Moorland Blanket CAL :: Part 6

I am love love love loving all this virtual Summer Living, daydreaming about gentle warm breezes and little fluffy clouds drifting across an endless blue sky...............sigh...............so so so good! I had an idea when I was designing this blanket back at the end of last summer that it would bring much happiness and gladness into these drab, grey winter days. I anticipated the need for a reminder of warmth and colour, summer memories and happy vistas in these days that have long nights and low light levels. And this blanket journey has delivered me Summertime in spades, it really has.

I was also thinking earlier about the sounds of the moorland, about how subtle and distant they often are, yet how sweet at the same time. Do you know what the call of the Skylark sounds like? It is oh so beautiful and we are often treated to snippets of it when we walk on the moorland in the summer. In fact, it's the perfect soundtrack for the Moorland Blanket - please do take a few moments to have a listen { h e r e } and pretend for a moment that you are high up amongst the heather clad hills..

Ahhhh....I am such a lover of a feel-good bit of day dreaming, you just can't beat it!

It has been so good to immerse myself in the soothing, beautiful shades of blue as I've worked the last section of this blanket. Like I said last week, these are my most favourite of all colours and the tranquility that they bring to my heart and soul is wonderful. I hope you're going to enjoy the summer skies this week too.

There are only fifteen stripes to complete in this last part of the blanket, using Storm Blue, Cloud Blue and Duck Egg (with a little Wisteria thrown in).

*When you come to crochet the final stripe in Cloud Blue, you will need to create a flat top edge*

This is very easy to do - simply follow the Neat Wave pattern for the first row of the stripe (a row 3 pattern repeat, starting with a ch-3). When you reach the end of this row, turn, then chain 2. Now work 1 dc in each stitch across..... 

....remembering to crochet your last dc into the top of the ch-3 from the previous row.

You should end up with a lovely neat top edge to your sky.....

And that...................is all your neat waves complete, and your Moorland Blanket journey almost at an end. It's bitter sweet isn't it? I love having a finished blanket to snuggle and smooch, but there is most definitely more than a fleeting feeling of loss once the journey is over.

I want to chat a little about the next two weeks and the remainder of the CAL, but first, I'd like to share some photos shared on my Facebook and Instagram pages (use #moorlandcal and #moorlandblanket on Instagram)...

I have really, really enjoyed seeing so many gorgeous pictures of your blankets taking shape all over the world, bringing cosy comfort into your homes and family life. The shared experience of making this journey together has been magical, and I have felt the warm fuzzies stream into the Attic I can tell you! 

So now that you've completed all one hundred and fifteen stripes, what's next? Well, we'll be taking a break next week - I thought it would be useful to schedule in a "catch-up" week for those of you who joined in with the CAL a little later or find you are working at a slightly slower pace. This is a good opportunity to get all those pesky ends tucked away and take stock of the yarn you have left ready to edge the blanket and create a border.

When I designed the colour sequence for the stripes, I had to think ahead and make sure there would be enough yarn left after all the stripes were finished to create a border. You will have noticed that the majority of the colours in the Moorland Yarn pack have been used equally throughout the blanket (8 stripes each), with the exception of Lime and Storm Blue which have only 6 stripes each in the blanket. This should mean that you have more of these two colours left - a good way to take stock of yarn quantity is to use digital kitchen weighing scales. I ended up with 46g left of both Lime and Storm Blue, and roughly 30-33g of the remaining colours.

You'll need approximately 20g of each colour for the border, so there should easily be enough if you have managed to work your blanket using the tension/sizing guidelines given in the tutorial.

If you really dislike either of these colours (Limegate!!!!), it should be possible for you to use any of the colours you have left over, providing you have at least 20g to play with. We'll be chatting much more about all this in the final part of the CAL, which will be on Friday 24th February. 

So now, lets take a look at the stripes for this week - your last stripe from Part 5 should be Duck Egg - that was stripe number 100.

