Make it Monday - Using up the stash

I mentioned last week that I have a couple of new crochet projects on the go.

 

When I finished the big stripey blanket I had little bits of each of the 16 colours leftover and I decided I would try and use them up.

 

First of all I thought about making granny squares out of a random order of the colours but that idea didn't really grab me. Then I remembered my old favourite, the Maybelle Flower Square (pattern here). I decided I would make the flowers out of each of the colours and frame them all in a neutral colour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm really pleased with how the first few are looking.

 

I have no idea how big this blanket will be as I'm restricting myself to only using the colours left over from the stripey blanket, plus the new neutral one. I haven't made the flowers out of all the colours yet, and the ones I have made here haven't used up all of those colours yet either so I'm just going to see how it goes!

 

 

My second project is one I've been desperate to start for a while and one I promised myself that I would start once my stripey blanket was done. You can read all about the Nordic Shawl here, as well as buy the pattern.

 

This is how much I have made so far, using the same neutral shade - Stylecraft Special DK in Parchment - that I am using for the flower squares.

 

 

 

It's looking quite plain at the moment but look how pretty it is once the colours are added!

 

 

I think it will be the perfect shawl for a Scottish summer!

 

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Makings - Attic 24 Cosy CAL Blanket Ta-Da!

Let's go back to the beginning of this blanket again, shall we?

 

Just so I can document its growth from the start.

 

First of all rewind back to Christmas and the present from my shopping-hating sister in law. For those who may have missed an earlier post, each year she asks for links of what we would like for Christmas. Since I couldn't think of anything I wanted other than yarn, I sent her the link to the yarn pack for the Attic 24 Cosy blanket from Wool Warehouse, which you can find here.

 

Once all the Christmas festivities were over I made a start on the blanket in the first week of January.

 

The pattern, complete with picture tutorials, can be found here on Lucy's Attic 24 blog. It's called the Cosy CAL blanket as back in the autumn Lucy had a crochet along to make it.

 

 

It is such a straightforward pattern that it didn't take long to get into the rhythm of each row.

 

 

 

And was even manageable with a sleeping baby in arms.

 

 

 

There are 16 different colours in the blanket and the completed blanket has 6 repeats of each colour, although not in the same order each time.

 

This was after about one and a half repeats.

 

 

 

 

 

The colours, as I've said so often when I've shared a picture of this blanket, are so bright and cheerful. The perfect sort of thing to be working on in the darkest, greyest months of the year.

 

 

 

A few more colour repeats in...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right from the start it has been attracting little boys to climb over it or roll around wrapped up in it.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, crochet hooks and balls of yarn are also tempting to play with!

 

 

Over the course of three months the blanket grew and grew.

 

 

 

Then when we were away on our Easter holidays I completed the main part of it.

 

 

 

 

Isn't it big?!

 

 

 

 

And even more appealing to little boys!

 

 

 

 

Next job was sewing in all those ends.

 

Some people like to do them as they go along but I like the satisfaction of seeing them all sewn in at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

Look at those happy colours!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the ends were dealt with it was time to add the border.

 

 

 

 

I followed the colour order from the Attic 24 CAL posts exactly for the blanket, but I wasn't so keen on the four colours used for the border of that one. There was nothing wrong with the colours themselves, just that the final round gives a strong feeling to the blanket and the final round on the tutorial was green. Green isn't one of my favourite colours and so I finished my border off with a round of blue.

 

 

 

 

I love those spiky little stitches round the edge.

 

 

 

 

Here's another look at those happy colours...

 

 

 

 

...and for another sense of scale, here is the blanket laid out on our king sized bed.

 

 

It's such a generous size and the yarn is so soft and snuggly. Stylecraft Special is definitely my new favourite yarn to work with. I already have my next two projects on the go, both using Stylecraft. One of them is using up the scraps of colour left over from this blanket, the other is something I've been wanting to make for a while and that I promised myself I would make once this blanket was made.

 

But this post is all about the blanket, which now lives across the back of one of our sofas, and is big enough for quite a few people to snuggle under of an evening watching a movie, or reading a book or just snuggling up under on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

 

And if you thought the blanket was beautiful on its own, now add a sleeping baby to the picture and it takes on a whole new beauty!

 

 

 

 

 

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Makings - Granny's Cushion

Well the deadline worked.

 

My mum flew home on Friday night with a neatly wrapped cushion cover for my granny in her suitcase.

 

I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn but I don't know the name of the two purples as they were from my stash basket. I love how they look together though.

 

 

 

 

I ran out of the lighter purple when working on the v-stitch back so I decided to pretend that it was meant to be like this and finished it off with the cream since it's such a dominant colour on the front anyway.

 

And actually I'm quite glad that it worked out that way!

 

 

Granny loved it too, which was the most important thing.

 

I also had time to make up this sweet little heart hanging for my aunt.

 

 

The pattern for the heart is from, yes you've guessed, Attic 24!

 

Now it's back to my stripey blanket and to finish off January's cross stitch pattern before I can start February's!

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Make it Monday - Crochet Maybelle Square Cushion

Remember the cushion I made my granny for Christmas?

 

 

 

 

Well, she loved it.

 

So much so that she said it would be nice if she had two of them!

 

It's her birthday at the end of January and so I said I would make her another one for her birthday. After all, if you can't get what you ask for when you turn 91 then when can you?!

 

The cushion starts out with these lovely little Maybelle Flowers - you can get the free pattern here.

 

 

Then they are turned into squares and crocheted together. The pattern for the squares is found on My Rose Valley blog.

 

 

 

 

 

For the back of the cushion I'm just making v-stitch stripes like I did on the first cushion.

 

 

 

 

I didn't have any of the pinks left that I used for the first cushion so I've made this one up in some pinkish purples from my yarn stash.

 

I also have a deadline, which always helps! My mum is down for a week visiting my new baby niece, and so I want to have this finished before she leaves at the end of the week and she can take it back home to my granny.

 

I'm also itching to get back to my colourful blanket that I shared last week!

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Make it Monday - Handmade Christmas

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and New Year. 

We had a busy time over the last couple of weeks, which included two Christmas days - one on the actual day with my in laws and the other on Boxing Day with my family. But more of that in another post perhaps.

Tonight it's a quick reveal of all those crochet gifts I have been busy making since right back in August, but that I couldn't share until they had been received!

Starting off, in no particular order (although this was the first gift I made), with the cushion I made for my granny.

For my aunt I made a set of little coasters.

My mum and brother's wife both got a Russian doll cushion. The pattern is from Annaboos House.

My husband's sister loves the outdoors and Calum (12) asked if I would make her a chunky cowl similar to the one I made him a couple of months ago. I also made her some matching wrist warmers. I didn't have a pattern for these. The colours are also not as dark as they look here but I was snapping the picture late at night before wrapping them up!

Another lovely Anaaboos house pattern for my mother in law's gift. 

I can't remember if I already shared these but these were the little purses I made for the boys' primary school teachers. Yes, you've guessed it, another Annaboos House pattern! 

I wanted to make the older boys a little something crocheted too, and thought long and hard about what I could make James (14) that was still cool enough for him. Thankfully Pinterest came up trumps and I found this pattern to make baby Groot from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. I wish I could have taken a picture of James' face when he opened it up! It certainly had the desired effect!

For Calum (12) I made this Koala cushion.

And David got a similar penguin one. 

Alasdair (5) has asked for a monkey cushion, and is happy to wait for it. As you can imagine, I didn't have any more time left before Christmas to make anything else!

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