Oh dear! You may have read in my last post about the problems I was having with my hand. My wrist was obviously overstretched and a tendon was also causing me problems. A bandage helped me for the wrist, but unfortunately it didn’t work for the tendon. So it really took forever to finish the border on my Dancing Diamonds blanket. But it is done now! Sigh … I am in love …
For the border I deviated a little from Ana’s pattern. Since I used less colours overall I thought it would look better with just one stripe of Raspberry.
Here my details
For those who like to follow my colour placement and like to download a pdf – I updated the file in my previous post with all the information about the border. You can find it here
Already in April Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity has released a new design: The Jewel Square. Fortunately I was able to test this beautiful pattern – I am a bit late with this post though.
As always the pattern is very clearly layed out with detailed stitch explanations, helpful pictures for each round and two different colour ways.
It is originally made with Aran / worsted weight yarn and will be about 11 or 12 inches, depending on the hook size you use (4,5 or 5 mm hook).
I have used Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 again and a 2,75 mm hook. The finished size is about 20 cm / 8 inch.
My colours are a soft, light grey, two different blues and a mint. I bought the blue and grey tones some time ago. I was thinking of using them for all of Pam’s patterns and combining the squares into a nice blanket – some day. I love blues very much and choose the grey because the contrast to white was just too hard for me. Now I sometimes think that this colour combination, especially in photos, just looks a bit dull and boring. So I guess I also thought I needed to spice up the colour combination a bit when I was working on the Jewel Square. That’s why I added the mint. In retrospect, I don’t think it was a good idea. When I look at the pictures now I think it would have been better to repeat the dark blue.
However the Jewel Square is a lovely pattern and I can always make a second one. Maybe using a nice Off White instead of Grey? We will see …
My Colours and Placement
I followed Pam’s colour way 1 using the following colours
Colour A 25, Pastelmint Colour B – 29, Jeans Blue Colour C – 97, Mist Colour D – 28, Light Jeans Blue
All from Hobbii, Rainbow Cotton 8/4 (Fingering weight – 170 m / 50 g)
The only change I made is that I swapped the colour D for A in round 11.
In case I’ve made you curious: the pattern is available in Pam’s Ravelry store and all her other places.
Unbelievable! It has been a week since my last post and I am still working on the border of my Dancing Diamonds. But to accuse me I have to say: I currently have a wrist injury and a tendon in my hand is apparently overstretched. So I am only able to crochet a few stitches at a time and my progress is VERY slow. And so this will be a very short post.
But at least I managed to write down my colour placement for the entire blanket – except the border of course. But I will update everything as soon as I know for sure which colours I will use! Big promise!
And for those who would like to download a pdf Edit: 2023-05-31, I just updated the file with the final version, including the border
First of all, a big SORRY to all of you who follow my blog. Unfortunately, you already got a message about a new post a few hours ago. But what you saw was probably only the beginning of this post … It seems there have been some updates and all the technology has conspired against me today! But I did it and won – em, almost – but here it is …
Today the Dancing Diamonds Cal from Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love starts. It runs for 5 weeks and every Thursday – from now until 01. June – a new part will be published. If you haven’t got the pattern so far, it is available in Ana‘s Ravelry shop.
I finally managed to start the border on my test version this week. I didn’t get much further than the photo shows though …
I already showed you the colours I am using in my previous post: Grey, Mushroom, Raspberry and Pale Rose, all Stylecraft Special DK.
For those who are interested in my colour way, so far my yarn amounts are:
My Part 1 of The Dancing Diamonds Cal
And here my colour scheme:
Foundation
C1 – Grey
Pattern 1
throughout the whole blanket: C1 – Grey C2 – Raspberry C3 – Pale Rose
Pattern 2
C1 – Grey C4 – Mushroom
That‘s all for today – I am still struggling with the technique, so I better stop now and try to learn how this update works.
Have you seen that Ana from One Skein of Love is hosting a new Cal?
The Dancing Diamonds Cal.
Photo by Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love
It will start on May, 4th and comes in 5 parts. Ana just released the Introduction file with all relevant information. Again it will be a blanket made in Overlay Mosaic Technique. This time there also will be translations into several different languages like Spanish, Dutch, French and German. You can read more about it in Ana’s blog post or on Ravelry.
Besides translating I had the pleasure to test this pattern. Or better, have … So far I am still working on it … for very sad reasons.
Shortly before the test started we lost my mother-in-law. And, after a long life together – they had been married for over 70 years – my father-in-law followed her only 4 weeks later. I miss them sorely! It has made a bit of a mess of my life.
But it also makes this blanket very special for me – I will always associate it with memories of them.
My choice of colour this time really comes from deep within my heart.
Originally I had something completely different in mind. I wanted to make something really colourful – just to cheer me up a bit!
So I spread a mountain of yarn on the dining table: Spice, Saffron, Tomato, Clementine – Vintage Pink, Apricot, Powder Pink, Pale Rose – Plum, Grape, Raspberry, Burgundy, Violet and some neutrals like Cream, Mocha, Buttermilk, Silver and Grey. When I started combining hubby looked over my shoulder and started rearranging everything.… Most of the time it brings good results when we connect our thoughts, this time it led to nothing! He did not agree with my ideas and I did not agree with his. As I started to tidy up with the words < I’ll have to sleep on it > my eyes fell on a ball of Mushroom that I’m using for another project. Somehow four colours stayed in my arms …
I started with these colours the same evening. Not sure if it would work … What shall I say?