And here is the colour information for Part 6 : stripes 101-115, working from the bottom upwards.

Remember each stripe is worked in two rows, so 20 stripes = 40 rows of crochet.

*Please note - stripes written in *red text* are additional stripes to be worked only if you have 2 yarn packs and are making a double bed size blanket. If you have one yarn pack, please ignore the red!

101. Wisteria

102. Cloud

103. Storm

104. Cloud

105. Duck Egg

106. Wisteria

107. Cloud

108. Duck Egg

109. Storm

*Cloud*  (optional for large size)

*Duck Egg*  (optional for large size)

*Storm*  (optional for large size)

110. Duck Egg

111. Cloud

112. Storm

113. Cloud

114. Duck Egg

115. Cloud (*2nd row of this stripe is made using all dc stitches to form a flat top edge*)

Here are the links you might need ...

❤ Moorland Blanket CAL : Part 1

❤ Moorland Blanket CAL : Part 2

❤ Moorland Blanket CAL : Part 3

❤ Moorland Blanket CAL : Part 4

❤ Moorland Blanket CAL : Part 5

❤ Neat Wave tutorial

❤ Moorland CAL : Introduction

❤ Moorland CAL : Q&A

❤ Moorland Yarn Pack

The last part of the CAL will be on Friday 24th February.

Have fun dancing across the sky!

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Comments

[Aimee]

Lucy--I'm 1/2 way through part 4, and doing the extra rows and the 301 stitch size. I think my blanket is gonna come out a little shorter than I'd like, even though my gauge is on. Can you suggest where/how/what color I might slip in a few more stripes? I know you worked long and hard on the beautiful order of it all, and I don't want to mess up the perfection. But I really know that Mr Tall Husband is going to have toes stick out if I don't lengthen it. Thanks.

[Carol]

I have noticed that you leave your ends to darn in later. I have crocheted them in as I go; I hope that this doesn't cause a problem later on!!

[Little Quiltsong]

Thank you for sharing all the lovely blankets everyone has been making! Thank you also for letting us listen to the skylark bird sounds - I found my favorite - white-throated sparrow sound - oh that brings back memories of mornings when we lived in the country - he/she was my absolute favorite :)!!

[Sue]

It's not the lime I don't like so much but all that blue which makes me feel quite chilly. Were I to make the blanket I would stick to the middle block of colours which I think are lovely.

[Jenny Turner]

Wish I could have the border instructions next Friday, it's half term the following week so I won't be working and could have spent the time finishing my double blanket. Can't wait to show it off. Think I might be giving this one to my son so I want to start another one for myself, but maybe in a different colourscape. Oh well, will have to finish some of those WIPs in my basket instead over half term!

[Jennifer]

Aargh no! We have to wait two weeks for the final part! I don't think I can cope with that.

[Sandra]

Those blues would make a lovely blanket on their own. I am still back in week 4 so very glad of the catch-up week. Your colours are Yorkshire Moors, mine are Dorset summer hedgerows and after a suggestion from a blog follower, my next will be Pembrokeshire Banks with touches of gorse and honeysuckle and a glimpse of the sea - still using your Moorland colour stripe sequence as a guide. I am thinking of making the Pembrokeshire blanket in the Cosy Stripe pattern - I did so love making that one.
Thank you as always for the inspiration Lucy. <3

[Marcia]

I bought the yarn pack for this when the project was first posted but haven't started it yet because I need to finish a few other obligations first.
Am really looking forward to getting around to this beautifully colored afghan and follow the posts weekly.

[Kat]

Yay! Can't wait to finish - so I can start another one! I have decided to give blanket no. 1 to a friend as a birthday present, so am going to make another one for myself, with a couple of tweaks. The colours are gorgeous and I love the lime and grape section. The first sage just jumps out at me too much so I am going to have a little rejig around that area. Thank you Lucy for this project.