Meadow Blanket CAL :: Part 6

Today marks six weeks since we began our Meadow Blanket journey and I continue to be very thankful for the top notch creative therapy it delivers. Every day when I sit down and pick up my blanket to work a row or two, it gives me the perfect opportunity to relax, unwind and quiet my emotions. The calming, soothing nature of repetitive crochet is one of the reasons I love designing stripes using easy patterns - it's like daily meditation and I would be lost without it. As we near the end of the stripes this week I'm already starting to think of my next project as I know I'll miss this blanket terribly once I no longer have it to work on. My hope is that if you are making this blanket along with me, that you're enjoying it just as much.

We've had another full-on winter week here, with more snow and sub zero temperatures. I do really like this kind of weather actually, it feels good for us to be enjoying a truly wintry-winter after a few years of very mild February weather. Having snow and ice all around us feels right somehow - properly, correctly seasonal. I walked through the meadow again earlier in the week after we'd had another small overnight snowfall, and it was magical (in a cold, bleak, icy kind of a way). At the moment I'm working very hard on appreciating each day and finding joy in the season we're in, but it doesn't stop me daydreaming about summer time, I just can't seem to help myself. I will always be a summer-loving soul.

My fireside crochet has become an established part of my daily routine during the past six weeks, and I really enjoy this particular bit of my day. I usually light the fire round 2pm and have a couple hours to sit and hook before I need to start thinking about preparing the evening meal. I find that sitting next to the fire really does help my hands (I wear woollen mitts too), plus I can keep a check on the fire at the same time. Open fires need a bit of tending to when you first set and light them, well that's what I tell the family anyways. I neeeeeeed to sit right here next to the hearth for at least an hour, so nobody better disturb me.

I thought that I would share some blankets with views this week - I love that when I'm sat next to my fire wearing all the layers to keep warm, there are those of you in other parts of the world who are hooking al fresco....

↑↑ Liecia is in New South Wales in Aus and I absolutely love that her Meadow blanket is looking so beautifully summery.

↑↑ Nicky is enjoying a well deserved gin and tonic as she hooks away in Cape Town, South Africa.

↑↑ Rhian shared this wonderful photo of her view as she works on her stripes in New Zealand - so dreamy!

↑↑ This photo really gave me all the happy feels - the meadow next to the sea! It was taken by one of my lovely followers on the island of Jersey, under the hashtag #crochetinthewild. SO beautiful.

↑↑ I've seen some lovely wintry photos of the meadow too - this beautiful image was shared on Instagram by Martina (from Germany I think?) and I LOVE it. Doesn't it make the colours pop?

↑↑ Another beautiful snowy vista from Elaine in Canada, gosh, I bet it's a tad cold there!

↑↑ Rebecca took her meadow blanket out into the snow too, and I really like the contrast between the colourful stripes and the monochrome surroundings.

↑↑ Jane shared this gorgeous photo of her blanket and her dog, both looking beautiful.

I've had the pleasure of Tilly's company as I've worked in the final rows of my blanket this past week. Of course she assumes that I'm all set up especially for her pleasure - fireside warmth and a cosy blanket to snuggle into, it's kitty heaven! I try and accommodate her when I can because I love the comfort of having her close, but it's not always easy. Ah, the challenges of working from home!!

So shall we have a little chatter about week six? This is the last chapter of our meadow colour story, and we are up into the wide blue yonder this week. As you may know, I adore the soft cool blues of the sky and crocheting these stripes has been pure joy.

I was looking back at photos I took in the summer meadow last year, and remembering what it felt like to walk in the evenings when it was still so light and warm. The above photos were taken at around 9pm (in July) as I often walked around the meadow at this time with the Little People. You can see that the sky isn't just blue - there is a soft purple tint to the clouds that I absolutely love, and I really wanted to capture this in my meadow blanket.

You'll find a few stripes of Wisteria and Mushroom in amongst the blues this week, and I really hope you enjoy your jaunt up into the summer clouds.

