Makings - Moorland Blanket

Now that is has been gifted, I can finally share my finished Moorland Blanket. 

But before I share the finished make, let's go back and look at it's journey from the beginning. You probably know by now that I always like to do this with my bigger projects!

I received this wool pack from my sister in law and parents in law at Christmas, but didn't get around to starting the blanket until the first week of February.

Once I had got a few rows in and could see where the waves were rising and falling, it became a nice simple make. One that didn't require TOO much concentrating.

Each colour is worked two rows at a time, and I worked out that it took about 20 minutes or so to do the two rows for each colour.

This was me working on it while waiting for James' S5 parent's night to begin. It had begun to get to the size where it keeps you cosy as you work here, which was handy as we sat outside in the not particularly warm February sunshine!

I'm not a big fan of greens and so it was great to move from the green/brown section of the blanket and onto all the purples.

Growing....

The colours look so lovely all together in a proper daylight photo. 

While we were away in Lewis in the first week of April, I finished the main colour stripes, sewed in  the ends - all 230 of them - and finished off the border, meaning that it took me just 2 months to complete this blanket, the quickest I have ever finished one before.

Then I took the completed blanket upstairs and laid it out on the bed Fraser (3) sleeps in at Granny's house, because the bedroom he and Ally share was far tidier than the one shared by Calum (14) and David (11), or James'. It also looked pretty good with the Thomas the Tank Engine duvet covers!

So here it is all finished...

It looks just like the colours on the moors, growing up from the greens and browns at the bottom, onto the purples of the heather, and then up to the blues of a summer sky at the top.

The border is nice and simple, and keeps the focus on the waves in the stripes. I followed the pattern for the border, except for the final round, which I changed to be just the same as the other rounds. I also kept the colours as they were in the pattern. Well, I thought I had. But when I got back home and was looking through my yarn pegs for another project, I realised that in my haste to grab the yarn for going on holiday I had picked up the ball of Pistachio yarn instead of Lime. They are pretty similar colours though, and I'm actually pleased with my little accidental swap as I prefer the Pistachio to the Lime!

We gave the blanket to my husband's sister yesterday for her birthday present.

She knew what she was getting, but hadn't seen the blanket since it was in it's very early stages, right back when it was all greens and browns.

Purple is her favourite colour. Can you tell that? She is also very outdoorsy and spends many weekends walking in the hills and moors, so it really is a perfect blanket for her

And it was perfect for keeping her cosy while barbecuing on a not quite warm enough for a barbecue Spring day yesterday.

But don't worry, she was only posing for a photo, and put it inside the house straight afterwards before it could be contaminated by barbecue smoke!

The moorland blanket pattern is by the very talented Lucy at Attic 24. You can find the blanket pattern here and you can buy the pack of yarn to make it here.

New Year Makes

Just like I did last year. the first thing I made in 2017 was a gift for my little niece's birthday. She turned 2 in the second week of January and I had planned what I was going to make her for her birthday since I had seen it in back in September. Although I hadn't started making it back then! 

Crochet Now magazine - the newest monthly crochet magazine on the UK market, and my current favourite one too - had a little series running, where the pattern for this little doll was released one month and then for the next few months there was a different outfit for the doll published.

I thought it was such a cute idea that I knew I had to make it for my niece. Actually, even if I hadn't had my niece to make it for, I may well have made it just for myself!

Just before Christmas when I was in Hobbycraft, I found a little red, spotty suitcase which I knew would be perfect for putting the doll and her little outfits in.

I started working on the doll on Hogmanay, and she was reasonably quick to make up. The most time consuming part were these cute ringlets. 

The dress below was in the October issue of the magazine and so had a pumpkin motif on it. Since I didn't think pumpkins were seasonal any more in January, I added a little heart motif instead.

I was ridiculously pleased with the fact that the pattern even included some little bloomers!

I'm pleased to say that my little niece loved the dolly as much as I did!

Once I had finished the doll I spent a week or two working on my Storytime Cross Stitch sampler - a much slower project than a crochet one, but such a cute one.

Alice in Wonderland and The Secret Garden are complete, and I'm now onto Sherlock. Those beautiful, fancy frames alone, without the picture in them, take between 3-4 hours of stitching time, and there are another 9 of them to do!

Now I've put that aside for a bit, though, to start on a new crochet blanket.

In November Lucy from Attic 24 shared a new colour combination that she had made up for a Crochet Along blanket she was planning to start in January. The colours are inspired by the moors, starting with the browns and greens at the bottom, onto the purples of the heather and then finishing with the blues of the sky. You can see Lucy's pictures of her inspiration here.

My husband's sister now traditionally buys me a yarn pack for Christmas each year, so I tagged her in a comment on Lucy's Facebook post and suggested these colours as this year's pack. She replied that not only was she happy to have my Christmas present sorted out so early on, but that she would love to have a blanket made in those colours if I ever had the time to do so.

So I thought, why not make this blanket and try and finish it in time to give her for her birthday, which is on Easter weekend. The last couple of blankets I've made have taken around 4 months, so the timing seems about right.

I started this at the weekend, and then had to restart it again after a couple of rows as I wasn't happy with how the 'wave' pattern was working, The starting chain was too tight and it didn't let the wave work properly. When I restarted it I used a foundation double crochet stitch rather than a starting chain. I almost always use a foundation stitch rather than a chain, especially for blankets that need a very long starting chain, for the very reason that I find the starting chains to be too tight, and also that a foundation double or treble stitch means that you get a good start on the project more quickly.

Second time around the wave is showing up quite nicely, and now that I have done a few rows of it and I can see where the stitches go to make the waves, it's all flowing very nicely.

And as a little bonus, it was lovely to receive a like on my Instagram photo of the start of my blanket from the queen of crochet!