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Flowerpress Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Good morning! If you want to go and grab a Flowerpress yarn pack, here is the link to Wool Warehouse >>

🌸FLOWERPRESS YARN PACK 🌸

Please do read on if you'd like to find out more about the blanket design and the inspiration behind it....

I've been crocheting blankets for seventeen years now, and the excitement of a new project is still just as high as it was all those years ago when I was a hooking newbie. Seeing my big baggy yarn bag bulging with beautiful new yarn colours awaiting the start of their journey is one of the great loves of my life, it really makes me unbelievably happy.

Today I want to tell you about this bag of yarn and share the inspiration behind my latest blanket, so lets start with some intel about the yarn itself, because as you've probably already guessed, this isn't my usual premium acrylic choice, but it is a very yummy yarn made by Stylecraft.

This yarn is called ReCreate DK which launched with twelve shades in 2021, with four additional shades added in March of this year to make 16 in total. Aside from the very pretty colours, Stylecraft ReCreate is a blended yarn that is made entirely from recycled fibres....yes, yes, this is a 100% recycled yarn!!!!

The composition of the yarn is 40% wool, 30% acrylic and 30% polyester. The wool and acrylic are recovered from garments that would have otherwise gone to landfill and the polyester component comes from recycled bottles which are shredded and then spun into yarn. How a-maaaay-zing is that??!!

Stylecraft says :

" We are dedicated to adding yarns to our collections that have less of an impact on the environment, so we only work with expert spinners. The company that makes ReCreate for us work to the Global Recycled Standard, which monitors the entire production cycle from collection to reclamation and finally production to make sure the materials used are traceable and are recycled to a very high standard and no chemicals that are harmful to the environment are used "

Here are some of my thoughts about this yarn :

• The 100g balls are wound in a neat donut shape (making them very easy to centre-pull and work from) and as you can see, the yarn contains some pretty multi-coloured flecks which give a subtle tweedy look.
• The very matt appearance gives a look and feel of soft cotton or washed linen - in fact everyone who has seen me working on this blanket in real life has been very surprised when I've told them this isn't cotton. If you've struggled crocheting with cotton before (it can be quite hard going on the hands as it has no stretch) then you will definitely be glad of the natural bounce in this yarn which makes it so, so nice to crochet with.
• The wool content makes for a warm fibre when it is crocheted up, even though the crochet feels airy and light weight.
• The yarn is quite fine for a DK weight, so you will need to be mindful of your guage if using it for the first time and experiment with hook sizes - I dropped down half a milimetre from my usual DK hook size.
• The finished crochet washes well in the machine at 30 degrees and can take a cool spin in the tumble drier. In fact I think the appearnace and feel improves after a wash as the wool fibres bloom slightly making the crochet feel much softer.

All in all, I think this is a truly wonderful and innovative yarn which has really pleased me endlessly as I've been working with it! It's soft, light, and warm, and altogether extremely likeable and charming with it's tweedy flecks and slightly muted, vintage appearance.

I've put together this very pretty colour palette using ten of the ReCreate DK colours and I think they look amazing together.

From left to right, the colours are as follows :

🌸Teal 🌸Avocado 🌸 Pistachio 🌸 Sky 🌸Champagne 🌸Dijon 🌸 Rose 🌸 Blush 🌸 Cherry 🌸 Grape

You can find the Flowerpress yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse, click on the link below...

FLOWERPRESS YARN PACK*

*the yarn pack contains a 12 page full colour A4 printed pattern

When I chose these ten colours and began to have a play with them back in the springtime, I was still at the stage of wondering what sort of blanket to make. I definitely wanted to crochet squares, but at that early stage the blanket didn't really have an identity or a theme. I just knew that I LOVED the colours and the yarn, and that I wanted to make a very pretty, vintagey style blanket with a slightly sun-faded look and feel to it.

It was actually my lovely daughter who happened to mention that the colours reminded her of dried flowers, and from that moment onwards I couldn't stop thinking about the small, old fashioned wooden flower press I used to have as a child, with squares of corrugated cardboard and blotting paper stacked between two wooden squares, and silver wing nuts to tighten it all up...do you remember those??? I AdOrEd pressing flowers as a child and used to do it with my Mum a lot - we made many pressed flower pictures and cards to gift to relatives when I was young, gathering flowers from the garden and the hedgerows in Dorset where I grew up.

In the above photo you can see some old postcards of mine - I dug them out of my very full box-of-lovely-cards as the colours and pressed flowers captured everything I had been reminiscing about (postcards from Ikea, circa 1999)

I also want to share something very special with you, the above journal which belonged to my Mum and was recently discovered in a big bag of her belongings that were left to me when she died.

This is my Mum's gardening journal from over twenty years ago, where she wrote about her love of flowers and creating a garden from scratch. The photo is of the small cottage where she lived with her partner for thirty years (my parents were divorced when I was a teenager so I never lived here but I visited often). She wrote...

"I take immense pleasure from my garden and gardening activities. The amount I spend in both my time and my finances I consider to be of enormous value".

She really did love her flower garden!

There are more pages where she has written about her own childhood and the gardens she had helped to nurture over the years, but can you see the pressed flowers and petals she glued to the pages? Oh, my heart.....so precious......the sight of them really did send me right back to my young childhood self. When I found these pages I had already started crocheting the flowers for my new blanket, so this unexpected connection to the past suddenly seemed very poignant somehow.

Flowers are naturally at the heart of the Flowerpress blanket, and I designed them before I really had an idea of how to make them into squares, or how the blanket was actually going to look overall. I had a lot of fun with the colours, they really made me happy (above photo taken at the end of April - springtime flowers blooming).

If you are thinking about giving this blanket a go, then I can really recommend working all the flowers first - it means you get the slightly more fiddlesome bits done and dusted, but also, you get the joy of playing with them too - haha - I'm serious about this!! It's so much fun seeing these cute blooms grow and fly off the hook!

↑↑ And then the flowers are placed on their blotting paper squares, ready to go into the press....well that's how I began to think about this blanket in my mind. A bit fanciful maybe, but that's honestly how my Creative Mind works. The story spins itself around the stitches and the colours....

...and just like that a beautiful sqaure is made. There is nothing complicated about the Flowerpress pattern, and like all my designs I use simple stitches with a therapeutic, easy rythmn to the rounds. Once you've made your inner square (the blotting paper rounds) you can enjoy some easy trebles to build out the larger square.

This is a fast make, with 16 rounds in each square coming together very easily. And only 16 squares to make in total before the joining and the border....it's a really, really satisfying blanket to work on I promise.

I've been making this blanket very quietly and gently since the spring, keeping it to myself and using it to soothe the rough edges of the difficult days, and honestly I don't know what I would have done without it. I believe the soft colours and sweet vintage feel of them together took me on some sort of nostalgic journey and brought forth some wonderful memories in the process. It's been such a pleasure!

The final round of each square is a narrow round of double crochet worked in this delicious off-white shade....

....it adds an element of graphic detail as well as an easy final round which forms the base of the joining seams.

The squares are seamed with long rows of slip stitches on the reverse side (no join-as-you-go this time), and I've given a full explanation of this process in the printed pattern which comes in the yarn packs, as well as in the photo tutorial.

I decided to go with a lovely wide stripy border to finish off....because the squares are full of detail and lots of colour changes, I wanted something calming and soft to frame everything and add a gentle finishing touch. The wide, stripy border works beautifully to do this, and then.....

....a pretty scallopped edge to finish it all off.

The finished Flowerpress blanket measures 120 cm square which is the same size as the Fireside blanket I made two years ago. The two blankets look so lovely together, and it struck me a few days ago that I've now made an Autumn/Winter blanket (the Fireside) and a Spring/Summer blanket (the Flowerpress) - one rich, earthy and snuggly, and the other soft, light and airy.

4 ft square blankets are a lovely size - they make good lap blankets, or throws to go over the back of a chair. I also love to fold them in half into a triangle and wear them around my shoulders like an oversized shawl when I'm sitting to read in the evenings - the ReCreate yarn feels lovely next to the skin, not at all woolly/itchy, even thought he 30% wool content makes it beautifully warm.

↑↑ The kitty.....well.....what can I say??! She has adored this blanket right from the very start and often when I was making the squares, she would sit herself down on one if it was on the table, it's like she just couldn't help herself. I took the above photo of her one day - the blanket was still in progress (I was working on the border at the time) and it was folded up on the sofa waiting for me to choose a colour for the next round. Almost as soon as she saw me place it down she was sitting upon it, and not long after I found her in full snooze mode.

During the past month, you'll be pleased to hear that we've given the Flowerpress blanket a thorough testing and it has passed with flying colours.

And now, I do think it's high time we had a better look at the finished article, so you can see how lovely the squares look, and the beautiful wide border too.

I used seven colours to make the wide border and I love the gentleness of it.

The scalloped edge is an echo of the rounded flower petals at the centre of each square, and I knew quite early on that this would be a great edging for the Flowerpress blanket. It adds such a pretty finishing touch, and I'm super happy with how it all came together.

When I'm designing a square blanket, I find that I can fairly easily visualise how it's going to look because my Creative Mind has had a lot of practice. So much of the making time is spent crocheting the individual squares, so I need to have real faith in the way that it will all come together because I only get to know for sure right at the end once all the squares are made and then joined.

With the Fowerpress blanket, I loved the individual squares so much when I was making them and really hoped that once they were all joined together that they would look as good in real life as I had imagined them.

Would you like to see?

I think we should take a look................

.......................ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am delighted to tell you that the finished blanket is even more lovely than I imagined it in my mind, and as a designer, this is such an amazing revelation (and a huge relief if I'm honest). It's the moment of truth, and comes at the end of many, many hours, days, weeks and months of work.

I adore the Flowerpress blanket, it has such a gentle feel about it, and for me personally, it connects me to the past with some lovely memories from my childhood. It's been an absolute pleasure to make, and I hope maybe you might feel inspired to crochet your own Flowerpress and enjoy the soothing colour therapy.

Talking of colour therapy, while I've been making the Flowerpress squares I have of course been using my big baggy yarn bag to carry everything around. This bag is still going strong after sixteen years of constant use (you can find the pattern and read about it on my blog ((HERE))

I took the above photo yesterday to share with you - can you see how amazingly similar the Flowerpress colours are to my yarn bag? Made sixteen years apart with two completely different yarns, but my signature colour palette has obviously not changed one bit!!!

So there we have it - the story of the Flowerpress Blanket......I really hope you've enjoyed the visuals and an insight into my design process.

I want to talk to you now about the Flowerpress pattern which I'm really proud of because honestly, it's a challenge to design an original crochet square that is easy enough for beginners to have a go with. A lot of large crochet squares end up being complicated things, and as you know, I like to keep things simple so that there's an element of relaxation and joy in the making process.

