Author: knackeredpsycho

Thank you…

crochet, patterns, Shawls, yarn

So, finally I can show you the first shawl club shawl in all its finished glory, and tell you a little bit about it.  First of all, here it is in the shawl club peacock yarn that Unbelieva-wool dyed for me.  And it was exactly as I hoped it would come out. Giddy dancing all around.

 

It is a similar shape to the Almejas shawl that is in my gallery – that was a pattern from inside crochet and I loved it as soon as I saw it because of the way it wrapped around the shoulders more than a standard triangular shawl did.  When I started trying to come up with my own designs, one of the challenges I set myself was to try to come up with something that had that general shape, but was more accessible and easy to achieve.  I also wanted this first shawl to include as many of my favourite basic stitches as I could.  So there are trebles, granny treble clusters, V-stitches and picots in there, as well as some back loop only work in places, to add to the texture.  There is nothing there that a beginner couldn’t master, and it grows quickly!  It is also deceptive.  One of my pattern testers who was hooking very loosely refused to believe it would use the whole skein of yarn when she was up to about row 25.  Then very quickly the yarn started to disappear!  It is also worth noting that it grows a lot with blocking – it looks quite neat and a little bit frilly after it has been hooked, but once blocked it opens up into a good sized shawl.

I asked for this in a peacock colourway because the shape of the shawl when laid flat reminds me of the shape of the top of a peacock feather.  It also happens to include the favourite colours of Anne Farmer of Ditsy Pips.  I dedicated the pattern to her as a thank you (this is why this is the Thank You shawl on Ravelry). When I was dithering about even starting all this, I had a day where I got myself very confused and convinced that it was going to be too messy and too complex to get into.  Anne talked me through how she set herself up and gave me a lot of very practical advice.  For her it was just a quick set of messages.  What she didn’t realise was how close I was to talking myself out of this before I had even begun, but the fact that she even replied to my message on a day when she had other things to worry about lifted my spirits and changed my mind.  Just knowing that someone who barely knew me didn’t think I was a jumped up idiot for thinking about this was the nudge I needed. I felt that I might be able to earn my stripes and eventually join the yarn army.  The kindness of strangers can be everything on a bad day.

So my other motivation was to create a great big yarny hug. To do this, I started out making this in DK rather than sock, as I also wanted to make a super cosy one (it was winter at the time). One of the shawls I wear a lot at home is a Penelope shawl that I made in King Cole Riot (before the days when hand-dyed yarn entered my life and depleted my bank balance). I wanted to come up with something that made people feel as comforted as I do when I wear that shawl.  So here it is, the first Thank You shawl I ever made, in an Unbelieva-wool DK called ‘new uniform’.  It was the only yarn I had in my stash where I had two skeins of the same colour…

I have been really fortunate to have been helped by two cracking pattern testers who have made sure this first pattern was easy to follow.  One of them sent me this picture of the version they produced, which I love.  Its so hard to find good models, you know…

IMG_2853

Apparently she won’t give up the shawl though.  I think I am going to take that as a bit of a thumbs up.

Lifesavers…

crochet, patterns, Shawls, yarn

So, first week back at the day job was a timely reminder of why Knackered Psycho is important to me.  Lots of trying to catch up at work, asking the impatient to wait, the tide to turn back, and the world to stop so I can get off. A week of highs and lows, where I can feel proud and excited one minute, and depressed and incompetent the next.  Time away from work doing this gives me perspective and a sense of optimism. Time with yarn makes me feel happy and creative. Time with my daughter and husband reminds me why I do this to myself. So we push on. Resilience is about many things.  For me it is about hanging onto the best of yourself and making time to do the things you need to do to nurture those bits.  I now measure myself by a different set of expectations and standards, ones that I have set for myself.  It feels strange, but not unpleasantly so.

Each week its the small things that lift my spirits.  This week it has been the feedback so far on the Thank You Shawl pattern from the yarn clubbers (thank you!), sketching out the new concept for shawl number 5, winning the fabulous Defarge Yarns ombre yarn set in the picture above in a draw, and receiving the Rockamolly mug I ordered from Doodlestop. Never a truer word was written on crockery, especially after the week I have just had.

Owning a sketchbook again makes me feel strangely complete – last time I had one it was when I was in my twenties.  I still find it hard to put things down in it in case its ‘wrong’ so I still find myself searching for scrap paper to sketch my ideas on.  But I am getting there now, building the confidence spoil the pristine pages with my scribbles.  Its only for me.  Scrub that. I should have said “Its for me”.  No “only” – I need to stop doing that.

