Little things

I seem to have spent a lot of time lately working on large blankets.  When I found a large bag of 4 ply in among the yarn that RAFT gave me to make more blankets, I was rather pleased, because 4 ply to me says baby blankets, which are a lot smaller than the ones I have been doing.  There were four colours of Patons Diploma 4 ply, a lovely soft yarn.  As a bonus, I also had a couple of balls of the same yarn in a fifth colour in my stash.  Small squares were needed, so I went for a simple approach:

Just a plain treble crochet square.  But what colour order should the squares be set out in?  Decisions, decisions....

I'm probably going to go with the top order.  The squares need a white frame to border them too:

So far I have 15 colour squares, 3 with borders.  So I need to do another 10 colour squares and a lot of borders:

The finished blanket will be about 32 inches square, just right for the baby packs that RAFT put together to go to refugee camps.

Another little project has been to make small, warm items for a charity called Muddy Footprints, which distributes them in impoverished areas of Bulgaria.  I have been using coned yarn with a high wool content to make fingerless gloves.  The pale green is two strands of 2 ply Alpaca yarn while the multicolour is 4 ply super wash 100%wool.  These should be very warm to wear.  The pattern I am using is a very simple one I found on Ravelry called Easy Fingerless Mitts by Calypso Knits.  Although it is written for dpns, I am using the magic loop method on a circular needle.

By the way, there is also a large corner to corner blanket on the go, but it has been a bit too warm to work on that one much.  However, today has been cold and wet, so it might get dragged out this evening for a little more work!

Blankets off to their destination

Stacked on the ironing board are the seven blankets I have made so far for the 60 Million Trebles project.  Lady Dorothea Mousevaark is perched on top, inspecting the pile.

Today I drove to Taunton to deliver them to Refugee Aid From Taunton (RAFT) who co-ordinate and dispatch aid via various charities to refugees across the world.  I had read on RAFT's Facebook page that they were desperate for donations of blankets, and also summer clothes for refugees in Greece, so I was able to turn out some clothes and light shoes to take along, as well as some toiletries.

At RAFT, Lesley was delighted to receive my donation.  In return, she asked me to take some wool that had been donated to make some more blankets.  How could I refuse???  More blankets coming up!

Drum roll for number ten

This really is turning into the year of the blanket; number ten is now finished.  I mentioned a few posts back that I had received a donation of yarn to make a blanket (or blankets) for the Sixty Million Trebles project.  This is the selection I received, a mix of pinks, greens, white and cream, with a couple of darker shares thrown in as well. In all, there was a kilo of double knit, enough to make one large or two smaller blankets.

After I had admired for a while, it really seemed like it would make a single bed size cosy stripe blanket (using Lucy at Attic 24's pattern).  I have made this blanket before, and enjoyed the way it grew quite quickly.  The only change I made to her pattern was to change the colour for the stripes randomly, rather than follow a regular pattern of colours.  This was because the colours I had came in different quantities ranging from 50g to 200g.   I also added in a ball of gold coloured yarn from my stash, and off I went.

This is it at the half-way point, in mid-May.  It is four feet wide and about 3 feet long at this point, and its randomness works well for me.

This was the project that I lugged to craft club every Monday night for several weeks, then once the Modern Chevron Afghan was finished, I was able to work on it at home too. Finally on Saturday it reached the six feet mark, and I started the border.  One round of trebles in turquoise, one round of half trebles in white and a final round of doubles in turquoise finished it off neatly.

It weighs 991g, very close to the 1 kilo that was sent to me.  I'm very pleased with this blanket, it looks very cheerful and bright and it lives up to its name in terms of cosiness.

So now, it's on to blanket number 11.  I have started a corner to corner blanket using some more of the coned yarn........