Category: Blanket

First of two?

Yes, this might be the first post of two today, but I may run out of time!

Firstly, did you catch the recent post on Stashbusters Anonymous? You may like to read it, it might fill in a few gaps! The main purpose of this post, however, is to hilight a project in which you may like to get involved.

I recently spotted a request for granny squares by @purplestarmonkey on Instagram. She is making a blanket to be raffled to raise money for #sepsisawareness. Her request is relatively specific, but not difficult to fulfil, and even one square would be a help and a support.  I managed to find a few of the colour she is using and have made 10 squares. The ends need weaving in, that will be my next step, but my eyes have not been up to the task while I’ve been poorly.

All you need is a 4mm hook and some Stylecraft Special DK in one or more of the following colours: Copper, Graphite, Mustard, Spice, Lipstick, Buttermilk, Gold, Parchment, Grey.

I may get some more made, but in truth I have taken on too many projects for this month. I didn’t expect to be poorly! But then, we never do, do we?

Happy Hooking.

 

February, not quite over!

Well, the month may be over, but in truth some of the deadlines haven’t been met, crochet-wise, I’m almost there, but here’s the story.

In fact, none of the ‘deadlines’ matter, but I won’t put them to one side – I’ll carry on until they are finished. Firstly, let me tell you about the ‘Spirit of February’ blanket.

This is the one that’s really running behindhand! I miscounted the squares, and began to add the border before adding the final strip! My next step is to take out the border and add the strip before redoing the border. You may remember that this blanket is a comparison between last year and this year – it’s been interesting to see the differences in the temperatures, especially the last few days of the month. Of course, 28 days would make a strange shape, so I determined 5 x 5 blocks with the last three days in the border.

I like the border, but it will have to be redone, and that may be slow!

Inspiration strikes when it will, and it was probably inspiration for the next project that took my concentration from the above.

Have you ever wondered what winter looks like? This blanket, which I’m calling ‘Spirit of Winter’ gives an idea. The centre squares are the high later day temperatures for December, January and February. The border illustrates the morning temperatures, and there are a couple more rounds to go. I didn’t start it until 21st February, and it’s just about finished. I’ll press on and finish this first, then go back to the ‘Spirit of February’.

The temperature blanket is up to date, apart from today’s square which will be made later. Will there be a Spirit of March? Yes, and it’s already on the hook, but more of that later in the month. This is the second post today, if you missed the first you can find it here.

Seven Colour Saturday!

No, I don’t think this will become a regular feature but it seems a good title for today’s post! I don’t think I’ve miscounted, but we’ll see.

I am really enjoying the temperature projects for February. The colours are stimulating despite the chill in the air.

You may remember that as well as making a temperature blanket showing morning and later temperatures, I am also comparing this year and last year in a Spirit of February blanket

Above I’ve shown yesterday’s squares from both, but as I was joining each I put them next to each other by chance.

Below are the four squares. Some of the colours are the same, but together they are inspiring me to make another blanket at some time. The colours are Stylecraft Special DK:

  • Sherbet
  • Storm blue
  • Violet
  • Bluebell
  • Wisteria
  • Parma Violet and
  • Parchment

And yes! That’s seven!!

Five Colour Friday

There was such a good response to last week’s Five Colour Friday that I’ve decided to give you another! 😉

I have to admit that I have only recently discovered that I like working with Blues! It was a colour I avoided for a number of years, partly, in retrospect, due to the awful blue that we were forced to wear as our school uniform.

That blue was nothing like the ones included here!

Stylecraft Special DK is once again the order of the day and the colours are:

  • Clematis
  • Duck Egg
  • Storm Blue
  • Lobelia
  • Parchment – for the linking colour too. Such a useful colour.

This blanket took one ball of the first four colours and 3 of parchment. As usual they were purchased from Deramores.

This collection is related to the Spirit of January Blanket that is currently under construction. Last year I found that these ‘Spirit’ blankets were inspiration for far more than I expected. I’m sure you will see more collections that are similarly inspired.

Find all Five Colour Friday posts via this link.

 

This was the moment…

…

Working by lamplight isn’t easy, especially if you are partly distracted by an interesting tv show. (Let’s face it, there aren’t many, so this was unusual!)

The cold light of day, however, revealed that I’d picked up Sage instead of Storm Blue! Fortunately it won’t matter, I can just reverse their placement, but this is a warning …

Always read the label!

More about this very soon.

Almost there …

My first blanket of the Stashbuster series is almost finished. I just have a little more tidying up to do and that will be that. I’m going to call it the Betsy Blanket because it reminds me of someone! Here are a few glimpses, but another post will come soon with further details.

I’m really pleased with it

  1. Because it really is made entirely with stash
  2. It hasn’t taken long
  3. It’s caused the beginnings of another project!

There will be more details about the C2C in another post to come soon. In the meantime – it’s back to the Spirit of January and the temperature blanket!

Temperature update

January has been an interesting month. Unlike last year it has been particularly gloomy for several days. The few that have been sunlit have been such a blessing. Today was such a day, although this evening is wet. Nights have been very dark. The moon isn’t rising until the early hours (this morning it rose after I was up for the day) so the sky is hardly lit. This has not been good for either choosing colours, or for photographs! All crochet has been done during the hours of darkness, so I’ve been waiting to take pictures, and finally here are a few…

This year I’m making the temperature blanket in a slightly different way. Last year’s was made in monthly blocks – and these were joined into the seasons. I used 4 linking colours, but this year I’m only using one – and there will be no seasonal breaks. One long strip of granny blocks is a little boring, so instead, here is a block of nine days (a photo collage)

The colours are as cool as the weather and edged with Parchment. I think it goes very well with the blues and lilacs.

I’m using the same colour to edge the blocks for the Spirit of January. You may remember that I’m comparing the days of last year with those of this – so each square has 4 rounds of colour. Here is a photo collage of nine days.

You can see that so far last year was far more colourful than this year, and in the above no days were the same. However….

that changed at the weekend. You can see that the days were identical as far as temperature was concerned.

How is your blanket coming along? Are you making a Temperature Blanket? They are fun – and worth the long effort of making a square a day.