Working the rows of crossed trebles, you should find that your edges have turned out pretty straight on this blanket (always a bonus!) so there isn't any need to straighten out the top edge as such. Having said that, I decided that for the final row of stripe 90, I would leave the crosses behind and work straight trebles instead. This gives a super-neat finish, and also matches the bottom edge of the blanket where we began with a row of straight trebles. If you've made a smaller blanket and already finished your rows, please don't worry if you haven't done this - it won't affect the border at all.

It's such a bitter sweet feeling when you fasten off and darn in the last ends of a blanket that has given you many weeks of hooky pleasure.

There is a huge surge of joy and accomplishment, but underneath that happiness I always experience a slight feeling of loss. It's the oddest combination, but really the overriding feeling is of absolute giddiness. Yippppeeeeee!!!! 

One the things I most enjoy about creating colour story blankets is the way that even the simplest of patterns can tell such a beautiful story using colour. I've enjoyed the journey in this blanket so, so much, it's everything I imagined in my mind and a whole lot more.

Adding in the final part of the story will bring about a much needed balance this week, which I hope you enjoy as much as I do. The calm of those blue tones feels so good after the riot of floral colour down below!

Would you like to see how it looks in it's entirety?

The whole ninety stripes of meadow colour?

OK.....

Here it is......

Ta-dah!!!!!!

I love it so much. SO MUCH!!!! The edges look a bit wonky in the above photo (I was obviously too impatient to straighten them neatly for the photo) but in real life they are really fabulously straight I promise you. Also, you have probably discovered that this particular pattern is quite stretchy, so please don't worry too much if your blanket feels a little out of shape once your stripes are done. The border will help to stabilise the edges and contain the stretch a little.

Ahhh.........such beautiful, warm, summery vibes, the stuff of my dreams!

Lets look to see how these soft summer sky colours are working in the final part of our meadow story....

Here is the colour info for Part 6 of the "COLOUR STORY" Meadow Blanket.

Remember each stripe is made of two rows of crochet.

Click (( HERE )) for the printable worksheet.

76. Cloud Blue

77. Duck Egg

78. Cloud Blue

79. Lincoln

INSERT OPTIONAL STRIPE HERE - Wisteria (for double bed size blankets)

INSERT OPTIONAL STRIPE HERE - Duck Egg (for double bed size blankets)

INSERT OPTIONAL STRIPE HERE - Cloud Blue (for double bed size blankets)

80. Parchment

81. Duck Egg

82. Wisteria

83. Cloud Blue

84. Duck Egg

85. Mushroom

86. Duck Egg

87. Cloud Blue

88. Wisteria

89. Duck Egg

90. Cloud Blue

Here is the colour info for Part 6 of the "MIXED STRIPE" Meadow Blanket.

Remember each stripe is made of two rows of crochet.

Click (( HERE )) for the printable worksheet (the mixed stripe is on page 2 of the PDF)

76. Pale Rose

77. Parchment

78. Lincoln

79. Buttermilk

80. Cloud Blue

81. Grape

82. Wisteria

83. Meadow

84. Dandelion

85. Pistachio

86. Duck Egg

87. Sage

88. Mushroom

89. Raspberry

90. Lavender

If you've been following the Mixed Stripe colours and making a large size double blanket, I promised that there would be an extra set of stripes for you to add extra length if you need it. The six parts of the CAL should have given you a length of approximately 6ft / 180cm, so if you need to add an additional 30cm, here are your additional stripes....

91. Cloud Blue

92. Lincoln

93. Pale Rose

94. Grape

95. Pistachio

96. Buttermilk

97. Duck Egg

98. Meadow

99. Dandelion

100. Parchment

101. Wisteria

102. Raspberry

103. Sage

104. Mushroom

105. Lavender

Interestingly, I haven't seen many repeating stripe blankets on social media (or mixed stripes) as I think the majority of you have chosen to follow me with the Meadow colour story this year. I would LOVE to see more though, so if you've been making a repeating stripe or mixed stripe, please shout out and let me know? The above photo was shared this week by my bloggy friend Teresa, who always takes the most delicious photos of her blankets. You can see she is part way through her second repeat and I think it is just stunning.

