ELeni

Finished! – My Legacy Blanket

I hope you all had a great start in 2024 and are doing well!

I’d like to start the new year by showing an ‘old’ project: My Legacy Blanket.

If you’ve read my posts about this last year, you’ll know that it is a design by Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity. She designed this blanket as a legacy for her grandchildren. You can read her story here.

The blanket is made up of 12 different squares and a wide border. When Pam completed the pattern for the border last year, she also revised the instructions for the 12 squares, and I had the opportunity to test some of them.

So I started this project somewhere in July or August last year. You might remember that I had a hard time choosing yarn and colours. And also some tries and errors with my colour placement. In the end I did more than one square twice as I was not happy with my colour arrangement. To be honest, I still had doubts when I joined the squares …
BUT – surprisingly- once it was finished, everything fitted perfectly. I think it turned out pretty well and I LOVE the result!

My blanket was finished by the middle of December, but unfortunately I had no chance to take some nice pictures. We had a VERY long period with lots of rain, dark clouds, a bit of snow, fog, lots of rain again, well, you get the picture …

But now, here’s a short summary and some pictures:

My Yarn and Colours

My final choice were

Drops Lima – 65% Wool, 35% Alpaca (100 m / 50 g)
- colour 100 – Off White
Drops Merino Extra Fine – 100% Wool (105 m / 50g)
- colour 07 – Light Taupe
- colour 15 – Light Sea Green

Both are DK yarns (#3, Light Worsted).
The fact that I mixed both qualities was simply a question of the colour shades. The colour 100 – Off White looks a little softer with Lima than with Merino, probably due to the structure of the yarn. And I liked that better!

My Layout and Colour Placement

I used Drops Lima in Off White as main colour and only added a few accents with Light Taupe and Light Sea Green. So, in my notes below, I just listed the rounds with the accent colours – all other rounds are worked in Off White.

If you are interested in my colour scheme you can also download it here

legacy-blanket-colour-placement Download

Some technical aspects and measurements

My squares and the border are worked with a 4 mm hook throughout. Only for the Zipper Join and the last round of the border I went up to a 5 mm hook.

Each of my squares measures about 25 cm (about 10”). The final size of the blanket is about 90 x 115 cm ( 35,5 x 45 inch).

I am sorry, but with all my changes and redoings I did not pay attention on how much yarn I used. In total I needed a bit over 900 g of yarn. As a very rough estimation I‘d say you will need almost 50 g of Off White for each of the squares and another 100 g or 150 g for the border. Additional 2 or 3 balls of each, Light Taupe and Light Sea Green. But that’s without any guarantee.

The patterns for all these lovely squares and the border are available in Pam’s Ravelry store.

In case you missed my previous posts about this project, you will find them here

Looking at these pictures I have to say: with all its ups and downs, it was a great journey and I am absolutely happy with my make!

Have a lovely week 💕

Something nice and small – Still feasible before Christmas

Are you celebrating Christmas and still looking for a little something to give as a gift or decorate? These two crochet patterns, Glittery Christmas Baubles and Sparkly Stars, are really quick to make and look fantastic.
I’ve had a lot of fun crocheting them over the last few days and have found them quite addictive. The yarn you use will make them look very different, so they don’t necessarily have to look Christmassy. It all depends on your preference.

Both patterns require very little yarn, so they are great for using up any leftovers.

Glittery Christmas Baubles

The pattern is from Ana Morais Soares from One Skein of Love.
As the name of the pattern applies, Ana has used glittery yarn in some parts. I did not have anything with glitter on hand – so mine are made with some leftover yarn from my Legacy Blanket.

A little side note: Yes, my Legacy Blanket is finally finished! To be precise, it’s been finished for about a fortnight now, but I haven’t managed to take some nice pictures yet. The weather here is mostly pretty grey at the moment – clouds, rain, or fog. I hope it gets better in the next few days!

Back to my baubles, I think they clearly show what I meant at the beginning – they look more rustic than glittery and Christmassy.

I’m totally in love with this look!

I used

Drops Lima (100 m / 50 g) – colour 100, Off White
Drops Merino Extra Fine (105 m / 50 g) – colour 07, Light Brown
Drops Merino Extra Fine (105 m / 50 g) – colour 15, Light Greyish Green

with a 3,5 mm hook.

The bauble itself consists of two halves that are sewn together. First, you crochet the two halves, then you join them together while inserting the bauble.
Ana used a Christmas bauble for this. Unfortunately, I didn’t have one that was the right size. So I put a polystyrene ball inside mine. It’s a 7 cm (2 3/4 inch) ball. The circumference is about 22 cm, just over 8.5 inches. It fits perfectly!

Of course, you can use various decorative stitches to join the two halves. Alternatively, if you prefer not to stitch them together, a crochet join, such as a simple zipper join, works very well.

I tried different joins, and the one shown on the left is my favourite.

It is made with slip stitches worked through the back loops. On each half, I inserted the hook top down, from outside to inside. I started with a slip stitch through the back loop of a stitch on the lower half, then slip stitched through the corresponding stitch on the upper half. And so on … It creates a nice kind of braided effect.

