Cathedral Blanket - finally finished!

I am happy! The sun is shining, its the weekend, it feels like spring is finally on the way, and I have finally finished my Cathedral Blanket!

Now, I'm afraid I am going to waffle on about this blanket for a while... thank you for bearing with me (if you do!).

This blanket has a lot of little squares.....342 squares in fact. 

342 little crochet squares, each one is 3 rounds, make using double knit (or 8 ply) yarn on a 3.5mm hook.

In total I think it contains 29 different colours (not counting the black).

I used 1 ball of most of the colours - that was enough for the colours that have the longest diagonals. 

Some of the colours in the corners I only used scraps of. This worked out well as I managed to arrange the colour sequence so that I used colours I loved but only had scraps of in the top right and bottom left corners.

I used 7 balls of black yarn for the seams and edging. I devised the edging pattern myself, so had a little trouble going around the corners with it (it didn't quite fit perfectly with the number of stitches, but never mind, I don't think you can tell now).

Yarns used were a bewildering array of different makes and fibres. In terms of different brands, the blanket is mainly Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and Rowan Pure Wool DK with a bit of Sublime Extra Fine Merino thrown in, and a few other things that I can't recall - as I said I have used scraps up where I could, and some of those scraps had long since parted company with their labels!

Fibres used included:

Merino wool...

Cashmere...

Micofibre...

Silk...

...And probably a few others!

You can probably tell, I am very pleased with this blanket. I just have to look at it and I think "happy, happy, happy!"

Hope you're all having a blissful Sunday too!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Colour therapy throw finished!

This week I completed my first project of 2013! Well I started it in 2012, (do you remember? I began this as part of a colour detox!) but its the first thing to be completed this year. I think finishing something in the second week of January is not bad going!

Unfortunately I don't have a lovely picture of the blanket all spread out and complete to show you. I just haven't been around to take a photo in the few hours of decent daylight that we have each day since finishing this. In all the pictures I've taken of the finished object, I've had to use artificial lighting and the colours look so distorted - I'd rather wait to show it as it actually looks. Hopefully I'll be able to take a decent picture during the week.

However, I do have some half decent pictures which show the colours pretty much as they actually appear in reality. These are pictures of the blanket in its final stages while nearing completion:

Here are some of its vital statistics:

Hook size: 4mm

Blanket size: Fits a single bed

Yarn used: Stylecraft Special DK in shades:

• Lavender (2 balls)
• Fondant (1 ball)
• Candy floss (2 balls)
• Magenta (1 ball)
• Bright green (2 balls)
• Clematis (1 ball)
• Sherbert (2 balls)
• Plum (1 ball)
• Aspen (1 ball)
• Turqoise (1 ball)
• Spring green (2 balls)
• Wisteria (1 ball)
• Violet (1 ball)
• Bluebell (1 ball)
• Aster (1 ball)

Wow, that was actually a lot more colours than I realised!

The blanket is 2 large granny squares stitched together (each granny square was 20 rounds), with many many more rounds worked around the rectangle formed by the original 2 squares. It ended up slightly differently to how I initially imagined it, but as I had no plan when doing it, I guess that's no surprise!

For the edging I initially worked a row of double crochet around the entire edge of the blanket. I then worked a kind of giant scallop into the double crochet. My basic fan shape was created by working 7 double trebles into 1 double crochet, skipping the next 3 double crochet stitches, working 1 dc into the next double crochet stitch, skipping 3 double crochet stitches and then working 7 double trebles into the next dc etc. Once the scallop edging row was complete I then worked another row of double crochet around the top edge of the scallop stitch, in a lighter purple. I had to work 2 double crochet stitches into the top of the 3 double trebles which sit at the apex of the fan or scallop shape.

I'm sort of thinking about selling this one, as I really did just make it for the pleasure of the task rather than for a specific purpose at home. Feeling a little nervous at the prospect though as I've never sold anything I've made before!

Apart from blanket finishing I've been out and about looking for more early signs of spring - and I did find some, despite the freezing cold! More on than next time though.....

Stay warm!

Flower patch cushion

I've started yet another new project (whilst still with the ripple throw on the go). The problem is, the ripple throw is too big a project for me to take with me when I go to stay with boyfriend at the weekends.

I'm calling it a flower patch cushion - its made of granny squares with little flowers to stitch onto each square.

So far it is still in the early stages. I couldn't decide which colours to go for to start with. At first I thought of pink and green, then maybe pink and purple and green, but in the end I settled for a purple and green 4 colour scheme - 2 shades of purple and 2 of teal green:

I think these colours are so pretty together. I designed the flowers myself again, 2 sizes, so that I can layer one flower on top of another and then stitch on to the sqaures.

A small project like this is much easier to cart down to London on the train - the joys of being a commuting crafter! I'm normally at boyfriend's from Thursday - Sunday, and let me tell you I just can not go that long without some kind of knitting or crochet (he's really very patient, never complains about my constant crafting on the sofa while we're watching a film).

So you see why, at the moment, I have a need for a smaller more portable project to take with me at weekends, so I can still get my craft fix! Trouble is, as soon as I come up with my idea for the smaller project, I get so excited about it that I can't wait until I'm at his to start and end up doing it during the week too!

I realise on a scale of world problems this is not a big one, but it does mean progress on the ripple throw is slow!