Tag: Pattern Tests

Oh So XOXO

is the new pattern by Ana Morais Soares from One Skein Of Love.
At the end of last month Ana asked me if I could test this pattern. As she wanted to release the pattern in the middle of July the time to make a complete blanket was too short for me. So I just tested one repeat making a small swatch over 45 stitches and 44 rows and started the blanket afterwards. 

Oh So XOXO Pattern

Oh So XOXO is an Inset Mosaic crochet pattern. Two rows (front and backside) are worked with one color. The yarn is not cut off after each row, means no tails to deal with.

The pattern is a repetition of two stripes with two different motifs. One repeat comprises 28 stitches and 44 rows so the size is easily adjustable.It is Ana’s fist inset pattern and has written instructions with detailed row by row pictures and also a chart.

My Oh So XOXO journey

For my test swatch I used Stylecraft Special DK in Graphite and Cream.I mostly use DK yarn for blankets and I absolutely love it for Overlay Mosaic crochet. But thinking about it carefully I never used a DK yarn for Inset Mosaic. For the two Inset patterns I made – Greek Island and Mix and Match – I used Tiramisu from Stenli yarns. Tiramisu is supposed to be DK weight but actually it is thinner. 

So I made a new experience: I think DK yarn is a bit too thick for Inset Mosaic crochet for my taste. My swatch didn‘t have the fluffiness that Overlay has and felt pretty stiff even when working with a bigger hook …

Although I actually wanted to use yarn from my stash I made up my mind and ordered some thinner yarn,  Drops Love You 7. The same quality that Ana used for her design. 

Drops Love You 7 is a 100 % cotton yarn. A sport weight with a yardage of 170 m per 50 g. My colors are Dark Grey and White because I really liked the combination in my swatch. The yarn is smooth and soft and I enjoy working with it. I am using my 3,00 mm Clover Amour hook.

My blanket will have the full size over 185 stitches and 286 rows (6,5 repeats). Without border it measures about 93 cm / 36,5 inch in width. I am currently working on the second pattern repeat, so still some way to go. But I love it! The pattern is easy to follow and very relaxing.

Here one of my progress pics

Margaret Square

A pattern test for A Yarn of Serendipity

In April I was able to test another design of Pam Knighton-Haener from A Yarn of Serendipity.

She designed this lovely square for someone who changed the trajectory of her craft, Margaret.

I used Drops Paris and Drops Love You 8 for this test. I followed color way 1 and replaced the colors as follows

Colour A / Off White

Colour B / Jeans Blue

Colour C / Sage Green

And here my result

I love the combination of Blue and Sage, it’s kind of calming. Using a 4,5 mm hook my blocked square is about 30 cm / 12 inch.

I loved testing this design. Pam’s patterns are always very detailed and well worked out! The skill level is intermediate but every stitch is explained very well. And there are clear and helpful row by row pictures that show exactly the stitch placement and so on. 

If you like the Margaret square you should also have a look at at a series of squares she designed in legacy of her grandchildren. I was able to test one of them in September 2020, the Carter Jude Square.

The patterns are available in Pam’s Ravelry Store.

Carnival Treat Dudes

The Carnival Treat Dudes

Another pattern test for misssBerlin

The Carnival Treat Dudes is the new pattern by misssBerlin. Candy Apple, Cotton Candy and Popcorn Dude. Another lovely Trio!

It was a great fun again to test this pattern! And this time it was also very educational to me. But that’s one thing I love with testing patterns. I not only get new ideas, but also learn a lot and improve my skills – not to mention the exchange with other crocheters.

The Candy Apple

I started with the Candy Apple. It was love at first sight! I like the round caps anyway, but this one is not only round, it really has the bulbous shape of an apple. Even the small pit, where the stem and leaf normally sit, is shown. And of course the Candy Apple has a Candy Cane and a little leaf for decoration.

 

And sometimes you are lucky enough to have exactly the right color in your stash. My Candy Apple is made with Scheepjes Catona, no. 516 – Candy Apple.  

The Cotton Candy

The Dudes and their caps are mostly made with a Cotton sports weight yarn, but for the Cotton Candy it is recommended to use an Acrylic DK yarn. The instructions for the cap are specially written for slightly thicker yarn, using a slightly thinner hook. I used Stylecraft Special DK with a 3,5 mm hook. It worked pretty good and the cap fitted perfectly. But it was a personal drama to me in other ways: I wasn’t happy with the shape at all. In Dana’s (the person behind misssBerlin) photos the shaping was very smooth and soft and mine didn’t look like that at all. Dana tried to calm me down and told me that brushing will ease the shape …

… Well, she was so right! But I only got that after a series of tests of my own. 

