Hello and welcome to Patchwork House . . . . .
my little corner of the world in England, where you will find me addicted to colour and playing with yarn!


25 September 2016

Giveaway Winner


Thank you all so much for entering my giveaway.
 All of the 309 comments make me feel so very humble,
 as I read why you like my blog. You really are an encouragement
 to me to keep on sharing and posting my daily mugshots!

So down to business . . .



£25 of Stylecraft Vouchers and a bag full of Patchwork Heart goodies
was obviously a very tempting prize!

As I worked my way through the comments I found several repeats,
 so some were deleted to make it fair. I then used a random
 number generator and counted down the list to find a winner.

So with great pleasure I announce the winner is

Ann Fitzgerald

I have emailed Ann and am waiting for her reply.
 If anyone reading this knows her please give her a nudge!

When Ann has received her prize I will share photos next week.

Many thanks again for all your lovely comments
, I am so lucky to have you all

Heather 
X X X

9 September 2016

The Batik Rainbow Blanket



A few months ago you will remember,
I had the privilege of visiting Stylecraft Mill along with the other blogstars.
 We were treated like royalty
 and showered with gifts to share with you all!


One of these gifts was a pack of the new
This is a 20% wool 80% acrylic mix with a speckled appearance.
 It comes in cute 50g balls and is available in 16 beautiful shades.


So what a pleasure it has been
 to design a blanket
 that would showcase this new yarn.


I began by trying out a new block to me, from an old favourite book, 
you can buy this from Amazon.
(Note the UK version has a pink cover
 and the US version has a blue cover!)


I wanted to use a small square
 so chose the Wisteria block and just made rounds 1 to 4.


Playing with the colours is my favourite part!
I soon realised that the 16 shades have been created to work well
together, which is a joy for us crochet artists.


I have used 1 50g ball of the shades
indigo
cherry
 teal
old gold
violet
coral
storm
raspberry
pistachio
heather
olive
sage
plum
and
10 balls of
biscuit for the joining and border.
I worked with a 3.5mm hook

You can buy the yarn 


So I set about making squares
 using 4 rounds of colour
 and the 5th round of each square I made in biscuit.


Some balls made 7 squares and others made 8!
This will be due to varying yarn thickness
 and differences in my tension.


So I had 99 squares when complete
 which I arranged in a rectangle 9 x 11.
I'm frequently asked how do I plan the layout of my blankets
 to make them look random. Well my trick is to play crochet Sudoku!
Just using my eye I try to place only 1 of any colour
 in each row or column and it works well!


My first layout was a random mix of the squares as seen above,
 but this just didn't sing to me! I knew that the Batik yarn
 was more special than this so I had a second play!


This time I was happy, very happy indeed!
I chose the layout above blending the colours
 from 1 corner of the rectangle to the opposite one.


Joining is my favourite part of blanket making
 as you see it come together so fast.

I have crocheted the squares together from the back,
 using UK dc through both loops.
 This gives a really strong join with a nice simple look.
 You will find a tutorial for this method


The first view of the blanket is always so exciting
 and here above you can see it with the first direction of joining done.


The second direction of joining
 completes the blanket into one piece
 and look what a wonderful surprise I found!
 As 4 squares meet and are joined
 a flower is formed from their 4 corners!
 This is made from the pattern of the squares
 and nothing to do with the joining method.
What a delight!


When you stand back and view the blanket from a distance
there is another surprise to behold . . .
can you see the diagonal pattern made by the holes?
Oh what a joy, this rainbow blanket of plain squares
 has so much to delight in it!


Here's a close up of the join and the formation of the flower.
This joining method creates a ridge on the back of the blanket
 and smooth flat finish on the front.


With the blanket complete it was time to choose the border.
I can highly recommend this border book
It is written in US terms and has written instructions and charts.


I have used border number 27
 after beginning with a foundation round of trebles first.



So here it is
my Rainbow Batik Blanket
Tadaa!


If you would like to try this yarn for yourself
 (or treat yourself to any other Stylecraft yarns or patterns)
I am hosting a little
 competition
for my UK followers.

You can win yourself a Stylecraft bag of goodies,
filled with some Patchwork Heart treats
and £25 of vouchers!
(The vouchers can be redeemed in UK, at any bricks and mortar yarn shop.)


To enter
simply leave me a comment on this blog post,
 telling me what you enjoy about my blog.
You must make sure that I can find your email
 to contact you in case you are the winner!
A winner will be drawn at random on
 Sunday 25th September
 so you have 2 weeks to enter!


The fun of this rainbow blanket is that it looks so different
 from every direction!

This blanket is a winner and it is a keeper!
 A new blanket for Patchwork House!

If you are not a fan of wool, do not despair!
I have had some comments from followers on Facebook and Instagram
who either cannot wear wool or who would prefer a more affordable option.
As you know I listen to all your comments and aim to please! 
I have plans to make the same blanket again
 in Stylecraft Special DK using the flecked yarns,
 so watch this space!

I wish you all a happy hooky weekend
and look forward to reading your comments.
Don't forget to comment here now
 to be in with a chance of winning!

Heather
X X X

This post was sponsored by Stylecraft Yarns

















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