ELeni

Winter’s Love CAL

Now it’s that very special time of the year again! In the northern hemisphere, winter is lurking just around the corner. Christmas is just over 5 weeks away. And Ana from One Skein of Love has just introduced her new Winter CAL (crochet along): Winter’s Love!

Winter’s Love is another blanket design in Overlay Mosaic. It matches her earlier winter designs – Winter Wonderland, Wintry Forest and Magic Winter – perfectly.

Picture by Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love

Lovely, isn’t it?

Winter’s Love CAL Dates

The Winter’s Love Cal will start on Friday, 22. November 2024.

It is divided into four parts.
Part 1 will be released on Friday, 22. November 2024. Parts 2 – 4 follow at intervals of one week each. So the dates are

Part 1 – 22. November 2024
Part 2 – 29. November 2024
Part 3 – 06. December 2024
Part 4 – 13. December 2024

All information about the CAL is already available on Ravelry. After you purchased the pattern you can download an introduction file with all relevant notes. Yarn amounts, size and gauge, pattern notes, abbreviations, tutorials and so on.

My version of Winter’s Love

I promised Ana in October that I would test the pattern. I’m sorry to say that I am not finished yet. Life and, unfortunately, my health got in the way a bit.

Luckily I’ve already done a good bit that I can show. And of course I’m hurrying to finish as quickly as possible.

My yarn

This time I am trying something different: Yarnsmiths Create DK.

Yarnsmiths is a relatively new yarn and an own brand from Wool Warehouse. (My favorite online yarn shop. Unfortunately located in Great Britain.)

Create DK is a 100 % Acrylic yarn. At the moment it comes in 120 different shades. I guess many of them are similar to the colours from Stylecraft Special DK. But there are also some special ones. It’s definitely worth a look!
The yardage is 290 m per 100 g ball. Recommended hook size is 4 mm.

It works up nicely! I like it and will definitely try some more colours.

My colours and colour placement

When I saw Ana’s new design for the first time I instantly thought of classic colours.
So I had originally planned to use white, red and grey to give it kind of a Nordic look.
I ordered some Off-White, Claret Red ans Storm Grey. I primarily wanted to use the off-white as a background colour and make the motifs in red. A little grey in between.

After my yarn arrived, I initially followed Ana’s pattern just replacing her cream coloured yarn with Off-White.

After the first few rows, however, I changed my mind. The claret-red fascinated me and I considered swapping the colours.

The picture below shows both versions. The sample on top is my first one, using Off-White as background. The other one (with the little blue stitch marker) is the one with swapped colours.

What shall I say? I didn’t have to think for long! The one with the swapped colours was my favourite and became my final version. Without the grey though.
Throughout the pattern I use Off White as colour C1 and Claret Red as colour C2.

My progress so far

This is what I have so far. I just reached the end of part 2. 150 rows are done.

Now on to part 3. Another 75 rows to go.

I’ll keep you updated on my progress

And just a side note on my yarn order:

Yep, after years of abstinence, I finally dared to order from Wool Warehouse in the UK again. I hadn’t ordered there since the Brexit (the UK’s exit from the European Economic Union).
I knew that I would have to pay extra taxes. Ok, but unfortunately, I had read a lot about people from Europe who had to pay horrendous amounts. So I really wasn’t sure how everything would work.
I am happy that I finally tried it! It is nothing to be scared of!

My order was delivered by DHL. The parcel was not tracked. That was a bit of a pity because you never know when you can expect delivery. But it arrived within a week or so. I got a note from DHL and had to pick the parcel up in the post office. There I paid the import sales tax. This corresponds to the usual 19% VAT here. And I also had to pay a small handling fee to DHL. But in total the price was still reasonable.

The only thing I have to make sure of is that my order does not exceed € 150. Then there are no customs duties and I only have to pay the import VAT. I really wish I had tried it earlier!

Mystified Square

I’m happy to finally be able to show you my version of the Mystified Square.
It is the new design from Pam Knighton-Haener / A Yarn of Serendipity. The pattern has just been published. AND: it has been chosen by the Ravelry BAMCAL group as their block of the month for November.

Ravelry BAMCAL

Have you heard of BAMCAL on Ravelry?
If not, BAMCAL stands for Block-A-Month Crochet-A-Long. This is a Crochet-Along organised every year by a special group on Ravelry.

The CAL runs throughout the year. Each month 3 different Afghan squares are featured. Two squares, a 6 inch and a 12 inch, are chosen by the mods. A third is chosen by the group members in a poll. All patterns are free – at least for the month they are chosen for.
You can choose to do one or all of them – it’s up to you. At the end of the year you can combine all your squares into a blanket. Or make anything else you can think of.

I absolutely love this idea! Maybe I should join in next year?

