It seems like there's been a real baby boom going on recently, with about half a dozen of my friends and colleagues having kids within the past year or two. For me this means there's always a need for a new baby blanket in case I'm feeling uninspired. The most recent new edition was a little girl and I decided to try something new this time - pattern linked in my previous post.
I started with a base chain of ch56 and used quite a small hook (either 2 or 2.5mm, the numbers have rubbed off and I can't remember the exact size!) so there are two more rows than the pattern recommends in the top section. I also added in a tie at the top during the final picot edging round by chaining 50 (plus 1 turning stitch) then doing three rows of single crochet. When I ended the first row I took off the yarn and inserted the hook into the next sc of the previous edging rowd and pulled the yarn through it before turning and starting the next row so it was attached well to the garment.
And here's the result:
Front
Back
I teamed it up with a blanket I finished a while back:
This is by far the most delicate blanked I've made, based on the squares in this DROPS Design pattern. It's joined with single crochet and the border is a row of single crochet then a row of picot stitches.
Another favourite from my baby blanket stash is this one, completed about a year ago:
The pattern for this was quite simple, the centre is just a granny square going on for 13 rounds, with colour 1 (pink), colour 2 (yellow) and colour 3 (white) in this order:
Round
Colour
1
1
2
1
3
2
4
1
5
1
6
3
7
1
8
2
9
1
10
1
11
3
12
1
13
2
Then 8 squares with colours 1,2,1,3 and 8 with colours 2,1,2,3 using the first four rounds only of SmoothFox's May Flower square, which is available as a free download from Ravelry. Again, the joining is a simple single crochet in white and the edging is a shell edging using [1 sc, skip 2 stitches, 5dc in next stitch, skip 2 stitches, 1 sc in next] for each shell.
...and I'm completely blown away by the response I've had within just a couple of days of publishing my first post. I didn't really expect anyone to read it so I was thrilled when the traffic started coming in and people left comments. I guess I underestimated the power of Ravelry!! So big thank you to everyone who left comments here and on Ravelry, they were really encouraging and have spurred me on to write another entry.
Winter is nearly over here and to get over a bit of cabin fever, my other half and I decided a shopping trip to Turku was in order yesterday. An old friend of mine from back home in Scotland just gave birth to a little girl a couple of weeks ago so I had the perfect excuse to splash out on some new wool:
The brands are Novita Wool for the green, light blue, dark blue and dark purple (colours 378, 369, 191 & 750) and Red Heart Bella for the yellow, white and lilac (00216, 00152 & 00223)
The project is a really pretty baby cardi from this website: http://knits4kids.com/archives/8624 You have to join the site to access the pattern but it is free. I started it last night and hope to have it finished within a couple of weeks - watch this space!
So I had a few balls of wool lying around, inherited from my gran's stash and I decided to attempt an improvised scarf for a friend's birthday. It consists of four flower motifs and one star motif in pink, light brown and beige. I found the motif patterns through ravelry and have linked to the sources, the large flower pattern is my own.
All motifs use 5mm hook
Small flower:
3dc Cluster: *Yo, insert hook in loop. Yo, draw up a loop. Yo, draw through 2 loops.* Repeat *-* twice more. 4 loops on hook. Yo, pull through all 4 loops.
Ch 3, join with sl st to form loop.
Round 1: ch 2, 3dc cluster, ch 4. *3dc cluster, ch 4* Repeat *-* 3 more times. 5 Puff Stitches total. Join to the top of the first cluster with sl st.
Round 2: Into each ch-4 space work, *sc, 5 dc, sc*. To join, sl st in top of first sc.
Round 1: Ch3 (counts as first dc), 11 dc, join with sl st in the top of the ch3.
Round 2: Ch3 (counts as first dc), dc in the top of the same dc, 2dc in the top of each dc, join with sl st.
Round 3: Ch1, sc in same dc, *skip 1 dc, 7dc in next dc, skip 1 dc, sc in next dc*, repeat *-* another 4 times, skip 1 dc, 7dc in next dc, join with sl st in first sc.