As I know that the look of a crochet piece depends a lot on tension, stitch height and so on I tried to make little changes to improve the shaping of my Cotton Candy cap … I ended up doing three caps, but wasn’t really satisfied with any of them. So I took the chance to make another test.:

To get the fluffy look the finished cap is brushed with a pet slicker brush or something similar. Until now I’ve always been very cautious with brushing, being afraid to damage the whole item. Now, having three (unloved) caps to choose from I could be a little braver. So I decided to try how hard the yarn can be brushed before it breaks completely. What shall I say … it withstands quite a lot! The result is even better if you are not too careful …

Now, look at my finished cap…. I am so happy with it! Oh, do I have to mention that this is the cap I did first and the one I liked the least? Well, quite a learning curve I guess!
By the way, I used a small wire brush from the hardware store for “pre-brushing” and gave it a „finish“ with a hard clothes brush.

The Popcorn Dude

Making the Popcorn Dude needs a lot of concentration and some time. But it’s so worth it! 
As the popcorn box should fit snug I chose a smaller hook (2,25 mm) and went up to my regular 2,25 mm hook for the popcorn kernels.
Doesn‘t it look yummy?

In the picture the cap is worn by my new Dude that I made during the test. I think so far he is my best one! What practice can do…

For the yarn, colors and hooks I used in detail please see my Ravelry Page. And you also should have a look at the Ravelry page of one of my fellow testers. She tested two of the caps using a 0,75 mm hook and size 40 thread. So cute!

Mosaic Chevron

Mosaic Chevron

is another pattern test for BebaBlanket. She just released the pattern for this lovely chevron blanket in her Ravelry store.

I love chevron patterns. I have just dealt with this topic, so I know that there are a lot of different variations. But isn’t it amazing how you can influence the look of a simple chevron pattern by combining it with mosaic crochet?

I started with this test at the end of November last year, but I had a very slow start. I can’t say how many color combinations I’ve tried and discarded! Finally I decided to go with Stylecraft Special DK in Graphite and Duck Egg and I think this was a good decision.

The pattern is similar to the Chevron Apache Waves pattern that BebaBlanket released last year. Only the technique is different. Apache Waves is done Overlay Mosaic technique and Mosaic Chevron is worked in a technique that – in some places – is called Inset Mosaic.

In short words, the difference between both is, that Overlay is worked only from the frontside and the yarn is cut and the color is changed after every row. With Inset two rows are worked with the same color and the yarn is carried along the sides. (There are even more differences, but that is perhaps worth another blog post.)

I had the chance to test Chevron Apache Waves last year and made a place mat with this pattern.

It was my first pattern in overlay mosaic technique and so I didn‘t know much about the different border options. I just left all the tails as a fringe, which is one of the various options, and that works pretty good for a place mat or coaster.

In the meantime I have already done several mosaic patterns, both Inset and Overlay. I think Mosaic Chevron is my third blanket made with Inset mosaic technique. The result is a nice lap blanket. It measures about 74 x 102 cm.

Mosaic Chevron – pattern

Except for the mosaic double crochet the chevron pattern is done completely in single crochet and therefor I used a 4,5 mm hook. I was afraid that otherwise it would get too tight and I don‘t like blankets that feel hard and stiff.

As color A I used Duck Egg and color B is Graphite.

I started with 166 chains, that are 7 repeats in width and mixed the pattern with plain chevron sections.

Mosaic Chevron – My Layout

My layout looks like this:

  • 3 pattern repeats
  • plain section consisting of
    • 6 rows color B
    • 2 rows color A
    • 2 rows color B
    • 2 rows color A
    • 6 rows color B
  • 3 pattern repeats, starting again with row 1
  • plain section (as above)
  • 3 pattern repeats starting with row 1

The pattern states to start with row 3 after the plain section. And when I write that I started with row 1 that‘s just a different way of writing. It means, that I did two more plain rows in color A, just to get the same color scheme I started with.

 

Mosaic Chevron – My border

Compared with my Apache Waves place mat my Mosaic Chevron had only a few yarn tails. But of course on one side the carried yarn is visible. So I was looking for a plain and simple border, just to hide the threads.

I decided to go with just one row of single crochet in Graphite, worked with a 4 mm hook.

Here my scheme:

  • Top: following row 1 of the chevron pattern
  • Left side: one single crochet in every row
  • Bottom: following row 1 of the chevron pattern but without skipping stitches and the „tips“ worked in the chain spaces
  • Right side: one single crochet in every row
  • 3 single crochet in each of the four corner stitches

I really enjoyed working on this pattern. It is easy to memorize and relaxing! And the graphic result is great in my eyes!