Mystified Square – The Pattern

The Mystified Square is designed for Aran / worsted weight yarn (#4). But it will also work very well with other yarn weights. Of course, using a different yarn weight will affect the final size.

With worsted weight yarn, the finished square will be 11 or 12 inches (28 or 30,5 cm). This depends on whether a 4.5 or 5 mm crochet hook is used.

The pattern is classified as mid-intermediate. It uses various stitches, including some special ones. But no worries, they are all very well explained. And a picture tutorial helps with each round.

The design comes in two colourways, each with 5 different colours. Of course, you can also create your own colour scheme. I bet it would also look great in just one colour!

The pattern is available on Ravelry.

My Test Version

I already tested this pattern for Pam some weeks, or rather months, ago. I think it was in early August.
Of course, everything had to be kept secret until the pattern was finally published. Hard time :-)

As always, I did not use the suggested Aran yarn. I still don’t like working with it and feel a bit uncomfortable using a 5 mm hook. So, this time I decided to use up some Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/6 (a #3 yarn) from my stash.

I used colourway 2, but replaced the colours as follows

Hobbi Rainbow Cotton 8/6 (50 g / 105 m)
- A – 065, Apricot (discontinued?)
- B – 73, Pearl Gray
- C – 047, Dark Old Rose
- D – 049, Peach (discontinued?)
- E – 012, Volcano Gray

Unfortunately it looks like two of my colours are already discontinued. At least I couldn’t find them in the actual Hobbii shop.

I like the way the colours come together. I just noticed that they are a bit difficult to capture in a photograph. The Dark Old Rose in particular is a little reluctant to show its true beauty…

Using a 3,75 mm hook my square turned out to be about 25 cm / 10 inch.

I really enjoyed working on this pattern and am happy with the result!

Are you going to try the pattern? If so, have fun 💕

Step by Step: A new wall decoration – Colour Experiment Part 3

The result of my experiment with random colour placement

In the last few weeks I have been experimenting a bit with random colour placement.

I wanted to try if a random colour placement, generated by a list randomizer from the internet, really would work. And I was curious to see whether the result would look really good in the end.

I started my „experiment” by putting together 15 different colours – mostly leftovers. All 15 looked good together. However, I personally wouldn’t place some colours right next to each other. For example, Camel and Vintage Peach or Sage and Meadow.

For a first try, I crocheted some circles. Each one with 3 rounds and each of the three rounds in a different colour. To generate the random colour placement, I used the list randomizer on Random.org.

What can I say, I was absolutely happy with the first results!

In the end I had 25 colorful circles that I wanted to keep using. So I decided to turn them into squares and combine these into a wall decoration.

Colours, Colour Placement and Layout

The colours for the circles were picked from these 15 colours, all from Stylecraft Special DK. To square the circles I used Stylecraft Special DK in the colour 1063 Graphite.

This graph shows the colours I used for each circle. They are listed in the order for rounds 1, 2 and 3.

The chart also shows the layout I have chosen for my wall hanging.

The layout is also based on the random generator.

If you want to know how this works and what exactly I did, you can read about it here:

I needed a bit of Colour – Colour Experiment Part 1

Random Layout – Colour Experiment Part 2

The Pattern

Making the Circles and Squares

There are a couple of different ways to crochet circles and turn them into squares.
I have tried several of them while I made my circles / squares. The way described below is what worked best for me. It is adopted from a method for crocheting circles that Polly Plum describes on her site.
This gives the circles a very neat look. Another advantage is that you can easily crochet over most of the yarn ends. Simply start a new round at a position opposite the end of the previous round. You can crochet over the starting tail for half a round. Then, crochet over the tail from the previous round.

I started by making all 25 circles first. Each circle consists of 3 rounds in the colours A, B and C. A, B and C change for each circle, as shown in the layout chart above.
Colour D – the colour to square the circles – stays the same throughout.

Round 1, Colour A
Start with a Magic Ring, ch2 (counts as first dc) , 11 dc in the ring ; close the ring and slst loosely to the first dc; cut yarn [12 dc]
Round 2, Colour B
attach yarn in any stitch, ch 2 (counts as first dc), dc in same st; *2 dc in next st **; repeat from * to ** around; slst loosely to the first dc; cut yarn [24 dc]
Round 3, Colour C
attach yarn in any stitch, ch2 (counts as first dc), 1 dc in same st, 1 dc in next st; *2 dc in next st, 1 dc in next st**; repeat from * to ** around ; slst loosely to the first dc; cut yarn [36 dc]
Round 4, Colour D
attach yarn in any st , ch 2, (1 dc, ch1, 2 dc) in same stitch; *1 dc, 2 hdc, 2 sc, 2 hdc, 1 dc in the following 8 sts; (2 dc, ch1, 2 dc) in next st **; repeat from * to ** 3 times omitting the last corner sts; slst to first dc [per side: 6 dc, 4 hdc, 2 sc, 1 ch1-corner sp / 48 sts, 4 ch1-corner sps in total]
Round 5, Colour D
Ch1 loosely (doesn’t count as a stitch) and hdc in same stitch (the one you slipped stitched in at the end of round 4); *(2 hdc, ch2, 2 hdc) in ch1-sp, hdc in next 12 sts **; repeat from * to ** 2 times; (2 hdc, ch2, 2 hdc) in next corner sp; hdc in next 11 sts; invisible join to the second hdc [per side: 16 hdc, 1 ch2-corner sp / 64 sts, 4 ch2-corner sps in total]

