Flower Garden Blanket

What has happened to summer? Today is dark, wet, gloomy and miserable. Its 10am and I need the lights on!

What a far cry from the week that I made the flower garden blanket most of which was made outdoors in the glorious sunshine!

I had started making these popcorn flowers a few weeks  earlier and got distracted by another project so when I came across them again I couldn't remember what I had intended to make with them!

The popcorn stitch is explained here.

I used a 4mm hook

1.Magic circle, ch3 ,11 tr into circle, close circle. ( 12 trebles)
2.Start in any stitch, ch2 tr in first stitch then 2tr 1ch in each stitch around.sl st to join.
3. Start in any ch space 3ch (counts as first tr in popcorn st) popcorn, ch3 popcorn in every space sl st to join.
 
To turn them in to squares:
Start in any ch space then 3ch 2tr into same space, ch1, 3tr in next space, ch1, 3dtr 2ch 3dtr to make the corner and continue.

I made 36 popcorn flowers. Don't they look lovely! The colours are Stylecraft wisteria, clematis, magenta, teal, cream and a little Hayfield yellow.

But all those ends to sew in!! Arggh!

 My original plan was to set the flowers in green... but they did not look right so...

 turned them into squares using the cream. Much better.

All turned into squares and pattern sorted so ready to join with the teal. The Patchwork Heart has a good  jayg map.

Looking like a carpet of flowers! This is so springy, textured and tactile!

36 Popcorn flowers all joined and finished with a granny stitch border and just a simple v stitch edging.

This is a square blanket 73x73cm which despite the textured flowers is really soft.

xxx Eirawen

Lavender Blanket

My favourite colour is purple, it doesn't matter what hue just love purple! I even have a purple car and a purple Eeyore on my key ring! So when I decided I was going to make a blanket with solid granny squares and there was purple in my yarn basket that was it... colour decision made!

Stylecraft wisteria, violet and white. I know ... no mention of lavender... but to me it reminds me of  lavender so hence the name!

The square is just a basic solid granny. I used a 4mm hook and this is the pattern I used.

4ch, sl st to join ( or magic circle)
1. 3ch 2tr, 2ch 3tr, repeat twice more until 4 corners, sl st to join.
2. 3ch, tr into each tr, 2tr 4ch 2tr in each corner, sl st to join.
3.Repeat round 2
4 Repeat round 2

As usual I omitted the last round as I will join using the join as you go method. Now this is slightly different on a solid granny square and Oana's crochet channel on YouTube has a good explanation of this method here  

Got the production line going and made 48 squares.

Then joined them with white with the join as you go method. The patchwork heart has a useful jayg map.

Yaay border time! I did 3 rounds of trebles then 2 rounds of block stitch (dc, 1ch, sk st, ) repeat. I am not a pattern writer so hope that makes sense! Then added a simple picot border.

Ta'dah! This came out at approx 92x70cms so a lap or baby blanket size. I loved the pattern made by the chain corners and of course its in my favourite colours so a winner all round!

xxx Eirawen
 
Different colour combo of Stylecraft silver, white and lemon and an extra round of trebles on the granny square.

Floral Blanket

What a brilliant day it was the day issue 20 of Simply Crochet Magazine dropped through my door.

 As I perused this magazine I came across a project that was simply love at first sight! I had to make it... now... this instant... could not wait! What was the object of my desire... Nicki Trench's Floral blanket. Swoon!
(On Ravelry she has called it Summer Bloom )

A quick delve into the yarn basket ( not a small basket by any means) and  found these colours in Stylecraft Special DK  grape, silver, willow, raspberry, gold, wisteria, pale rose and cream.

The flower pattern reminded me of the Passion flowers I have growing outside my back door.

I can't remember now how long a square took me, perhaps about half an hour, and they make a 15x15cm square using a 4mm hook.

They are missing the final round of white as I will be using the join as you go method to join.
Here is a useful video on joining solid grannies.

Slowly they grew... which is when I decided I would not be making a full size blanket of 80 squares as in the magazine but a more manageable 30 ( coward!) for a lap blanket!

 Starting to join...The Patchwork Heart has a useful join as you go map.

The joining method I used makes a slightly raised edge between the squares.

Onto the border. Well I always have trouble deciding on a border. I did not use the one suggested for the blanket in the magazine so in the end I did a row of tr, row of dc (twice) row of tr and finished with a row of (1dc, 3ch, sk3tr)repeat, with 3dc into each corner. I just made it up as I went along and luckily it worked out!