 

 

Spring Time

Spring time, old tests, new tests

In terms of calendar, we have had spring for over 3 weeks now. But the weather outside doesn’t feel like that yet. The nights are still cold and the days chilly. It’s real April weather – as we call it. Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, sometimes rainy and we also had some tiny snowflakes.

Nevertheless nature awakens. The first bushes and fruit trees are blooming and the forest is also beginning to turn green. The sparrows are just preparing to breed under our roof again. And in the morning you are woken up by the chirping of the birds.

I love this time of the year, but I think I actually like every season. I just don’t like the super hot days in summer, when it is too hot for the slightest movement at 40 degrees Celsius.

I am just so exited about the little peach tree that we bought last year and that is blooming on our terrace. It is supposed to stay small so that it can grow in a bucket. We also bought a small cherry tree and some apples – all in buckets as our garden is not very big and most of the space is already occupied by an old pine tree and a little birch.

I am curious to see wether we will have some fruits this summer. We already had some very tasty apples last year but the peaches haven’t ripened properly.

„Old“ tests

I finally finished one of my tests for BebaBlanket. I think she is going to release the pattern on the coming weekend, so I prepared already my Ravelry page and a post about the lap blanket I made.

Besides misssBerlin is currently running a test. New caps for the Dudes.
I mentioned it before.Cuteness overload! I just finished the three new caps, there are only a few beads left that have to be sewn on. Two tiny arms also must be sewn on, as, besides the caps, I managed to make a new Dude as well.

Another reason why I am waiting for better weather. When the sun is shining it is easier to take photos as you don’t have to worry about decent lighting.

„New tests“

And there are two completely unexpected tests:

One is from Moi-Raya and is about Carreaux Crochet. This is a very special crochet technique where you create a dense and thick fabric. It is double sided but worked in one work step. The motif is shown on both sides, only the colors are switched. Perfect for a potholder, coaster or something like that. In 2019 I worked with her for the first time and tested the basics for this technique. Here one of my test patches – front and back side.

The current test is for different tiles, the motifs are inspired by french flor tiles.

This is really a demanding test that takes time. The technique is not difficult and neither are the stitches. But I have to concentrate a lot to make no mistakes.

And also Pam from A Yarn of Serendipity designed another lovely square. The test is run in different phases and my part will start at the end of April. I’m really looking forward to it!

I was able to test for Pam for the first time in September last year. To give you an imagination of her lovely work, this is my test version of the Carter Jude Square. 

It is part of a series of squares she designed as a legacy for her grandchildren.

 Well, enough for today. Tiny beads are waiting …


The Suga‘ Dudes

Testing The Suga‘Dudes

I am happy that I had the opportunity to test for misssBerlin again! Also at the risk of repeating myself: I LOVE her patterns and especially her little Dudes. Meanwhile they are spread all over my house.

Her request came at just the right time for me.
It comforts me a little bit over the fact that our vacation, planed for mid-march, was canceled due to Corona. The test was about three new caps only. But of course the final pattern will also contain the instructions for the three cute little Dudes.

The recommended yarn for these little creatures and their different caps is mostly a level 2, or sport weight, cotton yarn. My favorite yarn is Scheepjes Catona, which is hardly available in Germany, or Schachenmmayr Catania. Due to the ongoing lockdown my choice of cotton yarn is slowly shrinking. And I noticed again that I seem to have only a small selection of red shades. But it always seems to me as if I don‘t have the right colors when starting a new project. Do you know this feeling?

I listed the colors that I used in detail on my Ravelry project page. My favorite color for the Dudes themselves is Catona, Linen No. 505, it is a bit lighter than Linen No. 248 from Catania. The Dudes on my photos below are made with Catona.

“They are bald and shy, so they cover their heads and half of their faces with whatever they find in their surroundings …”

misssBerlin

….. writes Dana, the person behind misssBerlin, about the Dudes in the intro of her patterns

This time you have to take care, that they don‘t hide on the coffee table. But that would probably not be a good idea. The Suga’ Dudes look so delicious that they definitely would fall out there.

They come along with some yummy decoration, like Ganache, Candy Sprinkles, Whipped Cream, and a topping of raspberries, strawberry and cherry.


Everything is explained very well in the pattern. But it‘s always advisable to read first, otherwise you will be like me.