Using a 3,75 mm hook my squares are about 10 cm / 4 inch each.

Joining

Joining, em, yes …
If you follow my blog, you know that I haven’t joined many squares so far. So I first had to find out what options are available, and tried several different joining techniques.
In the end, I decided on a kind of slip stitch join. I’m not sure if there is a special name for it. I have seen this join in various places with sc, hdc, or even dc. I finally opted for a simple slip stitch. This produces a really nice flat ridge.

With this join, the actual stitch is only crocheted in one of the two squares to be connected. The opposite square is joined by pulling the loop through the corresponding opposite stitch. It may look a little complicated at first, but I’m sure you’ll find the rhythm after a few stitches.

I first worked the horizontal joins, afterwards the vertical joins. If you like to follow my joining method, here is what to do:

My joining method

First arrange the first two rows of squares according to your planned layout. The right sides of the squares should be facing you.
The join is only worked through the back loops (the inner loops). The hook is always inserted from top to bottom (from the right side of the square to the wrong side).

This graph helps to visualize what square I am talking about in the next.

Tip:
Make sure not to twist the squares while connecting them. It is helpful to use a locking stitch marker especially when joining the first two rows of squares. This helps to hold them together.
And take care to work the join not too tight. Best is to go up a hook size. I used a 4.5 mm crochet hook for mine.

Horizontal join

Referring to the graph above: Work from right to left (provided you are right-handed, like me). Start with joining square F to square A, square G to square B and so on.

First joining row
- Begin with square F. Start with a slip knot on the hook. Insert the hook in the chain next to the first hdc of square F. Work the first slip stitch on square F. Remove the hook from the loop. Insert the hook in the corresponding chain of square A, grab the loop and pull it through.
- Leave the loop on the hook and work a slip stitch through the first hdc of square F. Connect to square A by pulling the loop through the corresponding stitch of square A, like described above.
- Continue until you reach the corner spaces of squares F and A. Work a slip stitch / „pull through“ in the first chain of the ch2-corner spaces.
- Move on to squares G and B. Start in the second chain of the corner space. Work the same steps as above.
- Repeat these steps until all squares of this row are joined, fasten off.

Second, third and fourth joining row
- For the second horizontal join start with connecting square K to square F, square L to square G and so on – work the same steps as above
- repeat the same steps for the third and fourth horizontal join

Vertical join

For the vertical join repeat the same steps as before, also working from right to left. I started with joining square V to square U. At the transition from two squares to the next two squares, simply work over the existing horizontal join.

Work away all tails.

Border

Round 1, Colour D
Start with a standing stitch in any corner sp
*(Sc, ch2, sc) in corner sp; BLsc in next 16 sts; 1 hdc in corner sp, skip join; [1 hdc in corner sp; BLsc in next 16 sts; 1 hdc in corner sp, skip join] 3 times; BLsc in next 16 sts **; repeat from* to ** 3 more times, slst to the first sc [per side: 82 sc, 8 hdc, 1 ch2-corner sp / 360 sts, 4 ch2-corner sps in total]
Round 2, Colour D
ch 1, *3 sc in corner-sp, BLsc across to next corner sp **; repeat from * 3 more times, slst in BL of first sc [per side: 93 sc / 372 sts in total]
Round 3, Colour D
Slip stitch in back loop of each stitch around [372 sts in total]
fasten off and work away the tails

Abbreviations (US terms)

slst – slip stitch
ch – chain
sc – single crochet
hdc – half double crochet
dc – double crochet
BL – back loop

BLsc – back loop single crochet
sp(s) – space(s)
st(s) – stitch(es)
* … ** – marks a repeat
[… ] – repeat instructions as many times as specified

For an explanation on how to work these stitches have a look here

Finishing

So far all my crocheted wall hangings a made from patterns using Overlay Mosaic. This technique gives the panel a bit of weight. The dropped down dc practically double every row. Additionally, the double border adds some weight and you can also easily stabilise the panel with rods. So it’s no problem to hang it up nice and straight.

