FO: Little Hug Blanket (includes pattern for squares)

Last week my husband had to work in London for a couple of days. Luckily for me, it was Thursday and Friday. Both girls are in school all day on those two days and they were fairly tired afterwards, particularly Orla. It meant both were in bed asleep by 7pm so I got two extra evenings of peaceful, free time. I managed to finish off the 20 squares I was making from leftover yarn, join them together and add a simple border.

These squares are so easy to do and give a more solid look to a blanket than a traditional granny square. So here's some (basic) instructions using US terms (brits can just substitute every dc for a UK tr):

Make ring:
ch4, sl st into first stitch to form ring

Round 1:
ch3 (counts as first dc), 3dc, *ch2, 4dc*, Repeat from * to * two more times, ch2, sl st into top of ch3 to join

Round 2 and each round thereafter:
ch3 (counts as first dc), *dc in each stitch across, in corner space make 2dc, ch2, 2dc*,  Repeat between * and * all the way round, join with sl st to top of ch3
Note: You will not end in a corner space - the number of stitches after the corner space will depend on which round you are on.

When square reaches desired size tie off and weave in ends.

I used 5 colours and made four 6" squares in each. I arranged them randomly and joined them using the slip stitch method (put them right sides together and slip stitch through the back loops i.e. the loop closest to you and the loop furthest away).

For the border I did a simple US sc in each stitch around and 3 in each corner.

Excuse the feet in the picture!

A Bit More Crochet

Mainly using up leftover yarn at the moment. All the following are for the WoollyHugs cause.

One of the things I'm loving about this project is that I have a good excuse to try new squares and adjusting patterns. It's something I very rarely do for personal projects because I like to just get on with things but making things that someone is going to get so much pleasure from makes me put in more effort than usual.

First of all I decided to use this Centre Heart Square pattern. I was using DK yarn rather than Worsted so knew it would come out smaller than the 12". I managed to make it 10" by missing the last row.

I then made some 5" plain squares and some 5" squares using this Flower Granny Square pattern and some using this pattern, also called Flower Granny Square (confusing, eh?)

As you can probably tell from the above picture I've joined it all into a blanket and put a border on. Unfortunately the central square was a bit baggy and I was hoping that adding the other squares round it would pull it all out into shape nicely but it's made the other squares look odd too. It's a bit late to frog it so I'll send it in and hope someone likes my wonky, saggy blanket!

I've also made a square with the More V's Please pattern for a memory blanket. This is a 12" pattern but I followed the instructions up to and including Round 7 and then added a round of US single crochet to make it 6" square.

I've started on another plain-ish blanket made with the leftovers from the Christmas present blanket I made. 4 squares done this afternoon and I'm hoping to get 20 out of my leftovers. Fingers crossed.

FO: Blanket & Halloween Wallhanging

I was really lucky to receive the cream yarn I needed to finish a blanket for the WoollyHugs project very quickly. As I was also waiting on yarn for most of my other projects I cracked on with the little blanket. I did a couple fo rounds of cream and then did a pretty border. This was based on one from the Attic24 blog (click here for Lucy's tutorial) but I used more stitches per chain 5 space. Basically into each chain 5 space I did (US terms!) sc, hdc, dc, tr, dc, hdc, sc. I also didn't do the slip stitch.

Here's the finished blanket:

Close up of edging: 

On Saturday morning my husband took the kids to gymnastics and gave me chance to get on with sewing. I've been getting a little stressed about how many projects I have on the go and really wanted to get on and finish something. It seemed obvious to finish the one that had the earliest "deadline" so I started working on the Halloween wallhanging. I say "deadline" because it doesn't really matter if it's not done until next year, after all, I started it before last Halloween!

Anyway after a bit of frustration finding suitable beads/buttons etc. and discovering the binding I had wasn't quite long enough (honestly it would have been about half an inch short!), I finally managed to get it finished. In the end I decided to stitch it right sides together and turn it through rather than bind it.

I just love the owl peeking on one of the hanging loops

Here's a close up of each of the pictures:

Frankenstein

Witch

Cat

Ghost

Grannies Galore!

First of all an apology for missing FO Friday last week. I'd planned to write my blog post after picking the kids up from school but my 3 year old decided she was really tired yet didn't want to sleep. That meant I didn't get a chance to write my post. Then I was a little silly at the weekend and managed to wrap the Mario coaster I made before I got a photo of it, so I guess you'll all have to wait until Xmas!!!

I have finished a few other things this week. First up is a "Giant" granny square blanket. I use the term giant quite loosely as it's for seriously ill children/babies and is only 18" square. As I was changing colour every rounds I turned my work too to prevent getting a wonky centre.

This is made from (donated) Stylecraft Special DK in Plum, Cream and Cloud Blue. As there was loads left I started a slightly larger simple blanket, made using US dc, as a little break from granny square production! I didn't count the number of stitches when I started it, but it was slightly under 80 I think. I have used each colour in turn and done stripes of 3, 2, 1 and 1 rows. hope that makes sense to you! Basically 3 rows of colour A, then 2 of B, then 1 one C, then 1 of A, then 3 of B, then 2 of C, then 1 of A and 1 of B and so on.

It looks a little out of shape here cos it's been sat folded up!

 I then decided I might have enough for another Giant Granny Square.

 Well, as you can see I didn't have enough. I had to raid my stash and the only colour I ahd that would go was a pale grey. Unfortunately I also ran out of that!!! I'm now awaiting some cream for the final two rounds. See the centre is getting a little wonky? That's why I turned my work on the first one.

With the little scraps I had left I made a 6" granny square. Hopefully this will go with squares other people have made to make a blanket.

Hoping to post these out tomorrow and will send the unfinished one in the next batch.

I have also managed to finish the granny squares for one of the kids' Xmas present blankets. I still haven't deicided which child is getting which blanket but here's the 84 finished squares.

They just need joined together. My plan is to lay them out on the living room floor one evening when the kdis have gone to bed and play around with them until I have a layout I like, then join them all together - might be a late night :-/

If that wasn't enough I've also done a little work on the granny stripe (the other Xmas blanket)

WIP Weds: Blankets...yes, more blankets!

On Monday I managed to finish the Mario coaster, so I'll show you all that on Friday.

The two blankets for the kids have gone on hold for a short while as I received my generously donated yarn on Friday (well, it went to the sorting office and I collected it on Friday in the rain!). I crochet for the MNWoollyHugs project and recently offered to crochet for their Little Hugs project, which is basically little blankets that get sent to a hospital for seriously ill children to use.

So here are two WIP blankets for them

In the background is a large granny square blanket. I turned the work after each round to avoid getting a wonky centre. It's pretty much finished - just those pesky ends to sew in. The second is just a basic blanket using US dc. I didn't really count the starting chain but I think there's just under 80 stitches. I'm just hoping I don't run out of yarn on this one. The good thing with this blanket though is that I can cover my ends as I go!

For more WIP posts check out Tami's blog.