Crochet Hexagons - Q2 Finish a long

Is it a rug? or is it a blanket? My friends in the UK tell me they only use the word "rug" to refer to something on the floor. We do call mats on the floor rugs, but we also call small blankets rugs.  So I would call this a rug.

Anyway, it's finished.  On my Q2 Finish along list here, I said that I wanted to make a smaller crochet rug for my knees at night. At that stage I thought I might do the Cosy Ripple pattern from Attic 24, but then I started to see some hexie rugs and thought why not?  English Paper Piecing in the form of la passacaglia is taking over my life at the moment, so why not make a rug in a similar geometric pattern.

I tried to use Attic 24's pattern for hexagons, but they just wouldn't sit flat for me, so I swapped to another pattern that I found on Ravelry.  It was by LavenderWildRose and you can find it here on her blog.  It's a very simple pattern, and I could churn out 10 hexagons a night sometimes.

The bit that I really liked about Attic 24's pattern was that you could join the hexagons as you go, so you don't end up with 100 hexagons and have to spend weeks joining them up.  So I combined the two patterns and used these instructions from Attic 24 to join as I went a long. The joining stitches felt very awkward at first, but if you're going to do it, persevere because it become easier and it's so much quicker.  As you crochet the outside ring of each hexagon you join it up to the previous ones.

I didn't fill in the edges of my blanket, but I did add a border, both to make it look finished, and to stabilize it a bit.

Now I have two new crochet blankets to keep me warm this winter. Below is my other one, also finished in Q2.  Both were made with California 100% wool from Australian Spinners. It was a pleasure to work with, and I love the variegated colours which have produced great results in the hexagon blanket.

Giveaway winner

The May edition of the Sew Mama Sew giveaway has now closed and the winner of my giveaway is Kate Yates from Florida, USA.  Kate's blog is Thread Everywhere, and she gets to photograph her quilts on lovely calm sunny days in Florida.  I hope you can make something nice and colourful with the fat quarters Kate.

Progress on my hexie blanket - because I don't like blog posts without photos

The answers to my question about whether you can knit or crochet were very interesting.  Many people have the skills, but find quilting more interesting, and faster.

The most commonly made items were scarfs, hats, socks and dish cloths! (who knew).

The most interesting comment was from Pauline who learnt to crochet, and 3 weeks later started to crochet her own wedding dress!  Yes, she finished it and she wore it!!  Well done Pauline.

Now I'm off to prepare my posts for the online Bloggers' Quilt Festival which opens on 15 May. You can read about it here, and enter 2 quilts if you're a blogger.

Ripple Blanket

My crochet ripple blanket is finished, just in time for winter.

On my son's bed to show the size

I started to become aware of crochet again in the lead up to Christmas last year.  I saw that Jane in Sydney (@queen_babs on Instagram) was asking for people to make purple crochet mandalas for a yarn bombing event to raise awareness of fibromyalgia.  I thought it was a great idea, so I crocheted 3 mandalas for her and sent them off.  You can read my blog post about them here.

Ripple blankets made m by my Nana after she'd had a stroke

Then I started to see people making beautiful crochet rugs. They reminded me of the rugs my Nana crocheted 40 years ago.  Internet searching led me to Lucy, of Attic24 fame,  Lucy is a very popular crocheter. She provides great instructions on how to make her patterns, and has lots of photos to help along the way.

Lucy released a new pattern towards the end of last year called the Cosy Blanket. Some people in the northern hemisphere started a crochet along, but it was too hot for those of us "down under" to crochet in our summer, so we tried to hold off until 1 March.  Of course we all love a new project, and with my wool sitting there I just had to make a sneaky start in February when I came down with a cold.

I added the optional border to stop the rug from stretching

You'll notice that I didn't make the Cosy blanket after all, but instead I used Lucy's Ripple Blanket pattern to make a new, bigger version of those ripple blankets my Nana made all those years ago.

I've used Cleckheaton California 100% wool by Australian Country Spinners. It says it's double knitting (8 ply) but I feel it's thicker than that, so I used a 5mm hook.  I just love the verigated wools. There's some new colours now that weren't available when I bought my wool, but I'm happy with what I used.

This rug is really for my side of the bed at nights. In winter I need more blankets than my husband, and this pure wool blanket will ensure that I keep warm.

Of course there was wool left over, so I've started a second blanket using another one of Lucy / Attic24's patterns. This time I'm doing a hexagon crochet blanket.  I've bought 2 new balls of the new verigated colours, but otherwise I'm just using what I already had.  I'll show you that one next week when I've done a few more hexagons.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Sew Cute Tuesday.

This rug was the first item on my Finish Along List for Q2.

2015 Finish a Long - Q2 goals

It's time to think about what I want to get finished in Q2. Mmm, so many options.

I'd already decided that 2015 was my year to work on WIPs and I'm going quite well so far. I finished all 4 items on my Q1 Finish a Long list, and although I have started some new projects, I am exercising restraint and not plunging into everything that looks appealing.

So Q2 - what's it to be?

1. Finish my crochet ripple blanket which is almost done. This blanket is about 1.7m tall so will cover me nicely in bed (yes - it's just for my side of the bed).  I still need to do a few more rows and then there are 3 rows of border right around it. I think the border will stop the sides from stretching so I do want to do a border.

2. Crochet another smaller blanket to have on my knees in the evenings - does that make me sound old?  Or just cold?  I think I might use a different pattern this time - maybe the Cosy Stripe pattern by Attic24. I'll also be using some different colours of the same wool I used above. I want to use up all the scraps, but also inject some new shades.

3.  Finish "Your Place or Mine?".  The long armer can't start work on it until Mid May, but I might have it back by early June, and that gives me time to put the binding and a label on it before the end of Q2 on 30 June.