That’s exactly what I missed when I was thinking about mounting my new panel! Using an Acrylic yarn made it very light weight and I was afraid that it might not hang straight.

So, I got myself some felt – 4 mm thick and anthracite-coloured. I cut this to size and pinned my panel in place. I let the felt overlap a few cm at the top edge. This was later used to create a tunnel for the mounting.
I sewed the panel in place along the edges using a running stitch.

Now that I’ve finished, I think the panel could also have been sewn on with a sewing machine. But, I hadn’t worked with felt of this thickness before, so I just didn’t dare. Especially as I was so short on felt that I didn’t have a test piece. Lessons learnt!

After sewing, I folded the upper overhang of the felt back at the edge. I fixed it on the backside with some suitable glue. This created a tunnel through which I can push the rod for hanging. Finished!

My panel measures about 52 x 52 cm / 20 1/2 inch.

I think I will make another one. Same colours, different placement. And of course I will use the randomizer again for the placement of the colours and for the layout. I am already curious how it will look like!

So long – Have a lovely time 💕

Tied Up with a Bow: Crochet Square by Pam Knighton-Haener

Finally I can show you a square that I made some weeks ago.

In August I had the pleasure to test another one of Pam’s lovely designs: Tied Up with a Bow. She now released the pattern and it’s available on Ravelry and in all her other shops.

In case you don‘t know Pam yet: Pam Knighton-Haener is an American designer and the person behind A Yarn of Serendipity. Most of the beautiful Afghan squares you can find here on my blog are designed by here.

The original pattern is made with Aran / worsted weight yarn. The final size will be 11 or 12 inch, depending on the hook size you use. The skill level is mid intermediate.

As with all of Pam’s designs, many different stitches are used. Of course everything is explained in detail and there are clear pictures for each round!
And of course the final size and the final number of stitches per side match all the other squares Pam has designed.

Talking about the pictures: Especially for the modified star stitch I found them very helpful! For this special stitch, it was much easier for me to work from the pictures than from the written instructions. However, that may be just personal.

My test version

During the test I made a version with Drops Safran, a sport weight yarn that has a yardage of 160 m / 50 g. Usually I use a 2,75 mm hook when working with this yarn, but this time I didn’t feel comfortable and switched to a 3 mm hook.

I had actually chosen 5 colours for this design. For some reason I couldn’t find a matching spot for two shades of green I had chosen, so in the end I only used 3 of my colours

71 – Marzipan
22 – Light Brown
28 – Orange

Can you see the little bows?

My colour placement

My finished square measures about 22 cm / 8 1/2 inch. I have to admit that using a 3 mm hook made it a bit loose.

My second version

After testing, I just had to make a second version. I lately fell in love with the colour Lincoln from Stylecraft Special DK. I have had two balls in my stash for ages but have never used them. Inspired by Pam’s single coloured version, I thought that the Tied Up with a Bow square would certainly look nice in this colour too. I didn‘t get disappointed …

For this version I used Stylecraft Special DK in the colour 1834 – Lincoln. Only round 11 is made with colour 1822 – Pistachio.

I used a 4 mm hook and the final square is about 26 cm / 10 inch.
I am absolutely happy with the result!

Random Layout – Colour Experiment Part 2

Exploring Random Colour Layouts

About three weeks ago (3 weeks already??) I told you about my experiment with random colour placement.

Originally, I had no particular purpose in mind when I started this journey. I had read about random colour placement and wanted to give it a try – that’s all.

But to be honest, I had my doubts. I had put together 15 colours. They all matched somehow, but there were still colours among them that I personally wouldn’t place next to each other. Raspberry, Duck Egg and Meadow for example is a combination that I would never have chosen myself.
So, looking at the colour combinations the random generator gave me, I couldn’t imagine to get nice results.
But after I had finished the first three or four circles, I was so amazed at the result that I really wanted to try out all the combinations. In the end I had 25 colourful circles. I turned them into small squares because I wanted to make something out of them.

In case you missed my previous post, you can read about it here. There you will also find details about the Numbers spreadsheet I am talking about below, the colours and randomizer I used, and so on.

I finally decided to make a small wall hanging out of the squares. I plan to arrange them in a 5 x 5 layout. Each square is about 10 x 10 cm, so that will make a panel of about 50 x 50 cm.

In the last few weeks, however, I have not been as fit as I would have liked to be. I have a pretty persistent cold that gets better from time to time but doesn’t quite go away. So, besides testing a beautiful square for Pam and checking and translating the final patterns for Ana’s Fall Sweet Fall Cal I didn’t have much time and energy to work any further on the hanging.
But at least I’ve managed to decided on a layout!

What about a Random Layout?

When I tried to arrange my squares in my 5 x 5 grid I didn’t really know where and how to start.