Sparkly Stars

Sparkly Stars is a pattern by Joy Clements from Crochet Road, which I spotted on Ravelry. These five-pointed stars are as quick to make and as addictive as Ana’s baubles. They can also be used simply as winter decorations.

Here, too, the final look can be influenced by the yarn and colours used.

The pattern offers two different sizes, contains detailed pictures and also a link to a video tutorial.

I used the same yarn and colours as for the baubles, but this time with a 4 mm hook. So again, no sparkle or glitter.

My small stars are about 9 cm and the tall ones about 14 cm.

Both patterns, the Glittery Christmas Baubles and the Sparkly Stars are available on Ravelry.

Glittery Christmas Baubles on Ravelry
Sparkly Stars on Ravelry

I will definitely make some more baubles and stars using different yarns.

Have a lovely time 💕

Little Christmas Wreath

A free pattern for a simple & cozy crochet decoration

Post revised in December 2025

Back in 2023, I was looking for some easy-to-make Christmas decorations.

Although our home is furnished in a clean and simple style, I prefer my Christmas decorations to feel a bit more traditional and nostalgic. I had been looking for something like a candy cane or a classic Christmas wreath, and somehow that search sparked the idea to make my own. So I grabbed some yarn, picked up my hook, and got started…

I really like the result! And I thought I might as well write down the pattern and share it with you. Maybe you like it too…

I used Schachenmayr Catania and a 2.75mm hook to make my wreaths. They measure about 6 cm in diameter, which is between 2 1/4 and 2 1/2 inches.

I used

212 Khaki – for the wreath
192 Weinrot (Wine Red) – for decoration
105 Natur (Off White) – also for decoration

You will need only small amounts.

Catania is 100 % mercerised cotton and has 125 m per 50 g. You can easily substitute it with any other sport weight yarn.

And, the pattern will also work with any other yarn weight. Only the size of the finished wreath might vary.

And of course you can use any other colour you like and decorate your wreath with whatever comes to your mind.

Some ideas for decoration

To decorate the little Christmas wreaths, you can simply sew on a few beads or stars, for example. Or cut out small shapes from felt and stick them on …

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any of these items on hand, so I focussed on what you can do with yarn.

I immediately thought of some ribbons and bows. But you can also just embroider some French Knots, as shown in the picture below (bottom right).

Variant A – A Simple “Red Ribbon”

To symbolise a little ribbon, I simply worked a round of slip stitches around the stitches of round 1. The ends of the ribbon (made of chains) are tied to a bow.

To make the chains as small as possible, I used a crochet hook that was one size smaller (2.75 mm) than for the wreath (2.75 mm). The slip stitches were made with a 3.5 mm hook to avoid them from being too tight.

Here is how to make Variant A

The yarn has to be on the back side of the work for the slip stitches, but on the front to work the chain stitches.
- Therefore, insert the hook between any two hdc of round 1 and bring the yarn from back to front
Start with the smaller hook size. Make a slip knot and chain 22. My chain was about 7 cm / 2 3/4 inch long.
Change to the bigger hook size. Start at the stitch to the left of the chain (where the thread comes in front) and slip stitch around all the stitches of round 1.
Change to the smaller hook again. Make another 22 chains.
Fasten off and secure the ends – either with some knots or just sew them away on the back side
It might look a bit bulky if the bow is tied, so just lay it in shape and fix it with a thread as described below (Variant B).

Variant B – A Two-coloured “Bow”

This bow is made from a chain, approximately 15 or 16 cm (about 6 inch) long.

Here is how to make Variant B

As before, it’s best to use a smaller hook size to ensure the chains are nicely small. I used my 1.75mm hook again.

The bow is made with two different colours (A and B). To get the striped effect, the colours are changed with every stitch.

Please note: You probably have to work a little more slowly and tighten the previous stitch slightly with each colour change.

Start with a slip knot on the hook using colour A.
Grab the colour B thread and make a chain.
Grab the colour A thread again to make the next chain
Continue like this until you reach the desired length

And a word about the yarn ends:

Like shown in the photo above, I simply cut off the yarn at the ends of the chain and untangled it a little. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it at all!

So here’s my tip: Think twice before cutting the thread. You can just as easily sew it on the back (shown in the photo on top of the page). Looks better, doesn’t it?

Variant C – A Two-coloured “Ribbon”

A two-coloured alternative to variant A

Here is how to make Variant C

For this two-coloured ribbon, again, the yarn is needed in the back to work the slip stitches. Start and end of the threads are needed on the front to tie the bow.
- So, bring the yarn to the front between any two stitches of round 1. Like in Variant A, only this time, the two threads, (colour A and B) at once.
- Leave the tails long enough to tie the bow later. Mine we’re about 20 cm long
On the front side: start with a slip knot in one of the threads (colour A)
- Using colour A, slip stitch around the stitch directly to the left of the thread.
- Work the second slip stitch around the next stitch, using colour B
- Work the next slip stitch using colour A again – and so on

As with the two-colored chain (Variant B), you will probably have to tighten the previous stitch a bit after the color change.

