crochet blanket

Faith CAL, part 6

/ Christine Pennylegion

Previously: part 5, part 4, part 3, part 2, part 1

It’s been a while since the last update on this project! After finishing part 5 in December I took a good break to work on other, smaller projects. (It’s also now much too large to easily haul around for crocheting on the go.) At any rate, back in December the Faith blanket looked like this:

And it’s now wholly outgrown the easy chair and must be photographed on the loveseat instead:

Part 6 added a few inches to each side, first a section of crossed double crochets to match the lower border of part 5, and then the light blue band with the integrated green embellishments. This was constructed in five rows, the inner three of which were done with both yarns held together. This is the same sort of technique as is used in tapestry crochet; it’s mildly annoying to manage the two yarn balls without tangling, but the actual colourwork isn’t that difficult once you get the hang of it.

This is how the colourwork section ends up looking on the back side:

And with part 6 finished, I’m really into the home stretch now. Part 7 is quite short — only eight rows — and Part 8 is even shorter. The only question that remains for me is whether I’ll have to add an extension at the end to get the final size I need. No way to answer that except to keep going, of course — just as soon as I finish sewing in this section’s ends!

Neutral baby blanket

/ Christine Pennylegion / 1 Comment

Today I finished a baby blanket, for a little “probably a girl but they’re not totally sure so we’re not officially announcing it” who is arriving in early January — but, more to the point on my end, whose shower is this Saturday. I started a bit later than I had intended, and so needed to put in some very dedicated crocheting time in the evenings to finish before the deadline. But finish I did, and here it is:

This was an attempted reprise of the honeycomb blanket I made a year or so ago. I used the same pattern, and the same yarn — but I hadn’t noted the yardage of the skeins. Apparently this yarn (Lion Brand Scarfie) is now sold in a different size! Last time it took almost four skeins to make the blanket; I stopped this one after using about 2 & 2/3rds of a skein, and it’s much bigger than the first. I’ve got plenty left for my stash, at least.

The colourway I used this time is “silver / cream” and I adore it. Grey is a very underrated colour, and I would totally wear a cardigan or winter accessories made with this yarn. Scarfie is a washable wool-acrylic blend, and it was worked up with a K (10.5 mm) hook.

Rest warmly, little one.

Faith CAL, part 3

/ Christine Pennylegion / 1 Comment

Previously: part 2, part 1

Over the past two weeks, my afghan has gone from this:

…to this:

Part 2 squared the squodgy octagon, and now the blanket will continue growing as a square until it’s finished. This next section only added ten rows, but those rows pack a lot of visual and textural interest! It started with the first base row of fans (in white), and the height difference between the top of the fans and the single-crochet stitches in between them meant that there was a lot of space to fill with various tall stitches until everything evened out together. (Mostly.)

The fans were built with a cluster of treble stitch, followed by a cluster of double and treble stitches made sort of on top of each other. Honestly I’m not sure why that one wouldn’t just be another row of trebles, as all the doubles seemed to do was add bulk on the back. After that came some double crochet clusters in the light blue, and the top rows are mostly singles.

In between the fans, I got to do more popcorn stitches (new favourite), and the ridges were built up by alternating double crochet stitches with front-post trebles.

For some reason it was those blue DC clusters that gave me the most trouble. There are supposed to be eleven of them on each fan. My fans do have eleven clusters… except for the ones that have ten. Or twelve. (This is one of the consequences of most of my crocheting time being relegated to after the kids are in bed.) I didn’t notice until my stitch counts stopped adding up properly in the silver row! Fortunately I’ve been crocheting long enough that I knew how to fudge things to get back on track — some skipped stitches here, some extra stitches there — and I didn’t have to rip anything out. It’ll do. Everything from the silver row onwards is correct, so I don’t anticipate any problems joining the first row of the next section.

If I were making a lap robe or fancy baby blanket, this is probably where I would stop. But I’m not! On to part 4! Tallyho!

It’s finally finished!

/ Christine Pennylegion / 9 Comments

Way back in 2019, I decided to buy myself a birthday present, and ordered a crochet blanket kit: Janie Crow’s beautiful “Persian Tiles” pattern, in the “Eastern Jewels” colourway. After 2.5 years of on-and-off work (mostly off), I finally finished a night or two ago. Here it is:

I’ve made some variations on the pattern. If you look up other Eastern Jewels blankets, you’ll see that there is no black in the original. I wanted to really separate the tiles in a way that highlighted their colours, going for a stained glass effect — which I think I’ve achieved! To do this I made all of the square and octagonal motifs as written, and then added a row of single crochet in black around all of their edges. This also made it very easy to do a no-show join, as I simply whip-stitched the pieces together with the same black yarn.