I usually have difficulties with such things. I’m hardly able to make it look random. I orientate myself far too much on what I think looks good together. So I end up with areas that look absolutely great, but also a rest that doesn’t fit together at all. Do you know what I mean?

That’s why I wondered if something like the random colour placement would also work for a layout. Could it work to arrange the squares in a random order instead of following some kind of „pattern”? It was at least worth a try!

So, again I tried the list randomizer from random.org and had a final layout in just a few steps:

1. Numbering my squares

Firstly, I assigned each square a number from 1 – 25.
This was just to make the entries in the randomizer a little easier. I didn’t have to type in all the colour combinations but only numbers.

Screenshot / extract from the table to clarify the adjacent text and illustration of the layout grid described

I simply used my Numbers spreadsheet for this. I had created this table when listing the colour combinations. It therefore had no particular order, but was listed in the order in which the results came from the random generator. I have simply numbered these entries from 1-25.

2. Drawing a layout grid

Secondly I created a grid showing my 5 x 5 layout and numbered the boxes from 1 to 25 as well. This served to clearly identify the location of my squares later on.
My grid is shown in the picture above.

You can just draw something like this on a sheet of paper. Or, if you are – more like me – the No-Paper-Type you can use Excel or Numbers. If you want to have square boxes, simply reduce the column width a little and increase the row height.

3. Randomisation

Afterwards I entered my numbers from 1-25 into the list randomizer.
If you use random.org, you can either make your entries directly on their website or copy them from an existing list in Excel, Numbers, Word, Pages, etc.

Then just hit the button „Randomize”. Wait a moment. Copy the result back to your Excel, Numbers, Word, Pages or whatever. That’s all!

As I have seen, there are also other tools that have a random generator. These, of course, may work differently.

4. Arranging the squares

The result the randomizer gave me was – surprise – a list of the 25 numbers in random order: 19, 7, 13, 24, 4, 12 …

I arranged my squares exactly in this order.

I picked square #19 (from my list I knew it had the colour combination Storm Blue, Vintage Peach, Sage) and, following my layout grid, put it on place #1. Square # 7 (Pale Rose, Raspberry, Buttermilk) moved on place # 2, and so on …

Here is the result:

Left side the layout grid with the numbers in the order the randomizer gave me. And right side the corresponding squares.

Not bad, is it?

5. Changes

I only made 3 changes by switching some of the squares to make the colour arrangement a bit more balanced. And voilà …

Left side the changes I made and right side the final layout grid.

My final Layout

Colour Details

For all those who are interested, I have listed all the colour combinations and the corresponding layout:

All colours are from Stylecraft Special DK. For squaring the circles I used the colour Graphit.

My Conclusion

Even though I initially had my doubts, a colour combination created with a random generator works surprisingly well.

It is definitely a great way to arrange colours in simpler shapes, such as Granny squares, Triangles, Hexagons. Shapes, which you want to highlight the colours more than the stitches.

Presumably this method cannot be used for every design. I could imagine that it might not work so well with detailed and structured patterns. Afghan squares or blankets where the colours serve to highlight the design. However, I haven’t tried it yet.

And random placement of different squares etc. works great as well. At least it gives you a good basis on which you can continue to work.

And, the best thing is, if you really don’t like something, you don’t have to use it. And you can make changes at any time.

In any case, the randomizer helped me a lot and was a great support. I will definitely use it again!

The only thing I would perhaps change:
For a layout, I wouldn’t number my squares (only) in an Excel or Numbers table. I would simply pin small pieces of paper (in this case: yes!) with the corresponding numbers on them. That probably makes the subsequent sorting a lot easier.
Unfortunately, I only came up with this idea afterwards. My snuffy head was probably to blame :).

See you soon, hopefully with some further progress on my wall hanging 💕

I needed a bit of colour – Colour Experiment Part 1

Experimenting with Random Colour Combinations in Crochet

Lately I’ve been having incredible difficulties putting together the colours for a project. Ok, that’s never really been easy for me. But I’ve never found it as difficult as at the moment. I thought about making a new Gretchen but I am not even able to find two colours that would work together ant that I like. It feels like I’ve already used every colour combination before – I can’t think of anything new.
Maybe I just need to step out of my comfort zone and opt for colours I don’t normally use? Yes, maybe, but that’s really difficult!

Anyway, this gave me the idea to experiment a bit with colours and try something I’ve wanted to try for a long time

Random colour placement

I’ve read about it several times, but I’ve never gone into it in depth.

If you crochet simple shapes – such as grannies, circles or triangles and so on – and work with a lot of colours, there are countless ways to arrange these colours. And – you have probably noticed that too – you can achieve different effects with the arrangement of the colours. In my eyes a colourful granny blanket, for instance, looks best, when the colours are randomly put together. But how to achieve this?

