Flowerpress Love

Good morning my lovelies, I hope all is well in your little patch of the world? I'm sat here this morning in a large, comfy white bed (I'm in a hotel) with a cup of peppermint tea and my laptop, thinking how wonderful it is that we can access the world wide web so easily these days and stay connected. I have to tell you I've felt so happy to be back here in the Attic this week and to thank you all for the loveliest comments you've written to me here and also on my Facebook page. I have soaked them all in and feel very lucky to have your positive energy boosting my own, so thank you, thank you. We walk a two-way street here in Blogland, don't we? I give you my words and images and creative ideas, and then your words of encouragement and support come back to me in return, it's a true blessing in my life and I am so very thankful for our online community.

So, I am currently in a hotel at Gatwick airport as later this afternoon I'll be flying out to Marrakech to teach my final crochet retreat of the year with Stitchtopia Holidays. As I'll be away until the end of next week, I really wanted to chat to you before I go, to update you on a few things to do with the recent launch of my new Flowerpress Blanket.

The first thing to say is WOW - and THANK YOU !! It seems you all fell in love with this blanket and the yarn kits completely sold out yesterday, you caught us all a bit by surprise! The team at Wool Warehouse have been their usual wonderful, efficient, hard working selves and many of you will be receiving your yarn packs in time for the weekend. If you missed out, I'm told there is more stock on its way from the Stylecraft mill, and that if you add your email address to the waiting list (there is a notification box on the Flowerpress shop listing), then you'll know as soon as they are ready to order.

Secondly, I have an IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE FLOWERPRESS PATTERN.....

If you've purchased your yarn pack from Wool Warehouse (thank you, thank you if you did), there is a 12 page printed pattern included. Unfortunately, due to my brain not really being fully co-operative of late, I discovered (just after it went to print) that there were a few errors in the printed pattern. I am really, really sorry! So what I have done is to add the amendments very clearly (in bold red type) to the pattern written here on my blog so that you can reference that and know it is correct. 

You can find the pattern in my left hand sidebar, it's listed alphabetically, so comes under "F" for Flowerpress, or click the following link >

FLOWERPRESS PATTERN (with correct amendments :))

Also to let you know that there is a full photo tutorial coming (plus the joining and border instructions), I just didn't quite have time to complete it before needing to pack and prepare for my Morocco trip. So if you are a visual person, or a new crocheter and need the photos to help, I promise they will be coming once I'm back in the Attic. 

For those of you starting out very soon on your own Flowerpress journey, I am curious to know if you will make each of the sixteen squares one by one, or if you might be tempted to make all the flowers first like I did?

Maybe you might make Square 1 first to get the measure of the pattern and make sure your tension/sizing is working out, and then begin hooking up your flowers? I can highly recommend making all your flowers in one go, simply because the visual joy and sense of satisfaction is a real delight....it's FUN, and I really think you'd enjoy it.

Even after round 2, the colours are already looking good....

....and after round 4, well, you will have sixteen blooms all ready for the press.

Once all the flowers were done, I then added rounds 5 and 6 (the Champagne squaring-off rounds) to them all at the same time. I happened to be away from home for a few days when I was doing this, so I was able to take the Champagne ball of yarn and a little pile of flowers in a project bag and crochet them when I was out and about (train journeys, a hotel bed, café lunches with friends). It made for a beautifully portable project and I so enjoyed this part of the making process.

When your flowers are set on their blotting paper, you'll then have 10 more coloured rounds to complete for each square, and I can tell you that these easy rounds crochet up very quickly. You will of course need to make time to darn in your ends (I know you'll listen to my voice and hear what I'm saying - darn-your-ends-!!). Mostly I darned my ends after each colour change because that's a habit I developed a long time ago, but sometimes I would finish a whole square with the ends hanging and darn them all in before moving onto the next square.

Now then, I have some additional creative thoughts to share with you, and I felt like this couldn't wait, just in case it might spark some ideas for you. 

When I was first thinking about using Stylecraft ReCreate yarn at the very start of this year, I started out thinking I might like to use it to make another large square blanket following the Yuletide pattern. So my very first sample was actually the circle shown above which is the Yuletide Mandala pattern. Looking at this image now, I'm finding that my fingers are itching (honestly, they are twitching as I type) to actually make another Yuletide square in these pretty vintage shades, because I think it would look absolutely wonderful and I LOVED making that large, therapeutic square so much.

I thought it would be interesting to share this with you as I always think it's good to ponder on ideas and share creative thoughts - I may even carry this through and make a start on a large ReCreate square when I get home from this trip - if I do, then I will certainly share my colour order as I go along. You never know, this might be floating your boat in the same way that my fingers are itching and twitching?!

Something else that I want to share with you today is the possibility of making the Flowerpress design using our beloved and familiar Stylecraft Special DK. I've read a number of comments on Facebook during the past week from those of you who are either allergic to wool and can't use ReCReate DK, or else you have a stash of SSDK yarn already that you really wish to use up, or you simply prefer SSDK to any other yarn.

