This post documents my progress during the Winter Wonderland Mosaic CAL. While the CAL has long since ended, I have kept these posts as a record of the project. For an overview of the blanket, yarn information, colour placement guides and related resources, please visit my main Winter Wonderland article.
Winter Wonderland, the new CAL by Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love has started today. Are you ready?
As promised, I’ll be listing my row-by-row colour placement here on the blog. You’ll find my notes at the end of this post.
My yarn and colours
For my blanket, I used Stylecraft Special DK in the colours White, Silver, Grey, Graphite and Lipstick.
Although the pattern has now been fully tested, I’m unfortunately still working on my own version. So I can’t give any details on the total amount of yarn required just yet. I’ll keep you updated as soon as possible.
This is how my blanket looked like after finishing Part 1. Aren‘t these reindeer cute?
My colour placement Part 1
I hope you will enjoy this pattern as much as I did.
I originally published this post at the beginning of November 2021, shortly before the Winter Wonderland Mosaic CAL started.
Besides initial information about the CAL, I also shared an early look at my own blanket and the colour palette I had chosen for it. Unfortunately, my blanket was not completed at this time, so I could only give rough estimates of the amount of yarn I needed.
Meanwhile, the CAL has long been over and this post has become somewhat outdated over the years. So I updated the article to give it a new structure and to summarise all the information that is still relevant today.
Winter Wonderland Mosaic
Winter Wonderland is still one of my favourite blanket projects and has remained one of the most popular colour combinations I’ve shared on the blog.
The blanket was designed by Ana Morais Soares from One Skein of Love and hosted as a crochet-along in her Facebook group in November and December 2021.
The design features fourteen winter- and Christmas-inspired overlay mosaic patterns.
Winter Wonderland – sneak peek
Back in 2021 I was part of Ana’s testing team and I’m still happy that I was able to be part of the creative process.
Yarn and colours
Ana’s original design uses Hobbii Winter Glow in different shades of green combined with a plain cream yarn. Winter Glow is a wool / acrylic blend and classified as a #4 yarn weight (Aran / worsted weight). It is a variegated yarn that has a loosely spun structure with small irregularities in thickness. This gives her blanket not only beautiful colour variations but also an interesting texture.
I decided to crochet my version in Stylecraft Special DK using a completely different colour scheme.
I received a lot of lovely comments about this colour palette and I am still grateful for all the love and enthusiasm you have shown to my colour choice!
I found the inspiration for it in a beautiful mood board created by Pippin Poppycock.
Yarn amounts
Unlike when I first published this post in November 2021, I can now provide precise yarn amounts I needed. You will find all the details in this post
Furthermore, after I posted my blanket – which was still a work in progress – in several Facebook groups in 2021, I was often asked how much yarn one would need to crochet the blanket in a different yarn weight. These questions were the reason I decided to write this post
In this article I am talking about my personal journey when it comes to yarn substitution. And it also might help you to calculate the amount of yarn you’ll need when substituting one yarn for another.
Colour placement guide
If you’d like to recreate my version of the Winter Wonderland blanket you can easily use my complete row-by-row colour placement guide. You can download a pdf-file at the end of this post.
You’ll also find a colour placement list for each individual CAL part in the follow-up posts. Or feel free to use my colour placement guide as inspiration for your own colour palette.
Get the colour placement guide
Download my row-by-row colour placement guide for the Winter Wonderland blanket.
Part 7 of the Geometrics Cal is out. It‘s the final part, the border.
The blanket is finished with a nice, plain double border. I did mine in two colours and used Walnut for the back layer and Copper for the front.
Do you like double borders?
Apparently many people don’t like double borders. There are always complaints about the slip stitch round on crochet forums. I remember quite well: after reading all that, I was really scared of it when I started crocheting overlay mosaic. I was so scared that I left my first piece – a little table mat – with a fringe. This also was the reason that I switched to the so-called inset mosaic. You don’t have to handle all the yarn ends there. But of course you also need a border for inset mosaic. The first pattern I worked on didn’t suggest a border, and I had no idea what I could do myself. In my search for inspiration, I came across a double border that works without slip stitches and is based solely on front post double crochet. I just gave it a try and the result was quite nice. The border gave the blanket a nice drape. It is probably an acceptable alternative to the classic double border. But I don’t think the front post dc do go with every pattern.
At some point, the time had come for me too.I did my first double border with a slip stitch start when I was testing Gretchen. As a tester you have no chance to escape, lol.
First I had to experiment a little with the tension for my slip stitches and tried out different hook sizes. But then: Wow! … Since then I’ve been a fan of double borders with slip stitch rounds!! A double border is such a nice finish. And the slip stitches ensure that the border looks neat and lies flat. I just love it! And I love doing a slip stitch round. In my opinion, it is a fairy tale that it is complicated and takes forever. After all the work you put into your blanket it is absolutely worth the effort!
Two advices though: either keep your slip stitches a bit relaxed (but not too loose) or go up a hook size AND count your stitches!
Here some more impressions of my finished blanket. Hubby grabbed it and loves it. And I am very pleased of how it turned out myself!
Happy hooking!
Edit, January 2024: Over the last few days I have revised my posts on the Geometrics Cal and the associated documents. As a supplement, you can now also download my complete colour scheme in one pdf-document here:
The Geometrics Cal is slowly coming to an end! Today the pattern for the last 48 rows was published. Next week the instructions for the border will follow. So there is not much more to say.
Time flies! Now it is already week 5 of the Geometrics Cal. More than half of the blanket is finished. Part 6 will follow next week and part 7 will be all about the border.
If you followed the pattern so far, you have already worked 163 rows. YAY!
