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom. Already Wes fans, we absolutely loved this whimsical, old-fashioned love story with it's quirky characters, retro styling and adorable story. For me, I love Wes Anderson's signature direction. The colour palette in particular is something that has been unconsciously inspiring me for a while now, as well as the soundtracks to his movies. We've been having a little Wes Anderson season at our house, watching all his movies- Rushmore, Bottle Rocket, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Darjeeling Ltd, Moonrise Kingdom, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Royal Tenenbaums. Though all his movies have ever-so-slightly different colour palettes, some colours remain true to his style, and all have a vaguely vintage feel. Perfect for me! So I've decided to crochet a Wes-inspired blanket. For the whole family to snuggle under over the colder months, it will be thick and warm and very, very Wes. I have decided on a pattern in my head, I just need to make time to pick up hook and begin. So here is a little tour of my yarn choices, I hope any Wes fans out there will recognise them! I have chosen King Cole Merino Blend DK, a yarn I've not used before but is nice and thick (almost Aran-weight) and very soft and suitable for all the people in my home. The name is so perfect: Summer's End. It's the name of the Bishop house in Moonrise Kingdom, but also references the shift in seasons. For, well and truly, we're now at summer's end. 

 this also appears in The Darjeeling Limited and echoes the lovely sunset-like filter Wes's movies have

 also on the hats of Team Zissou, the narrator in Moonrise Kingdom and Max's beret in Rushmore

 turquoise crops up often; again in the Darjeeling Limited, and Lionel Bishop's record player.

 mustard is another typically Wes colour; in Fantastic Mr Fox, Suzy Bishop's suitcase and here on the dressing gowns of the Hotel Chevalier, the prequel to the Darjeeling Ltd.

 the khaki scouts of North America wear their khaki with pride in Moonrise Kingdom, as does the character of Jane in The Life Aquatic

 also the shade of Royal Tenenbaum's pyjamas.

Jason Schwarztman's character in Fantastic Mr Fox wears this shade of pale beige, and as you know by now I always use a cream or ecru in my blankets! This will break up the large blocks of Bobble stitch colours. For more Wes inspiration check out my Pinterest board.

I hope you like the colour choices, I can't wait to get cracking on this. Just a little more yarn bombing to make, and a wee pair of trousers for my wee man to finish knitting and then I can begin! As always, there are a number of small projects lined up to scratch my itch for when I need to complete something quickly.

If anyone is interested, a new three-part series called The Fabric of Britain begins tonight on BBC Four, starting with a look at knitting in Britain (featuring the incomparable Kaffe Fassett). 

Happy hooking!

xxx

Blanket love

Since learning to crochet four and a half years ago, I've become obsessed with blankets. Sure, I like things cosy, but I do now have a a fair few. And do you know what, it ain't gonna stop here. This is a little cross-section of the blankets I have. All made by me! 

At the top are the two baby blankets I made for George- the granny square block blanket, and the star lap blanket. You can see them better in this post. Beneath those is the Starburst flower square blanket I made for my Granny-a-day project. I love this one, it's so colourful and textural, and the yarn is so soft and drapey. Beneath that is a simple granny square I made for Albie when I was pregnant with him. It's just white, blue and yellow with a scallop edge; I don't think I ever blogged that one. 

Nor did I ever blog about the first thing I ever crocheted- that there HUGE granny square at the bottom! It's bed-sized and took me a YEAR! It is in blues, greys and creams and again has a shell edge. I made it in acrylic yarns as it would have cost a fortune to make otherwise. In between those are my hexagon blanket, made at the beginning of this year from scrap yarns, and my gorgeous heavy winter blanket, the autumnal ripple. 

Also folded neatly there is Albie's patchwork cowboy blanket, which I still love very much and so does he. When he was sick last week he loved snuggling under the blanket his dear old mum made him. We also built a den in the living room from blankets, all made by me! It made me rather proud, y'know. In total I've made eight blankets in this pile, and have two more planned! A mustard granny puff blanket, and a large Cath Kidston-inspired granny square blanket, and I cannot wait to embark on those journeys and share them with you.

Making blankets gives me enormous pleasure. I love the whole process, from a colour palette inspiring me, or a stitch pattern seen on Pinterest, the planning and making is all fun. Best of all I love snuggling under whilst hooking the edge, or wrapping a gift in the perfect ribbon. 

Stay tuned for a baby blanket post soon! If you want more blanket inspiration, visit my blanket pinterest board.

Happy hooking!

xxx