Tag Archives: baby blanket

I really need to crochet a hexagon!

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I woke up really early yesterday morning, read a bit more of Hidden Depths, the third book in the Vera series by Anne Cleeves and then fell back asleep for a few hours. When I woke I scrolled a bit on Insta and found I had a burning need to crochet a hexagon!

Do you ever feel like that? You just have to grab some scraps of yarn and a hook and go for it?

I’d seen Anita’s Vintage Hexagons a while back and that was the pattern I settled on. It’s free and here on her brand new website. She’s so clever with colour and original blanket designs. We’ve followed each other for years on Insta, but now she’s really taking designing up a notch. Check out her accounts.

I’ve been on a mission for a long time to finish all the things already started, or to unravel them, but I made an allowance yesterday. A few hexies, using oddments from blanket making, wouldn’t exactly be breaking the plan. I fancied something colourful. I really like the variegated Hayfield Spirit wool acrylic mix I’m using for my Coast blanket, but it’s quite muted.

Crocheting motifs bit by bit would be an ideal project for short bursts of crochet. I’d get that feeling of completing something, without crippling pain at the end of a mammoth row of a blanket. Anyway, I’m always drawn to hexagons, they’re probably my most favourite shapes.

Larger balls and little lengths wound up and in a little zippy bag I sewed a few years ago

Do you recognise my colour combo? I’ve used it a little more more than I realised. Thank goodness for my account on Pinterest. I had a quick look through my pins to spot everything made with this colour combo. My Pinterest doesn’t feature everything, but it’s a good selection. It’s amazing how many people end up here clicking through from Pinterest.

Baby Theo’s Patchwork blanket
Winnie’s Wave blanket (and Winnie’s baby brother who inherited it last year)
Blackberry Ripple blanket
Baby Hexagons blanket

Anyway, back to yesterday…

I think I might stop here and change yarns. I’ve become used to more of a wool content, even 20%, and the plasticy look of this acrylic is not doing it for me. Or maybe I should try a different brand?

This week I may donate what I’ve made so far, and the little middles I also made, with the rest of the oddments. I could pop in a note telling the buyer where to find the free pattern online too.

What’s your go-to yarn for blanket making? I’m not about to buy a vast quantity of pure wool. I crochet and knit with wool or blends for smaller makes, as I prefer to wear it rather than 100% acrylic. It would be way too expensive and too valuable for throwing about as an everyday blanket. Another brand of acrylic, or a wool blend would be good to try. Any recommendations would be welcome. Then I can go to wool shop to have a squish…

…when I’ve completed my ‘Finish everything and do not buy any more yarn’ mission, of course!

Patchwork Blanket – finished

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Between Christmas and New Year, Twixmas, 2017 I idly started experimenting with moss stitch (aka linen or granite stitch) as I’d been inspired to crochet some solid blocks of colour. See blog post here I didn’t want to end up with lots of pieces to join. They don’t always end up being anything, other than piles of things, do they? So I just changed colour on the last stitch and continued the next section. It’s a great lazy way to make a blanket, scarf or whatever. It was also perfect for using up some oddments after making The Blackbery Ripple blanket for a friend and Winnie’s Wave Blanket for another friend’s baby, earlier that year. There was no plan or agenda for the strips, it was lazy Christmas crafting which I picked up over the years when I wanted something fairly mindless to crochet.

Then a friend told me she was expecting her first baby. It’s excellent to realise you’ve got all the makings of a blanket.

And here it is, all finished and ready for baby Theo. Big enough for toddler Theo too. I never make hanky sized blankets which aren’t any use in the longer term.

Patchwork Blanket Details

Stitch: The blanket’s made up of 5 strips of 7 continuous blocks of colour, crocheted in moss stitch (aka linen or granite stitch)

Weight: 557g

Length: 40” / 112cm ish

Width: 31 1/2” / 80cm wide

Border: 4 rounds of dcs and chs, with a cute little picot edging to finish it off

Hooks: 4.5mm for the blocks, this makes a nice fabric, plus you can see the chain spaces easier than using a 4mm. 4mm for joining and the border

Yarn: all oddments of Stylecraft Special DK. It’s lovely, soft and very drapey too. (Collins English dictionary confirms drapey is British English. To be honest I thought it might be Rachel English. I do use quite a few of my own words…)

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Now what to finish next?

