Woodland Blanket CAL :: Part 5

Well, another Friday has rolled around and it's Woodland O'clock all around the world - that very thought makes me smile huge and wide!!! I love thinking about the Worldwide Woodland community that has evolved around this humble blanket, we really do seem to be a happy bunch and I am so enjoying watching your progress via the many photos and chatty threads on social media. Thank you as ever for joining me on this journey, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your company as we meander through the trees. CAL's are so much fun - this is my 4th annual Crochet ALong blanket, and I just don't want it to end.

This week I've been celebrating the arrival of Tomato yarn in the Warehouse of Wool, oh what a happy day that was! As many of you will know, my woodland yarn packs have been out of stock for over three weeks due to a shortage of tomato yarn at the Stylecraft mill. I'm happy to tell you that we are now back on track, so thank you so much for your patience if you've been waiting to join the Woodland Walk.

{WOodLAnD YaRn PaCks}

I've been reading lots of happy comments this past week from those of you who were making your way through Part 4 of the Woodland blanket.  It seems you've been loving those glimpses of  Autumn sky as much as me!

I absolutely love love love to stand still a while in the middle of the woodland and gaze upwards through the branches, it gives me a heady feeling of joy and lightness right down to the tips of my toes. I remember when the above photo was taken - we were walking as a family in our local woodland one sunny Sunday morning in the middle of November. It was such a glorious Autumn day, and the leaves were falling all around us as as we walked.

I was always told as a child that if you catch a falling leaf before it reaches the ground then it'll bring you good luck and you should make a wish. Have you heard this before? I told this to the Little People and watched as they instantly went full tilt trying to catch a leaf in their hands as they swirled down from the treetops. It's not as easy as it sounds, you'll know if you've ever tried it! I tried hard to capture a photo of the leaves dancing and falling but without success, so you'll have to imagine it instead.

The above photo captures those dreamy, light-filled Autumn days to perfection, and the glowing colours of sunlit beech leaves set against the sky is the inspiration for the top part of the Woodland Ripple blanket.....

......I really (really-really) love these colours together, oh they are sublime! The lighter part of the Woodland palette provides a superb balance to the more earthy, rich tones that we started our walk with. As you work your way through Part 5 this week, I do hope you'll enjoy the beauty of the colour combinations.

At the end of each week I spend time "creatively faffing" with my blanket, laying it all out and taking photographs to share with you on my blog. It's such a pleasurable thing to do, and I find that I enjoy the faffing and photographing almost as much as the actual hooking. Almost. I'm so in love with these ripples, the pattern is a dream to work and the soothing nature of the ripply rows has been a true tonic for me in recent weeks. This week I've spent time hooking at the cafe, at a friends house, beside the fire, tucked up in bed. It really has been therapeutic, relaxing, soothing and mindful and I've appreciated those gentle stripes very much.

As you can see, Tilly nearly always joins me as I partake in my faffery, she is never far from me when I'm home and insists on being right at the centre of whatever I'm up to. So I thought today you might like to see some photos from Facebook which show what your four legged (and two legged!) friends think of your Woodland Blankets............

Awwww.....

What a cutie.....

Sleepy head.....

Looking like pure mischief.....

What a beauty - the cat and the blanket.....

The above photo made my snort with laughter as it was simply titled "Bad Alice!" Hahaa!!!! Oh Alice, you naughty little kitty!!

Awwwwww!!!!!!!!!! Say hello to Benji and Bongo, enjoying a bit of Woodland snuggle time!

Geraldine shared this photo of her budgie "helping" her with her hooky (!) .....

....and this amazingly beautiful bird belongs to Nancy. Stunning colours, I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off those feathers if I had a bird like that living in the Attic.

Emmy showed us her horse who is doing a wonderful job showing off a beautiful collection of Attic24 blanket.

I love seeing your photos, thank you for sharing them and for making the Woodland community feel so friendly and warm.

Back to my own blanket, and the above photo shows you how parts 4 and 5 look together as the colours slowly shift and change as we move towards the top. 

I love the gentle movement that the ripples create, they are just soooooooo gorgeous to look at.

