I recently had the opportunity to test a new design from Pam Knighton-Haener / A Yarn of Serendipity: The Pinwheel Square.
The pattern was just released and is available on Ravelry. The skill level of the pattern is categorised as mid-intermediate. As always, the written instructions are very clear and accompanied by detailed photos for each round. Made with Aran / Worsted Weight yarn (#4) the final size of the square will be 11 or 12 inch / 28 or 30,5 cm – depending on the size of the crochet hook used. And of course, the final stitch count matches all the others from Pam’s squares.
My yarn and colours
As you may know, I often use a light weight (#2) cotton yarn for these tests. Something like Schachenmayr Catania or Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4. The reason is just that I have accumulated a lot of these yarns by crocheting amigurumi and can go with my stash. Besides they have a great colour range and a good stitch definition.
Somehow this time I decided to go with my stash of Stylecraft Special DK.
I have just used a similar colour combination for another test in overlay mosaic. Just all in neutrals. I loved the result and was curious how it would look in regular crochet.
Well, I am more than happy with the result!
I used a 4 mm hook and the final size of my square is 26 cm – about 10 1/4 inch. If you are interested in my colour way, here my notes.
Em … to be honest, I had no idea what kind of bird a snowbird is as we don’t have them in Europe. I had to ask Google and the answer was that nowadays many different birds in Canada are called snowbirds and indeed, Google showed me a lot of different pictures. But originally “Snowbird” was the name for a Junko. Do you know them?
However, I would like to introduce you to my new flatmate: little Snowbird.
This cute snowbird is part of the pattern Winter Birds 2 from @natura_crochet. I spotted it on Instagram last year. It was sometime before Christmas, so I got it myself as a present. The pdf is more like a booklet than a single pattern. It is beautifully designed and contains patterns for three different birds: Kingfisher, Waxwing and a Chickadee – plus the Snowbird as a bonus pattern. All birds are very colourful and wintery styled with hat and scarf.
I used Schachenmayr Catania and Wenco DIY (a German brand) with a 2,25 mm hook. Both are 100% Cotton sport weight (#2) yarn with a yardage of 125 m / 50 g.
On my desk: ready to assemble
My colours are:
429 – Anthrazit / Catania
434 -Nebel / Catania
258 – Erdbeere / Catania
206 – Honig / Catania
51, blau / DIY
Head – Anthrazit
Body – Nebel, Erdbeere
Wings – Blau, Nebel, Anthrazit
Tail – Blau, Nebel, Anthrazit
Legs – Anthrazit, Honig, Erdbeere
Beak – Anthrazit
Hat / Scarf – Honig
I made some small adjustments to the hat and the scarf. I made the scarf a little shorter and narrower and the hat a little wider – it just worked better with my yarn.
I have to confess, I was a little hesitant about sewing the parts together. I don’t have much experience in assembling such small parts. So they So they have been lying in my basket for days (weeks?). But the placement etc. is well explained in the pattern and all went well!
I am absolutely happy with the result. Just started the Waxwing …
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
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
Are you celebrating Christmas and still looking for a little something to give as a gift or decorate? These two patterns are really quick to crochet and look – as I think – fantastic. I’ve had a lot of fun crocheting them over the last few day and found them a bit addictive. And they don’t necessarily have to look Christmassy. Depending on the yarn you use, they will look very different – it just depends on you.
Both patterns require very little yarn, so they are great for using up any leftovers.
Glittery Christmas Baubles
This is a pattern from Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love. As the name of the pattern suggests, Ana actually used yarn with glitter in some of the rounds. I did not have anything with glitter on hand – so mine are made with some leftover yarn from my Legacy Blanket. Side note: Yes, my Legacy Blanket is finished! In fact, it has been finished for about a fortnight. So far, I just haven’t managed to take some nice pictures. The weather here is mostly pretty grey at the moment – clouds, rain or fog … I hope it gets better in the next few days!
But back to my baubles: I think mine show quite clearly what I meant at the beginning – they look more rustic rather than glittery and Christmassy. I am 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 2 halves that are sewn together. So you first crochet the two halves and then join them together while inserting a bauble. Ana inserted a Christmas bauble in hers. I didn’t have a suitable size, so I used a styrofoam ball in mine. It is a 7 cm (2 3/4 inch) ball (which has a circumference of about 22 cm / something over 8,5 inches)and fits perfectly. Of course, you can use all kinds of decorative stitches to join the two halves. If you don’t want to stitch them together, a crochet join – for instance, a simple zipper join – also works very well.
I tried different joins and the one shown on the left is my favorite 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 / Crochet Road that I spotted on Ravelry. These five-pointed stars are as quick to make and as addictive as Ana’s baubles. And really great as a wintry decoration.
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.
Hooked on Häkelmaschen 