Anyway, I have made it to the hallowed ground of Friday night without any casualties.  However, my most constant of all lifesavers has let me down – I have run out of teabags.  Bottoms..FullSizeRender.jpg.

All the beautiful things…

crochet, patterns, Shawls, yarn

Well, its been a bit hectic to say the least over the last few days, but things are starting to settle down now.  I need to update my projects section of this blog to include some of my new patterns, but I did manage to get the wrap pattern up at the weekend.  The first shawl club shawl is also up on Ravelry for those of you who want to look, but I won’t post a picture here just yet, in case there are still folk (and I think that there are) who have yet to receive their boxes.  I will do a post on that one when I am able to.

The last few days have seen me revelling in some pretty things.  Some new yarn came while I was away, and I also finally saw a mannequin that I liked.  I have been looking for one for a while that I can use to put my shawls on so I can take decent pictures of them – hanging them on a coat hanger on the back of the toilet door doesn’t quite seem professional enough any more (don’t judge me, there is good natural light in there…).  Anyway, I found this one…

photo 54

…and I am pretty pleased with it, so you will start to see this one creeping into my pictures from now on.  It also has the potential to double up as a parrot cage if necessary.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, the other half came back from his pottery class tonight with the yarn bowl he has been working on for me.  I asked him to make me a big one, because my current one is small and neat and just about takes one caked 100g skein with very little wriggle room.  So I asked him to do one that was a bit more roomy.  His labours are shown in the picture at the top of the post, and I have popped in a skein of Pollyorange yarn (from my Colour Me Happy box) for a bit of scale.  As you can see, I think he has nailed it and its a great effort for only the second thing he has made and brought home.  The decoration on the side of it is pretty awesome too…

Granny Blanket: Part 2

Blanket, crochet

Blog followers will know that recently I started to post the instructions for constructing this granny blanket (the ‘knackered granny blanket’!).

Part 1 covered the instructions for making the five granny squares you need to start off with.  Hopefully by now you have your granny squares made and ready for joining.   To join them together, you will need your turquoise blue yarn (if you are following the colour scheme pictured here).

blanket

Reminder: UK Crochet terms are used throughout. TB refers to a Treble Crochet in UK terminology (DC in US terminology).

Special Stitch: TB3tog.  Yarn over hook (YOH), insert hook in space, YOH and pull up a loop, YOH and pull through first two stitches on hook only (2 loops on hook); yarn over hook (YOH), insert hook in space, YOH and pull up a loop, YOH and pull through first two stitches on hook only (3 loops on hook); yarn over hook (YOH), insert hook in space, YOH and pull up a loop, YOH and pull through first two stitches on hook only (4 loops on hook). Finally, YOH and pull yarn through all stitches on hook.

Instructions:

You are going to work along just two sides of your squares only initially, as shown in the picture at the top of this post.

Row 1:

Take your first square, join your turquoise yarn to a corner space, and chain 4.  Next (chain 1 and 3TB) into each of the next seven chain spaces along, which should take you into the next corner space.  Chain 2 and 3TB into that same corner space so that you are turning the corner.  Then (chain 1 and 3TB) into the next SIX chain spaces.  Chain 1.

Into the next space (which should be your next corner space), work a TB3tog, pick up your next square, select a corner to join into, and then also work a TB3tog into that space.

Next (chain 1 and 3TB) into each of the next seven chain spaces along, which should take you into the next corner space.  Chain 2 and 3TB into that same corner space so that you are turning the corner.  Then (chain 1 and 3TB) into the next SIX chain spaces.  Chain 1. Into the next space (which should be your next corner space), work a TB3tog, pick up your next square, select a corner to join into, and then also work a TB3tog into that space.

Next (chain 1 and 3TB) into each of the next seven chain spaces along, which should take you into the next corner space.  Chain 2 and 3TB into that same corner space so that you are turning the corner.  Then (chain 1 and 3TB) into the next SIX chain spaces. Chain 1. Into the next space (which should be your next corner space), work a TB3tog, pick up your next square, select a corner to join into, and then also work a TB3tog into that space.

Next (chain 1 and 3TB) into each of the next seven chain spaces along, which should take you into the next corner space.  Chain 2 and 3TB into that same corner space so that you are turning the corner.  Then (chain 1 and 3TB) into the next SIX chain spaces.  Chain 1. Into the next space (which should be your next corner space), work a TB3tog, pick up your next square, select a corner to join into, and then also work a TB3tog into that space.