As the blanket grows it gets harder for me to photograph it all, but I do my best as I really want you to see how the colour story is playing out - I'm so proud of it! But................I really wish I had some Autumnal coloured stripy socks to wear for these photos!! I wish so much that I'd thought about that!! Next time I make a blanket, I'm most definitely going to knit myself a pair of matching socks. 

The whole colour story idea thrills me from a design point of view, and it's the best feeling to see the real thing finally coming to life after spending so many months working on it.

 A NOTE ABOUT BLANKET LENGTH

 At the end of Part 4, your blanket should be measuring around 120cm in length (2/3 of the completed blanket).

This is an approximate figure but will help to give you an idea of where you should be at. If you think your blanket is measuring too long, then this week is a good time to make some adjustments. So long as you end Part 5 with a Duck Egg stripe, you can quite easily reduce the number of stripes this week if you want to. So I've shown you above, you could work up to Stripe 78 and stop, or you could work up to Stripe 86 and stop. Or....keep going up to Stripe 90. 

At the end of Part 5, your blanket should be measuring around 150-160 cm.

Next week is the final week for making the stripes and there will be only 15 stripes to do in Part 6. I really hope your yarn is holding out and that you'll have enough left for the border. Remember that if you want to check, then weigh the yarn that's now finished with (either Cypress, Grey, Cooper, Tomato or Spice) and make sure you have around 23g left. You should be using approx 11 g per stripe = 77g of each colour in total.

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WOODLAND BLANKET CAL PART 5

So your last stripe from Part 4 should be Pistachio - that was stripe number 72.

Here is the colour info for Part 5 of the "Woodland Colour Story" : stripes 73-90, working from the bottom upwards.

Remember each stripe is worked in two rows, so 18 stripes = 36 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!

73. Gold

74. Lincoln

75. Pistachio

76. Storm Blue

77. Silver

78. Duck Egg (aahhhhhh!!!)

79. Pistachio 

*Storm Blue* (optional for large size)

80. Gold

81. Lincoln

82. Lime

83. Storm Blue

84. Silver

85. Mustard

86. Duck Egg

87. Silver

*Pistachio* (optional for large size)

88. Storm Blue

89. Lincoln

90. Duck Egg

Annie shared this picture of her Random Stripe Woodland blanket after she'd completed part 4 this week. Isn't it a beauty? She changed the yellow shade by switching out Mustard and replacing it with Saffron, and I do really like the slightly brighter effect - it's like shafts of golden sunlight streaming through the leaves.

I'm listing this weeks Random Stripe colours below......... 

Part 5 of the "Random Colours" Woodland Blanket is illustrated above (follow the pegs from the bottom to the top)

73. Mocha

74. Pistachio

75. Lincoln

76. Cypress

77. Gold

78. Copper

79. Mocha 

80. Pistachio

81. Duck Egg

82. Grey

83. Tomato

84. Mustard

85. Lincoln

86. Silver

87. Meadow

88. Spice

89. Storm Blue

90. Lime

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Part 6 (stripes 91-105) will be here on Friday 9th February - here are the links you might need this week.... 

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WOODLAND BLANKET YARN PACK (finally back in stock - so happy about that!!!)

WOODLAND RIPPLE PATTERN

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : introduction

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL : Q&A

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 1

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 2

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 3

WOODLAND BLANKET CAL :: PART 4

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Have a beautiful week strolling along those woodland pathways!

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Comments

[Tanya]

This is incredibly unique to me... And just beautiful... I love it.

[Camping Blanket]

Fabulous blankets! Every single one is an absolute masterpiece!
Well done Lucy for providing inspiration to us all!

[Ruth Langford]

Hi Lucy, thank you for including Benji and Bongo in your blog post - they are now behaving like superstars and demanding only the finest organic vegetables 😉

[Teresa Kasner]

I love your color story Woodland blanket! I'm doing my own thing with my blanket, but using your color choices - I'm kind of doing a color flow thing. I've put up photos on my blog if you want to see how mine is coming. I'm wayyyy behind, but I love how you make everyone comfortable with doing it at their own speed.. even when it's slow.. lol. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

[Em]

Dear Lucy, I have enjoyed reading your blog for years. Recently I've become aware of the catastrophic effect of microplastics on the environment. Synthetic textiles like acrylic are a significant factor, shedding fibres that end up in oceans and ultimately in our food.

