Blanket happiness

I did say earlier that for me 2017 would be the year of the blanket.  So far I have made around a dozen blankets (pictures of all of them are on the  2017 - Blankets page of this blog).

Back in May, I posted about a blue blanket that I was really enjoying making, in fact I called it my favourite one so far.  This is the one I mean, made from a pattern by the Crochet Crowd:

In June I sent it off, with other items I had made, to Operation Orphan.  As they were getting ready for their distribution of warm winter clothes and blankets in Moldova, I assumed that this blanket would go there, but as with virtually all the things I make for charities, I didn't know where it would end up.

Moving forward to last week, I was reading a blog post from Brad of Operation Orphan, describing how he had managed to get aid to Antigua and Barbuda in the West Indies. following the devastation of Hurricane Irma.  The post included lots of photos, and as I looked at the final ones, I noticed a little boy clutching - yes, you guessed it - the blue blanket that I had sent them.  He's the little boy on the far right in this photo:

I feel so happy to be able to see exactly where this blanket has ended up!

On the personal front, I was delighted this week to meet my great-nephew, Sebastian, for the first time.  He was born on Sunday 8 October, and so of course, he had to have a blanket.  I toyed with making him a tartan blanket (his surname is MacLeod), but several abortive attempts later, I changed the plan and made him a Tumbling Blocks blanket instead.  It was really simple to do (just double crochet diamonds) but the optical illusion it creates is so effective.  I based it on the Vasarely Blanket pattern on Ravelry

His mum, my niece, was delighted with it.  So two lots of blanket happiness to report.

Favourite so far?

As this year is my Year of the Blanket, I have been looking at different patterns and styles beyond my normal Granny Afghan or Corner to Corner designs.  Looking on the Crochet Crowd website in March, I found a new pattern called Modern Chevron Afghan, by Jeanne Steinhilber.

It appealed because of its unusual construction with 5 diamonds (OK, squares joined point-to-point) as the start, then colours built up around.

I had 2 large balls of Aldi Aran in bright blue that I thought would work with this pattern, and some oddments of different colours that I could use to add colourful accents.  I started with 5 bright blue squares, then added the first band of colours.

I did a few rows of blue, then another band of colours, meaning this to be one end of the blanket.  Turning it around, I carried on in the other direction, with more colours then a long expanse of blue.

The chevron effect is really deep and interesting to work.  Somehow it made me think of Native American beadwork.

I carried on until the blanket was long enough to cover a single bed (or to put it another way, when I had used up the 800 grams of  aran yarn), and then I put a final band of colours in place to finish it off.

The pattern has no borders, but mine didn't look finished, so after consulting my Loving Hands friends, I crocheted a narrow band of navy blue down each side.  I was worried that I would run out of yarn, but there was just enough.  So this is the finished blanket:

It weighs just over a kilo, and is destined for Operation Orphan's Keep a Child Warm project.  I found it very enjoyable to make as it looks really bright and cheery, and it grew really quickly.  Overall it is probably my favourite of the 9 blankets I have made so far this year.

The year of the blanket?

Last year I concentrated on making jumpers and hats, with the odd blanket thrown into the mix now and again.  This year, though, it seems that there is a huge demand for blankets from different charities, so I think that 2017 will be the year of the blanket.

I'm making and sending blankets to four groups in particular:

Operation Orphan 

This charity runs its Keep a Child Warm campaign, providing blankets and warm clothing to impoverished families in Eastern Europe.  They deliver the items themselves, and eighteen months ago one of our Loving Hands members, Julia Odie, went with them to Moldova.  Her fascinating account of her trip can be read here. It is so good to know that the items we make go directly to where they are needed.

Knit for Nowt

This charity collects warm knitted items and distributes them via social workers and other agencies to families and individuals that need them in East Yorkshire.  Clare, who runs the charity, is an amazing lady who clearly values all the hand made items she receives, and again, she lets you know where your donations have ended up.  

Chemogiftbags

This charity provides a pamper gift bag, a heart-shaped cushion and a lap blanket to people in Berkshire who are undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.  I have close relatives who live in the Reading area, so I am happy to offer support to Lynne, who runs the charity and who has been through breast cancer herself.