Finally, (chain 1 and 3TB) into each of the next seven chain spaces along, which should take you into the next corner space.  Chain 2 and 3TB into that same corner space so that you are turning the corner.  Then (chain 1 and 3TB) into the next SEVEN chain spaces. Turn.

Row 2:

Chain 4. (3TB and chain 1) into the chain spaces in the row just completed until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SEVEN times. Chain 1 and TB into the Chain 3 at the start of the previous blue row.  Turn.

Row 3:

Chain 4. (3TB and chain 1) into the chain spaces in the row just completed until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SEVEN times. Chain 1 and TB into the 3rd chain in the Chain 4 at the start of the previous row.  Turn.

Row 4:

Chain 4. (3TB and chain 1) into the chain spaces in the row just completed until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times, and then TB3tog twice into the next two chain spaces where the squares meet each other. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SIX times until you reach the first corner, where you will need to work (3TB, chain 2, 3TB) to turn that corner. Chain 1, and (3TB and chain 1) SEVEN times. Chain 1 and TB into the 3rd chain in the Chain 4 at the start of the previous row.  Break yarn. Change to next colour of yarn in sequence.

You can now continue the blocks of four stripes until you have a series of stripes as illustrated below:

photo 51

You can see in this picture I have already started to complete the stripes on the other side of the blanket, but you will only have one turquoise stripe in yours at this stage. Once you have got to this point, I will post the instructions on how to complete the other side of the blanket in Part 3.

If you get stuck, leave me a comment and I will be happy to help.

 

Back, and in business!

crochet, patterns, scarves, Shawls

After a week away, I am pleased to be back.  Today is important, not just because I am back at home and reunited with my stash, but because it signals the start my experiment with designing and selling patterns.  You will have seen that I have the fantastic collaboration with Unbeliva-wool on the shawl club now in place and the first boxes have gone in the post today.  I have also added some new patterns of my own.  I will feature different ones on here on different days, but they are all up on Ravelry, and to say thank you to you wonderful lot for supporting me over the last few months I have set up a 20% discount for you this weekend (enter code BLOG20 against my paid for patterns for activate it).  The one I am really pleased with is this…

photo 10

Its called the bobble wrap and it uses lace weight yarn, and includes some beading if you fancy having a go!

The Moo-Ra dress is on its way next – I am just fiddling with the pattern before putting that in the store too.

Right, just a quick one for now as I have to finish unpacking and get some food into my small person.  I will do a bit more of a proper blog tomorrow.  But as you can see from the top picture, I now have business cards and merchandise, in the form of a single mug for myself.  I couldn’t resist putting this on the back…

photo 47

Holibobs!

crochet, yarn

Happiness is in this bag….

photo 43

This bag contains the caked yarn from my stash that is going on holiday with me.  It is a large bag.  Many skeins have jumped in and out of it, as if participating in a woolly version of the Hokey Cokey.  I have now settled for a modest amount of about 900g of loveliness, and I have successfully resisted the temptation to add in another cake to make it up to a round 1KG of yarn, because that just sounds excessive…

I have a looong car journey ahead of me on the way there, and another on the way back. Plus, I hope, some R&R in the middle bit. This is premium hooking time, and I am more than a little excited.  I am also feeling virtuous because I have nailed the fourth pattern for Shawl Club, so I am so far ahead of schedule that I can make something that isn’t a shawl for a bit now.  However, I have got an idea for a new shawl that won’t go into Shawl Club, but will just go up on Ravelry if I can get it to work.  I am so tempted to take the yarn for it with me.  Still dithering about that.  Back to the yarn Hokey Cokey again.  What I might do is write down what is in my head and then make it when I get back from holiday.  It is a  bit late at night right now to start caking more yarn, and my swift is making some fairly unearthly squeaks and groans at the moment, and this could frighten the neighbours.

Brian the Sheep, pictured at the top of this post, will stand guard over my stash whilst I’m away.  Brian is a highly trained Ninja Sheep. It is the quiet ones you have to watch, you know. Brian can freeze a thief at 30 paces with his trademark hypnotic stare: “These are not the skeins you are looking for…”

Yes, I think I am starting to lose my mind, but in a good way.  I will try to keep blogging whilst I’m off, but don’t feel abandoned if it goes a bit quiet.  It will mean I am happy with a brew and a hook somewhere far, far away…

Making time to take time…

crochet, socks, yarn

It is the long Easter weekend this week, which means only one thing.  Not chocolate, or bunnies, or biblical stories.  It means cramming a quart into a pint pot at work.  The short week leading up to Good Friday means that email is blazing with colleagues desperate to move work from their desk to yours as fast as possible before the end of the week.  All of a sudden 101 ‘urgent’ emails ping through, with a note saying that they really do need this done before the end of the week.  Plus I am planning on taking a week or so away from work to spend with family, so that means a need to shift a little bit extra too.  So Thursday saw me preparing to stay at work until everything I needed to do was done.  9.30pm, I left my office to trudge back to the car park, to drive home and collapse.

