Month: January 2022

Midnight Snowflakes

Finally!

Finally I was able to start this pattern. I fell in love with it when Ana published the pattern about one year ago. Since then I have promised hubby to make him a blanket with it. When Ana lately announced her MAL I thought it was a good time to start with it.

The colours

It is always hard to choose the right colours for a blanket. At least it is for me. It is very rare that I see a pattern and immediately know which colours I want to make it in. For Midnight Snowflakes I instantly had white combined with a grey tone in mind. White for the background with grey snowflakes! But something made me hesitate. I probably knew instinctively that hubby wouldn’t like it. And so it was!

After he told me that this is much too bright (???) my idea was to switch the colours and do the snowflakes in classic white and the background in a dark grey. Looking for a yarn that might be a bit more special than my standard acrylic yarn I came across Cookie from Järbo. The colour Cloudy was exactly what I was looking for, off white changing to a soft, light grey – and on sale! From what I saw in the photos this would go great with Rotterdam from Scheepjes Colour Crafter. (Rotterdam is a dark grey, very similar to Graphite from Stylecraft Special DK.) So I placed my order.

My disappointment could not have been greater when the yarn arrived. Rotterdam was what I expected, but … You can already see it in my photos. Instead of white with a little bit of grey my Cookie is grey with a little bit of white. Much too dark in combination with Rotterdam – even hubby agreed.

I have to say, the yarn itself is great. Nice and soft with a great stitch definition. I didn’t send it back. It will be used in another project. It would certainly look good in a Winter Wonderland.

Since I did not want to order online again on suspicion I had to find another match with colours I had. Combinations with Stylecraft Special DK in A Hint of Silver or Parma Violet looked nice but were not what I had in mind. I liked the contrast with white, hubby didn’t. I even tried to create a gradient myself but either the contrast between my colours was too low or there was no gradation in between.

Finally I found Duck Egg in my stash. I like the combination of Duck Egg and dark grey and hubby agreed. This is how my choice of colour came about. To be honest, I still don’t know if hubby really likes it or if he was just so annoyed that he said yes.

The MAL runs util 28. February 2022. The pattern is available via Ravelry. Until the end of February there is a 50% discount (code on Ana’s Facebook group).

Midnight Snowflakes pattern by One Skein of Love, hooked by ELeni

Have a nice week!

2021 is gone

I am probably a bit late with my review of the past year, but better late than never, as we say. I have been working on a new test since the middle of December and hardly have time for anything else. Due to various circumstances the time frame to finish this test is more than sporty. It is a beautiful blanket but that’s all what I can tell you for now – it is a still a BIG secret.

Review 2021

Scrolling through my photos and thinking about the past year there were definitely some highlights. Like every year I was surprised how many there were and tried to capture them here.

One of the biggest highlights in 2021 was that I started my blog, otherwise I would not be sitting here writing this post right now. It all started last February on blogspot with “This and That – made by ELeni“. Later I decided to rework the blog completely and switch to WordPress. A decision I do not regret to this day.

Through the blog I got in touch with Ana from One Skein of Love. Now I test for her and am one of the admins of her Facebook group. As life goes!

From a crochet point of view 2021 had started with several tests for Dana from misssBerlin. It is always so much fun to create her little Dudes. In 2021 we had the The Succulent Dudes, The Suga’ Dudes, and The Carnival Treat Dude s. Unfortunately I did not manage to finish my Seashell Dudes, just as I did not finish my When Summer turns into Fall blanket.

My first test for Ana was the Gretchen blanket, followed by Oh So XOXO and two really big projects, Geometrics Cal and Winter Wonderland.

And in between, apart from some tests for BebaBlanket, I also worked with Pam from A Yarn of Serendipity again: The Margaret Square, Brood of Angels and Fancy Nancy, which I haven‘t shown here yet.

And, oh yes, I wrote down my own pattern, my first one, published on Ravelry. That was also quite an experience!

Quite a busy year!

And of course not forgetting the short holiday that we were able to take despite the pandemic. Something very precious in times like these. And the first peach from our little peach tree. Unfortunately we could only harvest one, the others fell from the tree before they were rally ripe. But the one was so sweet and delicious!

And, after one and a half socks have been hiding in my knitting basket since the beginning of 2020, they were finally finished for Christmas. Hubby has new socks and loves them.

I am curious to see what 2022 will bring! I wish you all the best for this year!