If you like the look of the Flowerpress blanket and buy a yarn pack from my shop at Wool Warehouse, you will get a 12 page full colour printed pattern included with the yarn.

I am also publishing the Flowerpress pattern for FREE here on my blog, for those of you who wish to support your local yarn shops and buy yarn from a bricks and mortar store. I also think that this pattern would make a great stash-buster project to use up yarn you already have. Please keep in mind that the guage will be different if you use a differnt type of yarn (ie Stylecraft Special DK) but I think it would be a fun creative adventure if you wanted to use yarn you already have and choose your own colours.

At this time, the free Flowerpress SQUARE pattern is available here on my blog, written for you as a traditional pattern. There is a full photo tutorial coming, but it isn't quite ready to share with you just yet, and I'm so sorry that I have had to take my time with it. I've had a lot of difficulty concentrating lately, and it is only me here doing all the things (well my lovely hubby does help by making my charts for me), so I do hope you'll understand. I shall of course let you know as soon as it is ready and published.

If you are eager to get going with yarn you already have, then you can find the Flowerpress pattern on my blog in the left hand sidebar in the long alphabetical list.....or click on the following link :

🌸FREE FLOWERPRESS PATTERN 🌸

Well I think that's about all the Flowerpress blankety chat for now, I hope you've enjoyed a peek behind the scenes into my creative process and have enjoyed seeing my blanket journey take shape.

Thank you as ever for your enthusiasm and support of my work, it really does mean the world. THANK YOU!!!

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Here are a few useful links >>

♥ FLOWERPRESS YARN PACK (includes a 12 page full colour printed pattern)

♥ FREE FLOWERPRESS PATTERN

 

PS, a few additional things to add, after reading all the comments on my Facebook page...

• Stylecraft ReCreate yarn contains 30% wool, and some of you have mentioned that you are allergic to wool. At this time, I don't have colours put together in Stylecraft Special DK (premium acrylic) to match the ReCreate colours, but of course you are free to do this yourself if you wish.
• Some of you have also said that you would prefer to make a striped blanket, and I'm sorry that I haven't got a stripe order to give you right now. The guage of ReCreate is different to Special DK so I'm not happy giving out instructions to make a striped blanket until I've worked samples myself and am confident with how the size and yardage will work with ReCreate DK. Again, of course you can do this yourself if you wish, and at some time in the future I may well work on this for you, but not just at the moment.
• I know many of you rely on my photo-heavy tutorials to help you with the patterns and I'm so sorry that I haven't had time to complete the tutorial for you today. As soon as it's ready, I will of course let you know.

 

 

Starbright Stripe Blanket :: Ta-dah!

It's been a few months now since I introduced you to the Starbright colour palette at the start of October, and I've been thrilled to see so many of you enjoying it. Starbright is such a delightful mix of deep night sky blues and jewel brights, and I think I'm possibly more in love with these colours than ever. Maybe it's because we are so close to Christmas now, but these merry shades really lift my spirits and bring to mind so many things I enjoy about the festive season.

I made this collage of images to share the inspiration behind my colour choices - it's a palette full of childhood nostalgia and memories of old Christmas traditions and joys. Twinkly lights and crisp cold nights, foil wrapped chocolates and shiny baubles, brightly coloured tinsel and over-the-top garlands. 

You can read more about my design journey and the making of the original Starbright square blanket in this blog post >>

★ STARBRIGHT SQUARE BLANKET TA-DAH!

As much as I ADORED making my Starbright square blanket, I've learnt over the years that not everyone shares my love of square designs. The ends, oh the many, many dreaded ends! And the joining process, ooooohhhhh it's just all too much of a faff! I hear these cries all over social media when there is a square design in the making! So I always make the effort to offer an alternative option for all you stripe lovers and it's a wonderful thing that my yarn kits and colour palettes are so versatile.

I created two worksheets for the Starbright stripes and the graphic images are shown above. On the left is the mixed stripe and this is my preferred choice. On the right is the colourwash version and I know this beautiful ordered stripe has been loved by many of you. 

I hadn't intended to actually make a striped version of the Starbright blanket myself, I was only planning on whipping up a sampler to demonstrate how well the colours could work in a stripe. However, as my sampler was growing I began to fall hopelessly in love with it. So I did the sensible thing - I purchased a second Starbright yarn kit for myself and as soon as it arrived I started out on my own stripe journey.

These easy v-stitches have such a therapeutic ease about them that it's impossible not to love the hooky relaxation they deliver. The joyful colours add another layer of pleasure, and I can honestly say that I have been smitten by this blanket right from the very start.

Throughout October it gave me such a lot of comfort, coming with me on various train journeys and times spent away from home.

I also spent many happy hours hooking those relaxing V's with friends at the café, and despite October being a very difficult month for me, I do have a lot of happy memories woven into those stitches.

Most of my stripes were crocheted at home as the autumn season grew colder, and these cosy times spent snuggled up with the kitty were nothing but blissful.

Slowly my Starbright stripes grew....

....the stripes becoming more and more blankety as October gave way to November.

By the start of December I was almost finished - in the above photo I only had a handful of stripes left to make and I was very excited to start thinking about a lovely little border to finish it off.

I ended up making 90 stripes in total, so six stripes for each colour. 

I designed a simple border using mostly blue shades because I felt like the exuberance of the stripes would benefit from some calm around the outer edge. If you remember the finished Starbright square design, I used this same colour recipe with that blanket too. The little pop of red is a nod to the Christmas inspiration and I think it adds the perfect finishing touch.

As you can see above, I chose six colours in total, and I used less than 20g of each colour.

I understand that the contrasting red might not be everyone's choice, so it's perfectly OK to swap that out if you wish. In the above photo you can see I removed the Lipstick red and replaced it with Turquoise instead.....

....and this gives a much quieter feel to the border. As with all my designs, please do feel free to change the colours around as you like, I'm not precious about these things and very much support individual creativity. 

I love this border! It's similar to the "Spot on" border I designed many years ago, but with more rows either side to make it a little more substantial.

It's just sooooooooooooo cute! The little blobs of red make my insides flutter, I love the effect very, very much.

When I was spreading out my blanket to take a full photo for you yesterday, I realised that it was the first time I'd actually viewed it as a whole. Mostly it's spent its short life folded up in my bag, or scrumpled up on the sofa, my blankets are extremely well used and it appears that we're not really a neatly-folding family.

It's a lovely feeling for me as the designer and maker to have a quiet little ta-dah moment all to myself before I share it with anyone else. It's a bit special to finish a whole blanket that has spanned across a couple of seasons, and I admit I felt a bit emotional. I feel like me and the V's have been through a lot together (it's been to Dorset and back three times), and well, I do love how well it turned out.

Let me show you.............

................Ta-da!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy with it. I think the combination of the bold colours with the zig-zaggy V-stitch pattern is just right, and although it's not an obviously festive colour palette, I can't help but see baubles and fairy lights when I look at it.

The border pattern is straightforward, and uses all double crochet and chains (that's sc for those who use US crochet terms).

I've written up the pattern and added it to the V-stitch Stripe page so that all the instructions for this blanket are in one place. It's written as a tutorial with some photos to help, and I'm sorry I haven't had time to create a printable version for you yet. I hope that's ok, that you won't mind accessing the tutorial online for now, only I didn't want to delay publishing it for you.

You can find it by clicking on the following link (you'll need to scroll down through the tutorial to find it as the border comes after the stripe instructions>>

★ V-STITCH STRIPE TUTORIAL

I'm really enjoying living with these two Starbright blankets on my sofa, and later today they'll be joined by the Yuletide blanket too. I'll try and remember to take a photo of them in residence to share with you - I'm really looking forward to seeing how they look when the tree is up and the fairy lights are twinkling.

Thank you for your patience if you've been waiting for this border pattern to finish off your own Starbright stripes, I'm sorry I took so long. Enjoy this last happy part of your stripy journey!

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Here are all relevant links in one place.....

★ STARBRIGHT V-STITCH TUTORIAL

★ STARBRIGHT YARN PACK

★ STARBRIGHT SQUARE TUTORIAL

★ STARBRIGHT SQUARE BLANKET TA-DAH POST

 

 

The Starbright Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Good morning! If you want to go and grab a Starbright yarn pack, here is the link to Wool Warehouse >>

STARBRIGHT YARN PACK 

And if you're after the free pattern and photo tutorial, here is the link to it (it's in my sidebar listed in alphabetical order)

STARBRIGHT BLANKET TUTORIAL

Please do read on if you'd like to find out more about the blanket design and drink in lots of colour!

Hellooooo, and thank you so much for being here to share this merry and bright Ta-dah occasion with me. I love to chat to you about the creative things that have been occupying my time, especially if there is a tangible source of inspiration behind the colour palette I've been immersed in. You can be sure that by the time you read my ta-dah posts, I've been obsessively designing and crocheting with these colours for many, many months - this particular colour palette has been jigging about inside my mind for more than a year now.

As you can see above, I gathered together some photos to give you an idea of the colour inspiration behind the Starbright blanket. I dreamed of a blanket inspired by those delicious weeks in December when decorations and twinkly lights take centre stage. I began to think a lot about the excitement of it all, about those nostalgic, child-like feelings that always surface when the month of December comes around and you realise all of a sudden that Christmas isn't too far away. It's everything I love about the festive season - the lights, decorations and bright colours which bring so much joy into the house. With these nostalgic feelings in mind, I chose colours that celebrate the winter season in the most joyful way I could think of. 

A lot of my inspiration for Starbright came from my own childhood memories and so there wasn't anything that I could photograph or look at. Memories of the old christmas decorations that would be unpacked year after year after year. The mismatched collections of baubles and the fairy lights with their brightly coloured plastic flowery petals. Strings of foil garlands which pulled out in a concertina of intricate folds and cuts, and brightly coloured foil stars which hung from lampshades and shelves. And a big round tin of colourful foil wrapped Quality Street chocolates (always a highly anticipated gift from my Grandad).

In the town where I grew up, every shop along the high street would display a small living christmas tree above the upper storey window, strung with brightly lit, multi coloured festoon lights. I LOVED those lights - I don't think trees are decorated like this any more, but the lights were always so bright and colourful due to the large bulbs. It meant that walking or driving through the town in the weeks leading up to Christmas was incredibly joyful, oh, I can still picture it so clearly in my mind and I absolutely adored it.

My idea for the Starbright colour palette was to create a background of deep blues as a nod to the dark winter skies, then light up those blues with all the bright shades that exist in my memory of childhood Christmases.

Lights in the dark if you like. 

