Advent Craft Swap

This year I’ve taken part in the Advent Craft Swap organised by Fionnuala over at Three Sons Later, and when my parcel arrived days ahead of my day to open it, I had to deploy the biggest amount of patience.  I don’t think I’ve ever received such a Christmassy-looking parcel.

It's arrived - my craft swap for december 12

But wait I did. And then with much excitement on the 12th dove in to discover an array of goodies from my swap partner, Dorothea:

Opening my advent craft swap parcel

I’m looking forward to trying the Winter Orange jam, and the key fob is just the thing for the keys to our new bifold doors, yes, I’ve still not sorted those out. And I don’t need to tell you how interested I am in the chocolate that has its own tiny box!

So a great parcel, and a great 12 December, thank you Dorothea.

Sending my swap

Clearly a swap is a two-way thing, but this swap is between all recipients so we didn’t have swap partners as such. My contribution to the process was this twinkly, crocheted snowflake garland, which I couldn’t help but take a snap of before I sent it on its way to Germany.

I’M TEMPTED TO MAKE ONE FOR MYSELF

I’M TEMPTED TO MAKE ONE FOR MYSELF

I was relieved to track my parcel and learn that it got there the day before it was due - phew - and even more pleased when I received the loveliest of messages from Elizabeth, the recipient:

Today stars shimmering like snowflakes fell down from heaven to earth. I did not open my windows, nor my door to let them in but just open my package.

I am tempted to make one for myself, it’s on the list, if I have time!

A crochet update

I've mentioned a couple of times here that my "Spring" crochet blanket is complete - named by one of the comments in a much earlier blog post for its spring-like colours, and the name just stuck - but other than a glimpse I hadn't shown any photos.  So today I am, I also said previously that it doesn't match the bedding currently on the bed, and you can see it doesn't, but I don't really mind.  It goes with the colour scheme of the room, and more importantly it is finished, ends sewn in and everything.

And I'm rather proud of it.  This is my first crochet project, and given that I taught myself last autumn, and the blanket includes my very first granny square ever - it's a pale yellow one - I'm pleased with how it turned out.  

Spring crochet granny square blanket is complete

I quickly got bored of plain granny squares though in the thirst to learn more and experiment with this new-to-me craft and so the idea of the 'pattern' was born.  I decided to try different squares to test myself, some I liked and enjoyed making and others I didn't; some I adapted part-way through, especially if I found the pattern too dull, or if I went wrong (more likely!)

And so it grew, but I was keen to move onto the many other projects I had lined up, so to add variation I decided that I needed one larger square in all of the wools I was using which would help it grow quicker, and give the patchwork look I was after.  And I reverted to plain granny squares to get it done. With enough squares completed and a layout decided - remember I used the bed and photographed it so I didn't forget - I started to join it together, first adding a round of white around each square to give some uniformity, joining with the granny square stitch.  

I learnt many stitches, the composition of squares which I know will help in future projects and that variegated yarn works so much better in crochet than it does in knitting somehow.  I've always liked the variegated wool, but not so much when knitted, now my love is rekindled, although it might be on hold for a bit as I've already several projects that I have the wool for, including the Kalevala which was the blanket that started this journey (and is still not started).

a wider view of the blanket and the room which does go together

So, with the Spring blanket complete, what next?

Well apart from the two other projects on the go, one is a square a week in muted colours that I'm behind on in the number of weeks and the other is a lunchtime project that lives in my desk.  I rarely get to do this, that I should do more of it really, I decided I needed to start another of the projects I already have planned.

I wasn't sure which but then I remembered I'd already done some of the groundwork for the Vintage Sweetheart blanket by Cherry Heart which was serialised in Crochet Now.  The original colour-way of the blanket is great, but not very me.  I'm much more of a bright colour person and so I decided to ramp it up a bit with my own colours.  They're not too far away from the original, but they do have a bit more of a pop.

planning my colours for the vintage sweetheart throw by cherry heart

As well as creating my own colour chart - as I'm bound to forget at some point which colour is what - I've also listed which squares are in which section, so I can take a slightly different approach to making it.  I'm starting with the Granny Jean square and last night made four of them for three separate sections.  I'll need to work out how to label them so I don't get them muddled up and right now the simplest thing I can think of is to put each section’s squares into a separate bag.  Simple is good!

starting with four Granny Jean squares

They're quite bright though aren't they?  And I'm already pleased with them.  These are a variation on the granny square, but use the V stitch instead of the more traditional approach.  MOH noticed the new project last night, asked what it was and then enquiries if I was expecting a cold winter, what with it being another blanket. 