Round 1: Ch5, *1tr, ch1*, repeat *-* another 10 times, join with sl st (12 triple crochets).
Round 2: Ch5, 1dc in ch1 sp, [1dc, ch2, 1dc] in each ch1 space, join with sl st.
Round 3: Ch1, [1sc, 1hdc, 3dc, 1hdc, 1sc] in each ch2 space, join with sl st.
Multicoloured Flower:
Round 1: Biege, using a magic ring, [3dc cluster, ch2] 8 times, join with sl st and finish off.
Round 2: Join light brown in any ch2 sp, ch3, 3dc in same ch2 space, [4dc in each ch2 sp], join with sl st & finish off.
Round 3: Join pink with a sc in the top of any 3dc cluster of round 1 (stretching all the way around round 2), *1 hdc in second dc of four (round 2), [2dc, ch2, 2dc] in next dc, sc in next dc, sc in next Rd.1 cluster*, repeat *-* another 7 times, joining with sl st to first sc instead of the last sc.
Round 1: ch 3 (counts as first dc) 2 dc in ring ch5 *3 dc into ring ch 5* repeat *-* 3 times. sl st into first chain of initial ch 3. You should have 5 ch 5 spaces.
Round 2: ch 1 * sc in same st as sl st and ch 1, sc in next st till ch 5 space. 3 sc in ch 5 space ch 2 , sc in last sc made. (makes a picot for point of star) sc 2 more times in ch 5 space* repeat from *-* 3 more times. join to first sc with sl st fasten off and weave ends.
Source: http://kittyscrochetpalace.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-first-free-patter-star-scarf-with.html
Joining:
It took me a while to decide on the layout but I finally settled for this:
6 Large Flowers 6 Medium Flowers 5 Multicoloured Flowers 8 Small Flowers 8 Stars I used ch3 flat braid in dark brown to join it. I'm not sure how well I can explain it exactly, I was mostly making things up as I go along! If you're not familiar with this joining method then I highly recommend this youtube tutorial for the basics:
I adapted it sticking to the following rules:
For stars: sc in the point, ch3, sc in first sc of middle section, ch3, sc in last sc of middle section, ch3, sc in next point. For small and medium flowers: sc, ch3, skip 2 stitches, sc in next stitch For large flowers: sc in every third or fourth stitch (with ch3 in between), depending on how it fits to the other motifs For multicoloured flowers: sc's go in the sc between petals and the ch2 sp at the top of each petal
Corners: for each point where 3 motifs meet, make a corner joining as described in the tutorial. When joining the third motif, put the hook through both loops of the other two motifs (for stars, this loop should always be on a point)
Outside border Stars are the same as above, but without the corner loop on the points. Small and large flowers: sc in the centre stitch of each petal and in the sc between each petal, with ch3 between each sc Medium flowers: sc in the centre stitch of each petal and in the sc between each petal, with ch4 between each sc Multicoloured flowers: sc's go in the sc between petals and the ch2 sp at the top of each petal, with ch4 between each sc
Finishing
16 x 25inch strands of each colour for each end, split into 8 groups, attached to every second ch3 loop along the end of the finished scarf and braided. Going from the outside inward, I used the following mixes of colour:
6 dark brown + 2 light brown
2 dark brown + 4 light brown + 2 pink
2 light brown + 4 pink + 2 beige
2 pink + 6 beige
This was topped with a row of mini flowers, sewn along the top of the braided tassles.
Using a 2.5mm hook: start with 6sc magic circle, leaving a long enough tail to sew to scarf later Round 1: ch3, *sc in next sc, ch2*, repeat *-* 4 more times, joinwith sl st, finish off Round 2: join 2nd colour into any ch2 sp and work [sc, 3dc, sc] into each ch2 sp, join with sl st and finish off, again leaving a reasonably long tail to sew each flower to the one next to it.
This is my first blog post and my first pattern so if anyone wants to leave me feedback in the comments, it would be much appreciated!