You can see my colours here - heavy on the blues because I wanted that feeling of cosy nights and clear starry skies. I added in some greens for the evergreens and trees that we associate with christmas, and then a handful of festive brights to really bring the whole idea to life. Taking these rich, bright shades and setting them against the deep blues of a starry night sky makes this a blanket full of Winter Magic.

As is usual for my blankets, I've chose fifteen shades of Stylecraft Special DK for my Starbright blanket

Top row :

♥ Gold ♥  Magenta ♥  Fuchsia Purple ♥  Pomegranate ♥  Lipstick ♥

Middle row :

♥ Apple ♥ Kelly Green ♥ Empire ♥ Teal ♥ Bottle ♥

Bottom row :

♥ Turquoise ♥ Aster ♥  Lapis ♥ Lobelia ♥ French Navy ♥

You can find the Starbright yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse, click on the following link...

STARBRIGHT YARN PACK 

There is a whole backstory to the Starbright blanket design which I won't bore you with - suffice to say I went through a LOT of failure to get to the blanket that I'm showing you today. Stacks of samples and partly made and abandoned squares. A whole ginormous, massive HEAP of really wrong colour decisions resulting in three months of work being thrown in the bin (literally - the whole lot went in the kitchen bin). I started again from scratch with a fresh bag of yarn - the above photo was taken on 22nd July on the first day of our summer holiday in Northumberland when I was just about to start Starbright V2.

I'm very happy with the square pattern I designed -  a star in the centre, radiating out into simple v-stitch rounds. I wanted the square to have something of a vintage bauble look, and the zig-zag of the v-stitch reminds me of those concertina foil garlands, do you know the ones I mean?

I planned to start each square with a jolly bright centre and finish with some of the darker blue shades - I was trying to create something that described lights shining out into the dark.

The above plate was my summer holiday crochet - eighty one little starry centres.

The stars soon turned into baubles.....

....and on through the weeks of summer I turned the baubles into colourful squares.

The above photo shows the squares with the first three colours complete (there are 6 colours for each square).

I really, really love seeing a blanket journey evolve like this, it's such a thrill to have this idea inside my head and to witness it literally come to life in front of my eyes.

You'll notice that at this point, all the squares are very colourful as I've kept the darker blues to be used in the outer rounds.

The squares continued to grow....

.....and grow.....

....and grow, until they were at the stage where they were ready to join.

Now this is where the hard work really starts - it's really hard to explain to you just how difficult this process can be, and what a humongous amount of concentration and creative vision it takes to make these colour decisions on the fly.

Using the join-as-you-go method means that I need to try and imagine what the joining colours are going to look like before I actually make them. I also need to do things like make sure I use each colour an equal number of times, and separate squares that are too samey...so many decisions to make. My method is to use the floor, and make little yarn twists to represent the colour of the joining round. I place the yarn twists alongside each square, trying to balance the colour placement, and making sure that I can visualise them working. It's hard! Reeeeeeally hard!!

But I go forth with confidence, joining, joining, joining, and hoping and praying that it's going to look as good in real life as it does inside my head.

I work out from the centre because I'm trying to move the joining rounds from light to dark. Lighter in the centre and radiating out to the darker blues and greens around the outside.

The kitty oversees all decision making and work in progress, testing the quality of my workmanship at all times.

It's worth mentioning that it's inevitable that I make colour mistakes with this process, and so I leave all my joining tail ends dangling in case I need to perform surgery. I think I frogged out four squares in total, removing them completely, remaking them with better colours and then joining them back in again.

Finally, I had joined all 81 squares (they are arranged in a 9 x 9 format for this blanket) and began the task of darning in those dangling ends. Luckily for me I was at the café with friends while I tackled this bit so it wasn't too painful, but in normal circumstances crocheting a square blanket, I would always, always darn my ends in as I go.

I LOVE the join-as-you-go method and have used it in most of my square blanket designs. It's so neat and means that the blanket comes together pretty quickly.

So shall I give you a few numbers to roll around in your mind?

81 squares in total. 

6 colours in each square. No two squares are the same, they are all different.

That makes 486 colour decisions in these squares......and I am SO PROUD of it!!!!!

The border keeps the v-stitch design and is worked in the darker shades of blues and greens. This creates a  grounding framework around the squares and settles the whole design down a bit - those squares are pretty rowdy and shouty and need a bit of calming.

The little red border at the end was a last minute decision and I love the way it adds a final zing of joyful spirit.

Ahhhh.........it really is more than a little bit lovely.

As always, as soon as I darned in the last end, the blanket was put into use. My blankets don't get folded up and put away, no, no, they get to become a part of family life right from the start. It quickly became a firm favourite with the Little People and I can't tell you how happy it makes me when I see my blankets being used and loved by my family.

Oh - I took this photo yesterday and wanted to show you - I held my blanket up to the window to let the light shine through to highlight the stitch pattern. Isn't it lovely? I really like how the stars look like they are shining.

Miss Tilly didn't wait a second to road test the newly completed blanket - she was literally on it in an instant, as soon as it touched down on the sofa. I love the way cats just assume you are spreading out a blanket for their personal comfort and use. That look on her face that says well of course you made this just for me, I expect nothing less!

I want to show you how the whole blanket looks now, so you can see the play of light and dark, and the shine of the colours out from the centre.....

............TA-DAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am immensely proud of this blanket, it has proven to be a real challenge for me with my depleted concentration levels and not an easy make by any means. I mean, the actual crochet bit was easy-peasy, but the endless decision making was not. 

But just look at it - isn't it a beauty??

I honestly adore it, and part of me can't believe I actually designed and made it. I did it! And I love it and I'm so bloomin' proud of it.

So. STARBRIGHT. It's done and I love it, and now I'd love you to love it too.

There is of course the yarn pack which contains 15 balls of yarn as well as a 12 page A4 printed pattern.

STARBRIGHT YARN PACK AND PRINTED PATTERN

You will need a 4mm hook as standard, but you can go bigger or smaller if you know your crochet tension. I think this pattern looks and feels better if it's kept on the tighter side.

The join-as-you-go method is written into the printed pattern, but there is also a full photo tutorial here on my blog to help you along with it.

STARBRIGHT TUTORIAL

I often get asked if my patterns are suitable for beginners, and with Starbright I'd say that yes, it's a good one for adventurous beginners to try. The actual stitches are easy (mostly just UK trebles and chains), but you do need to be able to hold a good, even tension, and you do need to concentrate with making squares!

And then of course we have the ends to deal with. Please don't groan......darning in ends is all part of the blanket making journey, and I'd really like you to adjust your mindset when it comes to tucking those ends away. Think of it like this - you are darning love into your blanket with every colour change, and ensuring that it becomes an heirloom that will stand the test of time. My method is to darn as soon as I snip, NO EXCUSES. Scissors and needle stay together, and as soon as I cut that yarn, I thread it straight onto my needle and darn. it takes just a few seconds. Seconds. It's not an endless, thankless task if you do it this way.

STARBRIGHT STRIPES

Now I know that not everyone loves squares like I do, and some of you would prefer to work on a striped blanket where you have an easy run of it up and down those long rows. I hear you - I love the ease of stripes too, and the way that they provide a really therapeutic and mindful crochet experience. So last week I worked up a sampler to see how these bright winter colours would look as a stripe. OH. MY. GOODNESS. I hadn't been expecting to fall head over heels in love, but unexpectedly it happened.

I knew as soon as I took the above photo that I would be making my own striped blanket. I mean look.......

......WOW!!!!! This is my skinny sampler which has 105 rows. It's how I like to sample a stripe blanket so that I know for sure the colours are going to balance and play nice with each other.

It's safe to say that these colours together are powerful - this is going to be a power-stripe! It's rich and vibrant and joyful, if a little bit on the boisterous side. Gosh, I do love it.

I started out on my next blanket journey as soon as I'd finished my sampler, I couldn't wait to get going.

I'm using the same v-stitch as I used for the Starbright squares and the border - it's a simple v-stitch which is compact and doesn't have chain spaces, so it makes a nice dense crochet fabric. I'm working two rows of colour for each stripe so it's not quite so zig-zaggy, but half the number of ends to darn in. I just couldn't face one-row stripes.

This pattern is very, very, very easy, so there won't be a photo tutorial for it, just the written pattern. Of course you don't have to use the v-stitch if you don't want to. I have twelve other stripe patterns to choose from, so if stripes are calling to you, then choose whichever pattern pleases you the most.

Click on the following link for the V-stitch pattern >>

V-STITCH PATTERN

The graphic below shows the 105 stripes I made in my sampler, it really is going to make a glorious blanket. 

Now depending on which stripe pattern you choose, each pattern will have a different number of stripes (because the height of each stripe pattern varies). I'm going to aim for 99 stripes for my v-stitch to make my blanket 175cm long. You can choose to make as many stripes as you have yarn for, in whichever pattern tickles your fancy.

Here is a run down of my stripe patterns, and the suggested number of stripes to make a 6ft length.

♥ Starbright v-stitch :: 99 stripes

♥ Neat Wave :: 115 stripes (as used in the Moorland Blanket)

♥ Woodland Ripple :: 105 stripes 

♥ Seashell Stripe :: 100 stripes (as used in the Dune blanket)

♥ Spike Stitch :: 99 stripes (as used in the Dahlia blanket)

♥ Springfrost Stripe :: 95 stripes

♥ Cosy Stripe :: 90 stripes

♥ Granny Stripe :: 90 stripes

♥ Meadow Stripe :: 90 stripes

♥ Hydrangea Stripe :: 88 stripes

♥ Neat Ripple :: 84 stripes

♥ Easy Eyelet Ripple :: 84 stripes (as used in the Harbour blanket)

♥ Trellis Stripe :: 84 stripes (as used in the Sweet Pea blanket)

I hope this pattern/stripe info is helpful - all patterns (including starting chains etc) are in my sidebar in the usual place, I expect you will already be familiar with many of them and will have a favourite.

I made a worksheet for you so that you have the exact colour order that I'm using for my stripes. Click on the following link to download/print.

STARBRIGHT STRIPE WORKSHEET 

There are 105 stripes listed on the worksheet, but obviously depending on which pattern you choose, do remember to stop when your blanket reaches the length that you want!

The other thing I've done is make up a sampler with the Starbright colours ordered into a sequence which loosely follows the colour wheel. I think this repeating stripe would make a fantastic blanket and if you like the look of it, here is the order (from bottom to top) :

1. Aster
2. Turquoise
3. Empire
4. Bottle
5. Kelly Green
6. Apple
7. Gold
8. Magenta
9. Pomegranate
10. Fuchsia Purple
11. Lipstick
12. Lapis
13. French Navy
14. Teal
15. Lobelia

You can see how different the same fifteen colours can look when they are ordered differently. I much prefer the higgeldy-piggeldy energised version on the left, but I can also see the appeal of the calmer, more ordered colourwash version on the right.