There was one comment on Facebook, and I'm really sorry I can't remember the name of the lady who wrote it, but I would like to say that this was her idea (if you know who it was, please leave me a comment so I can give credit). She said that the Flowerpress colours really reminded her of the Hydrangea blanket, because of course they both have the same inspiration behind them - dried flowers! Of course!!

Yesterday I went to revisit the Hydrangea colours and as I could instantly see the similarities to the Flowerpress palette, it occurred to me that the Hydrangea yarn kit could be used to make the Flowerpress blanket.

Shall we take a proper look at the colours and I can share my thoughts?

In the above photo, the top row of pegs is the SSDK Hydrangea palette (15 colours), the bottom row of pegs is the ReCreate Flowerpress palette (10 colours). I managed to match them up with ease - a few differences but the overall feel of the SSDK palette works a treat.

So for an SSDK substitution, I would match them using the photo above, from left to right as follows :

Champagne = SSDK Mushroom (see notes below on this shade)

Blush = SSDK Vintage Pink

Rose = SSDK Pale Rose

Sky = SSDK Duck Egg

Teal = SSDK Cypress

Pistachio = SSDK Pistachio

Avocado = SSDK Meadow

Dijon = SSDK Camel

Cherry = SSDK Raspberry

Grape = SSDK Grape

The one colour I thought might possibly need a tweak is the Mushroom. I think if you you were being picky, then Parchment or A Hint of Silver might work better for the neutral to surround the flowers and edge/join the squares. 

The other thing to mention is about yarn quantities. Obviously I haven't had the chance to sample SSDK with this pattern yet so I'm not able to give any accurate information on hook size or tension/gauge, or yarn quantities. Although these two yarns are both DK weights and both 100g balls, the meterage does differ, so you would need to keep that in mind.

ReCreate DK has 350 metres per ball, whereas SSDK only has 295 metres per ball.

It means you might possibly need an extra ball of Mushroom (or whichever neutral colour you choose) and you'd have to assess quantities for the border too, maybe only working single rows for each colour if your yarn is running short?

I know this all sounds a bit vague, but at this stage I just wanted to help those of you who were thinking of going down the SSDK route. There has been quite a bit of discussion in the Facebook groups, so I felt it would be helpful to give you this information to help, and then leave it to you if you want to stash dive or purchase the Hydrangea kit. Incidentally, you will of course have 5 extra shades in the hydrangea kit and could easily add those into your squares and border rounds (although personally I'd leave out the Parma Violet, to let the Mushroom really do its job as the one neutral) - the colours are all very compatible with each other and you can't really go too far wrong using this alternative palette I don't think.

I hope this blog post has been helpful and inspiring (hmmm, the lure of a large square is positively ShOuTinG in my brain now). Do let me know in the comments if you have any questions, or suggestions, or requests, or just let me know your own creative plans. I always really enjoy reading your comments and never miss a single one (two way street, remember?)

Sending lots of love and light and colour and creative vibes to you....have fun!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

🌸FLOWERPRESS YARN KIT

🌸HYDRANGEA YARN KIT

🌸FLOWERPRESS PATTERN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Jools Morgan-Jones]

I do so love your colour combinations, Lucy, no matter what the project is - you have such an eye for it!

[Dawn]

Shouldn’t have started this beautiful project - but hey - almost finished the 8 blankets for family Christmas presents so decided I would. Treated myself to more SSDK where my enormous stash was not enough, and started crocheting whilst watching the Skipton episode of the Canal Diaries!! Such good therapy when you have flu. (Not so convinced yarn fibres are helpful with a cough - but keeping that one quiet).
Now mulling over whether to make a 5 square project bag, 9 or 16 square blanket - or all 3!
Thank you so so much for the inspiration, back story, design and colourwork, Lucy - always a treasure.
Wishing you well for the coming months,
Dawn x

[Estelle in New York]

Dearest Lucy, I had an idea that you might find interesting. I love, love, love using your Neat Ripple pattern to make blankets and scarves. The repetitive, soothing rhythm allows me to listen to audiobooks, watch TV, chat, etc., as I meander along.
Lately, I've been using variegated yarn for the Neat Ripples to what I think is a lovely effect (you can see them on Ravelry - my user name is Stampsmith).
I had the idea that you could have Stylecraft create a line of Attic24 variegated yarns using the colors in any or all of your yarn packs -- nice, long strands that go in and out of the beautiful colors you have picked.
You could call it the Attic24 Wonder Wheel (I'm sure you'd come up with a terrific name) and have a Meadow, Dune, Springfost, Starbright, Flowerpress, etc. line with the colors you've already chosen for those packs.
There you have it. X

[Nancy]

Thank you for this lovely pattern. I so appreciate your generosity. I am almost finished my first Attic 24 project, Yuletide and I love it. I live in Canada and in June I lucky enough to spend 2 weeks in the UK at my nephew's where I shopped for Ssdk.I carried home over 30 balls of this wonderful yarn in compression bags and crammed them into my backpack. I have since I ordered it from wool warehouse and paid the shipping which almost doubled the cost. Oh well, you can't your money with you when you go. At any rate thanks for sharing your amazing patterns so freely. Look forests to my. Next attic 24 project.