When finished it was approx 100x84cms. I am going to make another one soon in very different colours I think and hope it turns out as lovely as this one.

xxx Eirawen

V Stitch Blanket

Well the return journey from Anglesey required a crochet project to keep us all sane.
 I had yarn left over from the Polar Bear blanket and started a simple granny stitch blanket... then not long into the journey I decided I wanted to do something different. Oh the wonders of a smart phone... onto Google to check out the Vstitch that has had such a surge in popularity at the moment.
 There are so many variations out there but I just went with the first one that came up on my phone!
V Stitch
I made a chain of 97 and off I went!

It makes up really quickly and as I was only using 3 colour changes I was able to carry the yarn up the side so there would be no pesky ends to sew in!

There is a helpful tutorial here. The yarn will be hidden by the border.

I chose a simple dc and did 8 rows with 3 dc in each corner. The 8th row has not yet been done in this picture as I had run out of the chocolate brown and had to get some more!

Last time blocking like this as thought it time to invest in proper blocking boards with a grid. Very excited and can't wait for them to arrive.

Well that's it... now what to do next  :) The blanket size is approx 100x73 cms

xxx Eirawen

A Rosy Posy Cushion

I just LOVE making granny squares! I'm a granny square addict...oh yes! And one of my favourite things is using them to make cushions. They make up quickly and are very useful. You can't have too many cushions, there is always room for more cushions!
This is one of my favourite granny square designs for a cushion, full of textured yumminess!

The pattern for the square is from Millie Makes
I have used Stylecraft Special DK in pale rose, mocha, peach, parchment and cream, a 4mm hook and made 10 squares.

Here we go with the joyous join as you go! Such fun! Attic 24 has a good tutorial on this here as does YouTube and The Patchwork Heart has a useful JAYG map here

Love how it makes almost a celtic knot effect at the corners.

That's the front all joined!

For the back I used a flower square in the middle and just added borders around in any combination I fancied at the time until it was the same size as the front usually about 11 rounds.
Put the two pieces together and join with a dc around. I usually start on the left side about 4 3tr in and finish 4 3tr in on the other side to leave opening for the pillow insert...does that make sense?

As I finish the joining I continue along one side only to make a gusset to put the buttons on. I use a htr for this and usually do about six rows

Add your buttons and close!

All finished...

This makes a 14x14" cover. The insert should be 16x16" to plump your cushion!

Use different colours and the cushion can be equally stunning!

Enjoy xxx Eirawen

The Polar Bear Blanket

I don't know about anyone else but my Beloved is a very grumpy impatient man when in a car! As soon as he gets behind the wheel his personality changes so I was very apprehensive about the 5 hour drive up to Anglesey!
 Having just finished the Maybelle blanket I needed a holiday project and one that would keep my mind off the Beloved's driving and colourful language and decided a blanket for a baby boy would be next.
 Looking in my yarn basket I realised I did not have enough white or cream Stylecraft...what a disaster.. I love it sooo much! No time to order more...so a trip to Hobbycraft was required!
Now Hobbycraft don't stock Stylecraft, in fact I don't know of any local shops that do so I knew a compromise would have to be made and I settled on the yarn by The Womens Institute.

The granny square pattern I chose was the 'Starburst' from Creative Jewish Mom here

I decided to use a 5mm hook to make sure the squares felt soft and were not too firm. Because of this it made a 18cm square...WOW! Very pleased as I would not have to make too many...

Let the car crochet commence!

I got 9 made on the journey. Each square took roughly half an hour to make and the Beloved  was a very happy man that his wife wasn't constantly sucking in her breath and putting on the brakes. I felt quite relaxed too!
After making 20 I joined the squares using the join as you go method. Now this is slightly different on a solid granny square and Oana's crochet channel on YouTube has a good explanation of this method here 

Then a simple border of one row of  treble crochet then 2 rows of block stitch

 ( dc ch1 dc ch1, working 3 dc into each corner.)

Needed something...what about a little bear?

So spent the evening making 10 little bear motifs which in white looked like little polar bears!
The teddy motif was from Dadas Place
I just used the brown yarn to make the eyes and nose as it is a baby blanket.

And here it is! The finished blanket measures approx 100x80cms.

 xxx Eirawen