4.  Stacks of Colour.  This one is a stretch goal, and probably not going to be achievable, but my thought is that if I write it here I will at least start on it this quarter. I want to hand quilt this quilt with Perle 8 in a water drops pattern - overlapping circles. That quilting pattern seems quite appropriate because it's been raining for 3 days now. It can keep me company as we go into winter.

I think that's enough for one quarter. Of course I've got a lot of other things on the go, but I don't think any of them will be finished by 30 June. I do aim to make progress on them though so some of them can join on my Q3 list and be finished by 30 September. I already know that my top priority for Q3 will be my Haunted House which simply must be ready for Halloween.

Happy Easter

I hope you're all enjoying an Easter break. We're having a lovely time with my mum and dad here for five days.

Yesterday we took a trip up the Kapiti Coast and went to Te Horo. It's a very stony beach with lots of driftwood, but funnily enough just 10 kms down the road there's another beach with beautiful white sand. I think the other beach is protected by Kapiti Island so there's less debris washed ashore.

me and mum

We also went to Ruth Pretty's Cooking School for coffee and cake. I love Ruth's Christmas cake, and fortunately they were still selling it by the slice in their garden cafe shop. We sat in the little green house for morning tea.

see the tea cosy they use!

Of course there's been plenty of sewing going on too.

What you see above turned into a one hour basket - yes, I followed the trend and got mum to whip one up based on the pattern by Kelby Sews. I bought some Soft and Stable on Wednesday so we used some of that for the stiffening.

Here's what it looks like now:

Mum bought me down some more of the beautiful California wool because I'm going to make a second ripple blanket. The second one will be slightly smaller than the first, and I will use it in the lounge on winter nights. We do have a heater, but I feel the cold more than the rest of the family. The second blanket will be more scrappy, incorporating all the remains from the first blanket, plus a few new wild colours called Circus and Macaw which you can see above.

Here's our progress to date and it's only Easter Sunday morning. Mum and Dad don't leave until Wednesday afternoon so there's plenty more sewing time yet.

In fact I can hear my machine whirring now because mum is making a second one hour basket for my niece, her granddaughter. I'll be sure to post a photo once it's finished.

Ripple Blanket v1.0 and v2.0

I've been sick for the last week so I decided to make a start on my crochet ripple blanket. I bought the wool with the intention of joining the Down Under Australia Crotchet Along which is due to start on 1 March, but I made a sneaky start last week while I was under the weather (sick).

I've crotcheted a lot in my past, so I thought this blanket would be easy enough. My first mistake came when I misread the pattern and cast on 231 stitches instead of 213. I think I only figured that out yesterday after a week of crochet!

I suddenly started to think yesterday that I might not have enough wool to make the blanket tall enough. I'm not using the wool in the pattern because they used acrylic. In New Zealand we need wool in the winter, so I'm using a lovely 100% wool called California by AusSpinners. It's lovely wool, but it's not cheap and I didn't really want to spend any more money on this blanket.

I laid the blanket on my bed to see how wide it was in reality, and got a shock to see that it was 150cms and covered the top of our Queen sized bed. It was only meant to be 120cms and cover the top of a single bed.

I also started to notice how dense the stitches were, and therefore how heavy it would be when it was finished.

All of those factors led me to make the decision to unpick 6 nights work and start again with a fewer number of stitches, and a bigger hook. Although the wool says it is 8 ply (double knitting), it feels more like 10 ply so I stepped up from a 4mm hook to a 5mm hook.

This time I actually made a test square to see how it would look on a 5mm hook and I liked the more open texture.

Last night I made a start on v2.0 of the ripple blanket. (pattern by Attic24). I started in blue this time so I wouldn't get confused between v1.0 and v2.0. I'm working to a colour card, but I just started at the top of the right hand column this time.  I've now got less stitches in the same number of cms, and shorter rows, so it shouldn't take too long to catch back up to where I was.

I still need to unpick the first attempt because I'm going to reuse that wool. Unfortunately the lovely fluffy mohair nature of the wool means that it's difficult to unpick, but I might rope in one of the kids to help wind it up while I unravel it.

So the moral of that story is, don't start a new project when you are sick and can't think straight. Even straight forward things can be mucked up if you're not thinking clearly.

Crochet revisited

It's many years since I last crocheted, but last week I dug out my crochet hooks and set about making some mandalas to support a very good cause. I didn't really know about mandalas until a few weeks ago, but now I'm seeing them everywhere in Instagram. Who knew there were so many crochet addicts out there!

my first purple mandala - just 18cm diameter

Jane (also known as @queen_babs on Instagram and https://www.facebook.com/queenbabscards) put out a public appeal for crocheted purple mandalas. She's going to join them together and use them to raise awareness of Fibromyalgia Syndrome at a yarn bombing event in Sydney, Australia.

I started with a pattern but then went free style to make it bigger -  40cm diameter

I thought that was a very good cause, so I set about making some for her. I really haven't crocheted for many years, so I had to remember how the stitches went. It's so confusing now - of course UK and US mean different things by the same words. A double crochet in one country is a treble crochet in the other. You have to check which country the pattern is from and adapt to their codes, or your mandala gets overly full and won't sit flat.

the Carnivale Cushion pattern from mypoppet.com.au - 28cm diameter

My mandalas were all made from free patterns available on the internet.

You can see all the purple mandalas on Instagram #FMShopemandala

all three together

If you'd like to join in, your mandala needs to be made from cotton or acrylic yarn, mainly purple (with possible white or black), and between 14cm and 50cm diameter.  Jane needs them all in Sydney by 2 April 2015. You can contact her through Instagram or facebook.

Next time I'll show you some of my earlier crochet efforts - here's a sneak peek.

Add caption

Yes, I made that crochet mat while I was still in my teens!