It’s for another room I told him, but I hadn’t worked out which. Not that I shared that last bit, of course. However this morning as I was photographing the new squares, I think I found its new home:

I think I may have already found the new home for my vintage sweethearts project

What do you think?!

PoCoLo

Love this #76: The Kalevala CAL

You might have seen on social media last weekend that I decided to teach myself to crochet. It's been a long time coming, and you might be wondering why now?  That's a fair question as I originally said I wanted to start crocheting back in 2014, and I've not really got close to it before. It was one of those aspirations, that well remained just that. 

At least though I'd bought some wool, some crochet hooks and a granny square book, and mum sent me the Learn to Crochet booklet. It doesn't have a date, and I hesitate to call it vintage, but let's just say the price on the front is 2/-

And I made good progress; four traditional granny squares and a foray into something more adventurous too - the Blooming Granny, complete with popcorn stitch flower (get me!)  - and mum's asked me to show her this stitch.

I'd always looked at crochet diagrams in bemusement, but I quickly realised with a bit of decoding, the learn to crochet guide and a peek at YouTube it wasn't anywhere near as hard as I thought. And much to my surprise the crochet diagrams are easier to understand than the written instructions.

I've always been a knitter (some might say knit) and so working with a single hook seemed alien. Over the weekend I learnt that the hook does all of the work and it's quite fascinating to watch and see my granny squares develop.  On the plus side, it seems progress is quicker than knitting too, which for a beginner is just awesome...

BLOOMING GRANNY

BLOOMING GRANNY

So I've seven completed squares, and the crochet has been in my bag every day at work this week. It hasn't quite made it out yet, but lunchtimes this week have been a bit rushed, but it's staying there because I'm an eternal optimist.  I was starting to tire of using the same wool, but the pistachio green and candy pink wasn't quite the look I was going for, so off I headed to Hobbycraft after work on Monday.

It's great, I walked there and then home again so I could feel totally virtuous with the 13,500+ steps I clocked up that day, and thankfully walking meant I had to carry my purchases.  I wasn't sure what I wanted, other than a change of wool, but I left with more yellows, mint greens and creams. 

MOH hasn't seen them yet, and he doesn't really need to just yet - he's already asking what I'll do with the growing pile of squares I'm manufacturing. The answer is clear, I'll make a blanket. Obviously. He looked less than convinced, but it'll look great in our spare bedroom.

But I haven't told you why last weekend yet, have I.  And my granny squares are just that, they're nowhere near as beautiful as the Kalevala CAL in the title of this post.

The Kalevala CAL

Early Saturday morning saw some Facebook browsing and I came across a post about the Kalevala CAL, which I had no idea what it was. But the lady that posted seemed excited by it, so I took a look. And maybe, the image below might have caught my eye.

I mean, isn't that blanket fantastic?!

My ambition for learning to crochet was always to make an afghan (or blanket) with various patterned squares, but like learning to crochet I'd done nothing more about it. And here, fortuitously it had been presented to me and so with my simplistic way of thinking, it was clearly meant to be. 

My Facebook browsing was abandoned and I went into research mode.  I learnt the Kalevala CAL is a project to celebrate Finland's 100 years of independence. The blanket is made up of twenty four squares, plus the join and the border and each square relates to the Kalevala poetry by Elias Lönnrot.  

But could I do it?  

Well laying in bed there Saturday morning the answer was clearly no, but I thought if I could learn to crochet then I'd be in with a fair chance. And so that's what I did, but first I dived into what colourway my Kalevala CAL would be.  And yes, I contemplated yellow, but decided this would hopefully be something that would be around for a long time (finished I mean, not part-made) and so an olive green would have better longevity. 

So I ordered the wool and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

Am I mad? Yes!

Will I have a beautiful hand crocheted blanket? I hope so!