Goodness me, I am SO glad to be here after what has been a truly long, exhausting week for us here in the Attic. On Monday, Little B went into hospital to have a minor operation on his hands which has understandably been quite stressful for us all. The operation went well (he had advanced congenital trigger thumb in both hands) and so we've had an enforced week of slow, stay-home recovery. It has been quite draining I have to admit - having both his hands out of action has meant him needing a lot of help with everyday things, and a week of sofa time. I thank my lucky stars that I'm in a position to stay at home and do the looking after without a huge amount of interruption - darning in ends and making crochet tutorials can happen on the sofa and I've been very, very glad of something to keep me occupied during the days.
This blanket has been such a comfort this past week, it has kept us warm and cosy on the sofa, but also I have to tell you that it has been so much more than just a blanket to snuggle under. It has been true therapy for me - it has eased my worries and given me colour-happy vibes. Working on the edging has provided me with a gentle, rhythmic occupation whilst simultaneously allowing me to watch film after film, day after day with my Little One as he's been healing. There will be some very vivid memories attached to this blanket that's for sure, a reminder of this difficult but gentle healing time.
I decided to once again use my "Spot On" edging and it has worked beautifully with the Granny Stripe. This is in fact the third time I've made this blanket edging - you may remember it from the Interlocking Colour Ripple and the Granny Patchwork Blanket. I never got round to writing a tutorial for it, so I'm happy to make amends and share the pattern with you now. It can be used around the edge of any blanket, and is a fun way to get you to that very pleasant ta-dah moment. I know some people don't like to edge or border their blankets, but I am most certainly not one of those people - I think edgings and borders, even very small, narrow ones make a huge difference to the look and finish of a blanket. It turns a square/rectangle of crochet into a finished object.
I am really, really happy with the way the edging turned out, it is everything the blanket needed to look finished and complete.
The first stage of working this edging is to go all around the four sides of the blanket with a round of trebles. I call this the Base Round, and you can find a full tutorial for making the Base Round for the Sunny Granny Stripe blanket at the end of the Granny Stripe Blanket tutorial. I used Sage yarn for this round.
You'll need to scroll down through the post - the Base Round pattern comes after all the colour sequence information.
Once you've made your Base Round in Sage yarn, you are ready for the Spot On Edging tutorial. This is worked in 3 rounds, and I've chosen to use Violet, Turquoise and Plum yarn.
Feel free to have a play with the colours for your Spot On edging - if you've made the Sunny Granny Stripe blanket following my colour sequence, you'll have equal amounts of all colours left. This means you could use any combination of three colours to work your edging.
This edging works best if you keep rows 1 and 3 very similar (eg two shades of blue/purple, or two shades of red/pink) and choose a contrasting colour to create the "spots" in round 2. So for example how about this - round 1 Petrol, round 2 Magenta, round 3 Aster? Or reverse the hot/cold effect and try round 1 magenta, round 2 Aster, round 3 Fondant.......oooo the possibilities!!
I would love to see you have a play with the colours and make your Spot on Edging unique to you, it's a lot of fun.
So a quick recap re the Sunny Granny Stripe Edging....
1. work your BASE ROUND (scroll down through the Granny Stripe Tutorial, the base round pattern is towards the end)
2. choose your three colours (or follow my choice) and work your SPOT ON EDGING
I'll be sharing a full Ta-dah moment for my blanket in the next few days once I've taken some pictures - here's hoping the stormy weather and poor daylight improves a bit.
So after a week caring for Little B and making the edging and tutorial for the Granny Stripe, yesterday morning I suddenly realised that I was very behind with my Log Cabin blanket. Squares 9 and 10 were needed for today and yikes, I hadn't even worked out the colour sequences let alone started any of the crochet. Lucky for me, the weather was on my side yesterday, it was absolutely appalling out there - fierce winds and lashing rain. So I was granted permission by the family to stay put on the sofa and crochet the day away. The Little People came and went alongside me (and sometimes in Little B's case, right on top of me) and every so often I put down my hook in order to provide snacks, give cuddles, put piles of laundry in and out of the washing machine and tumble drier, light the fire and make food. It was a pretty decent arrangement and by the very end of the yesterday (whilst watching Gremlins) I had finished. I confess I still have some ends to darn in, but shhhhh don't tell.
So here we have squares 9 and 10 (just in the nick of time), looking very radiant and sunny. Delicious.
SQUARE 9 (pattern HERE)
♥ 1. Lime ♥ 2. Spice ♥ 3. Lipstick ♥ 4. Meadow ♥
♥ 5. Sage ♥ 6. Bright Pink ♥ 7. Claret ♥ 8. Aster ♥
♥ 9. Wisteria ♥ 10. Plum ♥ 11. Magenta ♥ 12. Violet ♥
♥ 13. Turquoise ♥ 14. Fondant ♥15. Shrimp ♥ 16. Petrol ♥
SQUARE 10 (pattern HERE)
♥ 1. Plum ♥ 2. Petrol ♥ 3. Sage ♥ 4. Magenta ♥
♥ 5. Spice ♥ 6. Aster ♥ 7. Turquoise ♥ 8. Claret ♥
♥ 9. Lipstick ♥ 10. Wisteria ♥ 11. Lime ♥ 12. Shrimp ♥
♥ 13. Fondant ♥ 14. Violet ♥15. Meadow ♥ 16. Bright Pink ♥
A little reminder to mark the top/first strip with a loop of yarn or stitch marker and leave it in place, and to label/number each square so you can identify it.
If you've been making the Sunny Granny Stripe along with me, I really hope you have loved the stripy journey and enjoy making your edging. I'm looking forward to photographing and sharing my own blanket here in the next few days.
If you're making Log Cabin squares, we've got four more weeks to go with this project - three weeks for the remaining squares, then the final week will be all about the joining and edging. I'm aware that we will be running across Christmas and into the New Year with this, but I will do my very best to keep up with myself and not get behind with my own CAL! I may possibly add in a week's breather between the squares and the joining/edging, which will allow an extra week to catch up, darn in ends, block, breathe.....but I'll make that decision at Christmas time.
The next 3 Sundays for the Log Cabin colour sequences are the 13th, 20th and 27th December. The joining and edging will either be the 3rd or 10th January, I'll let you know nearer the time.
Have a happy, hooky-filled week my lovelies!
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Useful links ::
♥ SUNNY YARN PACK - 18 x 100g Stylecraft Special DK.
♥ Granny Stripe Blanket pattern (includes Edging Base Round)