If you like the idea of making a colourwash blanket, I created a worksheet for that too. It has 99 stripes, so would be suitable for a shorter stitch pattern like the v-stitch, or the seashell (Dune) or Springfrost stripes would also work well.

STARBRIGHT COLOURWASH WORKSHEET 

Well, I think that's all for now. Thank you so much for reading all about Starbright, I hope you enjoyed the colourful visuals and a little peek into my creative working process.

STARBRIGHT YARN PACK

STARBRIGHT TUTORIAL

V-STITCH PATTERN

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The Bouquet Cushion :: Ta-dah!

A cardboard box containing fifty eight dinky little balls of yarn in a mouth watering palette of colours. I wonder what passes through your mind when you look at the photo above? Does your heart beat just that little bit faster? Do you start to immediately imagine all the things you could make with those delicious little balls of temptation? Or do you just like to gaze at the colours and sigh with pleasure? For me, it's all of the above. Plenty of contented sighing for sure, but also a fountain of ideas which does indeed make my heart skip a beat or two. So. Much. Potential!!

In case you've not come across this collection of yarn before, let me fill you in. It's a mixture of two popular yarns by the Dutch brand Scheepjes and the yarns are called Stone Washed and River Washed. They are a neat mixture of cotton and acrylic (it's a 78/22% blend, so feels very much like a super-soft cotton with a slightly woolly feel). Both balls come as standard 50g balls which you can find at retailers who stock Scheepjes yarn, and this box contains miniature versions of every colour available.

The balls are quite weeny as there is only 10g of yarn wrapped up here, but as that equates to approximately 26m in length it goes a surprisingly long way. I can tell you that it's wonderful to crochet with, a real delight. It's soft and works up quickly, and the blended nature of each shade means that it's perfection for any type of colour work.

At this point, I should explain that I bought this box of yarn with a very specific project in mind - it was to be used as the starting point for a retreat workshop that I was going to be teaching in the south of France. When I teach these kind of retreats, I like to give the guests a decent palette of colours to work with so that I can include colour theory and planning as part of the creative process. And the project? Well, for this retreat I decided on a circular cushion cover which essentially gave us two large circles to crochet - plenty of opportunity for colour play.

The pattern I settled on is a larger adaptation of the Yuletide Mandala and as you can see it's a super design for colour work. For the centre of the cushion front I deliberately wanted to focus on colour blending to create a soft, graduated circle of colour. I chose to use shades of blue (above), but I also crocheted some alternatives to demonstrate how to use the colour wheel when choosing which shades to blend...

....on the left I blended yellow, greens and turquoise, and on the right I blended orange, reds and purples.

The idea was to create a centre for the cushion that would act as a soft, blended background for some extra decoration.

This is my finished front - a blend of cool blues for the centre, then a jolly mixture of random brights to bring it all to life.

Once the front was finished and I'd written down the pattern and made sure all the maths was working for each round, I immediately made a start on the cushion back. I was in a frenzy of colour bliss working up these bright and cheery rounds...such fun to crochet!

Ooooooooo, isn't it lush? I love love love how the second circle turned out....

....and here they both are together. Eeeeep, such happy crochet!!

I think I used around 40 different colours in total, just in case you were wondering.

Now, remember how I mentioned that the blended blues on the front would have some added decoration? Well, of course it had to be flowers. Yes, a cute little bouquet of pretty blooms!

I designed some new flowers especially for this project, and I think they turned out beautifully.

I hadn't really planned how to arrange them at this point, I just made a collection of flowers, leaves and berries that I thought would work well together and took my time playing with them.

The long tail ends are left on purpose as they are used to stitch the flowers to the cushion....

....which was a really enjoyable part of the process for me. I do love a bit of quiet, mindful stitching from time to time.

Let me show you how it looks once everything has been stitched in place.....

....ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Look how pretty!!

I tried to keep the flower arrangement from being too symmetrical which is harder than you might think. I wanted it to look a little bit random somehow, as if I'd just picked a posy from the garden and plopped them into a little jug.

The cushion measures around 40cm across, and the joining method includes a very cleaver button closure so that you can pop a cushion pad inside and remove the cover for washing in future. It took me aaaaaaaaaages to work out how to do this, and I'm so chuffed with how it worked out!

I used small 10mm clear buttons which sit neatly in between the two scalloped edging layers. So happy with the neatness of it!

I ordered a 45cm round pad to fill out my cushion and make it all plump (from Amazon here) and I was really excited to take the Bouquet Cushion all the way to France for its official moment of ta-dah-ness.

This is the reverse which turned out so bright and jolly.......

....and here is the floral front which honestly I love so, so much. Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!

Getting to photograph it in the beautiful hotel garden was such a pleasure - the clarity of light in the south of France is something special I can tell you.

I was in France for a week with a group of super-lovely ladies, twelve guests in total. We had four days dedicated to crochet and I don't mind telling you that I was a little bit nervous on that first morning. Nobody had seen my cushion at that point, and the yarn was a surprise too.....eeeek.....I hoped with all my heart that they would like the project and would be happy about being colour designers.

In my next post I'll share my retreat experience with you, so you can see how I took this project from the Attic to Carcassonne, and what the ladies made of my design. Hint- it was WONdeRfUL!!

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ps a little note about the pattern - I created the Bouquet Cushion as an exclusive project especially for the retreat. And so for the time being it will remain with the ladies who came with me to France and won't be published online. Thank you for your understanding x

 

 

The Fireside Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Good morning! If you want to go and grab a Fireside yarn pack, here is the link to Wool Warehouse >>

FIRESIDE YARN PACK

Please do read on if you'd like to find out more about the blanket design and drink in lots of colour!

I've been crocheting with Stylecraft yarns for over twelve years now, and this is the first time I was tempted to abandon my beloved Special DK to try something different. For those of you who don't know this particular yarn, it's called Highland Heathers DK which is a premium acrylic yarn with a rich depth of colour. The colour palette is heavily inspired by nature, so the shades are quite earthy and natural with a few brighter surprises to lift the overall tone and stop it from becoming too dreary.

I was very excited to try it out as I'd heard nothing but good things about it in the few years since it launched, and a warm, snuggly blanket for Autumn seemed like the perfect project for it.

Sadly, this yarn is a bit camera shy so it's hard to get a good photograph which shows off the true lushness of the colours. You have to trust me when I tell you it is absolutely BEAuTiFUL. The "heathered" look is created by heavily blending several shades together giving them a subtle tweeded effect, and it really is lovely.

The yarn itself is also slightly more floofsy than Special DK and it has a really soft, slightly fuzzy appearance. I think the technical word is "halo" - yes, this yarn definitely carries a halo, in that there are teeny, fine fibres all along the surface of the strand which really help to add to the soft, blended appearance.

Because this yarn is a little more expensive, I opted to make a smaller sized blanket so that I could create a neat palette of a dozen colours.

Twelve balls (100g of each colour) is enough to make a blanket measuring approximately 120cm square.

The Fireside colours from left to right...

♥ Tayberry ♥ Whiskey ♥ Lichen ♥ Loch ♥ 

♥ Thrift ♥ Marmalade ♥ Gorse ♥ Firth ♥ 

♥ Thistle ♥ Heather ♥ Bracken ♥ Cairn ♥ 

You can find the Fireside yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse, click on the link below...

FIRESIDE YARN PACK*

*the yarn pack contains a 16 page full colour A4 printed pattern

I've been lucky enough to work with Wool Warehouse for over eight years now, and they continue to do such a fantastic job of sending my yarn packs out all over the world. They are lovely, lovely people too - a young family business, run by folks who genuinely love their customers and want nothing more than to make everyone happy.

You probably already know that I earn a small commission on each pack sold through my shop, so I want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for supporting me in this way. I am extremely grateful, thank you, thank you.

Also, you know I always publish my patterns here on my blog for free, but in addition to the online tutorial I've created, there is a 16 page full colour A4 printed pattern included in the Fireside yarn pack. Yes sixteen pages! 

The design for the Fireside blanket came together very slooowly over many weeks of sampling. I opted to combine some ideas from previous blankets that I've made - I think I was maybe searching for some familiar comfort, something that would bring me back to my roots so to speak. So you may well recognise the look of the fireside squares because they are very similar to the ones I designed for my Summer Garden throw. And you might also think that the layout looks familiar too, because I made a blanket many years ago which combined two different sized squares (the Sweet Flower granny).

Having said all that about wanting comfort and familiarity, this blanket journey was NOT especially comfortable! I spent a lot of time in the sampling stage (way more than usual), and then once I was about a third of the way through I realised it wasn't working out as it should and it then spent an extended period (almost three months) in the naughty corner. Eventually I decided that the only thing I could do would be to start all over again, so that is exactly what I did. And do you know, from that point on it was an absolute, total pleasure.

The centre rounds of any square design can often feel a little bit fiddlesome, so my preferred method is to crochet them all at once and get them done and dusted. If you would like to do the same with your own Fireside blanket, then here are the numbers for you :

5 of each : Loch : Thrift

6 of each : Bracken : Firth : Gorse : Lichen : Tayberry : Thistle : Whisky

7 of each : Cairn : Marmalade : Heather

There should be 73 little circles  in total which form the first round of each square.

As part of my design process I also needed to make all of the round-two circles in one go too. This was mainly to make sure that I used all twelve colours evenly, but they are also very photogenic arranged like this, aren't they? It's not necessary for you to do it this way, although of course you could if you wished.

Turning circles into squares is very easy and a little bit magic. I deliberately selected contrasting colours  so that the circles would stand out against their backgrounds.

I really like to join blanket squares using the join-as-you-go method where you use joining slip stitches as part of the final crochet round of each square. It's a wonderful, fast method which allows you to see your blanket grow as you work. I explain the technique in full in the tutorial, but if you really don't like joining in this way then it's perfectly OK to stitch your squares together instead.

I'm in my element here, working steadily away, making colour choices on the fly and designing the colour placement pretty much as I go along. In the above photo I'm away by the sea in Saltburn, spending many blissful hours listening to music and hooking those little circles into squares.

Home again - it's mid July now and I'm about half way through the joining process now. This is my favourite kind of design work as it's all about the colour balance and is a really delicious challenge for a colour-addict like me. 

I'm almost at the end of the joining now, and Tilly is on hand to inspect my work and make sure the yarn is pulling correctly. Whatever would I do without her?!

YAY!!!!!!! All the squares have been joined now, and I'm super happy with how it's looking. It's time to design the border, and I spend a long while working on samples and deciding on the order of the colours. I know the border is going to be big and wide and will use all twelve shades and I'm majorly excited about getting stuck into those long, soothing granny rounds.