At the end of the round, cut the yarn, again leaving a long tail. Bring the ends to the front and tie a bow. Then, shorten them to your desired length.

In case you want to hang your wreaths, simply attach a thread, ribbon, or cord to the backside. Ensure it’s roughly aligned with the centre of the bow (where appropriate).

If you like my little Christmas Wreath and would like to make one too, you can download the free pattern here

Little Christmas Wreath_v2- 2025 Download

The pattern is not tested. So, if you spot any errors or have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
And please, feel free to add your projects to my Ravelry page.

Have fun 💕

Magic Winter – My finished blanket

You probably have seen my previous post about my test of Ana’s Magic Winter Cal when I was still working on the border. Well…

… after 840 slipstitches, 2.616 double crochets, 5.208 single crochets and another 888 slipstitches and 12 single crochets (chains not counted) the border is finished. YAY!

I opted for a two-coloured double border – all in Vintage Peach for the back layer and a combination of Silver and Vintage Peach for the front side.

In total I needed 12 balls of Stylecraft Special DK – you’ll find the detailed yarn amounts below. Made with a 4 mm hook my blanket measures about 121 x 146 cm (48 x 57 inch).

In the end, my color placement turned out to be slightly different from what I originally had in mind. But I think I got the Sunrise-on-a-frozen-winter-morning look I wanted. And – I know, I already said that last week – I am totally happy with the result!

As promised, here some detailed information about my yarn amounts.

And, if you are interested, you can download a row-by-row guide of my colour placement here.

Magic Winter Download Download

The Magic Winter CAL started last Friday and will continue until 15th December. So, there is still time to join in.
I found that most parts of the pattern worked up quite quickly. Only the tapestry parts took me a little longer. Tapestry in Overlay Mosaic needs a bit of practice. You will have to get the hang of how to carry the yarn, especially with the double crochets. However, you only need it in a few rows. In addition, you can of course also decide to omit the tapestry technique and only work the normal overlay mosaic. All up to you!

The pattern is available on Ravelry.

Personally, I’m going to snuggle up under my new Magic Winter Blanket for now.

Have a lovely time 💕

Magic Winter – My Start

Have you seen Ana‘s new Cal? Magic Winter will start on Friday, 17. November 2023. The Introduction File with all relevant information is already available on Ravelry.

I had the pleasure of testing this wonderful pattern and also do the translations into German.

The Magic Winter blanket is made in Overlay Mosaic technique and also has a small section of Tapestry Mosaic. Of course, the pattern explains how to do both.

When Ana showed me her new design for the first time, I immediately thought about a clear, cold and frozen winter morning when the sun rises with a rosy shine. On these days, my grandma used to say: ›look, the angels are baking biscuits in heaven‹. So I immediately knew how I wanted my blanket to look like: a cold and clear winter morning with a beautiful sunrise …

I used Stylecraft Special DK in White, Silver and Vintage Peach and I am very happy with the result. At the moment I‘m still working on the border and can‘t show you a finished blanket. But I can give you some impressions.

If you are interested in my colour placements, I have already listed them here for part 1 of the Cal. The rest, including my yarn amounts, will follow next week when I am hopefully finished with the blanket.

That‘s all for today. Have a lovely time 💕

Progress with my Legacy Blanket

YAY! It took a while because of all my doubts about the colours and the colour placements … But finally … all 12 squares are done! All tails worked away and all squares are blocked.

These are the three that have been missing in my collection so far.

Lauren Rose

Brood of Angels

Macey Ann

I have just prepared the first squares for joining and spent some time on the layout.

After some arranging and rearranging of the squares, I decided in favour of the layout shown on the left. I hope it will look nice!

The Zipper Join

In the Justyce Destany Border pattern for the Legacy Blanket Pam recommends to use the Zipper Join for joining the squares.

I have to admit, I am not a professional when it comes to joining squares. I once used the “Join as you go-method” for joining some granny squares – but I think that was it. So I had my first attempt on the zipper join when testing the Justyce Destany border.
The pattern contains a helpful link to a video tutorial that shows how to do this join. But, if you prefer written tutorials like I do: I also found a very clear and helpful one from Raffaella from Raffamusa Designs.
Nevertheless, the beginning is a bit fiddly – at least I think so … But I am slowly getting the hang of it.
I initially experimented a little with the hook size and finally decided on 5.0 mm hook. The squares are made with a 4 mm hook but with the larger hook size I find it easier to make the stitches even and not too tight. So far I am pleased with the result. It’s a very nice and flat join. Now on to the next ones!

Have a lovely time 💕

Back from holidays

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!

Have a lovely week 💗

More Squares of my Legacy Blanket

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!

Besides Pam just released the pattern for the Justyce Destany Border .

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.

Have a lovely weekend 💕

Em Cabal Square

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 pattern is available in Pam’s Ravelry store.

BOO!!!Licious

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.

boolicious Download

And here they are, in my living room over the couch …

Happy Halloween 🎃 🎃 🎃