Yahoooo!

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I’m on the final row of the border!

(And hello, how are you? Tell me all your news!)

Just some little picots, or something, to finish it off. Then a few more photos and I’ll package it up to send to baby Theo.

Happy days. So so so good to have something finished to show. Maybe I will pay my WordPress bill in August to keep this blog going. It’s been touch and go, I have to say.

Would any of you like me to write up a rough guide as to how I made this patchwork style blanket? It’s a good way of using up odds and ends of yarn.

Are you yahooooing! about anything this week?

* You should be pleased we’re not standing in the same room; as I made some harissa butter bean hummus for lunch and probably used too big a clove of garlic! Even wearing a mask the fumes would knock you out!

** If you’d like to check on whether I’m still alive and kicking then you can find me (sporadically) posting on Instagram: The Little Room of Rachell

Chanting

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I’m chanting “Just get on with it!” Baby Theo needs his blanket. And am stalling by writing this, instead of picking up the blinking hook. D’oh!

I only have the lengths of three blocks to join, then the border – always the fun bit. I’m hoping I can use scraps as I don’t want to buy more yarn. I was using up stash oddments without a particular purpose in mind, when I began making strips of linen stitch blocks of colour one day. Thankfully my friend had a spare ball of parchment, so I didn’t need to buy any for the joining when I ran out.

Joining method:

I’m going under the chain stitches on the edging of each strip, then crocheting them together with 1 dc, a 1 ch takes me to the next chain gap. The seamless join looked great, (see here) but was an absolute pig to do. So, of course, it wasn’t done. Better a more textured join, than a heap of strips left in a bag I’d say?

Then I’ll dig through and get another unfinished thing out. I reckon I’ll be inspired to do more knitting and crochet when I come to the end of the unfinished heap. I do not have permission to begin anything until I have….yawn!

Back to the chanting and the doing.

Tell me two things?

Under the Stars blanket – finished

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This afternoon I made a decision to finish the Sleep Under the Stars blanket. It’s lovely and squishy. The yarn is soft and great to crochet. I’ve enjoyed working on it. Crochet is sporadic, because otherwise it’s just too uncomfortable to do much of anything without discomfort for days afterwards. Dratted hand, but never mind it’s just the way things are and at least I can still do a bit and not zero. So that’s fine. It has to be, doesn’t it?

It’s now a nice warm lap size blanket for an adult, or a good sized blanket for a baby to snuggle under. I hadn’t really thought about it one way or another, but this afternoon I found myself thinking that I’d do one more round then darn in the ends. And that was it!

Of course it means I’ve got quite a few balls of lovely chunky Paintbox yarn to use on something else, however my plan is now to work through things I started agessss ago. I think this working through means to either undo or finish them. There are definitely a few things lurking that I know I’m not interested in wearing, or making any more. At my current speed this might take the rest of the year and perhaps till Easter next year! Depends how many I abandon…I could go ballistic in an unravelling sort of sense. That’s a dodgy looking sentence and no mistake. I’ve obviously been reading too much Engleby lately (I can’t put it down. There have been a few books like that since May when my reading and concentration picked up again.)

No worries either way – crochet is not about speed or productivity anymore. It has got to be about making things I really want to make. I just decided on a whim that I didn’t really need a full-sized star shaped blanket after all, and a happy byproduct of this is that I get that old whoosh of relief and happy feeling of having completed something nice.

What next?

I might plunge my hand into the craft box and pull out a bag, as if from a lucky dip tub. I can’t quite remember what’s in there.

Finish or unravel?

Wait and see….. I’ll be back…

Much warmer

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Walking with a friend today, it felt almost balmy outside at 8-9 degrees. Lovely! Signs of Spring are back in full force as you’ll see.

There were patches of snow alongside the roadsides, piled up on the verges and the boundaries of fields. There are deep patches despite the heavy rain that fell on Sunday. I had to smile when I parked my car and saw this on the village green:

When walking with my nieces on Sunday we spotted a similar stump in a front garden, but with 2 carrots, 4 buttons and twigs on the ground around it. I wish I’d taken a photo as it was just such a touching scene.