We went off on a summer holiday at the very end of July and it was lovely to have the border to work on while I was away. Because I'd already made all the colour and design decisions, it was pure, hooky bliss! We stayed in a small fisherman's cottage which had a beautiful, sunny enclosed garden full of flowering shrubs and potted geraniums. I spent most afternoons sat there with my crochet on my lap, drifting in and out of seasidey daydreams as my hook did it's thing.

I also took the Fireside blanket to the beach, well of course I did. We were staying in a very special place - the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland - and this quiet beach was just a few minutes walk from the holiday cottage.

I was absolutely living my best life during this week - oh, happy, happy, happy me!

Every day we would head to the beach in the evening to watch the sun set - it's around 8.30pm in the above photo. I would settle on a bench with my hooky while J and Little B went off to beach comb for sea treasures. So many happy summer memories stitched into the border of this blanket, which I hope will carry me through the cold months to come.

I made twenty-one rounds of granny stitch for the border, nice and wide to frame the squares.

And then a final round of dainty little scallops just to add a delicate finishing touch. In the above photo I had just made the very last slip stitch and knew that the blanket was finished. Such an odd feeling - huge joy in finishing up a project that has spanned many months, but also an acute feeling of loss too. Bitter sweet indeed.

I really, really LOVE the border and it does its job so well. It holds the squares in place, keeps them from looking chaotic and disorderly. It brings a calming finish to the whole blanket and allows the colour palette to sing.

Surprisingly for a blanket made up of squares, there wasn't really any need to block it as it looked wonderfully smooth and neat. But I think blocking is a lovely way to finish off a blanket journey and well worth the effort, so I did treat my Fireside blanket to a little spa treatment (blocking advice is given in the tutorial).

SO would you like to see it?

OK..........here it is.............

........................ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so, so happy with how it turned out, and absolutely ADORE it. The colours are really rich in real life (the photos really don't do it justice) and the blanket is warm, soft, cosy and snuggly - everything a blanket should be.

I really hope you love it as much as I do.

At the weekend I quickly worked up a stripe sample using all twelve colours arrange in a rainbow order. I'm calling it a "heathered rainbow" which I think is quiet poetic?! I used the super-squishy Hydrangea Stripe pattern for my sample, but if you wanted to make a striped blanket you could of course use any of my existing patterns.

I'm going to be working on a random stripe order during the next few days as I've already had many requests for this on social media. I'll share more stripy info in a separate blog post at the weekend for those of you who prefer stripes to squares.

Going back to the Heathered Rainbow - I followed the exact colour order on this lovely wooden shade card, made by my friend Veronica. You can buy these lovely birch wood cards via Etsy, they are brilliant for keeping a record of colours, and for reference while you are making your blankets. In the Fireside palette for example, the two blues (Loch and Firth) can look very similar, so it's really useful to be able to check which is which!

(wooden birch shade cards can be purchased via Simply Shade Cards on Etsy)

Thank you also to Jo for adding in yarn tassels for me especially for my photograph (I have the nicest friends you know)

Since I finished making my blanket in early August I've had plenty of time to get acquainted with it and I'm happy to report that it lives up to its cosy, homely name. 

It's ever so warm, and at 4ft square it's the perfect size for a generous lap blanket, or to fold in half and wrap around your shoulders like an oversized shawl. I've been doing  both on a daily basis because we've had an unexpectedly cold snap as we've come to the end of the Summer season.

I named the blanket "Fireside" as I wanted it to feel cosy and comforting, the kind of feeling you get when you are snuggled up warm at home on a chilly day. The colours really do give off that cosy warm vibe I think, so even if you don't have a real fire to enjoy, I'm sure you can still take comfort from this lovely blanket.

As always, I've worked hard to create a very full, in depth  tutorial to help you make the Fireside blanket. It contains LOTS of photos which explain the join-as-you-go technique and guides you through the whole process from start to finish. My hope is that it will enable beginners to have the confidence to give this project a go, it's my mission to help absolutely everyone find the joy in making blankets! 

Here is the link >>

FIRESIDE BLANKET TUTORIAL

If stripes are more your thing, then make sure to check back here at the weekend and I'll have some samples to show you and some guidance about yarn quantities, patterns and sizing etc.

Well I think that's about all the Fireside chat for now, I hope you've enjoyed a peek behind the scenes into my creative process and have enjoyed seeing my blanket journey take shape.

Thank you as ever for your enthusiasm and support of my work, it really does mean the world. THANK YOU!!!

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Here are a few useful links >>

♥ FIRESIDE YARN PACK (includes a 16 page full colour printed pattern)

♥ FIRESIDE TUTORIAL

♥ FIRESIDE WORKSHEET DOWNLOAD

 

Yuletide Blanket :: Ta-dah!

The inspiration for the Yuletide blanket came to me in a flash one day when I was noodling over the idea of trying to make something Christmassy. I am probably in the minority here but I'm not a real lover of Christmas time - for me personally I much prefer to celebrate the turning of the seasons, with the Winter Solstice being more meaningful to me than anything religious. And so the idea of designing a Yuletide blanket began to take shape - a blanket that celebrates all that is cosy and seasonal about this time of year. In my mind I began thinking of clementines, gingerbread, spices and mulled wine. Candlelight, fairy lights and a crackling open fire. Pine, holly, ivy, eucalyptus and berries. These are the colours, scents and tastes of the Yuletide season for me and provided a rich source of creative inspiration. Oh, I really fell down a deep and delicious Pinterest hole when I was conducting my Very Important Yuletide Research. I gathered some of my favourite images into the collage above, and immediately my heart was invested.

 

 

As all this inspiration gathering was happening earlier in the year in spring, I had to work hard to get into the spirit of winter. I went out on a woodland walk and gathered in some ivy and small pine branches. I have eucalyptus growing in my back yard, and a quick shopping spree on eBay delivered me some dried orange slices and star anise (which smells heavenly). I was slowly beginning to build a Yuletide colour palette inside my Creative Mind, and after a LOT of faffery I ended up with 12 deliciously seasonal colours.....

This is of course my favourite go-to yarn for blanket making, Stylecraft Special DK. I chose a mixture of reds and greens for seasonal foliage, with some golden warmth added in to represent the orange slices, spices and firelight.

Top row :

♥ Burgundy ♥ Tomato ♥ Gingerbread ♥ Bottle ♥ 

Middle row :

♥ Claret x 2 ♥ Gold ♥ Cypress ♥ Teal ♥ 

Bottom row :

♥ Lipstick  x 2 ♥ Camel ♥ Sage ♥ Kelly Green x 2 ♥ 

The Yuletide yarn pack contains 15 x 100g balls of Stylecraft Special DK (12 colours, with 3 of them doubled up). You can click on the following link to find the yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse...

YULETIDE YARN PACK

My friends at Wool Warehouse do a wonderful job of sending my yarn packs out all over the world, and I am so thankful to them for making this happen with such efficiency. They are a genuinely lovely family owned business and they work incredibly hard making sure that our yarny community is provided for. You probably already know that I earn a small commission on each pack sold through my shop, so I want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for supporting me in this way. I am unbelievably grateful.

Also, you know I always publish my patterns here on my blog for free, but in addition to my online tutorial there is an 8 page full colour A4 printed pattern included in the Yuletide yarn pack. 

Back to the colours....ahhh, there they are look, all stacked up and looking very lush and Yuletide-ish. I always like to make squares with my blanket colours before I embark on the actual blanket making as it gives me a great overview of the palette and helps me to become familiar with how they are playing together. Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate Little Lady's beautifully painted co-ordinating claret nails? She made a very good hand model I have to say.

I adore the Yuletide colours ordered in a pleasing colourwash like this, and I had an idea that some of you might perhaps want to make a colourwash striped blanket in future? Just in case that idea appeals, here is the colour list for the order shown above >>

1. Burgundy
2. Claret
3. Lipstick
4. Tomato
5. Gingerbread
6. Gold
7. Camel
8. Cypress
9. Sage
10. Kelly Green
11. Teal
12. Bottle

It occurred to me a little while ago that not everyone likes to make squares, so I'm also planning to work on a random stripe order for the Yuletide yarn pack. That way you could use one of my existing striped blanket designs with the Yuletide colour pack and hook away to your hearts content. I'm sorry I haven't had chance to do this before now, I just ran out of time. I'll post the stripe order here on my blog later in the week.

I began working on the Yuletide blanket back in April after a LOT of pattern sampling. I'm so happy with the design that I created especially for this blanket, it makes great use of the colour contrasts in this palette and is an absolute pleasure to crochet.

The pattern uses all UK treble stitches so it is beautifully rhythmic and speedy to work up. There is just enough thought needed to prevent boredom setting in, but the pattern repeats are simple enough to provide that essential relaxation factor. It's important to me that my designs are kept simple enough for beginners to feel confident to give them a go, so I always aim to keep the stitch pattern very straightforward. The real skill comes in the colour play, and that's something I am particularly good at - I can make even the simplest of patterns look pretty darn lovely because of the way I bring the colours together.

Of course even I make mistakes - this pattern relies heavily on using colour contrasts so that the spike stitches create little heart shapes in the rows. I didn't always get this right and had to frog back rows which weren't working, but it was always worth the extra time and effort to make those hearts pop out. They're cute, eh?

I worked steadily on my blanket through early summer - it had many outings to the café where I could hook up those long soothing rounds whilst chatting to friends and drinking coffee.

I took it with me to celebrate "Worldwide Knit in Public Day" (believe it or not I'm sat with around 30 other knitters and crocheters in the above photo, but we were socially distanced so I look like I'm all on my lonesome. I promise you I was in great company).

But mostly, summertime crochet took place in my back yard, and I discovered the joy of hooking with my feet up (literally) when my new sun lounger arrived. Oh.....the pleasure was off the scale!

Having never crocheted a giant square blanket before, I have to tell you that I was very quickly in love with the process. Once the first dozen or so rounds were out the way, the crochet rhythm was a delight. And the bigger the square became, the more I was able to lose myself in those lengthening rounds. Bigger rounds means less stopping and starting (and less darning in of ends) and as a result I think this was one of the most relaxing blankets I've ever made. 

Awww.......I see hearts !!! Do you like the way this stripe pattern works?

I hooked up 78 rounds in total for the Yuletide blanket, then set about creating a border to add a  calming effect to the outer edge.

I kept it very simple, using a combination of plain red and green rows to balance out the slight busy-ness of the stripes.

I couldn't quite believe it when I'd finished the blanket and laid it out for the very first time. It measured a very satisfying 150cm square and when I was able to get a good look at it as a whole (instead of glimpsing it all folded up in my lap while I crocheted it) I fell head over heels in love with it. Head. Over. Heels.

