When One Blanket Finishes Another One Begins.......

Well 5 blankets to be quite honest......All very similar....Hexies and circles, using organic wool, alapca, silk, cashmere.

The one above is Baby Cashmerino in a traditional join as you go hexagon....Not ever having done a hexie before I can see why they are so addictive.....These are all bub blankets so not huge.....I may think differently if I was doing them for a queen bed.....think that's going to be my off season project later this year!

Next is the same hexie just using up the last of my organic wool....I'll be sort of sad to see this wool go, it's soft and squishy and the colours are delightful and well chosen out.....I know I keep saying it, but it's a pity the business doesn't exist any more.

The last 3 blankets are all the same style wise....mixes of merino, silk and cashmere, with alpaca borders.....soft mauves and purple with grey, blue and grey with grey, and very pretty pinks with cream.....So a lot on my plate...although next week I'm photographing step by step photos for patterns so that should see me busy so the blanket making my take a back seat.

I'll put more details up about these blankets as I finish.....Anyone else like to have a zillion projects on the go at any one time, or is it just me?

Hope you're all well, thanks for stopping by.

Blanket Endings Again.....

After a laborious 2 days....I've finished the Scrappy Blanket....that's the name of the pattern, but personally I think it does deserve a better name, but I'll save that for another day.   I think the name comes from using up all your scraps of yarn....slightly obvious, but this one is not scrap yarn.  It is the most delightful 100% organic Australian Merino Wool....soft as butter and unfortunately no longer available.  The family business that made this yarn in NSW decided to stop producing it.....Shame really, it is great yarn.

***Updated 29th July.  I have done some investigating and it turns out that the business has been bought out and manufacturing has started again.  Some colours are not available as I know the previous owner of the business ran the stock down, but here is the link for this yarn. here

This blanket was a lot of work, the pattern requires you to hand stitch each octagon together, and let me tell you that is a lot of work....that combined with all the colour changes, there were so many ends to sew in, but I think the back looks pretty neat....I'm a sucker for sewing those ends in completely and properly.  I did keep a tally of the hours and there is close to 50 hrs in this blanket alone from start to finish, and in my opinion you'd be a hero if you could do a queen size bed blanket.  This is terribly labour intensive in comparison to other blankets I've done.

I made some slight modifications to the pattern but only in the edging/border.  The original pattern called for the edging of the blankets to be left with the octagon shape and a slight single crochet border making the blanket uneven all around.  I for one hate blankets left with uneven edges, so every crochet blanket that I've ever made has been made into a complete rectangle or square if it had uneven edging such as a ripple blanket...I like to fill the gaps!!

You can see what I mean if you look at the collage of pics.  This pics reveal how it could have looked if I'd put just a small single crochet border, but as you can see I did go around it and filled the hexie gaps with a series of half double crochet, double crochet and treble crochet stitches.  I then continued to go around the blanket with single crochet stitches, just reverting to half double crochet stitches to straighten up the waves until by around the 5th row the blanket edge had straightened completely.  All finished off with a very basic scalloped border.

I always block my blankets on completion and this was no different....you can see how soft and drapey it now looks....all the fibres have relaxed, the stitch definition is revealed and the blanket grew by around 7 cm in length and 4 cm in width....It's now 85cm x 65cm or 33.5inches x 25.5 inches, perfect size for a pram, floor, moses basket or small cot....or just decorative hanging over the side of a cot.....it's too beautiful not to use and some little bub will be snug as a bug.

That's all I can really tell you about this beauty.  The original pattern is here, and you'll find my blanket here.

Gosh now to find a new blanket project, nothing better than having a blanket project on the go.

Update 23rd July - Thanks so much if you've found your way from the CCC.  Reading all your comments over there I did note a few comments about the pattern, yes this pattern is not a freebie, but the link on the Ravelry page to the pattern on Amazon is worth the price if you choose to purchase the book.  The book comes with 6 crochet patterns and well worth spending the money if you love crochet.  Thanks V.


Cheerio

CLOVER.....She's a coming.

Clover is on her way.....I've set up a dover & madden Ravelry store in anticipation of this little earflap hat coming by mid August.

Here is the link to the pattern in Ravelry.....It's not ready yet for download but it's a "coming soon" pattern. Mark it in your favourites if you choose and I'll keep you updated of the comings and goings right here.

This pattern will also be available in my Etsy store as well.  And for those that can't knit, my Etsy store will also have 'ready to ship' Clover hats as well....I'm not giving up the knitting just yet!!

Cheerio.

Worked Up......

I've lost track of the number of hats that have left here in the last 2 weeks.....I'm super busy, but have been spending some time in the last day or two finishing off my first pattern, my other work is pretty quiet so I've been relishing this time....I'm just knitting up the hats now to send off to the photographer for a little styling!  I'm hoping by the time the photos are completed, the pattern will be on paper and my new logo for my patterns will be ready.

Hope all is well in your part of the world, thanks for stopping by.

Who Wears the Pants in Your House?

I made some baby leggins that I have christened Pippi pants....named after Pippi Longstocking because that's what they remind me of.

They were a little torturous to make....using a vintage knit 3ply pattern as a guide.....converting size to 8ply or DK, ridding the elasticated waist band for a ribbed & i-cord version, and chopping off the feet in place of ribbed bands....the original pattern was a pair of knitted stockings, part of a pram set, jacket, pants, hat & mitts.  I really don't know how they used to knit in 3 ply!

I also made sure that I put some extra room in the bottom of these, big nappies, bigger bottoms!!.  I also knew they had to be striped, and now I know why you don't see that many striped knitted pants....they're a bugger to knit and a bugger to sew, lots of counting and un stitching...matching all those stripes took it's toll on me!!

Anyway I will eventually make this a d&m pattern as well....hopefully I can decipher all my scribbled notes I created whilst making these....and then make a couple more sizes up to 12 months.  We'll see, but the hat patterns are the priority for the minute!

Cute hey!

Hope you're all well, enjoy your week.