We popped into the pub after our walk and I found out that it was established in 1605. It was a coaching inn where the horses would be rested and fed, the passengers too no doubt. The arch led to the coach yard and stables. It is an age since I’ve been there, it’s nice and cosy inside. Much of this old village is gorgeous with the ironstone dwellings, wrought iron gates and some fantastic walled gardens.

After all that snow and minus temperatures it’s amazing to see the snowdrops again. Aren’t they resilient? I guess the clue is in the name. Can you see the pink and yellow flowers on the right? I think they’re primula.

My friend has heard Johnny Depp has a house here. I wondered if it’s this one? You can buy coach house no. 4 next door if you like?

Frankly I took this is for the Americans! I know thatched cottages are always popular.

B was trying to walk fast, keeping up our brisk pace, get the heart pumping etc and burn some calories (her multiple gins at the weekend were playing on her mind.) Her fitness app voice notifications were kicking in with how many kilometres we had walked, how fast our average pace per km etc but I kept stopping dead to whip out my iPhone. I can’t help it when I see witchy wintery trees with an ancient spire behind. I love the twigs lying on the top of the wall where they’ve fallen off.

As a side note; I’ve just googled ‘how old is ancient?’ It’s far older than this spire, so I’m going to have to repeat myself inanely and say it’s very old. When I say the pub is very old, established in 1605, Someone raises his eyebrows, as his school dates from around 1400. It’s all relative though isn’t it? In Australia I often saw signage about very old houses, only dating from 1970 something!

The pace was slowing again, but I was not guilty. The mud was so thick and squelchy along the footpath we considered turning back, but both quite like circular walks. I had to scrape my walking shoes against a tree trunk, to get the worst of the mud off when we came back into civilisation. They were almost comedy clown sized shoes, encircled with mud.

One final pic for you from today’s walk is something I’m used to seeing around, but maybe you’re not…

It’s a mounting block for horses. Do you see them where you are? Are they as old? (I’m debating retitling this whole post Really Old. It’s been totally over used after all.)

Do you want to see a cutie patooty?

Here is Winnie and her Wave Blanket. Isn’t she beautiful? I love the way she’s got her hand on the top of the milk bottle! She’s five months old now. Her Mum tells me she loves her blanket so much and uses it everyday in her pram, the car and her bouncer chair. Wherever they go people ask where it is from, it’s lovely knitting’ (sigh! / smirk.) It’s attracted a lot of attention.

Springlike temperatures, pretty wild flowers, beautiful old buildings and seeing Winnie using her Wave Blanket, there are some reasons to smile.

What’s making you smile at the mo? If you’re not feeling great, I hope things improve soon. Look after yourself.

Baby Hexagon Blanket – finished – hurray!

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Yep! It’s finished. There’s always a good feeling about completing something isn’t there? Even more so for this because it’s been a far slower process than any other blanket I’ve made. I reckon it’s because I haven’t made it for anyone in particular, it’s been a case of making something out of the hexies. I didn’t want to abandon them. It’s not a race, but I don’t like things hanging around and around and around… (The only other thing undone is those CAL blocks and I’m wondering if to just give them away.)

I do admit to having a bit of a smug glow about actually having made something out of the aborted Baby Hexie a Day project. It was started on Instagram by another crocheter, around New Year’s Day 2015. Lots of us began with enthusiasm as you do in January. It turned out to be the crochet equivalent of joining a gym; because by the middle of the month, perhaps even sooner, people started to realised that 365 mini hexagons weren’t going to make anything of any size. I am glad I did something with my piece because they are pretty cute.

I used Stylecraft Special DK oddments left over from other blankets, with a 4mm hook. I think I’ve listed all, but please let me know if you notice any I’ve left out:

1.parchment 2. plum 3. graphite 4. silver 5. lime 6. lavender 7. camel 8. raspberry

9. clematis 10. grey 11. mocha 12. walnut 13. pale rose


The blanket is 26″/  66cm in length, 19.5″ / 49.5cm in width and weighs 289g. I’d say it’s a perfect pram or car seat size.

For the border I started with a round of dc stitches, then for the second round, I crocheted trebles (with 2 tr, 1 ch, 2 tr at the corners.) When I came to the short sidesI did 2 dtr tog, which was 1 dtr into each tr of the JAYGO edges. This evened up the stitches to bring them to the same height as the others.I like the look and texture of those dtr tog too.The third and fourth rounds I decided on 2 colour dc spike stitches. I considered bobbles or pom-pom stitches but decided less is more.