[Gina]

Hello Lucy, I think the idea of a Yuletide square made in these colours would be great! I love the Yuletide colours and pattern and it would be fantastic to have instructions on how to do the pattern with a recycled wool in these different shades. Thank you for thinking of that idea!

[Lynn]

And now I need to make a big round blanket using the Yuletide mandala pattern! Thanks for the inspiration!

[Lynn]

I am already started with the hydrangea kit for this blanket! I think I’m making a single big square (channeling Yuletide here) with a flower as the center. I’m thinking hydrangea color order after the center square, using the stitch pattern for flowerpress. Wonderful to have you back, Lucy, and with a new blanket as an added bonus! Sending you strength and peace. xxx

[AlisonSmith]

Thank you for another lovely blanket LUcy! I will be purchasing the yarn in the next few weeks as the budget allows :) Having been made redundant about 2 years ago and having a number of health problems since then Iand turning 60 doesn’t help…) crochet is my joy and happy place!

[Tannia]

I absolutely luv ur patterns they make my heart sing! Luv'd them even more because u showed step by step photos. I can't read patterns, they do my head in lol. I'm determined to work this flower press out! Thank U so much for making my heart sing in this harsh world 🌺🌻🌼🌷🪻⚘️

[Glenda]

I’ve never done squares before but I’m looking forward to a new challenge! I’ve just 2 more rounds of border on the v stitch starbright blanket which is my first to make! Do you think I’m biting off too much trying this style of pattern? Very nervous about it but love the colours x

[Geeha]

Thank you for making time to do this when you're so busy. I can't tolerate wool and am on a budget anyway so needed a substitute but have no colour sense. The , Hydrangea pack will be perfect as I have just completed my last stash busting lap blanket to use up SSDK and will be happy to make another lap blanket for charity with the remainder of the pack

[Diana]

Lovely to hear from the Lucy. You really are my inspiration. I so enjoy reading your blogs, I live alone and sometimes it really lifts my spirits to hear from you and also all the other ladies interaction. So important to me, crocheting the blankets gives me such happy vibes. Thank Lucy and all the wonderful kind people inthus cosy group. Enjoy your retreat and best wishes to all you special hookers (forgive the pun😅) Diana xx

[Caz]

I am with you with the mandala square bl
Blanket, it's my 50th next week and I held off buying the pack but will be my birthday present to myself as I really love the colours and have got an annual hobby of crocheting a blanket at the start of autumn. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and inspiration, I work for the NHS in cancer research and it's such a lovely break to my day to read your blog and look at all the attic fb / insta posts. Creativity, colour and wool is definitely food for the soul!

[Norma]

Thanks for your thoughts Lucy. Off to check my stash of Special Dk !
Hope your final teaching assignment will be another huge success & hope you find some time to enjoy yourself too.
Next year maybe you can come to Australia! 😃

[Nona]

Thanks for all the info Lucy! I’m so glad that we can share joy together in this creative process! I love the recreate colors and have a small stash that I’ve been wanting to use. I love the flower press and would be delighted with a Yuletide in this yarn!!!! Best to you!

[Wendy Walker]

Thanks for all this Lucy, it looks lovely and I’ll be adding it to the top to my ‘to do’ list! Have a wonderful time in Marrakesh, I’m sure there’ll be lots of colourful creative inspiration there too! X

[Jackie Farrow]

Thank you Lucy, I had seen someone else’s choices but felt at the time to me there was one colour that wasn’t right and I had actually thought Duck Egg for Sky is the one I would use. So to see you come up with it as well is how I’m going to do it. Other colour I think I will use is the Hint of Silver. Saying all this, I won’t be crocheting this blanket till early next year as I have 3 blankets that need to be finished as gifts, plus two others I started ages ago. So once they are all finished I will get on and make the Flowerpress blanket. I look forward in the mean time seeing everyone else’s. Jackie x

[Lynn Walsh]

I think the Hydrangea idea was mine! You replied to me on the group. I'm SO happy to think that you agree with me and that you chose to use it here in your blog. I just love love love your creativity and your patterns. Thank you 😊

[Trish Stevens]

Thanks for this Lucy, really helpful.

[Cathy S]

Thank you so much Lucy. The conversion is brilliant and means I can get started now using my stash 🥰 This blanket is beautiful!!!

[Anna-Karin in Sweden]

Nice to see you here again :)
Love the colours!
I hope you'll have a wonderful trip to Marrakech!
xxx

[Victoria Mier]

Ah thanks for this Lucy! The colour conversion is really useful. The Yuletide is my favourite pattern - I am currently doing it with the Sungold pack and its gorgeous - very soothing, I find the joining easier than the stripes and love it for all sorts of reasons, so I will carry on making it in different colourways! The mandala is lovely, and the Yuletide would indeed be fab in the Flowerpress colours...