Sixty Million Trebles

Did you know that the UN estimates that there are over 60 million refugees in the world currently?  Actually the figure is probably nearer to 65 million at the moment.  That's a huge number of people displaced from their homes by war, hunger or persecution.  A lady named Ellen Roche (no relation) came up with the idea of producing a massive blanket containing 60 million treble crochet stitches to draw attention to the plight of refugees worldwide, then dismantling it into its constituent 36 inch square blankets, and giving them to charities in the UK and abroad that support refugees.  I must admit that I thought long and hard before deciding to make blankets for this group, because to have so many completed blankets sitting around when there is such need seems a bit perverse.  But I accept that the publicity aspect is important, and the plan is to have the huge blanket made and then dismantled by the end of the summer, so that the blankets can be distributed in time for next winter.  So far almost 20 million trebles have been made for this cause - one stitch one life.

And my latest effort:

 This is the blanket I am currently working on.  It is a Red Heart pattern called Twilight Shells Throw, and I found it via Ravelry.  I am making it in double knit with a 4.5mm hook, and using 12 different colours (yes, I already had all of them in my stash!).  Although it looks like a ripple pattern, in fact it is made by crocheting a row of shells the right way up followed by a row of shells upside down.

This will be a lap blanket for Chemogiftbags; I'm hoping that its cheery colours will give some comfort to the recipient.

Hat chase nearly over

Just a quick post to report that I have finished hat 49 of 52 for 2016.  These are 3 chunky, tweedy hats, made with multiple strands of stash yarns.  The green ones are adult size and will be going to the Mission for Seamen.  The grey and maroon one is child size, and will be for Operation Orphan's 
2017 campaign to Keep a Child Warm.  On 27 December we will be driving up to Twickenham to meet friends and go to the Harlequins rugby game at Twickenham Stadium, so I will have time to make progress on a matching scarf go with the child's hat.  I don't tend to knit hats in the car because of the danger of losing dpns under the driver's seat.  Once bitten, twice shy definitely applies in that case!

Still lots to do on this Christmas Eve; both my sons and my daughter-in-law will be arriving later today, so there are beds to prepare, baking to be done, and still quite a few presents to be wrapped and stockings to prepare.  So I will use this picture of our local woods in the snow to wish everyone who happens on my blog a very Happy Christmas, and thank you for taking the time to read my posts.

The blanket is finished!

After several months in the making, I have completed the aran squares blanket.  I had planned to use 48 squares, but when I laid them out, I realised that just one more row of 6 squares would make it a single bed cover, and therefore it would be much more useful as a blanket.  So I knitted a further 6 squares, and its finished size is just over 6 feet by 4 feet.  All the squares are knitted corner to corner on size 5.00 needles, and apart from the bright green, all of the yarn had been donated to Loving Hands.  I expect that this blanket will go to Operation Orphan for their Keep a Child Warm project.

It has a simple crochet border which is made up of half trebles and double crochet.  It has been a brilliant stash buster, weighing in at just over 1.35 kilos.  Repeat after me, "I must not replace the yarn used up, I must not replace the yarn used up......."

Blanket from coned yarn

Recently,  I collected a lot of yarn from a family in Bristol.  They had very kindly donated the yarn stash belonging to a recently deceased family member to Loving Hands.  I brought the yarn home, sorted it through and shared it out with other Loving Hands members and groups.  For reasons of postage costs, I kept most of the coned yarn to use up myself.

The problem with coned yarn is that it is normally very fine - it is, after all, designed for use with knitting machines, not for hand knitting.  A lot of cones are very large too - some of these weighed around the one kilo mark.  In my experience, the best way to use it when working by hand is to put several strands together.  So I set out to crochet a blanket using four strands of yarn at a time with a size 6.00 hook.

I chose 2 different combinations of yarn, and made each granny square 12 inches by 12 inches.  24 squares were joined together using slip stitches to make a blanket 6 feet by 4 feet:

To edge the blanket I did one round of dc in the paler combination, then one round of crab stitch (AKA reverse dc) in the darker combination.

The blanket weighs 1.4kg and is very warm (that's said with feeling, having had it on my lap most of the day while I crocheted the border and darned in all the ends!).

And despite using 1.4kg of yarn, there is still an awful lot left on 3 of the 5 cones I used!  At least 2 were almost completely used up.  Now I need some ideas for projects to use up more of the cones.

Experimenting with colourwork

I don't often knit with chunky yarns, and I don't think I have ever bought any, but I found I had several part balls of chunky in my stash - I think it could be part of the breeding programme that seems to go on in my yarn cupboard if I leave it closed for a few days!

I picked out white, green and lavender, and felt there was enough for a scarf, so off I went, knitting on size 6.00 needles.  I chose a broken rib pattern because it offers stretchiness and texture as well as interest to what can be quite a boring accessory to knit.

The scarf turned at just over 4 feet long.  It's very warm and drapes well, and should be suitable for a 6-8 year old child.  Apparently the rule of thumb for scarves is that they should be as long as the child is tall.

