Sweet Pea Blanket CAL :: Part 6.5

Surprise!!!!!!

Bet you didn't expect to find a CAL post here this morning as we are officially on a "catch-up" week, but honestly it felt so strange for me not CAL-posting that I couldn't resist sneaking in a little extra Sweet Pea goodness. As usual, I've been catching up on all the SP comings and goings on social media and have a few things to share with you today in preparation for next week's border session.

I know many of you are appreciating having this extra catch-up week to continue working your stripes or darn in your ends, but I've also not been surprised to see some of you already finishing up your blankets. Some of you have told me that you were gifting your blankets and needed them finished before the official end of the CAL. Others simply knew what they wanted to do for their borders and didn't need to wait for me to lead the way. I want to reassure you that I am absolutely OK with this! My main aim with running an Attic24 CAL is to inspire community, connection, creativity and happiness, and I'm not at all offended if you wish to go #teamrogue with your blankets and give an individual spin to your creations.

With this in mind, I'm going to share some really super Sweet Pea borders that have come about this week ahead of my own borders which I'll share with you next week......

Sue chose five colours for her border, working 4 rounds of double crochet and finishing off with a very pretty scallop edging.

Mary decided to work a Block Stitch border, finishing off with a neat round of double crochet.

Maria went bold and wide with her border, choosing to use all fifteen shades in a glorious colourwash. She used my Linen Stitch Edging (full tutorial HERE) and I think it looks spectacular.

A note about Linen Stitch - remember this tends to have a tight tension and you will need to go up a whole millimetre hook size to prevent your border from pulling too tightly. So for example, if you worked your main blanket using a 4mm hook, then use a 5mm hook to work your linen stitch edging.

Lyn also chose a colourwash linen stitch border, although she chose to place the greens on the outer edge as rounds of double crochet. This is a bold choice, but I think it looks stunning.

I've chosen seven colours for my border : Meadow, Pistachio, Soft Peach, Wisteria, Magenta, Fuchsia and Violet.

If you're making the Posy Sweet Pea, you should have more of these colours left as there were only 5 stripes of each colour in the blanket (instead of 6). 

If you're making the Colourwash Sweet Pea, then you will have plenty of Pistachio and Violet left, but will need to check quantities of the other five colours.

You will need around 20g of each colour to work your border, so do try and see if you can weigh your yarn and make sure you'll have enough.

It's absolutely OK by me if you wish to choose your own colours - have a play around and see what brings you happiness.

I've designed a brand new edging pattern for the Sweet Pea blanket, and I can't wait to show you next week. It's killing me to keep the surprise!!!!!

While we are having our catch up week, I expect some of you will be using the time to darn in your ends. I confess that I saw Joanne's "Monster Ends" photo on Facebook and had a few heart palpitations!!! This would not suit me at all and I am always a darn-as-you-go-along gal, yet I hear many of you prefer to leave them and do them all in one go at the end. Whichever way you choose, you will need to have all your ends neatly tucked away before you embark on your border.

Merete finished darning in her ends and is now patiently waiting for me to share the border pattern - her  rather bemused looking Sweet Pea snake made me laugh out loud!

Not everyone is content to sit and wait though, and I've seen some lovely Sweet Pea stash-buster projects already off the starting blocks. Nic shared her gorgeous knitted shawl in progress which I think is so beautiful - she is using a pattern called the "Leftie Shawl" by Martina Behm - you can find it on Ravelry (HERE).

Now a quick little something before I let you get on with your day >>>>>>

SWEET PEA COLOURWASH BABY BLANKET AFTERTHOUGHTS!!!! 

I've been thinking a lot about the whole idea of using a palette of colours to work a Colourwash stripe, specifically how to try and keep the colourwash design concept while creating a shorter version suitable for baby blankets.

At first I didn't think it could be easily done, but the more I pondered on it, the more I wanted to try and work it out for you. I really, really, really wish that I'd been able to get my head around this at the start of the CAL so that I could've given you this option weeks ago, but alas my brain cells have felt very stretched coping with what has been a lot of work for me creating this CAL.

However, after much intense thought I have actually gone and done it!!

I've created two different versions :

One will make a 3ft/90cm length (so suitable for a 70 x 90 cm small pram blanket)

The other will make a 4ft / 120cm length (suitable for a 90 x 120cm cot blanket)

SWEET PEA COLOURWASH 70 x 90 cm BABY BLANKET

Chain 124 to begin, then work 43 stripes following the Trellis Stripe Pattern.

Hopefully you can read the above list clearly on your screen, but if you click on the image it'll pop up in a larger window. 

Here is the bigger baby blanket version ::

SWEET PEA COLOURWASH 90 x 120 cm BABY BLANKET

Chain 164 to begin, then work 58 stripes following the Trellis Stripe Pattern.

Note the stripes listed in RED are double width stripes.

I hope that's useful for you - do let me know if you decide to give the small Colourwash baby blankets a go, I'd love to see how they turn out.

Also giving thanks to my clever hubby who scoffed at my poor attempt at creating a typed list and took it in hand himself. He created some very cute little yarn ball graphics and made some rather posh colour lists for me, I'm super pleased with them! I'm going to ask him to do the same with the full size Sweet Pea blanket stripes so that I can add that info to the Trellis Tutorial once the CAL has finished next week.

Wishing you all a fabulous week whatever is on your hook, whether you are still jaunting through your Trellis Stripes or embarking on something completely new. Have fun - remember it's Border time next week on the 22nd, I can't WAIT!!!!! :)

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Here are all the CAL links you might need  ::

🌸 SWEET PEA YARN PACK

🌸TRELLIS STRIPE PATTERN🌸

🌸 SWEET PEA BLANKET INTRODUCTION

🌸 SWEET PEA BLANKET Q&A

🌸 SWEET PEA BLANKET PREPARATION (includes a sneak peek of the Posy and Colourwash blankets)

🌸 SWEET PEA CAL PART 1 (colour info for stripes 1-15)

🌸 SWEET PEA CAL PART 2 (colour info for stripes 16-30)

🌸 SWEET PEA CAL PART 3 (colour info for stripes 31-45)

🌸 SWEET PEA CAL PART 4 (colour info for stripes 46-60)

🌸 SWEET PEA CAL PART 5 (colour info for stripes 61-75)

🌸 SWEET PEA CAL PART 6 (c0lour info for stripes 76-83/86)

 

 

Comments

[Jacqui]

Awww nice surprise post will miss then when its finished.that snake made me laugh out loud too he he he
Thankyou for the surprise!
Pondering a baby blanket.
Have used the lovely stitch to make a snood and some wristies.