To obtain random colour combinations, you can of course first list all possible combinations of the colours you are going to use. The easiest and best way to do this is probably with an Excel, Numbers, or Google spreadsheet. But I am afraid this can also get complicated. For instance: assuming you make a motif with 3 rounds, each round in a different colour (which should only appear once), and you use 5 colours, then there are already 60 possible colour combinations. The more colours and/or rounds, the more complicated the list becomes.

I haven’t tried this yet, so it’s just theory. But beyond that, I wonder what would happen if I couldn’t use all the colour combinations for my project. I would probably choose the ones I like best. Would that influence the overall impression?

However, I wanted to try something different for a random colour combination. I had read about a website that has a random number generator: random.org. They offer different services, including a list randomizer.

For my colour experiment I had thought about crocheting circles. Each circle with 3 rounds in different colours.

My colours and the random outcome

I picked up some of my little balls of leftover yarns and added some colours from my stash that I had never used so far, such as Stone, Camel, Lincoln and Violet. In the end I had these 15 colours that I thought might look good together.

I listed all colours in a Numbers spreadsheet (shown in the picture below, first column). Then I copied this list to the list randomizer in random.org.

After hitting the button ‘Randomize’ I had the first result in no time – all my colours listed in a random order.
I copied this result back to my Numbers sheet, filling the column for Round 1 (see picture below).

Hitting the button ‘Again!’ in the randomizer and gave me another random list of my 15 colours. I copied this result back to my Numbers table filling the column for round 2.

Then I repeated this step once more to get the colours for round 3.

This way I got 15 unique colour combinations.

Unfortunately I had to realise that, based on the result, some colours would appear twice in one motif. Since I didn’t want this to happen, I repeated the steps described above a fourth time and entered the result in the ‘Substitution’ column. Now I was able to replace the duplicate colour with the substitution colour.
For example: instead of Storm Blue, Violet, Violet I used Storm Blue, Violet, Raspberry.

When crocheting, I strictly followed my list and this is the surprising result:

To be honest, I was VERY surprised at the result. There are colour combinations that I would never have put together myself. Nevertheless, I think every single one looks absolutely beautiful!

Afterwards I repeated my random selection – same steps as described above – and crocheted another 10 circles. You can see the result in the cover photo above. Here, too, I was not disappointed by a single one!!

My 25 circles are meanwhile all turned into squares. I used Stylecraft Special DK in Graphit as I thought a dark colour would showcase the colourful circles best.

Yep – a lot of tails to work away, but all done! My squares could do with a bit of blocking though. But so far I am very happy with my experiment!

Now I will have to think about the best way to join them AND what to do with them once they are joined. I can imagine either a wall hanging or a cushion cover. I’m not sure yet …

Anyway, I will let you know. And of course I will provide some information on how I made the circles / squares and what my layout looks like!

See you next time 💕

Granny Square Day 2024

Some days ago, on Wednesday, it was Granny Square Day. Em …, I can’t believe it, but I missed it completely!

Blame it on the heat, or the summer flu I’m suffering from at the moment and that is making me very tired, or whatever … I don’t know!

However. Lately I’ve been experimenting a bit with colours and colour combinations using circles and Granny Squares. In this process, I also created a little Granny. So, to honour Granny Square Day, too late or not, I thought I’d share the pattern with you.

Nothing big, but quite nice, I think.

Just a Granny

“Just a Granny” is a four round Granny Square and measures about 10 cm / 4 inch- if made with a #3 (DK / worsted weight) yarn.

I made my version using only two colours as I think it shows the pattern best.
Of course you can also use more colours or a different yarn. Using a different yarn though might affect the size of the square.

The Granny requires only a small amount of yarn and I used some leftovers from my stash. For both I used Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/6. It is 100 % Cotton and has a yardage of 105 m / 50 g. I find it best to work with a 3,75 mm hook.

I made two colour variants. The first one is made with

# 49 – Peach
# 47 – Dark Old Rose

… and the second one uses

# 65 – Apricot
# 12 – Volcano Gray

Apricot and Volcano Gray is one of my favourite colour combinations. Unfortunately it looks like #65 Apricot is discontinued, at least in the 8/6 quality.

The Pattern

Like a regular granny, the pattern mostly uses double crochet, but also includes extended treble crochet, double treble crochet, and shallow back post double crochet (all US terms).
Due to these special stitches I have categorised the pattern as „beginning intermediate”. But since it is only a few stitches and rows, I think that even an adventurous beginner can do it. Of course, the placement of the stitches is explained in the pattern. And if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

In case you’ve never heard about a shallow back post double crochet: it is more or less worked in the same way as a normal bpdc. Only the placement of the stitch is a bit different which makes it a bit less textured. The pattern includes a link to a helpful video on how to do this stitch (made not by me but by Tamara Kelly from Moogly).