It had been hard for me to visualise the effect of this stitch pattern over a large area as I was working on the rounds - like I say, I've never made a huge square before. It really is absolutely stunning I have to say and the scale of it makes it something really special. 

I had been a little worried about the "twisting" tendencies of giant crochet squares, but in the end after 78 rounds there was only a very, very slight twist to the centre of my blanket. I think the spike stitches help to keep everything aligned and I'm happy with how it turned out.

The overall square shape was a little out of whack after I'd finished crocheting, but I knew that blocking would easily take care of it. I washed my blanket on a 30 degree wash, then while it was still damp from the washing machine I spread it out on the Attic carpet and stretched it out gently until it was beautifully square and straight. I left it to completely dry for a good 24 hours and then the following day, this happened....................

 ..............ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't it rather fabulous?!

Like I say, head over heels in love.

Love love love love love it, with hearts in my eyes.

A few weeks ago when I started working on the printed pattern which is included in the Yuletide yarn pack, I realised I would need a suitable photo for the front cover. I decided it would be fun to pull together some props and conduct a little amateur product styling. I purchased a couple of red pillar candles and some juicy clementines, then went gathering in the greenery. I used the lovely little copper wire lights that usually hang along the mantel, and then finally I lit the fire. It felt a bit odd to light the fire so early in the season but it was a cool afternoon and it certainly did help deliver some cosy Yuletide spirit.

After a lot of creative faffing I ended up with a few photos that I was happy with - if you buy the yarn pack, you'll be able to see the front cover of the pattern and let me know what you think.

As you know, I always like to make a full tutorial to support my patterns with the hope that any newbie crocheters out there will feel confident to give it a go. I think this is a good pattern for beginners to try - the spike stitches take a little bit of getting used to (mainly due to needing a good control of yarn tension) but it really is just UK trebles so the pattern is easy to learn.

I suggest in the tutorial that you work up the first 6 rounds (2 pattern repeats) to get the hang of the way the design works and to check out your sizing and tension - if you're happy with your square after six rounds then you can carry on and make it as big as you like. You can find the tutorial in the usual place over in my left hand side bar, or click on the following link to go straight there >>

YULETIDE TUTORIAL

At the end of the photo tutorial I typed out a traditional pattern - this can be copied and pasted into a word document so that you can save it/print it if you wish.

My little furry assistant was on hand to help with the photography, of course she was. I think she couldn't believe her luck when the blanket was draped and arranged just so, providing her with the perfect fireside spot. I always make a big song and dance about not lighting the fire until Proper Autumn arrives and it's truly chilly enough to need it, but secretly I adored having the cosy warmth of those flames on a dull afternoon in early September. Just don't tell J. Speaking of the husbundo, I have to thank him for working with me on the printed pattern and the worksheet as well - as part of the tutorial you can download a worksheet which lists the colours to help you stay on track with your rounds. He also made me this.......

Yuletide graphic very cleverly made by J ♥

......which I think is rather spectacular. He's a clever so and so.

Well I think that's about all I need to say for now, I hope you've enjoyed this little slice of early festive celebration. Thank you as ever for your enthusiasm and support around my creative projects, I really do appreciate it very. very much.

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Here are the links again for the pattern and yarn kit, and the colour worksheet too....

♥ YULETIDE YARN PACK (contains a full colour printed pattern)

♥ YULETIDE TUTORIAL

♥ YULETIDE COLOUR WORKSHEET

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Festive Garland :: Ta-dah!

Finally!!!! It's only taken me a year to share the making of this garland with you, a year almost exactly to the very day. In fact, if I had waited until tomorrow to dance my ta-dah moment then it would have been exactly a year on the nose - how about that? It seems that this particular week in December is full of creative fun in the Attic, and I'm really excited to how you how this Festive Garland took shape.

Firstly, lets chat about my colour palette. I used a collection of bright, jolly "Quality Street" colours which are a nostalgic reminder of many childhood Christmases - these are all oddments of Stylecraft Special DK. I adore these colours so so much, they are full of Christmas spirit for me, and the joyful exuberance of them makes me really happy. Of course you can use any colour combinations you like  - traditional red, gold and green, or maybe a winter palette of frosty blues? Or how about a simple Scandi red and white colour scheme?

For reference, here are my own festive colour choices as shown above :

Top row : Plum : Bright Pink : Magenta : Lapis : (Ricorumi Silver lamé)

Middle row : Kelly Green : Grass Green : Spearmint : Turquoise : Empire

Bottom row : Lipstick : Tomato : Spice : Mustard : Gold

As you can imagine, I had lots of fun playing with the colours as I was crocheting the baubles, especially selecting the first two colours. Rounds 1 and 2 need to have a high contrast with each other, and you can see in the photo above how I chose the colours to create the maximum amount of "pop". Turquoise on red, bright pink on teal, green on mustard. YUM!!

Such a delicious array of colours, couldn't you just eat them up?!

You'll notice that I've left especially long tail ends - with the start and end of each round I made sure to leave a 15cm tail dangling. When the crochet is finished, these ten tails will be carefully darned through the rounds of stitches to form the tassel....

....see what I mean?? It takes a little time, but it's a really neat method. 

Once all the ends are darned into place, you can simply steam them straight, twist and knot them, then trim to size.

Neat eh?? 

As a final finishing touch, I stitched little golden stars in the centre of each bauble to add a weeny bit of festive sparkle.

These tassel baubles turned out even better than I had imagined inside my (very messy but quite brilliant) Creative Mind. When I set out to create a project I can usually already visualise it really clearly inside my mind. It's almost like looking at a photograph, which forever amazes me and I am extremely lucky to have this ability I think. I don't take it for granted as it doesn't always work out, but with these cute little decs, well, they turned out just beautifully. 

You might also remember these Teeny Tiny Stars I made last year? I shared the simple pattern for them here on my blog and you can find it in the usual place, or click ((HERE)).

I used the same bright palette of colours and crocheted 24 of these little stars, to sit in between the 12 bauble decorations.

As this is a Festive Garland I decided to add a bit of sparkle and use silver lamé yarn to crochet the connecting chain.

I placed one star at each end with two stars in between each bauble and it was a fast process to connect everything together once I'd decided on the colour placement. The crochet motifs are simply attached with a slip stitch, and separated by chains, it's ever so easy. I've explained it all in more detail within the tutorial.

Finally, I decided to add a little tinkle to the sparkle and bought some brightly coloured 10mm bells to finish the garland off. I tried various way of attaching them and in the end the only way I could make work was to tie short lengths of yarn to each bell, then tie the bells directly onto the crochet chain. It was a bit fiddly but not too bad (the fiddliest bit was threading the silver yarn through the tiiiiiiiiiiny hole at the top of each bell, gawd, it was so frustrating!)

I found the bells on Amazon ((HERE)), and there are also various plain silver and gold options on Amazon if you prefer something simpler.

I love that these bells actually tinkle! When I unpacked it from it's tissue paper this year, the garland made the most beautiful sound and I was utterly enchanted, honestly it doesn't take very much to make me happy.

So my bright, jolly, sparkly, tinkly Festive Garland is complete........................

...................Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's very me, don't you think?!

Of course I love love love love love it.

I loved it last year when I first hung it in place and I love it even more seeing it again this year.

As promised, I made a full tutorial for the Festive Garland - there are lots of photos to guide you through the making process, and there is also a PDF pattern that you can download/print as well.

You can find both by clicking on the following link >>

★ FESTIVE GARLAND TUTORIAL ★

I hope you like this colourful project, and that you might feel inspired to crochet a little festive happiness for your home. 

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Spring Garland :: Ta-dah!

photo credit : www.gardeningdirect.co.uk/

When I was thinking about making a Spring garland for my mantel, the very first flowers that came to mind were polyanthus. They are so cheery and uplifting and the bright mix and match colours are perfect for using up all those little scrappy left over bits of yarn from other projects.

Polyanthus flowers have very distinctive colouring in the centre which creates a little pointed star shape - this was not at all easy to recreate in crochet I can tell you! But after a lot of experimentation I came up with a simple but beautifully effective design, and I'm really happy with it.....

....awwww!!! I think they are really lovely and I promise you they are easy and quick to make. They are maybe a little fiddly to crochet at first but I find that's the case with most crochet flowers until you get into the zone with them, and then they fly off your hook at speed. And I do love a quick little flying project every once in a while, it's good for the soul.

I gathered together a colour palette left over from making the Sweet Pea and Dahlia blankets...

The greens are from the Sweet Pea palette :: Cypress, Pistachio and Meadow ( I did end up adding in Sage, Lincoln and the new and beautiful Apple green)

Then I've got Mustard, Saffron, Lemon and Cream.

Spice, Pomegranate, Shrimp, Boysenberry and Magenta make up the darker end of the floral palette.

Apricot, Fondant, Blush, Powder Pink and Clematis make up the lighter end (I added in Lavender too).

Once I'd finished all the faffing and finalised the design, my polyanthus flowers bloomed very quickly. Ten out of ten for satisfaction I'd say.

I made twenty flowers in total for my garland.

The leaves were a bit more laborious, especially as I decided on two for each flower, meaning forty in total. I confess I did get a bit fed up towards the end.

But just look how beeeeautiful they are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glorious, floral deliciousness.

Earlier this week I photographed the making process, and I've just finished writing it all up. There is my usual step-by-step photo-heavy tutorial as well as a simple one-page PDF pattern that you can download/print. Click on the following link to go to the tutorial page >>

🌸POLYANTHUS TUTORIAL🌸

As I mentioned in my post the other day, I've also been making some teensy little hawthorn blossoms to go along with the polyanthus. These are such easy flowers to make, a chain-4 ring, then all five petals worked in one easy round. As follows: 

Hawthorn Blossom Flower

Using Cream/White yarn, ch 4; sl st into 1^st ch to form a ring.

All stitches in round 1 are worked into the ring.

Round 1 : *ch 2; 1 tr; ch 2; sl st;

Repeat from * 4 more times; sl st into 1^st ch of beginning ch-2 to close the round; fasten off [5 petals]

Note : if you crochet over the tail end as you make each petal, you can give it a firm pull when you finish and close up the hole in the centre. Alternatively, you could use the magic ring method if you prefer.

Inspired by Kate of "Just Pootling" on instagram, I coloured in my flower centres using felt tip pens.

I LOVE how these turned out - I did a mixture of yellow with orange and yellow with lime green for the centres, and I do think they look very blossom-like. I made 21 for my garland.

And now with all the flowers and leaves made, it's time for the fun bit, yipppeeeee!!!

First I arranged the flowers in the order that I wanted to join them for my garland.