Part 5 is again a longer part with 52 rows. Firstly, pattern 4, which we already know from part 3, is repeated. This is followed by a repetition of pattern 1, then the new pattern 6 and another repetition of pattern 1.
And here is my colour placement. For pattern 4, as in part 3, I used Walnut and Lime. Pattern 6 is done in Copper and Parchment.
Now it is already week 4 of the Geometrics Cal. The new part was released today.
Part 3 was a relatively big part with 52 rows, wasn’t it? But half of the blanket is almost there. Part 4 will add another 37 rows, so not so much to crochet this week.
This is my part 4. It is the only part where I used some Gold. I absolutely love the combination of Parchment, Copper and Gold.
Today part 3 of the Geometrics Cal was released in Ana’s Ravelry shop. If you follow the Cal and finished part 2 you have already hooked 73 rows, only 190 rows to go until the border starts.
I have seen a lot of beautiful color ways in Ana’s Facebook group or on Instagram. And I have to say I am a bit jealous. They all are very beautiful! I often struggle with my colour choices and choosing colours for a new project is usually not the most fun part for me.
This time colour choice was easy. My plan was to make a blanket for hubby that matches my When Summer turns into Fall blanket. It therefore just made sense to use the same colours. Colours that go perfectly together and have an autumnal look. Well …
As I said, I didn’t have a finished colour scheme in mind beforehand, just a rough idea. I wanted to use Parchment as main colour. Copper, Gold and Walnut as accompanying colours and a bit of Lime as an accent. Hm … Things turned out differently …
To save time, we tested the pattern immediately after Ana had finished a part of her blanket. So when I started, I didn’t know how the entire blanket would look like, I knew only part 1 and part 2 of the pattern. This way, it was not possible to plan any colours in advance. But I should have paid attention to how Ana arranged her colours. I did not! When we got to part 3, I realised that I had somehow started off wrong.
I suddenly noticed that I shouldn’t have started the small separating border (pattern 1) with Parchment, the colour I wanted to use as main colour. As for Overlay Mosaic you have to change colours every row, it made it impossible to use Parchment as background colour for pattern 4! Small mistake, big effect …
At this point, however, I didn’t want to suddenly change the colour sequence for pattern 1 – I had already used it a few times and it would have looked strange for me to suddenly change it. Normally I would have started again and redone the whole blanket. But when you are testing a pattern, time is limited. I had already been working on my blanket for 9 days and was afraid that I would not be able to make up the time when I start again. I had to improvise …
And so it happened that my blanket suddenly got a slightly retro look with the combination of Lime and Walnut. I struggled with this look for a long time, but meanwhile I love it and my Gemetrics has a good chance of becoming the best-loved blanket in the house.
But enough of my look behind the scenes – here my “improvised colour scheme”
Bloom the Mood is a pattern from her BiS series. BiS means Beauty in Simplicity . A series of quick and easy patterns that are meant as relaxing in between projects that don’t need too much counting.
And indeed, the pattern was relaxing and fun to work on! It has charts for 4 different flower motifs and a chart for a separation section. You can combine them just the way you like.
The flowers immediately reminded me of an old cross-stitch pattern. So I originally planned to make a small wallhanging. I decided to go with a cotton yarn to make it not too big and bulky. And I also was looking for some subdued colours to take into account the old cross-stitch pattern.
On my search I came across the 8/4 Rainbow Cotton from hobbii. They have a great colour range and I wanted to try this yarn for a very long time. The colours look a little different on the website but I am still happy with what I got.
I choose the colour Mist (the one in the middle) for the background, Light Jeansblue for the separations and Sage Green for the Leaves. Powder Rose, Dark Powder Rose, Apricot and Grayish Purple for the flowers.
Later on I replaced Apricot with Lilac which is not shown on the picture above. Apricot is a bit too bright for the subdued look I wanted to create. It is still a beautiful colour though and looks great in combination with the Grayish Purple. The yarn is smooth and soft and I love working with it! I am sure it will become one of my favorite cotton yarns for making light blankets, pillow cases and so on.
I started with a separation section and flower chart No. 1 in Dark Powder Rose.
Another separation and flower No. 2 in Powder Rose.
When I took the picture above and saw it lying on my table I decided spontaneously that it won’t be a wallhanging but a table runner for my dining table. And so I continued with flower No. 3 and No. 4.
No. 3 made in Lilac and No. 4 made in Grayish Purple.
I repeated the whole section once more but in the opposite order. And finally decided on a small double border.
I am very happy with the result. Doesn‘t it look gorgeous?
As I wrote in my previous post, I use the same colours for the Geometrics blanket as my When Summer turns into Fall blanket has. When Summer turns into Fall is also one of Ana’s designs.
Ana’s original design is more in shades of blue, with a little yellow. Quite different from my colours. I couldn’t imagine replacing each of Ana’s 5 colours with one of mine. So I didn’t follow the colour scheme of the pattern. I spontaneously decided how to place the colours and that’s how my own colour scheme came about. I’ll tell you a bit more about it in week 3 .
If you are interested in my color scheme, I will provide the colours I used for each part of the Cal here for download. I think this is much easier than listing them in the Ravelry notes.
My yarn and colours
I used Stylecraft Special DK in the colours Parchment, Walnut, Copper and Gold. I had to replace Lime with the colour Nijmegen from Scheepjes Colour Crafter. Lime was not available at that time but Nijmegen should be the same tone.
A / Parchment
B / Walnut
C / Nijmegen (Lime)
D / Copper
E / Gold
My blanket is worked with a 4,0 mm hook throughout.
Hooked on Häkelmaschen 