red heart it’s a wrap rainbow

The blanket so nice I made it twice

/ Christine Pennylegion

Remember the twelve-pointed star blanket I finished a couple of weeks ago? It seems like everything’s coming up babies around here, so I made it again. Same pattern, same yarn, but this time I reversed the colours by working from the outside of the skein instead of the centre.

Once again, this is Red Heart It’s a Wrap Rainbow in the colourway “foggy”, with a G/6 hook. I wish there were a way to let people touch yarn through the computer — it is very fine and soft, and with a larger hook like I used (larger relative to the yarn weight, I mean) it has an incredible drape. It would be a lovely choice for something like a miniature version of the Trio Blanket — which is definitely on my crochet bucket list.

Of the two star blankets, I prefer this version; I find the dark centre and lighter edge more pleasing to the eye than the reverse. But I’m pretty sure that part of my preference has to do with how much quicker and easier the second run through a pattern always is. I’ll be able to make these in my sleep soon.

This blanket is for Sami, who lives next door and is very small and precious.

Levi’s blanket

/ Christine Pennylegion / 1 Comment

Another baby, another blanket — so what else is new around here? This is something I whipped up for my cousin’s little boy, who is due to make his arrival sometime in November.

For this blanket I used Red Heart’s It’s a Wrap Rainbow in the colourway “foggy”, which I really liked. This is my third project using It’s a Wrap Rainbow, and the more I use it, the more I enjoy it. Although it took a little work to get used to using un-plied yarn (which is infinitely more prone to splitting than plied yarn), I’d say that I’m nearly as quick with it as I am with a more conventional yarn now. And those long gradients? Yum yum yum.

The pattern used is from Bella Coco’s “12-Point Star Tutorial” (youtube link), but really it’s just a circular ripple blanket; there are lots of patterns out there. Hook was a G/6, which gave this a nice drape. I finished it with just a row of single crochet all the way around to give it a bit of an edge (the plan was to do two rows, but I didn’t have quite enough left in the skein to make it work).

My special thanks to Tertia, who did a quality control inspection for me before I blocked it (six-month-old for scale):

And now that this is finished — well, I still have to mail it, but you know — I guess it’s about time to start my Christmas crocheting. Yikes. Winter is coming, crafters.

Fiesta Virus Shawl

/ Christine Pennylegion / 1 Comment

No, not “fiesta virus” … although that sounds distinctly more fun than corona virus (olé!). This is my latest finished project, a virus shawl made with Red Heart’s It’s A Wrap (Rainbow) in the colourway Fiesta.

When I made my mini-lotus blanket back in April (now lending my nightstand a splash of colour), I still was left with an entire second skein of the same yarn. I didn’t want to make another lotus — it’s a great project but doing two of anything in a row is pretty boring — so I set it aside for a while and worked on other things.

The virus shawl pattern has been around for a while, but as you can perhaps imagine, it’s gained a lot of popularity recently due to the name. What’s more apt than spending your quarantine/self-isolation crocheting something with a viral name. As my feed filled up with virus scarves an shawls and blankets, I figured, hey, why not hop on this bandwagon too?

There was only one problem: there isn’t a written pattern for the virus. There’s a printed pattern, and there are a lot of videos, but that’s it. Now, I far prefer written patterns to printed ones, which I still have trouble deciphering. And I’m not crazy about video tutorials because you’re always either rushing to catch up or waiting around for the next step… not to mention how few content creators include useful things like timestamps for their videos. But what can you do? Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and… watch the video. I know, I know, the sacrifices I make!

Much to my (pleasant) surprise, the pattern turned out to be much easier than it looks, consisting of a simple four-row repeat that was easy to memorize. It’s also seriously customizable in terms of yarn weight (any will do) and overall size (since you just keep repeating until you either decide to stop or run out of yarn). This is definitely a pattern I’ll keep in my back pocket to make again.

(With many thanks to my model, Perpetua, who loves to be fancy.)

Mini-lotus

/ Christine Pennylegion / 1 Comment

Hot off the hook: this is my latest crochet project, a miniature version of the spectacular “Lotus Flower Blanket” pattern by Hooked by Robin. I made a full-sized version of this last summer, and it was so lovely that I knew I would want to make it again. And now I have.

The details: the yarn is Red Heart “It’s A Wrap — Rainbow” in the colourway “fiesta”. This is a 2-weight, unplied cotton-acrylic gradient, and I used a 4.5mm hook which felt just about right. I cast on not long after Tertia was born — I think, anyway, it’s all a little hazy — so it took about a month of on-again off-again work.

The “It’s a Wrap” yarn is about half the length of a skein of Scheepjes Whirl (which is what the pattern calls for) so I only went to row 33, which made my last row a bit fringey instead of ending on a row of petals like the pattern specifies. But I liked the effect of that just fine, so I added a row of single crochet all around to neaten up the edge and give the fringe a little more weight. You can kind of see it in the picture below.

It’s a good thing I decided to end that way instead of trying for another row of petals, because I would definitely have run out of yarn otherwise! In the end I only had about two feet left, which is not a wide margin when you’re dealing with these sort of lengths. The finished piece is just about the right size to cover one of our side tables, or to be used as a pretty centerpiece on a full-size table. Or I suppose it’s a good size to use as a lap blanket in the car. I didn’t really have a use in mind when I started; I just wanted to make something.

I have another skein of the same yarn in the same colourway, and I’m debating whether to try my hand at a shawl of some sort… or just make another lotus!