The other variation had to do with the triangles. The pattern calls for sixteen of them: twelve between the octagons on the outer edges, and four on each corner. I decided to omit the corner triangles entirely. For the inner group, instead of following the pattern and making coloured ones (to look like the square tiles, halved) I just made granny triangles, again in black. Because of my chosen stained glass aesthetic, I didn’t want it to look like any “panes” were incomplete.

The border is a simple one. Once the blanket was all sewn together, I did a row of single crochet all the way around, followed by two rows of moss stitch. After that, I did two rows of loops (chain five, skip a stitch, anchor with a single crochet stitch, repeat) and… that was that! I toyed with the idea of adding a third row of loops, but decided I’d rather be done. It will be very easy to add on later if I decide I really want it.

The blanket was made with Stylecraft Special DK yarn in twelve colours (storm blue, pistachio, tomato, spice, violet, duck egg, mustard, sage, fondant, vintage peach, buttermilk, black) and one ball of Stylecraft Life DK in fuschia. This made for a lot of ends to weave in. Like… a lot lot. Over 500 if I’ve totted it up correctly! Weaving all the ends may have taken more time than crocheting the squares; it definitely took more time than the assembly and border. Good thing I don’t mind doing the ends (and that the results were worth it).

All in all, this was an enjoyable project. I’m glad to have done it, and I’m really, really glad it’s done.

Car blanket for Perpetua

/ Christine Pennylegion / 2 Comments

With impeccable timing, I’ve finished this woolen car blanket for Perpetua just as the weather here is finally getting consistently warm. Ah, well, that’s the way it goes sometimes…

About a year ago, a neighbour of my mother’s gave her a box of yarn to pass on to me. Inside were about a dozen skeins of “Lamb’s Pride” yarn from Brown Sheep Yarn in Nebraska. It’s an 85% wool 15% mohair blend, so very warm and very heavy (Lamb’s Pride comes in multiple weights but my skeins are Bulky). I wasn’t sure what to do with it for a long time; it’s a lot heavier than I would personally use for a garment and I only had about 500 yards of each colour. According to what I could find on ravelry, a lot of people use this yarn for felting.

But as we moved into fall and winter it struck me that it would be perfect for small lap-robe blankets that the kids could use in the van in the winter. Our old girl can take some time to really warm up and since you’re not supposed to use winter coats in cat seats things can get pretty chilly! (We do lay their winter coats on top of the buckles, don’t worry.) Perpetua is the one who is most bothered by the cold, so I decided to start with hers. And then I put it away halfway through because I was bored. I recently pulled it out and finished it in like two evenings, but least it will be ready for this winter. I’ve got some nice green and dark blue to make blankets for Tertia and Anselm as well.

This blanket was done in moss stitch with a K (6.5mm) hook.

Can’t stop, won’t stop

/ Christine Pennylegion / 2 Comments

… making 12-pointed star blankets, that is. I think I’ve found my default pattern. Someone’s having a baby? Star blanket! Need something warm for winter? Star blanket! Just feel like crocheting something with no occasion or recipient in mind? It’s star blankets all the way down, baby.

As it happens, this particular star blanket does have a recipient. It’s for my husband — partially because his office is freezing, and partially because I realised I had made blankets for all the children but nothing for him. Actually I don’t think I’ve crocheted him anything since we were engaged (sorry, honey). But I hope this lovely, cozy, squishy blanket will make up for that deficit.

[Edit: not true; I made him a tea cosy. Thanks, Mom.]

The yarn I used for this is Fanatic Lux by Feza Yarns in their colourway #8. It’s an acrylic-wool-nylon blend which is soft and warm. It’s also a chainette yarn, which was something new to me. Instead of being plied in the usual way, chainette is machine knitted into a thin hollow tube — like a shoelace. Even though this yarn should be at least bulky weight by width/thickness, the hollow core means that it’s deceptively lightweight.

Fanatic Lux is discontinued, but I bought five skeins from someone on reddit, originally intending them for a cardigan. I used the entirety of four and most of the fifth, working with a K hook. It was a real pleasure to work with.

Of course, just because it’s for my husband doesn’t mean that he’ll get to use it…