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!


9 October 2015

Autumn Jewels


I love the seasons
 and believe them to be a real gift
 from God our creator. 
At this time of year the artist in me
 is so excited by the changing colour palette around us.
 Autumn is one of my favourite seasons
 with its rich warm cosy tones.


 Working with one colour is a wonderful change
 to celebrate the stitch pattern in a block.
 For a while now I have been inspired by the crochet world
 on Instagram and tracked down this wonderful
This is a free pattern available on Ravelry by Destany Wymore.
It is very well written and includes a chart
 but please note it uses US crochet terms!
You will find a handy conversion here on the
crochet conversions page of my blog.


To add wonderful stitch definition to this block I chose to work in
Deramores Studio DK.
This is a fairly new yarn labelled as 'anti pilling' and I highly recommend it.
It is slightly finer than other popular DK yarns,
 has a gorgeous satin quality and comes in 27 shades.

I chose mist chocolate oatmeal heather aubergine mustard
 amethyst wine and malachite for the squares with 
smoke for the joining and border.


The yarn is a dream to work with gliding over your hook so easily. 
I used a 3mm hook to produce a nice firm texture
 ( half a size smaller than my usual)
 as it is slightly finer yarn than my normal DK.


The squares are large at about 17cm each
and with my tension I was able to make 5 from each 100g ball.
This means I had 45 squares from my 9 shades
so the largest blanket I could make was 
6 rows of 7 using 42 of the blocks.
Please note different people have different tensions
 and yarn used may vary!


For joining and edging I chose the dark grey called smoke.
So to prepare for joining I completed each square
 with an extra round of UK dc making 3 dc in each corner.
This now made the squares about 18cm in width.


Laying the squares out in a rectangle is such fun!
I like to make a random arrangement rather like sudoku
 trying to avoid 2 of the same colour in any row or column!

For joining I prefer to crochet the squares together.
This makes a strong neat join which will not come undone.
I crocheted together from the back with right sides together.
You will find a tutorial 


The above photo shows clearly how
 the squares are first joined in 1 direction leaving gaps.


Then you join in the other direction
crocheting over the joins to complete the blanket


I was delighted with the results
and think it looks rather like a stained glass window
 with the lead between the coloured glass!

front view of join
Here you can see clearly that this method creates
 a smooth flat finish on the front with a ridge on the back.

back view of join
Just like a picture needs a frame
so a blanket needs a border.
I began with a round of UK trebles.


One of my most used books is
by Edie Eckman
I chose a deep lace border to compliment the square.


To complete my blankets I always wash and tumble dry them.
I do not block my squares
 as with my tension I am lucky and they are flat.
 However I do find that a wash at 30c
 with my normal soap powder and fabric softener
 followed by tumble drying on LOW
adds a certain magic to the blanket
 helping to settle the joins and soften the crochet.


My finished blanket of 6x7=42 squares with the border
measured approximately 120x140cm.
This is a great size for a sofa or single bed.



Wishing you all a happy autumn
the perfect time for blanket making!

Heather

X X X









8 comments:

Shirlee said...

Your blanket is lovely! Great job!

isabella said...

I love those beautiful autumn colors! Have a good day!
Isabella

Sharon - creativity and family said...

That is so beautiful Heather, I love the rich tones of the colours. x

Renata said...

Brawo!

Unknown said...

I'm feeling inspired - such a beautiful Autumn blanket.

Andrea said...

Lovely....almost added colour pack to basket. Definately one to add to list. What number border is it?

Unknown said...

I bought the Deramores yarn pack from their stall at the Knitting and Stitching show in Alexandra palace a few weeks ago, after having gone to a 2-hour workshop on how to make a granny square. Got to your site and downloaded the victorian lace instructions. I used a 3.5 mm needle. My squares are 15 cm and i was able to make 6 squares out of the 100g yarn. I am inspired by the your work and the blankets. Thank you very much!

Gillian said...

A really gorgeous blanket.

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