Last week we arrived back home from a lovely 10 days holiday. We were once again at one of my favorite places here in Germany, the Black Forest. The Black Forest is a mountainous region in southwest Germany and borders France. Among other things, it is very well known for the cuckoo clocks. We enjoyed the time very much, even though the weather was unfortunately very unstable. We had rain, wind, sunshine, dark clouds, fog …
… and beautiful sunsets.
As usual, I didn’t crochet much on holiday, so there’s not much to show either. Only some new socks that I started to knit.
The pattern is called Laid Edges by Kellie Macpherson and is available for free on Ravelry. And wow – it‘s the first time that I work along an English sock pattern. So far it looks like I’ve mastered it (even though I decided to knit a different heel).
And some impressions from one of our long walks.
I love this region of Germany! I love the clear and fresh air, the people and especially my holiday place (the one on the picture above with the bench in the rain). Sigh* …
Well, now it’s on with normal life and it’s on with my Legacy blanket, a new test for Ana, the winter preparations in the garden and many more!
Progress with my Legacy Blanket. The joining comes closer, 11 of 12 squares are finished now. All tails worked away and most of them already blocked! I also revised some of my colour placements and am happy with the result!
I was happy to help testing the border pattern. Although my blanket is not finished yet I am able to show you a sneak peek of the border.
For testing purposes I used two of my ›old‹ squares which I made right at the beginning of this journey: Drops Merino Extra Fine #50, Light Beige as main colour, #06 Brown Mix and #07 Light Brown for contrast. I discarded this colour scheme after I had worked the first two squares – somehow I didn’t like it. But – advantage – it gave me some ›leftovers‹ for testing the border.
And here some of my finished squares
Madux James
Brixton Carter-Lee
Marley Mae
Jalen Miles
Carter Jude
Olivia Grace
So far so good! Lauren Rose (one of the revised ones) and Brood of Angels are still on the blocking board. The last one to finish is Macey Ann. Actually, Macey Ann was the very first Legacy Square I made. So it still has the ›old ‹ colour scheme and – besides now being part of my border patch – needs to be redone.
All patterns for the Legacy Blanket are available in Pam‘s Ravelry store.
I don’t want to miss to show you my Em Cabal Square. I tested this pattern – designed by Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity – some weeks ago. The Em Cabal Square was a special design for the Ravelry BAMCAL2023 – Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long, a group on Ravelry. Every month, 3 different squares are featured in this group. They are chosen by the mods and / or the members and you can decide to crochet one (or more) of them. At the end of the year you will have a lovely blanket. What a great idea!
Em Cabal is the square for October. It is a 12 inch square with 39 stitches per side. The skill level is beginning advanced. As all of Pam’s patterns it has great stitch explanations and helpful pictures for each round.
For my test version I used Drops Safran (160 m / 50 g) and Cotton Kings 8/4 (170 m / 50 g) and a 2,75 mm hook. Both yarns are 100 % cotton – soft and nice to work with.
I followed Pam’s colourway and used
A – Drops Safran, # 60, Moss Green
B – Cotton Kings, # 41, Spring Green
C – Drops Safran, # 71, Marzipan
D – Drops Safran, # 11, Strong Yellow
First I was not sure, if the two green yarns would work together but I am very happy with the result. Although, the square also looks great in a single colour!
Somehow the pattern reminds me a bit on Florentine Tiles. What do you think?
The year flies by … – it‘s already October! Only a few more weeks until Halloween … But still time to make some decoration …
Ana from One Skein of Love just released a new pattern which is available on Ravelry (and of course all her other shops): BOO!!!Licious. It is a Halloween themed pattern and combines Overlay Mosaic with Tapestry crochet. The pattern is written to make a blanket but it is also suitable for many other things, such as cushion covers, table runners, bags, etc.
Photo credit Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love
I had the pleasure of testing (and translating) BOO!!!Licious. I created some wall hangings, similar to the ones I made with Wintry Forest.
I love the colours Ana used for her sample! The yarn is Durable Comfy, and the orange tone (Caramel) is just gorgeous. However, I wanted to showcase something different, with slightly more muted colors – foggy and spooky…
That’s why I decided to use very little orange and focused on different grey tones and a soft purple.
My Yarn
I used some yarn from my stash – a combination of Stylecraft Special DK and King Cole Baby Comfort DK – with a 4 mm hook.
Stylecraft Special DK (100 g – 295 m / 322 yds)
1063, Graphite – a little bit over 2 balls
1807, Hint of Silver – 1 ball
1836, Vintage Peach – some left overs
King Cole Baby Comfort DK (100 g – 310 m / 340 yds)
1731, Mulberry – 1 ball
My Panels
All of my panels are worked over 1 pattern repeat plus border stitches. Each one starts with a foundation row and ends with one final row of single crochet in the back loops. I followed the pattern layout of the BOO!!!Licious blanket, just splitting it into 3 parts. I have only omitted the last repetition of pattern 2 and 1 in panel 3. Otherwise, it would have become too long. The panels are framed with a double border, just like explained in the pattern. Their finished width is about 29 cm / 11,5 inches.
Panel 1 – The Ghosts
It is worked over 79 rows in total and measures app. 48 cm / 19 inches, including the border.
Panel 2 – The Pumpkins
The panel has a total of 56 rows and measures about 41 cm / 16 inches. Due to my different colour placement, I had to add an additional row of single crochet between patterns 1 and 4, respectively 4 and 1.
Panel 3 – The Spiders
Again, I had to add 2 rows of single crochet to make my colours match. This time they are a separation between patterns 1 and 6, respectively, 8 and 1. The whole panel has 73 rows in total and measures app. 45 cm / 18 inches.
If you are interested in the details of my colour placement, I have listed them in a separate file for you to download.
Hooked on Häkelmaschen 