The Cupcake Dude

…has a topping of Ganache, Candy Sprinkles and a little red cherry …

The Sundae Dude

… makes me drool with his fresh, velvety raspberries

The Waffle Dude

… comes with a topping of Whipped Cream and strawberry

and here the complete trio

Aren‘t they cute and yummy? I really love this pattern and enjoyed testing it!

The pattern for the Suga‘Dudes was just released in misssBerlins Ravelry store.

Swirly Candy

My first attempt to Brioche crochet 🍭 …

Swirly Candy is the new pattern by BebaBlanket.

When I started this test last December I had no idea about Brioche crochet. Of course I had seen a lot of patterns using this technique but I had never made one.

I think that this is a very good qualification for testing a pattern as it really shows wether the instructions are written in an understandable way.

I have to admit, on my very first attempt I found it a bit tricky to get the correct start. More or less there are two colors worked in one magic ring, the second color in front of the first. That sounds complicated, but no need to be afraid, there are pictures to help … And in the first rounds I also wondered if my placement of stitches really is correct, but there are more pictures to help … After mastering the first seven rounds it‘s only fun to continue! It is only a two round repeat that is easy to memorize. So it really isn‘t difficult and there’s a great result!

To get used to this technique I tried some different color combinations with Sage andMocha, Cream and Pistachio, Clematis and Mocha.

For all my samples I used Stylecraft Special DK and a 4,5 mm hook. As recommended in the pattern I would advise to go up a hook size or two. The pattern consist of mostly front post double crochet and therefore it contracts a little and tends to bulge outwards.

According to the instructions you can either work smaller hexagons and join them to a blanket (or something else) or you can continue with one hexagon as big as you like. At first I thought of making the smaller hexagons with one main color and different contrasting colors. But – as parallel to this test I was still working on my Mix And Match Blanket – I didn‘t want to start another one.

So I decided to make something smaller with the combinations I liked most: Cream and Sage, and the combination of Clematis and Mocha.

My Swirly Candy in Cream and Sage

I turned my Swirly Candy in Cream and Sage into a table set as a decoration for my coffee table. But I rejected my fist thought of making some suitable coasters. (I think I would go crazy if someone really put a cup of coffee or a juice glas on it, hehe.) &

As written above it tended to bulge a bit, but blocking and doing a border helped. Nevertheless I will try a 5,00mm hook for my next one.

You can find some more details about my table set on my Ravelry Page. 

 

My Swirly Candy in Clematis and Mocha

My Clematis-Mocha combination will become a cushion cover, one side Clematis / Mocha, the other side Mocha / Clematis. I am just trying different methods for joining to see which one I like best. Of course I will update this post when I am finished.

The pattern for Swirly Candy is available in Ravelry, here.

Update 2021-03-15:

YAY, my cushion is finished! I first tried different joining methods like 

  • single crochet with a color change in every stitch – looks to busy
  • single crochet with one strand of yarn – looks very thin and seems to vanish
  • Whip stitch with two strands of yarn – looks messy when I do it

Finally I joined the two plates of my cushion with simple single crochet stitches, using two strands of yarn in the color Clematis. And I really like the result!

I filled it with a kind of fiber fill from an old pillow that I no longer use due to its shape. 

I cannot say which side I like best …

 

 

 

Mix and Match

My latest test …

This is my preliminary result of the lastest test from BebaBlanket, Mix and Match. I still have to decide about the border, but so far I am very happy with the result.

Tiramisu yarn

The yarn for this blanket was sponsored by Stenli yarns, a Bulgarian company. I am very glad about that! Thank you!

Tiramisu is a Cotton Merino Mix and comes in 450 g bobbles.
I already used it for my Greek Islands blanket and fell in love with it. It is soft and smooth to work with. (And I am NOT saying this because it was sponsored) It is considered to be a DK weight. Personally I think it is a bit thinner, so I used a 3,5 mm hook.

Both blankets I made with Tiramisu have a comfortable weight and a nice drape.


My Mix and Match journey

The pattern alone makes Mix and Match a good match to my Greek Islands blanket. Therefore I wanted to use not only the same yarn but also similar colors. For my Greek Island blanket I used Denim (my favorite color) as main color. The second color (it had no name, sorry) was color changing from beige to brown. So for my Mix and Match I decided to go also with Denim combined with the color Sea Shore, a combination of brown, creme and light blue. 

Stenli yarns are not available in any shops here in Germany. You have to order online, directly from the web-shop located in Bulgaria. That means: orders always take some time … I really was happy when my yarn arrived in November.The disappointment couldn‘t have been greater when I started with the test. What I didn’t realize when placing the order online was the fact that the color Sea Shore has not only color changes from blue over beige to brown. A white thread runs through each of the colors and therefore the brown in particular becomes very “busy”. It distracted the geometrical shapes of the pattern completely.