It wasn’t all bad news though.  Because I knew I would be late, I decided I would let myself have a proper lunch hour and one of my hooky friends dropped in and we chatted yarn-related nonsense for an hour.  It is her skilful hands in the picture, crocheting a favourite Magpie and Goblin sock pattern.  Her yarn, nails and jumper coordinated so beautifully that I had to take a picture.  I also need to make a pair of these socks, as I mastered the ‘magic toe’ technique on a different Magpie and Goblin pattern and now want to have a go at these babies.  I have so much sock wool in my stash (bought for shawl making) that I could do with diversifying a wee bit.

The week ended on a high for me.  I nailed Shawl Pattern number 4 ready for Shawl Club, caked my own bodyweight in yarn ready for my holiday, and then I won the most beautiful set of Unbelievawool mini skeins and some coordinating grey yarn in an online lucky dip. I really wanted that particular win, so I was dancing around the room when I got the notification through.  I felt that I was being rewarded for my late night of work.

photo 41

I already know what I am going to use some of them to make, and I want to cake them, but at the moment they are my yarn pets and are so pretty I just want to stare at them.  But I will try to take them with me as I have an idea for a pattern that will use some of them.

I have a little bit of work to do before I can really relax – I couldn’t quite get it all done – but its the sort of stuff I can nail in an evening after the small person has gone to bed. But one thing that this experiment is teaching me is to make more time for my head at work and to take a proper break in the middle of the day.  Its hard to stick to some days, but it rewards me with a clearer head when I manage it.  I get more done because I have that moment of reflection in the middle of the frenzy.

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic, crochet-filled holiday weekend.  For me it signals the countdown to the start of my new business on the 7th April. So everything starts to get pretty interesting now!  I can’t wait to start to share it with you.

Granny Blanket: Part 1

Blanket, crochet

Following on from my last post, when I talked about what sort of yarn you will need for this blanket, here is the first stage of its construction.  You need to make five granny squares, each one consisting of seven rounds of stitches.  If you know how to do a granny square, then you don’t need to follow what is in the rest of this particular blog post, other than to note that the first two rounds will be in your first colour (in the illustration, I used a pinky-red yarn), then the next round was white, followed by a round of orange, followed by a round of white yarn, followed by a round of yellow, and finished with a final round of white.  Of course, you don’t need to use those colours, but I will refer to the colours I have used in the picture so you know where I am at in the construction of the square.

photo 39

I used a 4mm hook throughout this blanket.

UK terms are used throughout and TB = treble crochet.

ROUND 1: With pinky-red yarn, Chain 4 and slip stitch into first chain to make a circle. Chain 3 (counts as one TB) and then 2TB into circle, chain 2, 3TB into circle, chain 2, 3TB into circle, chain 2, 3TB into circle, chain 2 and slip stitch into top of chain 3 to complete the first round.

ROUND 2: Slip stitch into the top of each of the first three trebles of the row below.  Slip stitch into the chain space, and then chain 3 and 2TB into the first chain space, chain 2, 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. Chain 1 and 3TB into the next chain space. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. Chain 1 and 3TB into the next chain space. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. Chain 1 and 3TB into the next chain space. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. Chain 1 and slip stitch into the top of the chain 3 you made at the beginning of the round.  Break yarn.

ROUND 3: Join WHITE yarn to a corner chain space. Chain 3, 2TB into the chain space chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space. Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space. Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space. Chain 1 and 3TB. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space. Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space. Chain 1 and slip stitch into the top of the chain 3 you made at the beginning of the round.  Break yarn.

ROUND 4: Join ORANGE yarn to a corner chain space. Chain 3, 2TB into the chain space chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) three times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) three times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB  into next chain space) three times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) twice. Chain 1 and slip stitch into the top of the chain 3 you made at the beginning of the round.  Break yarn.

ROUND 5: Join WHITE yarn to a corner chain space. Chain 3, 2TB into the chain space chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) four times.  Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) four times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) four times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) three times. Chain 1 and slip stitch into the top of the chain 3 you made at the beginning of the round.  Break yarn.