I used this graphic on Instagram for the hexagons, although there were a variety of patterns. Try a few and see which you find most satisfying to make and which look most ‘hexagony’.

With the help of Trish – Made by Patch this is what I did for the half hexies:

FR: ch 4, the 1st ch is the centre of the half hexagon. This is counted as 1 tr.

R2: 2 tr (into the first / bottom ch st) ch 1. Rep twice more then 1 tr (all into the same place.) Turn.

R3: Ch3, 1 tr (into ch1 sp of prev row) 2 tr, ch 1, 2 tr (jnto next ch 1 sp) Rep once more. 2 tr (into final ch1 sp.) Fasten off.

If you want to JAYGO this is what I did: ss into a baby hexagon after turning at the end of R2, then ch3 (ch2 might look better, see what you think.) Continue R3 but ss in between the next 2 2tr, instead of 1 ch, 2 tr clusters, 2tr then ss at the end. This technique looks ok, but if I do another hexagon blanket I’d seriously consider sewing or crocheting it all together and forgetting the JAYGO thing altogether.

Now I’ve finished with the baby hexies I’ve been picking up the Unnamed Ripple again. That is its name by the way, it just stuck!

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Star ripple II

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This second 12 pointed star ripple baby blanket (or lap blanket as it kept my legs nicely warm, while I sewed) took me just a few days to crochet. Then at least a week to darn! There were more exciting things to go onto; with a new Hitchhiker scarf in progress and the Spice of Life CAL last week. But I made myself finish as I loathehaving unfinished tasks hanging over my head. All the pattern details etc can be found in the blog post I wrote after finishing the first.

The yarn colours in this one are Stylecraft Special DK: lime, raspberry, pale rose and parchment.

Oh my goodness I feel poorly today! I’ve come down with a stinking cold. They knock you for six, don’t they? It’s so long since I had one this bad. I’ve really appreciated mugs of peppermint tea, easy knitting and this week’s Downton to cheer me up this afternoon.

Bright Stripy Blanket….finished 

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Bright Stripy Baby blanket 

Stylecraft Special DK: Lime Petrol Emperor Raspberry Silver Pale Rose

4mm hook

Starting chain: 148 + 3 (148 trebles)

Stitches: doubles, trebles, half trebles

Border: I made trebles into the space after 2 stitches on each side of the blanket, 1- 2 trebles in each row depending on the thickness of the stripe. The border is 6 rows in total: 2 of lime and 4 of petrol. (2 tr, 2 ch, 2 tr) in the corners

Dimensions: 38″ W  40″ L

Weight: 544g

As you see, I decided to crochet stripes of varying thickness including quite wide blocks of colour. It’s a purposely large baby blanket as his big sister’s Jewel blanket is still in good use even now she’s over two years. A little hanky sized one is too quickly grown out of, though I note with amusement that big sister has been covering the baby with the Catherine Wheel stitch doll’s blanket I made at the beginning of the year.  It very cute to see.

Tip: find the brightest spot, as you can probably tell it’s the top of the stairs today, and drop the finished blanket. This makes for a very natural looking photograph. With top tips like that perhaps I should be adding one of those slightly awkward ‘Buy me a cup of coffee’ PayPal gizmos?! Ha!

The last two ends 

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   These are the last two ends to be darned and then the Bright Stripy Blanket is finished. It’s always a good feeling isn’t it? 

The expected girl turned out to be a boy, rather to the initial shock of my friend, so this is a fairly pink blanket. Rather than the planned lime border I’ve finished it in petrol; to emphasise the blue stripes.  

What are you up to at the moment?

Definitely not knitting 

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I’ve got to finish darning my motif blanket (it’s going well and best described as: slow but steady) and crochet lots more stripes. So, I’m still determinedly not going to start knitting anything, or begin any new project, until they’re finished. 

 I can still buy the occasional treats though. A gorgeous pottery coaster and a skein of the most deliciously soft yarn which is 97% baby alpaca, (see the silver sparkles in it?)  along with a little pattern for wristies with a mock cable pattern.
  It would be foolish to begin a new make, when I’ve really got to finish the overdue motif blanket which is for someone else. Equal pleasure can surely be gained from darning and half watching a Pirates of the Caribbean film can’t it? 

