ELeni

Jewel Square

Last updated on May 12, 2026

Ta-Dah … – another new design by Pam!

Already in April, Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity released a new design: another beautiful Afghan square, the Jewel Square.
Fortunately I was able to help to test this pretty pattern – I am a bit late with this post though.

The Pattern

As with most of her patterns, Pam has used Aran / worsted weight yarn (#4) for this design. The finished size will be 11 or 12 inches (about 28 or 30 cm), depending on the hook size you use (4.5 or 5 mm hook).

As always, the pattern is very clearly laid out with detailed stitch explanations, helpful pictures for each round, and two different colour ways.

My Yarn and Colours

I used Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 and a 2,75 mm hook. The finished size of my square is about 20 cm / 8 inch.

As colours, I’ve chosen a soft, light grey, two different blues and a mint tone.
I bought the blue and grey tones a while ago. I planned to use them for all of Pam’s pattern tests and eventually piece the squares together into a lovely blanket – some day…. So far, it never came to it.

I still really love the shades of blue. But at the time I opted to pair them with grey as a neutral colour as the contrast with white just seemed too hard to me. Now, however, I find that this colour combination can sometimes look a bit dreary and dull, especially in photos.
So I decided to spice up the colour scheme a bit while I was working on the ‘Jewel Square’. That’s why I added the mint green.

At first, I wasn’t sure for a long time whether this was really a good idea. Perhaps it would have been better to use dark blue again instead of mint green? But now I quite like the contrast. It’s a lovely touch!

My Colourplacement

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: 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.

Pattern Link

Jewel Square on Ravelry

Dancing Diamonds – My colour placement

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

dancing-diamonds_final.pdf Download

Edit: 2023-05-31, I just updated the file with the final version, including the border. If you like to see my finished version, just look here.

And that’s all for today. Have a wonderful time – see you soon 💕

Dancing Diamonds Cal – The start

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 a lovely day 💕

Dancing Diamonds Cal

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, 4^th 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

See you 💕

Efflorescent Square

Last updated on May 12, 2026

Another test for Pam

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

My test piece is made with Drops Safran. It is a sport weight cotton yarn (#2) with a yardage of 160 m per 50 g.

It was the first time I’ve used this yarn and I am very happy with this choice. It is a soft yarn and nice to work with. I definitely will get some more colours. 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.

Here are the details of my version:

Pattern

Efflorescent Square
Available on Ravelry (link below)

Designer

Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity

Technique

Traditional crochet

Yarn and Hook

Drops Safran
Clover Soft Touch, 3 mm

Colours

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

Finished Size

about 21,5 cm / 8,5 inch

Pattern Link

Efflorescent Square on Ravelry

Some Easter decorations

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.

You can read all the details in this post.

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 …

Have a lovely week 💕

Midnight Snowflakes – My blanket is finally done

Unbelievable, but yes!
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.

I really love how it turned out, I loved working on it andI love the colours! Yet, I still can imagine it in white and grey …

I used Scheepjes Color Crafter, in the colour Rotterdam and Stylecraft Special DK in Duck Egg. The border is made in Duck Egg – and the joining round in 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

Have a lovely week!

Radiance

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.

It‘s a perfect match.

Soap Cozy

Revised pattern

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‘.

I hope you like it!

Hearts, hearts, hearts

Are you looking for some quick makes for Valentine’s Day? I found some free patterns for crocheted hearts that are really quick and easy to make. They are perfect for lovingly decorating a gift!

It started when I was looking for a certain document in my ‘pattern stash’ last week and stumbled across a pattern I had saved – probably years ago: Crocheted Hearts by Schachenmayr. It was not the pattern I was looking for but it was that ‘oh- look what I have’-moment, so I grabbed some yarn….

The two hearts in the bottom are made with the ‘Crocheted Hearts’ pattern from Schachemayr.
Edit September 2025: The pattern was available for free on their website. Unfortunately it isn’t any more. You can now find it here.

The Granny heart on top is also a free pattern: Heart Motifs by Emma Escott, available either on her blog Lululoves or on Ravelry.

I used Schachemayr Catania in the colours # 192, Weinrot and # 222, Orchidee (the two Schachenmayr hearts) and Scheepjes Catona, colour # 251, Garden Rose (the Granny heart).

Another lovely – and free – pattern I found is the ‘Heart and Soul Ornament’ by Maria Molodova. It is available in her Ravelry store.
Originally this heart is made with three rounds (I especially love the last one, twisted single crochet) but I think it also looks very nice when done with only two rounds or even only one. The tiny hearts in my cover picture are also made with this pattern.

And last but not least: at the moment I am working on these little cuties: Little Amigurumi Hearts by Mari-Liis Lille (Lilleliis) which I saw on Instagram. You will also find this pattern via Ravelry.

Do you feel like crocheting some hearts? There are a lot more lovely patterns out there. (Unfortunately I don’t have the time to try them out all.) Have fun!