I chose Pistachio yarn to make my chain. To make the hanging loop, chain 12, then slip stitch into the 1st chain to form the loop (you darn in the tail end afterwards)

You need to work out how many chains you want between each flower and make it consistent along the length of the garland. I chained 8 between mine.

To attach a flower, have the working yarn at the back, then insert the hook through a single back loop at the top of a petal and make a slip stitch.

Use the same number of chains in between each flower.....

....and the same slip stitch method through single back loops to attach each flower.

After all the flower and leaf making, the actual garland making is turbo-charged and incredibly quick.

Ahhhhhh, it's happening!!!!! My garland is growing by the second!

Soon enough the end is in sight - time to make the other hanging loop. Chain an extra 12, then count back and slip stitch in the 12th chain from the hook. Easy peasy.

The excitement is real - the garland lies in a pretty heap and I absolutely can't wait to see it all stretched out.......

.................Oh!!! How very, very pretty and Springlike!! Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy with it, it's exactly what I could see inside my Creative Mind when I first decided to create a Spring garland.

And this is what it looks like in situ. It really brightens up our wooden fireplace and it makes me smile every time I walk into the room.

The little copper wire lights are set on a timer so that they come on in the late afternoon and switch themselves off after eight hours (so clever). I love the extra little bit of twinkle that they bring.

When I was making the hawthorn blossom I got a bit carried away and made too many. So I decided to add the extra ones to some little twigs on my mantel and the simplicity of it makes me so happy.

I'd love to hear if you decide to make yourself  a garland - I can promise you that it really does bring a lot of joy, both in the making and in the decorative faffery potential. Give it a go, you know resistance is futile!!

🌸POLYANTHUS TUTORIAL🌸

x

ps Do you remember my Autumn Garland?? I thought it would be fun to see them both together >>>

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Baby Bunting :: Ta-dah!

I can't tell you how happy I am to be sharing this project with you as it has simmered on my back burner for such an embarrassingly long time. I've lost count of the number of times it's been on my to-do list over the past few years, but anyhoooooo, it is here now and I'm super happy about it!

I created this bunting pattern quite a few years ago for Simply Crochet magazine (it appeared in issue 19; 2014). The original design was made of 12 triangles all in shades of blue - you can read more about it on my blog by clicking on the following link : ATTIC24 SUMMER BLUES BUNTING

I then went on to make an all pink version with the idea that they would make lovely gifts to decorate a baby's nursery or a child's bedroom. You can buy both blue and pink bunting kits in my shop at Wool Warehouse - each kit contains 4 x 100g Stylecraft Special DK, 13 cute little blue/pink spotty buttons and a printed pattern.

♥ BLUE BUNTING KIT ♥ 

♥ PINK BUNTING KIT ♥

I wonder if any of you recognise the colours above? This is yarn left over after I made my cupcake blanket in the Spring of 2016, aren't they pretty? I remember at the time that it was Easter and I decided that these colours would work really well made up into some pretty Spring/Easter bunting for my fireplace which was looking a tad bare.

I made fifteen triangles so that the bunting would easily fit across my fireplace mantel....

....I think it measures around 190 cm in total.

I loved it the moment it was hung in place, and it has been hanging there ever since. I've made some additional seasonal garlands for my fireplace in the last few years so it does get changed around a little according to the time of year. I have my Autumn Garland and Winter Balls (oh yeah, I do love my balls!), but there is something so upbeat about seeing a cute string of decorative bunting and I really look forward to bringing it out every Spring/Summer.

If you make as many blankets as I do, you will know how quickly the stash bag fills up. After each blankety creation I'll have fifteen part-balls of yarn left over - sometimes it's not a lot in terms of quantity, but other times there can be around 25g of each colour left. The above bag contains 30 colours of  Stylecraft Special DK  left over from making the Sweet Pea and Dune blankets. As soon as I'd gathered all these colours together I knew that I would be making good use of them. They make me feel reaaaaaally happy, they just shout SUMMER to me, all breezy and floral,  light, warm and pretty.

I began making these bunting triangles whilst I was away in France last month. I wanted an easy, portable project that could be tucked into my rucksack, something that I could easily sit and crochet whilst chatting and socialising. This quick and easy pattern was perfect, and I really, really enjoyed diving into my bag of yarn scraps and picking out some fairly random (but very pretty) colour combinations. 

Each bunting triangle is made up of four rounds, and I used a different colour for each round. I found the easiest way to manage the colour selections was to work one round at a time. So I made fifteen round-1 triangles all in different colours, then began adding the second round to each triangle, choosing a new colour every time. Then all the round 3's,  and finally all the edging rounds. You can see in the above photo that I've selected colours to crochet up the final edging rounds, making sure that each triangle was edged in a different colour, and no two triangles were the same. Good chocolate and coffee helps a lot with colour-making decisions, it's a well known fact.

The above stack shows the fifteen edging rounds arranged in a pretty pastel rainbow order...impossibly pretty! Hmm....I've just had a thought that maybe you might like me to list these colours of SSDK for you? OK.....brain engaged......I'll give it my best shot! From the top.....

Powder Pink : Clematis : Pale Rose : Blush : Camel : Pistachio : Lincoln : Sage : Duck Egg : Cloud Blue : Lavender : Violet : Plum : Pomegranate : Magenta.

I think I nailed it.

I had a little play with my triangles and decided on the above order for my bunting string, resisting the urge to try and be too controlling. I just tried to evenly balance them (eg. placing stronger colours at the ends and in the centre, making sure the pinks/green/blues were evenly distributed etc) and I'm very happy with the random look.

As you can see, each triangle is pretty cute and small, hence the "Baby Bunting" name I settled on. Each triangle measures around 12 cm across the top edge after it's been lightly steam blocked.

I chose three different colours to create the connecting band which joins the triangles together.

Joining the triangles couldn't be easier. There is no spacing between them so the first joining row is simply a continuous row of double crochet which moves from one triangle to the next without any chains or spacing needed. 

The second row is Half Treble, and the final third row is double crochet to finish.

I've explained it all in the tutorial, which you can find in the sidebar of my blog, or click on the following link to find it :

♥ BABY BUNTING TUTORIAL ♥

If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you will know how much I love buttons and I often use them to add a little bit of extra decoration to my crochet projects. To my mind, bunting and buttons is a match made in heaven and I absolutely knew that by making the connecting band three rows wide it would give me enough space to indulge in some button happiness! 

After having a chat with my wonderful friends at Wool Warehouse about my Button Needs, we put together some small packs of very cute little buttons that are perfect additions for all sorts of crochet projects. I created two different button packs, each containing 16 little buttons (8 colours, 2 of each). The above photo shows the "pastel" set.....

....and this one up above is the "Brights" set. I love them soooo much! Each set of 16 buttons costs £1.50 (crikey, I just typed in £150, that would have given you a shock!!!).

Ahh, you can see in the photo above that a few years ago I made some Baby Bunting using leftovers from my Summer Harmony blanket (using the Original yarn pack of 17 colours). I'm embarrassed to say that I never got around to joining them and they are still sat in a pile...oh dear. I shall have to remedy that - those little buttons go really well with the stronger shades of Stylecraft Special DK don't you think? I'll put direct links to the button packs just down below for you, if you like buttons as much as I do, maybe they might make you happy?!

♥ PASTEL buttons (16 x buttons - 8 pastel colours, 2 of each colour)

♥ BRIGHT buttons (16 x buttons - 8 bright colours, 2 of each colour)

You can see how perfect the buttons look when they are stitched to the bunting, I just love love love them!

It's such a wonderful feeling to turn a Work-in-Progress into a Finished Object, and I felt truly delighted when I stitched the very last button on to my Baby Bunting. It had taken me a whole day to create the photo tutorial so it felt like a lot of work to get to that end point, but in reality, this is a very easy and quick project to pull together. Honestly, it is!

Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Super cute Baby Bunting, perfect for bringing a dose of happy cheer to any situation or occasion.

I am so enjoying this new version on my mantel right now as the colours are a bit more summery than the previous Cupcake-coloured bunting which was more springlike. 

I keep coming into the room and forgetting that I've recently faffed my mantel. It makes me feel all giddy when I see it looking so pretty and summery, especially as we've been having the most un-summery weather this week.

So pretty.....I honestly love it.

I just wanted to tell you about these fabulous little hanging clips that I use on my mantel, they are made by Command and called "Decorating Clips" and I can highly recommend them. They are strong and stick easily to wood or any smooth surface, but don't do any damage if you want to take them off again. Being transparent and pretty small, they work extremely well for hanging bunting or fairy lights, you can find them on Amazon {{HERE}}.

So I think I've told you everything you need to know about my crochet bunting, and I would be thrilled to hear if you have a go at making your own. It's a lovely summer project - tuck a few little balls of yarn into your bag with a crochet hook and don't go anywhere without it - you never know when you might be able to sit and work a few soothing rounds.

Here are some links that might be helpful ::

  ♥ BABY BUNTING TUTORIAL ♥

♥ Pastel buttons (16 x buttons - 8 pastel colours, 2 of each colour)

♥ Bright buttons (16 x buttons - 8 bright colours, 2 of each colour)

♥ Pink Bunting Pack (4 x 100g Stylecraft Special DK, plus 13 spotty pink buttons and printed pattern)

♥ Blue Bunting Pack (4 x 100g Stylecraft Special DK, plus 13 spotty blue buttons and printed pattern)

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Happy bunting-making!

xoxo

 

 

 

 

Dune Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Hellooooooooo, and welcome to my happy place where I'm very excited to be sharing a breezy coastal ta-dah moment with you all!!! I imagine you all know by now that today is the day for my Dune blanket to be given a bit of a smooch, and quite honestly I've been hopping with excitement this past week as I've finished off my blanket (yeah, I only completed it a week ago) and worked hard on creating the pattern to share. 

You might recall me introducing you to the Dune blanket at the end of March when I returned from a gorgeous short family jaunt to one of my most favourite coastal spots - St Annes on the Fylde coast. You can read all about my holiday ((here)) and read more about the inspiration behind my Dune blanket ((here)).

As you can see from the above collection of photos, my Dune blanket is all about the colours of coastal sand dunes, shoreline adventures and shell collecting. I wanted to bring all those breezy, happy feelings together into a colour palette which is soft and cool, like the tang of salty sea air on a cold Spring day.

When I was in St Annes at the end of February, I spent lots of time wandering the strand line with the family, collecting things which caught my eye and playing about with different colour ideas. I had the notion that I wanted to try and capture the essence of this seaside place where I love spending family time, creating a colour palette that not only described the physical aspect of the coast, but also the emotion of it. I thought : "light, airy, breezy, soft, joyful colours, like a chilly gust of salty fresh air followed by a warm hug" - that's the essence of this place for me. I've written a lot more about my creative process and shared loads of photos in my Dune Introduction post.