You can download the free pattern here

Happy belated Granny Square Day and have fun 💕

Popping Hearts

In July Ana from One Skein of Love released a new pattern: Popping Hearts. She designed it for Hobbii as a Hobbii Plus (paid) pattern.

In case you don’t know Hobbii yet: Hobbii is a shop for yarn and crafting supplies that is located in Denmark. They sell online but they also have at least two or three retail outlets in the very north of Germany. Maybe in other countries too? I don‘t know.

Ana’s Design

The Popping Hearts blanket is made in overlay mosaic technique. But it is not worked in rows, as you may be familiar with, it consists of single squares that are joined together. So it is a great project to work on in the summer! And it’s easy to carry with you to the park or the beach …

The squares are worked in the round using two colours. The colour is changed after every round but the yarn is not cut. It is simply carried along – which of course minimises the number of loose ends!

Ana used Hobbii Fluffy Day for her blanket. Fluffy Day is an acrylic yarn that is available in many beautiful colours. Her blanket consists of 5 x 5 squares and measures approx. 110 x 110 cm. The size of the blanket can easily be changed by using more or fewer squares. The same applies to the shape of the blanket.

And of course you can also play with colour. Ana has used the same colour combination for all the squares. But you can also swap the colours for every second square or make a kind of patchwork blanket with lots of different colours. It’s up to you!

Photo credit: Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love

The pattern is available on the Hobbii website and in Ana‘s shops.

My Challenge

During the Popping Hearts test phase I was busy with other things and couldn’t bring myself to crochet a blanket or even make a small sample on the side. So I helped with proofreading the pattern and some technical editing: checking and comparing the written texts with the charts, checking colours, abbreviations, stitch counts and so on.

When it came to translating the pattern into German, however, I had a few challenges at first.
Personally, I find it much easier to work according to English instructions. I find them much clearer and more concise. In German, it often sounds quite cumbersome to me.
So when I work according to an English pattern, I don’t translate it into German in my mind, but think in English. Unfortunately, this sometimes makes it a little more difficult when I’m working on a translation into German for Ana.

The construction of the Popping Hearts pattern is slightly different from the normal overlay mosaic worked in rows, so of course it also uses some different terms. No idea why, although I know the German crochet terms I just couldn’t remember some less common German expressions. I had difficulty translating a particular term Ana used, even though I knew there was an equivalent in German.
At this point, I had the idea to grab my hook and start crocheting. It’s amazing how a brain works in the background. Although I didn’t think in German terms when crocheting here either, it helped me and I suddenly had the German translation.
Well, this is how my square was created …
I’m pleased with the result – with the translation as well as with my square.

My Popping Hearts Square

For my sample I used Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/6 and a 3,75 mm hook.

My colours are

C1 – #25, Pastel Mint
C2 – #02, Natural White

As I only made a single square, I reduced the border a little and crocheted only two rounds. I used rounds 1 and 2 of Ana‘s border: round 1 in White and round 2 in Mint.

My finished square measures about 19 x 19 cm.

I often use these squares in my bedroom as a pad for my mobile phone or to place rings and bracelets on. Maybe I should make another one in reversed colours? Hm …

And finally, a note on the German translation: on the German Hobbii website, there is also a German version of the pattern available. However, this has been created by Hobbii and not by me. Just to prevent any confusion.

Have a lovely time 💕

Patterns for my Tunisian Mobile Phone Cozies

Last updated on January 25, 2026

Finally I managed to write down the two missing patterns for my Tunisian phone cozies. Yes, I know, it took some time…

But all are ready now!

I created these little bags while experimenting with different Tunisian crochet techniques. If you’ve just started Tunisian crochet, they are great for practising new techniques and/or stitches. Or perhaps they will inspire you to create something beautiful with Tunisian crochet yourself.

The bags are designed for an iPhone 14 Pro and measure approximately 9.5 x 17 cm. However, the size of all 4 patterns can be easily adjusted.

Each cosy, including the flap, is worked in one piece and then sewn together.

I used Stylecraft Special DK in various colours and a 4.5 mm Tunisian crochet hook. Each bag requires approximately 20 to 25 g of yarn, making the patterns ideal for using up leftover yarn.

If you need help or want to refresh your knowledge of the basics of Tunisian crochet, please have a look at these tutorials

The special stitches used are explained in the corresponding patterns.

Please note: The patterns are not tested yet. So, if you find any mistakes or have any question, please don‘t hesitate to contact me.

How I define skill levels in my Tunisian crochet patterns

There is no official, universally agreed system for skill levels in Tunisian crochet. What is considered easy or advanced can vary depending on personal experience and familiarity with certain techniques.

For my patterns, I define the skill level based on a combination of the stitches used, the techniques involved, and the amount of shaping or pattern complexity.

