One Skein of Love – Hooked on Häkelmaschen

Stellar

My new potholder

… or new coaster? I am not sure yet …

You may have already seen that Ana from One Skein of Love has published a new blanket pattern: Stellar.

Again, it is a pattern in Overlay Mosaic – this time she used Hobbii Portobello in two different colours. Of course you can use any other yarn as well and as many colours you like. A colour changing yarn would also look great!

*Photocredit: Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love*

The pattern is available on Ana’s Ravelry page and in all her other shops.

I had the pleasure of testing this pattern and translating it into German. However, I only had little time over Christmas and the turn of the year, so I only made a small square for testing. Originally I wanted to use it as a coaster, but when I finished it I thought it would be a good size for a potholder as well.

I used Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 and a 2,75 mm hook. Colours are 002 Natural White and 079 Dusty Blue Green.

With 170 m / 50 g Hobbii Rainbow Cotton 8/4 is rated as a Fingering weight yarn. So it’s actually too thin to make a potholder out of it. Therefore I made a second square in reversed colours and connected them both together – just to achieve a nice thickness.

The Joining

At first I thought about joining the two squares in one step with the slip stich round. Like I did for my Wooly Friends Bag .
What I didn’t like about this method was the patience I needed. It cost me a lot of concentration to catch the corresponding stitches of both parts. All yarn tails were constantly in my way and it took me ages to get it done. I have therefore discarded this idea and tried something else:

I prepared each of the squares with a slip stich round. This gave me the opportunity to work a separate border (front layer) on each square and to use the back of the slip stitches to join the squares.

The layers are joined with simple stitches through the back of every second slip stitch.

When you do a normal double border, it can sometimes be hard to work in the back of the slip stitches in case your stitches are too tight or you started with the front layer first. That’s why I wondered if it would make a difference whether you connect the squares first or work the borders first.
I just gave it a try and initially made the border on one square, then joined it to the other one without a border. As the join is worked with a needle and not with a crochet hook, it is not difficult to work in the back of the slip stitches either way. So, in my opinion, it will not make a difference.

I worked the border on each side of the potholder like I would have done with the front layer of a double border: 4 rounds of single crochet worked in back loops only. Then both layers were joined with a slip stitch round. For the hanger, I made a thin (2 chains) I-cord from both colours and pulled it through one of the corners. That’s it!

The finished size of my potholder is 21 x 24 cm (about. 8 X 9,5 inch).

I am absolutely happy with the result!

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-colour-placement_update 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 💕

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.

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 🎃 🎃 🎃

Go with the Flow

Ana from One Skein of Love just released the pattern for her latest design: Go with the Flow – a blanket made in Overlay Mosaic technique. The pattern is available in her shops.

Picture by Ana Morais Soares / One Skein of Love

Isn’t it lovely?

Actually, I didn’t want to test this pattern.
After the death of my parents-in-law we are still sorting out and dissolving their household. They didn’t live nearby and it’s a longer drive every time – so I don’t have much time at the moment … But I couldn‘t resist …

The pattern has a small repeat and so I was able to make something I wanted to do for a long time: a cover for my iPad.

I used Stylecraft Special DK with my 4,0 mm Clover Amour hook. The colours are Graphite (1063) and Pale Rose (1080). Ok, perhaps a cotton yarn would have been better for this purpose. But I didn’t have any matching yarn on hand and I also think that the colour combination suits the pattern very well.

I used Graphite as colour C1 and Pale Rose as C2. To avoid the yarn tails on both sides I just worked the body of the cover in the round.

For me, 72 stitches made a perfect size in width. Especially as I wanted the cover to be a bit bigger so that my pencil would also fit in.

Unfortunately I have no ‘work in progress’-pictures, but here a short summary of what I did.

Body and flap of the cover

Width of the cover
- 72 stitches, worked in the round = 9 repeats (no border stitches, no extra stitches)
Height of the cover
- rows 1 – 22 / 1 time
- rows 23 – 30 / 3 times
- 46 rows in total
Flap
- in continuation of the pattern but only worked over 17 stitches (1 repeat, plus extra stitches, plus border stitches) and worked in rows
- rows 199 – 219 of the pattern / 1 time

Border

To attach a small border I prepared the edges of the flap in the same way as it is done for the blanket. My slip stitches (only around the edges of the flap) are made in Pale Rose. For back and front layer I used Graphite.

Back layer
- The back layer was only worked on the sides and the top of the flap. Therefore it was worked in rows with turning the work in between.
  row 1: double crochet worked in the back of the slip stitches, (2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc) in each of the 2 corner spaces
  row 2: single crochet in both loops, (1 sc, ch 2, 1 sc) in the corner spaces
Front layer
- The front layer was worked in rounds over the flap and the upper edge of of the cover. To get a rounded transition from the flap to the upper edge of the body, I skipped the first / last stitch of the upper edge (directly after / before the stitches of the flap) in each round.
  round 1: single crochet, over the flap worked in back loops of the slip stitches, in the corner spaces (1 sc, ch2, 1 sc) like explained for the border of the blanket. Over the body worked in back loops of the stitches of the last round.
  rounds 2 and 3: single crochet worked in back loops, (1 sc, ch2, 1 sc) in the corner spaces of the flap.
Joining
- Back and front layer of the flap are joined with a row of slip stitches in Pale Rose. To get a consistent look I continued the slip stitches over the body. A small loop on the upper edge of the flap, made with some chains, serves as buttonhole.

Finishing

I closed the bottom of the cover with some whipstitches and a sewed on a button.

If you want to make one for your own

To get the measurements for a cover that fits your Tablet I would suggest that you make a little swatch first. For this, two or three pattern repeats should be enough. Then you can work out how many repeats you will need in width and also estimate how many rows / repeats you will need in height.
Or – and that was my way 🙂 – you just cast on some chains and put them around your tablet. (I suppose this method will even work better with foundation single crochet but FSC still is not MY thing.) Just keep in mind that your total number of stitches has to be a multiple of the stitches of a pattern repeat.
After you have crocheted a couple of rows, put your tablet next to it and check now and then if you have already reached the required height. It doesn‘t sound very professional but it worked perfectly for me!

Two more points are important:

When starting the flap double check that the pattern is continued as it would be in a blanket. And, before closing the bottom of the body make sure that the flap is in the middle of the backside and take care that the pattern is centered. That‘s all – have fun!

Dancing Diamonds – The end

Oh dear! You may have read in my last post about the problems I was having with my hand. My wrist was obviously overstretched and a tendon was also causing me problems. A bandage helped me for the wrist, but unfortunately it didn’t work for the tendon. So it really took forever to finish the border on my Dancing Diamonds blanket. But it is done now! Sigh … I am in love …

For the border I deviated a little from Ana’s pattern. Since I used less colours overall I thought it would look better with just one stripe of Raspberry.

Here my details

For those who like to follow my colour placement and like to download a pdf – I updated the file in my previous post with all the information about the border. You can find it here

Have a nice time 💕

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 💕

Midnight Snowflakes ✔️

Finally it is done!
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. Hm, I still can see it in white and grey though …

But I really love how it turned out, I loved working on it andI love the colours!

It is made with Scheepjes Color Crafter, Rotterdam and Stylecraft Special DK, Duck Egg. With a border in Duck Egg – only the joining round made with 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!