I had no choice but to reorder yarn – this time a harmless, solid beige – and started again at beginning of December.

Like in my Greek Islands I wanted to use Denim as base color (color A), but then the next problem arose: especially with design 3 there was kind of an optical illusion for me that drove me mad. 

The upper stripe shows my first attempt with Denim as color A. Even triple-checking the pattern didn’t help, my eyes kept seeing mistakes. I had to switch the colors and to restart for the second time. Does this only happen to me? 

So, admittedly my start was not the best! But the tide has turned! And t was worth the whole effort for me!

Mix and Match crochet pattern

Mix and Match is done in Mosaic Crochet, the so called Inset Mosaic. I don’t know if this in an official name or just a creation by the Facebook group, where I first read about it. In contrast to the Overlay Mosaic technique two rows are always worked in one color. The work is turned after each row – so worked from front- and backside – and there is no need to cut the yarn.

The pattern includes 4 different designs (squares) with identical stitch counts, so you can combine them any way you want. Or just follow one of the 5 suggested layouts that are also part of the pattern.

I choose layout 4, consisting of 3 designs arranged in 3 different ways. The complete layout has 6 squares in width and 9 in height. 

My blanket turned out about 98×117 cm without border, and I used about 500 g Denim (color B) and 465 g Beige (color A) so far.

The pattern is easy to follow but challenging. You have to work very carefully, otherwise you might mix up the designs. I often had to go back two rows to correct a mistake.

But again: the result was worth the effort!  The pattern is available on Ravelry.

 

Temperature Blanket, Part 2.

My Temperature Blanket…

is – I am afraid – more a None-Temperature blanket!

As I already wrote in a previous post, at the end of last year BebaBlanket designed a Mosaic Temperature Blanket for 2021. It is run as a free cal and you can still join in. You’ll find the pattern here on Ravelry.

I was one of the testers and as it was only a quick, small test to check the pattern I just used some leftover yarns from my stash.

Not only do I have a lot of leftovers in my stash but also some balls of which I have only one per color. As I mostly order my yarn online I just bought them to see how the color looks like. In addition there are a few single balls that were once intended for a blanket that I never made. All in all this makes a pretty large one-ball-per-color-collection. 

When taking the photos for the test I fell completely in love with my little test swatch. So I decided to use up at least some of my single-ball yarn collection and follow the pattern for some months. Doing one row per day but not following any temperature curve, so I call it my None-Temperature Blanket.

The blanket is made in Overlay Mosaic technique.

I started with a foundation single crochet (fsc). Or in other words, this was the first time that I really mastered a fsc. I know, there are a lot of tutorials in the internet but somehow I never really got it.

And in retrospect I am not sure what I like better, the fsc or my normal start with a chain and a row of single crochet. 

Clearly, the advantage of the foundation single crochet is that it is easier to count, but it took me ages to get it neat and to make the stitches the same height. 

I am using DK yarn, mostly Stylecraft Special DK and Scheepjes Colour Crafter and a 4,00 mm hook.

With 159 stitches my blanket is about 92 cm in width. To get a nice size I am planning to make it about 120 cm long. That means that I will probably stop to follow the cal somewhere in August.

Because I urgently had to finish a blanket for another test I am a bit behind at the moment. I only got there until day 35 or February 4th.

The whole pattern will consist of four different designs which will be published gradually till the end of March. Design No1 and No2 are already released, design No3 will follow on February 27.

So far I only used design No1 and did 5 repeats in height. The photo below also shows my test swatch of design No2.

My main color is Parchment (Stylecraft Special DK). I used it every 2nd row and chose the other colors at random. I listed the colors on my Ravelry project page.

I should have a cup of coffee now and plan how to continue….. 

 

 

The Succulent Dudes.

My little Succulent Dudes …

Look at this sweet little Trio: Echeveria, Saguaro and Domino Cactus Dude. This is the latest pattern I was able to test for MissBerlin. Aren‘t they cute?

They are the newest members of her Dudes collection. All small, bald and just too cute. Only to differentiate at their different caps, which also give them their unmistakable characters.

I fell in love with this little creatures the first time I saw them 💕

That must have been the Pumpkin Dudes back then, sometime in 2019. Later I was able to test „my” first Dudes pattern – the Woodland Dudes. The Pine Cone Hat is one of my all-time favorites, although it has faced great competition over the years.

Here some more photos:

The pattern for these lovely Dudes is available via Ravelry.