ROUND 6: Join YELLOW yarn to a corner chain space. Chain 3, 2TB into the chain space chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) five times.  Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) five times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) five times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) four times. Chain 1 and slip stitch into the top of the chain 3 you made at the beginning of the round.  Break yarn.

ROUND 7: Join WHITE yarn to a corner chain space. Chain 3, 2TB into the chain space chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) six times.  Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) six times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) six times. Chain 2 and 3TB into the SAME chain space as the one you have just worked. (Chain 1 and 3TB into next chain space) five times. Chain 1 and slip stitch into the top of the chain 3 you made at the beginning of the round.  Break yarn.

Make five of these squares and sew in your ends (don’t be like me and leave them all to the end – I still haven’t finished sewing in the end on my blanket, and I made it a year ago!).  You can make more if you want a wider blanket, or fewer if you want a smaller one.

I will give you a bit of time to get these done and in the next part I will explain how you use a ripple stripe to join the squares together point-to-point.  Any questions, leave me a comment and I will help!

Stashbusting

Blanket, crochet

Some good news!  The other night I sat with my granny blanket and wrote down the instructions for how I engineered it so I could share them with you.  Its a big project, so I am going to split it into three or four parts, and I will even start another one of these (in a different colourway) so I can check my instructions as we go and then I can take pictures to make it a bit easier to follow my instructions. So now is your chance to use this blanket as a good excuse to stash bust!  My next blog will give Part 1 of the instructions – basically how to do the central granny squares, then I will explain how to join them using a granny ripple stripe in Part 2.  The only sewing you have to do with this is sewing in your ends.  It comes up big enough for a single bed, but you could make it double bed sized by adding two or three more granny squares to the width of it.

Anyway, now is the time to dig into your stash to find the following:

100g each of 7 different colours that you want to work with – DK weight yarn.  You don’t have to do a rainbow, but pick a set of shade of the same colour intensity or hue for them to blend nicely. The coloured yarn I used was Ice Magic, which has a nice colour variation within each coloured ball, which kept it interesting during what was quite a big make.  You could use some beautiful hand-dyed yarn for the coloured stripes if you have it in your stash, but remember you will need to find some neutral yarn in the same base for the contrast colour.

On that point, my memory tells me that I also used 6 or 7 100g balls of white acrylic DK on this blanket.  You don’t have to use white of course, as any neural-coloured yarn could work well as long as it sets the colour of your stripes off nicely.

In my stash I have a two boxes of Stylecraft Special DK which is begging to be used up so I will have a rummage tonight to pick my colours, and I will show these off on Instagram when I have picked the ones I want to use.  Use the hashtag #knackeredgrannyblanket on Instagram to show me your choices if you like!  Looking forward to starting this with you all this week.

The link to Part 1 of this make can be found here.

Lunchtime hooky…

crochet, Shawls, yarn

So I am not the only yarnhead where I work. I have two colleagues who are also demon crocheters and we are trying to get into the habit of meeting up at lunchtime to crochet together and share our makes.  One of them has been pattern testing the first shawl to go into shawl club (no major issues, I am pleased to report, so that is a relief!) and the other one is going to pattern test shawls for me but is in the middle of a textured cowl using yak yarn at the moment and cannot put it down.  Anyway, lunchtime is now a bit of an oasis in what can be some very long days, and a good excuse to turn away from the computer screen and have a non-work related conversation.  We have made a pact to go to Fibre East this year  and already getting giddy at the prospect as last year we had perfect weather on the day we went and we are hoping for a repeat.

I love these women.  One of them is responsible for teaching me to crochet in the first place, so she has a lot to answer for.  The other is great fun as we send each other pictures of our latest hand-dyed purchases when we get home, and we egg each other on to make completely unjustifiable yarn purchases when we are stressed.  We all need a friend like that, right?

Anyway, I am busy experimenting with my pattern for Shawl #4, which I have a concept for and its working from a technical point of view but I am not sure whether I love it yet. The other shawls so far have been more open / lacy and this one is more of a solid looking shawlette, and I am worried that people will have reservations about it.  The colours pictured here are not the ones that I will eventually be using for the finished shawl, I just needed to grab a couple of skeins from my stash to play with and these seemed to fit the bill.  They are pretty though – the one on the right is a King Becky pixel yarn (colourway – Soma) and it is lovely to work with.  I will probably keep this for me regardless of whether the finished product ends up in shawl club but we will see.  I will have a think about whether I can make it a bit more open without messing up the main concept too much.  I have an idea, but I just need to play with it a bit more.