Blue Ripple Blanket Ta Da

Let me introduce you to my new mellow blue ripple blanket. Ta Da!

It's kept me occupied since early December but now it's all done.  A bit of a relief as I found crocheting a blanket this size in one stitch a bit tiring on the hands.

I followed Lucy at Attic 24's Neat Ripple Pattern.  A starting chain of 20 multiples of 14 plus 3 stitches makes the blanket wide enough to drape either side of my king-size bed.  110 rows means it is long enough to reach the pillow-line.

My colour palette was inspired by a Lighthouse-Ripple-Blanket on Flickr and I originally planned to use random colours.  But it's tougher than I thought to choose colours that go just right together.

So once I hit on something that worked I stayed with it and kept going.  I am very happy with the final result, it feels very balanced with three sets of colour repetition in the middle and matching start and finish rows.

Completed in Stylecraft Special DK with a 3.75ml hook.  Here's my mid-project yarn collection.

From bottom to top, colours are:

Aster

Cloud Blue

Silver

White

Midnight

Denim

Silver

White

Sherbert

Colours purchased but never used:

Royal (blue)

Graphite

Ripple Stats
110 Rows (2 rows for each coloured band)
Weighing in at 1.2 kg.
125 cm long by 185 cm wide.
Using just over 3.5 Kilometres of yarn.
I used Stylecraft Special DK acrylic yarn throughout, approximately 12 balls of wool.
Total yarn cost, only £18.
At least 45 hours work, over the last three months.

Well worth it.
Nellie P

It's Competition Time

In January I spotted a competition on the Crabtree & Evelyn web site, something I could use my crochet skills for and perhaps win something.

The 50 winning entries would each receive a £100 giftcard.  They would then be put together to form a digital Mother's Day Patchwork, which would then appear in the window of every single Crabtree & Evelyn store in the UK as well as their website.

Both money and fame, that sounded exciting, so I entered a little crochet square.

After a thank you email everything went quiet and the deadline for notifying winners passed by.  So I thought ah well, that's that then.

Then, who'd have thought it, I made a winner.  I was one of the 50 winning entries, my name is on their website, my name!  Then I received this letter today.

Let's take a closer look at some of those winning entries, can you guess which one is mine?

It's the Framed Flower Square, that pops up in all three pictures.  Here are some close-ups.

I can't take all the credit though, the pattern comes from Melody Griffiths book, 201 Crochet, Blocks, Projects and Ideas and was crocheted in Stylecraft Special DK (Saffron, Pomegranate and Meadow), using a 3.75ml hook.

I shall be whizzing down to my local Crabtree & Evelyn store to spend my winnings and am very much looking forward to seeing the completed Mother's Day Patchwork design on February 29th.
Nellie P

African Flower Cushion

Another African Flower project, I really love this combination of colours and hope you do too. Staged on a single bed, you can see just how large this cushion is against the frame.  

Completed using Stylecraft Special DK in Saffron (yellow), White, Meadow (green) and Wisteria (pink) and using a 3.75 hook.

This close-up picture shows the reverse side.  Essentially the cover is a long rectangle-shape, overlapping at the back and joined at the side in double crochet stitch.  I plan to finish off with three pink buttons to hold down the overlapping African Flowers.
Destined to be a Christmas gift this time, more cushions in the pipeline.
Nellie P

Winter Warmers

Thought I'd show you a couple of mini-projects:


I followed Attic 24's Wrist Warmers and Bobble-Shell Edging patterns in a vibrant Stylecraft Special DK Emperor and a 3.75 hook.

A very simple but surprisingly professional-looking scarf.  Completed using half-trebles, lengthways.  Very satisfying to speed through the long rows with this basic stitch.  Once again, completed using Stylecraft Special DK in Khaki and a 3.75 hook.

The picture below gives a much better representation of the colour.  Finally, a scarf for my husband.

Nellie P

Little Sister Beanie

Here's a rather belated look at my first crochet hat.  It was made for a friend, undergoing radiotherapy, at the end of July.  Actually it's my third crochet hat, the first two went on to become bags, but that is another story.  

I used the Little Sister Crochet Hat pattern available from the Petite Purls web site.  I particularly like the shell stitches and detail around the crown.  I would happily re-make this for myself in a wool-mix for winter.

The beanie was completed in a DK cotton/acrylic mix and my habitual 3.75 ml hook.  The yarn, although very soft, turned out to be quite bulky so I ended up using measurements for a child - which fitted an adult nicely.
I embellished it further by adding a flower using Attic24's pattern.  The flower is detachable so can be moved around the hat or pinned to a jacket.
NellieP