I took lots of photos at the seaside holiday house where we were lucky enough to be staying for a few days in February. It has these wide, white painted windowsills which were perfect for arranging things. I was so happy in my own little creative bubble, spending hours lining things up, photographing them, rearranging them and faffing to my hearts content.

After a major amount of creative faffery, I finally settled on fifteen shades of Stylecraft Special DK  to create my Dune palette.

I love the gentle harmony of them and the way that each and every colour holds a significance for me. There are the pale greens of the marram grass, the warm neutrals which represent driftwood, sand dunes and the rippled wet sandy beach, the blues and pale greys of a cold spring sky and the softest of pinks which come from the sea shells I collected.

As is usual for my blankets, I've chose fifteen shades of Stylecraft Special DK for my Dune blanket.

This is enough to make a single/twin size blanket measuring approximately 120cm x 180cm.

Top row, left to right...

♥ Mocha ♥ Pale Rose ♥ Parma Violet ♥ Storm Blue ♥ Sage ♥

Middle row, left to right...

♥ Camel ♥ Mushroom ♥ Silver ♥ Cloud Blue ♥ Spearmint ♥

Bottom row, left to right...

♥ Stone ♥ Powder Pink ♥ Parchment ♥ Duck Egg ♥ Lincoln ♥

You can find the Dune yarn pack in my shop at Wool Warehouse, click on the link below...

DUNE YARN PACK

The yarn pack also contains a 10-page full colour pattern.

Do you like the shells? I crocheted these up in a fit of spontaneous creativity one afternoon, satisfying a craving for something decorative to come flying off my hook.

I found the shell pattern free online - it's a design by Ramsi Leigh who writes her blog {Ramsileigh Designs}. The pattern is actually the beginning part of some bigger crochet sea shells which Ramsi designed as coasters.

I worked round 1 as Ramsi wrote it to make the middle circle (a combination of UK dc, htr and tr), then continued the spiral with round 2 but working in the Back Loops Only. Crocheting in back loops only creates a little ridged line of single loops which defines the spiral shape beautifully - I love it!  If you are going to make these shells, please note that the pattern is written using US terms - the tallest stitch I crocheted was a US treble (this is a UK double treble) - I stopped after this part of the pattern and didn't bother to work the even taller stitches. So in round 2, I worked (2 UK tr) x 4 and (2 UK dtr) x 6, then fastened off.

I love them very much.....I'm still deciding what to do with them, but I'm swaying towards some pretty summer shell bunting for my mantel. I've got some gorgeous little mother of pearl shell buttons which would go really well with these crochet shells.

Having my big baggy yarn bag full of new colours with a fresh, exciting new blanket journey about to begin is one of my greatest pleasures. It makes me so ridiculously happy!

I always spend a long time on the pattern sampling stage, and I have a whole motley pile of discarded stitch samples to prove it. I tried out some wavy things and some ripply things, but nothing seemed quite right. In the end it was the shell idea that my mind seemed to really fixate on, so I went with it and ended up with a whole slew of shell-type samples. 

I settled on a delightful variation of a shell pattern where the stripe is worked in two rows - first you create a row of v-stitches, then you infill the v-spaces with shells - it really is a beautiful pattern to crochet. This pattern creates a delicious texture, and best of all the blanket is different on both sides, making it double sided, squishy and visually very lovely indeed.

I'm certain this pattern would be suitable for beginners to have a go at. It does need a little concentration in the beginning to make sure you are starting and ending each row correctly, but it very quickly becomes memorizable (is this even a word?!).

I've written a full step-by-step photo tutorial to walk you through the pattern and give you as much guidance as I possibly can. I've named it the Seashell Stripe, and you can find it in the usual place over in my left hand sidebar, or click on the following link to go right there >> 

SEASHELL PATTERN

As with all my blanket patterns, I would strongly advise you to work up a small tension sample before you launch straight into the blanket - this helps you to become familiar with the pattern (in particular the way the different rows start and end), but also to determine your own personal hooky tension and which hook sizes to go for. This Seashell pattern produces a slightly tighter crochet fabric than usual, so if you are used to working with Stylecraft Special DK, my general advice would be to use a bigger hook size (a half-millimetre) than you would normally use. The Dune blanket is similar to the Moorland and Woodland in this respect. All this is explained in the tutorial.

I've also given options for different blanket sizes, from a baby blanket to a King Size blanket. The yarn pack is enough to make a standard 120 x 180 cm single bed blanket, you will need two yarn packs for a double or king size.

DUNE YARN PACK

So............................................................

Shall we have a look at the blanket now? Would you like to see some more of it?

I love love love starting out on a blanket journey - yes, I'm one of those weirdos who even loves making that very first awkward, wiggly dc row into the foundation chain!! Love it! Having said that, it's wonderful once the stripes get under way and the blanket slowly begins to show itself. I used my yarn pegs and little snips of yarn taped to paper to work out the colour order of the stripes. This is the way I prefer to work - it's hands on and old school and suits me down to the ground.

There are 100 stripes in the Dune blanket, and I've ordered them in what I like to call a "planned random" way. This method gives a lovely energy to the blanket I think, and is definitely my preferred way of playing with colour. I know from the Sweet Pea blanket that many of you prefer to order your stripes using a colourwash, so we'll talk about the idea of a Dune Colourwash towards the end of the post.

I began crocheting the Dune blanket hot on the heels of finishing the Sweet Pea CAL, so these stripes have grown in super-quick time. Started on 12th March and finished on 9th April - that's just four weeks from start to finish. Its a good job I fell head over heels in love with the Seashell stripe pattern isn't it??!! I crocheted at every opportunity - at the café, at friends houses, on the train, and even on an aeroplane (and that's a whole other story for another day!)

But mostly I cosied up and crocheted these pretty rows in the comfort of home. I snuggled on the sofa....

.....in bed....

....and beside the fire.

Shell after shell after shell after shell. The addiction was real.

I finished working my one hundred stripes in record time, and can honestly say that I loved every second of this blanket journey. These soft coastal colours have such happy vibes, and every stitch holds fond memories of happy, breezy, fun-filled times.

For once, I managed to decide on my edging pretty quickly and I'm really, really happy with how it turned out.

I chose four colours and created a version of my Spot-On Edging - this is an easy border to crochet and very enjoyable.

I think the colours I chose work really well - I deliberately placed the Pink between two blue shades to create the "spots" of colour, reminding me of the tiny pink Baltic Tellin shells that I collected from the beach at St Annes.

I've enjoyed the pleasure of the Dune blanket on my bed this past week as the nights have been f-f-f-f-freezing.

I've made my blanket the usual single bed size (120 x 180 cm) so it's not really a good fit for a double bed, but I still love to drape it across my duvet so that I can admire it every time I walk into the bedroom.

It was while I was tidying up my bedside table for photographic purposes that I was reminded of one of my all time favourite books.......

......The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher. I've read this delightful book many, many times over the years (did you know it's over 30 years old now, written in 1987?) and adore it's simple charm and coastal setting. I bought my copy in a second hand book shop in Robin Hoods Bay many years ago, but I was really happy to find that it's still in print and you can find it online {Amazon UK : Amazon US}. I can highly recommend it as a lovely, lighthearted read, especially if like me you have a craving to be beside the sea.

I only got round to spreading my blanket out for photography purposes at the weekend, and the light wasn't especially great to be honest. But I thought you'd appreciate being able to see all one hundred stripes.............

..............ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I adore the texture of the seashell stitch, it is just so blinkin' pretty!

Scrumptious even!

And already very much at home here in the Attic. I'm sat at my drafty desk under the window right now and have the blanket wrapped around me, it feels warm and snug and cosy. I love it so much.

On Friday morning last week, we woke up to the most glorious blue skies, and there was only one place that I wanted to be. So after dropping Little B at school, J and I set off to drive west..............

.......yes, my Dune blanket went on a jolly to St Annes!!!!! I can't tell you how happy I was to stride out into the sand dunes with my blanket tucked under my arm, to conduct my own little personal photo shoot.

It was a beautiful clear day, but don't be fooled by those blue skies as it was blowing a hoolie and really, really cold.

Still, despite the very low temperatures, the sun was shining and my blanket looked amazing with a beachy backdrop.

↑↑↑ oh boy, this photo really makes me laugh!! There is a moody, grumbling husbundo hiding behind that blanket, he really didn't enjoy being my photographic assistant I can tell you! He was cold, his arms ached, he was hungry, it was too windy, no he couldn't hold it any longer......hahaha!!!! We took some terrible photos actually, there is definitely a knack to photographing things on location, especially in windy conditions with strong sunlight and harsh shadows and all that.....

.....I'm certain we didn't do a very good job, but well, the resulting photos are homespun and honest and real, which is what my blog is all about.

I do quite like the above windy action shot, using a wooden post and a piece of driftwood jammed into the sand - this was the last picture before we gave up and trudged off in search of food and warmth. 

I did come home with a really beautiful cockle shell in my pocket though!

I'm wondering what you think of these colours and whether you find them calling to you and whispering all sorts of breezy, seaside things to you? Yarn colours talk to me all the time, is that odd do you think? 

The above bag of yarn is what remains after my blanket was finished - I used approximately 80g of each colour.. There is plenty left to make shell bunting....or maybe a Dune cushion? 

I mentioned earlier about the idea of using the Dune colours to create a colourwash version of the blanket. I made the above sampler to test out the pattern, and deliberately arranged the colours so that they could be crocheted in a subtle wash of colour if you prefer the look of this to a random order.

You could repeat the above order (the Cloud Blue and Storm stripes flow really well together), or you could create something similar to the Sweet Pea colourwash that I put together for my last CAL blanket. I'm sorry I haven't had time to write out an exact blueprint for a colourwash blanket, but if you'd like me to do this, please leave a comment and I'll see what I can do to make it happen ** PLEASE SEE EDIT BELOW**

My own random stripe order is listed over on the Seashell pattern page, and also as part of the printed pattern that is included when you buy a yarn pack from my shop at Wool Woolwarehouse.

And finally, after all the wordy words and excessive number of photos, I just want to say THANK YOU.

Thank you for your encouragement, your friendship and for always keeping me company as I indulge in my blanket and colour addiction. I appreciate you so much, I hope you know that. Thank you!

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Here are some links you might need :

♥ DUNE YARN PACK (including printed pattern)

♥ DUNE BLANKET : INTRODUCTION

♥ SEASHELL PATTERN

♥ DUNE BLANKET : EDGING TUTORIAL

**EDIT :: There is now a colourwash colour order for the Dune blanket if you would like to try it. I wrote a blog post which includes a colour chart for you to download - click on the link below >>

♥ DUNE BLANKET COLOURWASH

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