I never thought of combining Grey and Mushroom but I absolutely love the result!
The colours are hard to capture in a photo though.
I am just working on the last part of the blanket and hope to be able to show you more of it when the Cal starts. I don’t think I will be completely finished by then but I’ll do my best
Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity just released one of her new designs: Efflorescent Square. I am happy that I was able to test it!
Efflorescence demonstrates the growth and beauty of nature’s flower bloom and the personal growth and splendor of human love.
Pam
For this test I tried a new yarn: Drops Safran. It is a sport weight cotton yarn that has 160 m per 50 g. I am very happy with this choice. It is a soft yarn and nice to work with. I definitely will get some more colours of it. It also will be a good match with my Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4! As recommended on the yarn label I used a 3 mm hook. But it should also work with my 2,75 mm hook that I usually use with Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4.
I didn’t follow one of Pam’s colour ways this time, but created my own. Therefor I have listed the colours for each round below.
A – 28, Orange B – 10, Vanilla Cream C – 23, Dark Taupe D – 18, Off White E – 11, Sunshine F – 65, Pistachio
Colours per round
Round 1 – A, Orange Round 2 – B, Vanilla Cream Round 3 – C, Dark Taupe Round 4 – D, Off White Round 5 – E, Sunshine Round 6 – A, Orange Round 7 – F, Pistachio Round 8 – B, Vanilla Cream Round 9 – D, Off White Round 10 – D, Off White Round 11 – A, Orange Round 12 – D, Off White Round 13 – D, Off White Round 14 – D, Off White Round 15 – A, Orange
I am sure you all know the times when suddenly ‘life happens’. Well, it just happened to me – a bit unexpectedly! So during the last two – almost three -weeks I had only very little time to crochet and, to be honest, only little desire to do it.
Nevertheless I’d like to show you some of my Easter decorations that are really quick and easy to make.
I made these back in 2021. Patterns are The Easter Dudes, a paid pattern by missBerlin and Easter Eggs, a free pattern by Tatiana Saienko from Planet Piu.
And – as a kind of return to the world of crochet – I am just working on a 2023 edition.
As usual my Dude is made with Scheepjes Catona in the colour 505, Linen. But this time I decided to use the same colour for the Dude‘s Cap and the Easter egg – it is Schachenmayr Catania Trend in 507, Salbei (Sage).
I hope to get the Dude assembled today and then I will have to think about some embroidery. Still not my best discipline … so I guess it will be something simple and easy …
Finally it is done! Today I gave the finished Midnight Snowflakes blanket to hubby. Just in time for his birthday next week!
Besides all the testing and other projects it took a little over a year to get it finished. I started it on 16. January 2022. And I still remember how hard it was to choose the colours! Oh dear! You can read all about my colour odyssey here. Hm, I still can see it in white and grey though …
But I really love how it turned out, I loved working on it andI love the colours!
It is made with Scheepjes Color Crafter, Rotterdam and Stylecraft Special DK, Duck Egg. With a border in Duck Egg – only the joining round made with Rotterdam.
You probably know this feeling when a long project is finished. You feel a bit empty – at least I do. I have to think about something new to work on in between! Yet no idea what it will be…
If you got inspired – the Midnight Snowflakes pattern is available here
Radiance is the newest pattern from Ana from One Skein of Love. She released it last week and I was just able to finish my test version and take some pictures.
The original pattern is for a blanket made in Overlay Mosaic technique. Ana’s blanket is about 100 cm x 134 cm. With a repeat of only 24 stitches the size of the blanket is easy to adjust. As usual her pattern has written instructions in US terms, a chart and a lot of row by row pictures. Ana used one solid colour and a colour changing yarn. You can have a look at her design in her Ravelry store, and of course you can get the pattern there too.
I turned my test version in a cushion cover.
It is worked over 3 pattern repeats in width and 4 repeats in height.
For the border I first added a row of slip stitches on the long sides of the panel. Then folded it in the half (so that there are 2 repeats from the height in front and two in back) and sewed the sides together.
I added a border on both sides, hiding all yarn ends and the my sewing. The border is made of 6 rounds single crochet in back loop.The opening at the bottom is – em, will be – closed with a zipper.
I used some left overs from my Midnight Snowflakes blanket – Scheepjes Color Crafter in the colour Rotterdam and Stylecraft Special DK in Duck Egg.
Have you already seen ‚Grünschnabel’, my pattern for a little soap cozy?
I wrote this pattern back in 2021 after I started (more or less) banning plastic from my bathroom. You can read about it here.
I have just revised the pattern and the new version is ready for free download on my ‚Patterns’ page.
The size ( 9,5 x 10,5 cm – 3,75 x 4,25 inch) is big enough for a soap bar of about 7,5 x 7,5 cm ( 3 x 3 inch). But in the new pattern version I have also added some notes on how to adjust the size if needed.
The soap cozy you see in the picture above is made with Schachenmayr Catania in the colour # 130, Creme with a I-cord in # 399, Malve. It is worked with 18 starting chains and 18 rounds. As I used a different yarn and a bigger hook (2,75 mm) the size is similar to my green ‚prototype‘.
Hooked on Häkelmaschen 