Before we go, there are a couple things to talk about as we come towards the end of our stripes. Firstly, I thought it would be useful to have a check on yarn quantities. The above photo shows what I have left at the end of six repeats. You can see that the balls still appear quite full, but the best way to judge is by using digital kitchen scales to weigh.

My balls varied (as you would expect) but I had at least 30g of each ball left. That means that six stripes used up approx 70g of yarn from a full 100g ball. 

I'm still working on the border design so I'm so sorry that I can't tell you yet what colours we'll be using just yet, but it's a good idea to make sure you have at least 20g of each ball left. I'll pop in next week to tell you more about the border so that you can make your preparations.

Next week I have deliberately scheduled in a "catch up" week. This will give you chance to catch up if you've fallen behind with your rows, and to make sure you have darned in all your ends ready for the border. I wonder how many of you have got your ends still dangling????!! I always advise to do them as you go along, but each to their own.....I know it would make me spitting mad to sit and darn in ends from 180 rows, but who am I to judge??!!!! If you've left yours to do at the end, I hope you find some kind of therapeutic calm in dealing with them all. HAHA!!! 

Well, I hope you have loads of fun in the sky this week, and I'll bob by next Friday to catch up a bit and tell you a weeny bit more about border preps. Part 7 (the border pattern) will be released on Friday 26th February.

Have a great week......

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Here are some links for you, should you need them....

🌸 PART 6 PRINTABLE WORKSHEET

🌸 MEADOW YARN PACK

🌸MEADOW STRIPE TUTORIAL

🌸MEADOW PRINTABLE PATTERN

🌸 MEADOW BLANKET INTRODUCTION

🌸 MEADOW CAL PART 1 - stripes 1-15

🌸 MEADOW CAL PART 2 - stripes 16-30

🌸 MEADOW CAL PART 3 - stripes 31-45

🌸 MEADOW CAL PART 4 - stripes 46-60

🌸 MEADOW CAL PART 5 - stripes 61-75

Comments

[Rose]

I thought the blanket was a full eight weeks of stripes so I'm pleased to find I'm nearer the end than I thought. I'm making the double bed version so it's getting quite unwieldy to work on. But I have enjoyed it.

[Frankie Dixon]

I am loving this blanket. I did the hydrangea one in my own colours but this is lovely to follow. I am only on stripe 27 and have broken off to crochet some butterflies for a spring display in my local town. I am looking forward to getting back to my blanket though!!

[CJ]

There are some very exotic locations in those photos. Sun and swimming pools! I always love seeing Teresa's photos too, and she's making a lovely job of her blanket. So nice to see them popping up so far away. Your edges are SO satisfyingly neat, a beautiful job as ever. CJ xx

[Roberta m Couchman]

So enjoying this - now moorland or woodland next? or at least once I have used up the rest of the balls in a smaller lap blanket. You do have such a lovely eye for beautiful thank you

[Christine Clarke]

Hello - have loved this project - it is so calming every afternoon/evening, such beautiful colours and so warm over my legs.
I am just a little concerned that I may not have enough Sage left for the border as I only have 16grams. I didn’t realise until too late that there was an error in week 5 instructions. Is this going to be a problem?

[Dawn]

Thank you for all your work. It's been fun to work this blanket and kind of weird knowing so many others are hooking along :)
I'm happy to report that I've managed to keep up each week and I've darned my ends as I've gone along, working three stripes at a time, go me! (I usually leave them)
It'll be sad to finish but I'm going to gift the blanket to a friend who loves the colours, she says it feels so Summery, I know she doesn't like the winter at all.
Thanks again :)

[Lola-JoJo]

I'm already feeling quite sad that the blanket is almost finished,, although I know I'll enjoy snuggling under it as much when it's finished as I do when I'm working on it. Thanks for such a lovely experience Lucy, you've made the deep mid winter feel more bearable.