There was still some of the yarn left, so I thought a hat would be good too.  But frankly, knitting the scarf had been a bit boring, even with the rib pattern, so I thought I would go for something a bit more challenging in the hat.  Opting for basic colourwork, I used the lavender for the brim, then started rounds of alternating coloured stitches.  The first round was one green stitch, one white stitch, then the next round was one white stitch, one blue stitch.  This is the effect it produced:

I was particularly pleased because I finally got the hang of holding one colour in each hand while knitting - a really important skill for fair isle and similar knitting.  I also got the tension reasonably right, so that the yarn behind the stitches doesn't pull, but forms a good insulating layer.  This will be one warm hat for whoever gets it via Operation Orphan.

There was just enough yarn left at the end to make a pompom!

This is the completed set.  Does it look like a set?  I'm not sure that it does, but it doesn't really matter.  Incidentally, the scarf is doubled in the photo, which is why it doesn't look very long.  So far this year I have now made 14 hats towards my target of 52 - just about right for mid-April.

Finishing some WiPs

In 2015 I used up just over 11 kilos of yarn.  However, on Saturday I went through all of my cupboards and other hide-holes, and discovered that my stash currently weighs just over 20 kilos.  There is therefore an urgent need to get knitting and crocheting!

I have managed to finish a couple of items that were started last year.

This is one of the 3 jumpers that I had already started, and now that it is complete it counts as my first of twelve boy's jumpers for this year.

This was a preemie blanket that I kept to knit when I was on journeys in the car.  It is knitted in 4 ply on 3.75 needles.  The side edges looked a bit uneven, so I added a row of double crochet and then a shell border.  It looks much better with a border.

This was a very quick knit to use up some chunky yarn that I found remaindered in my local yarn shop.  We have been told by Operation Orphan that teenage boys like to have black beanies, so this one, knitted in 2x rib, should suit.  There is enough yarn to make at least 2 more in the 200 g that I bought.  That makes hat #2 of 52.

I also crocheted a girl's hat using some 100% wool that was donated.  I like the look of the hat, but can't decide how to finish it off.  I have a large, shiny button that would look good as an embellishment, or else I could make a flower or a bow.  I'm tending towards a large and colourful flower, but I'm still undecided.  

December's project completed

It took longer than I expected to join all of the squares into a blanket, but, after darning in untold numbers of ends, it is finished.

I have laid it on the guest room bed, and it measures 42 inches by 60 inches.  It weighs 1.2 kilos, so was an excellent stash-buster project.  I expect it will go to Operation Orphan's Keep a Child Warm project in the new year.

These are just some of the ends.....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Stripes galore

I do love knitting and crocheting striped garments.  This month I have made 2 striped tops, a jumper and a cardigan.  Both of them have sleeves that are different from the body, giving a nice contrast.  The cardigan was from a pattern on Deramores website.  Until the end of July they are offering free downloads of some of their normally paid-for patterns, and I was very taken with this little cardigan, so I took advantage of their kind offer.

I made the 2-3 year old size.  I used some of the Stylecraft Special dk that I bought when Deramores had 25% off the price earlier this year.  I love the range of colours and the smoothness of this yarn.  I was tempted to put buttons and buttonholes all the way down the front, but in the end stuck to the pattern with its 3 buttons close together at the neck, and I have to say it does work very well.

The little aran jumper was one that I have made before.  It knits up quickly and is very straightforward to put together.  I made the neck opening a little larger than the pattern suggests, because I remember only too vividly trying to pull jumpers over uncooperative little heads, particularly at the end of a tiring day!  I expect that both garments will go to Operation Orphan.

Missing for a bit

I've been missing for a while because our broadband gave up the ghost and it took a while to get BT out to fix it.  However a very helpful BT man came last week and sorted everything out for us.  He moved our router to a different location so hopefully we will have a more reliable broadband service in future.

On the knitting front, I have been making some preemie blankets.  I used Daphne's pattern from Wye Needlecrafts' collection of preemie blanket patterns (sadly the patterns do not seem to be on their website any more).  I like it because it is simple and also because of the waffle texture it produces:

I will be adding them to some other preemie blankets I have made and sending them off to Cuddles UK, who provide maternity units with burial clothes and blankets for stillborn and premature babies.  It is one of the very worthwhile charities supported by Loving Hands.

I've also sent off a parcel to Loving Hands.  There was a small amount of room in the box, so I quickly knitted a few pairs of children's mittens, which are always in demand for Operation Orphan.

They filled the gap admirably!