I feel bad about this because I know that your yarn packs have become very popular and are a source of income for you. I've even bought a few myself. But the realisation that we are feeding our children tiny bits of plastic has made it necessary for me to try and spread awareness of this serious problem. You have such a huge following that if you wrote about this on your blog it would really make a difference. I can't ask you or anyone else to abandon acrylic yarn altogether, but using it only in things that don't need washing would help.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals

[Sue]

Wish I knew how to crochet better and could partake in this making of the blanket! Your photo's are truly magnificent! Love your menagerie of animals too! You are like me, I have three dogs (was 4, but lost my sweet Bea just over a year ago)and I have three cats. I used to have birds years ago as well, but the cats I have now would make lunch out of them. :(
Your photos are great and such a lovely choice of colours in your blanket!

[Tuula Maaria]

Even though I'm not making the blanket, I love seeing photos of it! Especially love the brightest colours. Lovely photo with the horse too :)

[Sue Dodman]

Hi Lucy, What a glorious sunny, but cold, morning here. Celebrations - I have finished Week 2,starting Week 3 tonight AND we had a Great Spotted Woodpecker on the peanut feeder this morning, after it visited yesterday AND have had a visit for two days now of a little Gold Crest. Totally random, I know, but just an exciting and colourful day. Still admiring and itching to use the soft colours too. xxx

[Anne-Marie]

Hi - I haven't posted on here before, but wanted to say how much I am enjoying my first ever CAL. The lovely work you put in with your photos and chat is ever so nice. I am, like some others, miles behind, but just enjoying the ride. I broke off this week to crochet my husband a hat. I was so pleased to finish it and get back to my lovely blanket. Nearly finished week 2, the colours are much more stunning in real life than I thought they would be. I was thinking of gifting it when I finished, but not so sure now!!!

[Gấu Teddy]

look so cute

[Joan Allan]

Got ahead with the woodland blanket and while browsing found your jolly bag pattern. I didn't have any chunky so used two strands of dk from my cozy blanket. As the crochet grew a beautiful soft tweed effect emerged,then instead of flowers I embellished with little soft squidgy pom-poms. Now focused on part 5 and already anticipating the left over yarn, could be a trim to the roman blinds in my kitchen - inspired by your chunky poncho trim. Thank for all your work and letting us into your world. Keep well.

[Joy]

This is my first CAL, and whilst I'm a bit behind, I'm really enjoying it! And yes, I know it's not a race to the finish, so I'm not worried about being slow - I want to enjoy the journey.

A question, though, about the amount of yarn left. I weighed and have only 21g of one of the colours after all the stripes - will that be enough?

Thanks for all your lovely posts!

[Yneke]

Hi Lucy,
I love your blankets and every week I visit the attic. I'm from Holland and I hope my English is not too bad. I do'nt join the woodland cal. It is beautiful but I already made an autumn ripple blanket in 2015.
I hope you will visit my blog.

[Angela-Southern USA]

Love the ripples, in the blanket and the socks!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Kirsten]

Hi Lucy, great idea about the socks. I didn't join the moorland CAL, but I did knit a pair of socks that would match it. So those are now known as my moorland socks :-) I am really enjoying this CAL, thank you so much for all the work you put into it.

[sue silva]

Adorable post, Lucy!

[Helen Welsh]

Such beautiful ripply goodness filling your post this morning Lucy! I am so enjoying this Woodland walk, I’m way behind but not bothered at all because a) I’m making mine 72” wide and b) it just means I get to enjoy these glorious waves of color for longer! Thank you so much for creating & organising this CAL it’s the perfect hooky for this time of the year 😊 hope you have a better week yourself, hugs from sunny Scotland!
Helen x

[vanessa]

Gosh I do love a ripple! The last ripple I made at the beginning of 2017 was used and abused straight away and is looking a little bit sorry for itself. I think it's actually my favourite of all the ripples that I've made, so I really want to make another. There is something just so soothing in making a ripple. It's such a gentle pattern, but it looks so amazing when finished. xxxx