Beginner / Easy patterns use basic Tunisian stitches and simple, repetitive row structures with little to no shaping.
Intermediate patterns combine different stitches and may include colour changes or simple shaping techniques.
Advanced patterns introduce more specialised Tunisian stitches, multiple techniques within one project, and/or more complex construction.

Each cozy below includes a short overview of the required stitches and techniques, so you can easily decide if it matches your current skill level.

Phone Cozy #1

A simple and easy pattern to practise the Tunisian simple stitch.

The cozy is decorated afterwards by weaving in some colourful threads.

The pattern was already featured earlier.

Just have a look at this post.

Skill level: Easy
Stitches used: Tunisian simple stitch
Techniques used: only basic techniques such as foundation, forward-, and return pass

Phone Cozy #2

This design uses the Tunisian brick stitch. The pattern is good to practise colour changes and a stitch that also can be used in Tunisian mosaic crochet.

This pattern also was featured earlier.

Just have a look at this post.

Skill level: Easy
Stitches used: Tunisian simple stitch, extended Tunisian front post double crochet
Techniques used: basic techniques, colour changes on the right-hand side

Phone Cozy #3

This cozy also has a two-colour design, yet the look is more woven.

It demonstrates another colour-changing technique and shows how to decrease stitches on the left side.

The free pattern is available to download here

Skill level: Easy – Intermediate
Stitches used: Tunisian simple stitch
Techniques used: basic techniques, colour changes on the left-hand side, and decreases on the left-hand side

Phone Cozy #4

This is a slightly more complex pattern that requires a bit more concentration when working on it.

It goes a little beyond the basic stitches and shows how to decrease stitches on the right side.

The free pattern is available to download here

Skill level: Intermediate
Stitches used: extended Tunisian simple stitch, Tunisian slip stitch
Techniques used: basic techniques, colour changes on the right-hand side, and decreases on the right-hand side

Additional notes

The stitching of a button and a corresponding closure is optional for the cosies. Therefore, I did not go into more detail with the individual patterns, except for #2.

For the loops I simply crocheted a small chain to form a little eyelets.

The size and position of the eyelet naturally will depend on the size and position of the button.

Here some pictures of what I did:

But there are, of course, other ways to close the bags, such as small straps or press studs for instance. It is also possible to dispense with a fastener altogether and simply leave the pouches open.

I hope you found some inspiration for your next Tunisian crochet project. Happy hooking!

Tunisian Phone Cozy II

Last updated on January 25, 2026

I’ve finally written down the pattern for my second Tunisian crochet phone pouch.

This pattern is slightly more challenging than Cozy #1 because it uses two colours. Nevertheless, it is a simple pattern that even beginners can easily master.

Pattern details

The cozy is designed for an iPhone 14 Pro and measures approximately 9.5 x 17 cm.

Stitch pattern

The pattern is based on a common Tunisian stitch pattern known as Brick stitch or Grid stitch.

It is usually worked in two colours to enhance the visual effect, but it can also be made in a single colour, which really highlights the structure.

The pattern uses a combination of Tunisian simple stitch and Tunisian front post double crochet stitch. The Tunisian front post double crochet stitch is worked similarly to a front post stitch in regular crochet and is also used in Tunisian mosaic crochet.

Both, the Tunisian front post double crochet stitch and the colour change are explained in the PDF-pattern.

Sizing

The pattern has a four-row repeat and works in multiples of 4 stitches plus 1. The size can be easily adjusted by adding or subtracting stitches or repeats as needed.

Shaping

The cozy is worked in one piece, including the flap. So, there’ s only minimal sewing required.

cutaway diagram of the cozy — cutaway diagram

Only the bottom and sides need to be joined.

Of course, it is also possible to work the pouch without the flap. In that case, simply continue working the instructions for binding off (row 23 in the PDF-pattern) until the end of the row.

Finishing

After binding off, the flap of my cozy rolled up a little. Smoothing it with my fingers and adding a small border solved this issue.

To close the flap, I sewed on two buttons. This is optional, but I think it adds a nice finishing touch.

Yarn and colours

I used Stylecraft Special DK yarn and a 4.5 mm Tunisian crochet hook.

In total, I used just over 20 g of yarn. The pattern is therefore perfect for using up leftovers!

My colours are Grey and Buttermilk. I love the way they go together! They even remind me a little of honeycombs when combined with this stitch pattern.

Other colour combinations or yarn types work just as well. Just make sure to use somewhat contrasting colours, and remember that different yarn weights will affect the size of your cozy..

Ressources

Download the Tunisian Phone Cozy II pattern PDF for free.

Refresh your knowledge of Tunisian crochet basics on this page.

I hope you like the little bag – have fun crocheting 💕