   Bright stripes are good for the day after the night before, when one by one leaders are resigning and pundits are still reeling from false predictions. 

What are you definitely not doing? 

Bright stripes

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       I’m crocheting another stripy baby blanket for a friend, after seeing how much she’s still using the Baby Jewel Blanket for her soon to be two year old. I’ve spotted it in her photos while visiting to Australia, saw it in use in Leeds and a couple of weeks ago it was covering a sleeping toddler in Paris. That blanket is gathering air and train miles!  I can’t tell you how much its made me smile to see it being so well used. It also reassured me that my scant research on how big a baby blanket should be was worth it. To have any longer term use I decided there’s really no point giving a handkerchief sized square, which will only be good when they’re teeny tiny.

I didn’t want the new baby – due in June – to feel left out and so gathered up my balls of Stylecraft. My friend likes bright, is still all for colour equality and is very happy to have another striped blanket. I’m loving zipping along, doing a mixture of trebles, half trebles and the occasional row of double crochet.

My current audio books are Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka and The Life of Lee by Lee Evans.
What are you reading /listening to at the moment?
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Baby Jewel Blanket – FINISHED!

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I started this (mostly) Jewel Baby Blanket straight after Christmas for a baby who was due to be born in the middle of this week. As the Mum-to-be was at a wedding yesterday, dancing and scoffing wedding cake, I’d say there’s probably no new-born baby yet!

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It took a while to complete this because I got a bit bored with darning the ends. I’m wondering if next time I could carry the yarn up the side and continue using them with no cutting, then crochet in the ‘floats’ when I do the border? I’ve learnt that with some projects it’s pointless resolving to darn-as-you-go; it’s not going to happen as you enjoy picking the next colour and zipping along the rows with a smoking hot hook.IMG_2324

Details:

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK

1. Meadow

2. Plum

3. Sherbert

4. Pomegranate

5. Aster

6. Lipstick

7. Turquoise

Hook: 4mm

Stitches: trebles, half trebles, doubles (UK)

Pattern/Design: My own

Length: 37″ Width: 33″

Weight: 448g

IMG_2331I’m not entirely convinced about the side edges. As there was a mix of stitches adding the htr around the first stitches for the FR of the border left some gaps. I think this was where the first stitch was a turning chain on treble rows. After a bit of consultation I went into the space after the second stitch. It adds a rather rustic look to the sides whereas the top and bottom (see the edge on the right in the above photo) are very much neater. I like the 2 tr, 2ch, 2 tr holey corners, that’s the look of a proper crocheted blanket!IMG_2343

Overall I’m pleased with this blanket; the colours are bright as I aimed to avoid the pastel-yuck palate that is used for so many baby items. The turquoise border seems to bring it all together. I’m going to have a think about alternative ways to deal with the initial row of a border going down the side edges of a multi-stitch blanket. I know some published crochet and knitting designers follow this blog – so if you have any advice it is welcome. :-)

As you see we now have sunshine! Hurray! Have a good Sunday, wherever you are in the world. (CAL post to follow, umm errr when I’ve crocheted this week’s blocks.)

Jewel baby blanket

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I started this after Christmas. The plan after making four full-sized blankets was to have a lonnnng blanket-making holiday. But you probably know better than me how it happens; you look at the amount of yarn you’ve managed to accrue over a year, someone you know announces she’s preggers and you’re off!

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It’s my own design. I’m doing a random mix of rows of trebles, half trebles and double crochet (sometimes single rows, sometimes more.) Mostly I’m turning at the end of rows, sometimes I don’t as I like the variety of textures and height of stitches this gives. It will have a border around it. There’s no huge hurry to complete this as the baby’s not due for a few more months.

The Mum-to-be doesn’t know if the baby is a boy or girl but is quite rightly in my opinion “all for colour equality” so there’s my favourite Stylecraft Special DK pomegranate in the mix. I’ve used a few yarns which aren’t jewel colours (meadow and sherbert) and love the combination. :-D

What are you making at the moment? Did you get sucked into a project when you’d planned another?