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!


31 October 2017

Blog Tour Give Away Winner

Thank you all for the lovely feedback on my granny table cloth,
 I'm so pleased you like it!


It gives me great pleasure to announce the winner of the give away.
Thank you to the 2026 people who entered.

Congratulations go to
Jayne Hornby.
Stylecraft Yarns will be in touch with you
 and soon you will be receiveing the Country Garden pack.

Happy hooking

Heather
x x x

30 October 2017

Stylecraft Blog Tour 2017 - Granny Square Tablecloth

Hello my lovely friends
 and welcome to the
 2017 Stylecraft Blog Tour.
If you are visiting for the first time,
 may I offer you an extra special welcome!
 Do stop a while and have a browse, you will find many tutorials
 and colourful posts to inspire your crochet.

This year sees our 3rd blog tour
 and again I feel privileged to be a member of the 
  Our numbers are continually growing and bloggers all round the globe
 will keep you inspired with knitting and crochet inspiration.
You can keep up with us on Facebook at
and on Instagram at

The tour this year is celebrating the popular Batik yarn
 which comes in 20 fabulous shades,
 along with the newcomer Batik Elements
 which is available in 8 fantastic colourways.
The yarn is a beautiful soft blend of 80% acrylic and 20% wool
 coming in 100g balls. It is machine washable at 30 degrees
 and can be tumble dried on low heat.


 If you have been following along
you will have already seen a host of wonderful creations
 and patterns available to you.
 Yesterday we were treated to a gorgeous poncho pattern by 
You can follow the tour backwards from here
 by visiting each blog in turn
 and following the links given to the previous days posts. 
Tomorrow is the final day of the tour
 and will be the turn of
 I cant wait to see what she has made!

We were given a choice, of 4 wonderful colour packs
 specially created for the tour.


I chose the pack called Country Garden
as these colours match perfectly with my living room.
It contains 4 balls of Batik Elements in Bismuth
 and 6 balls of Batik in raspberry, pistachio, heather, mint, coral and graphite.


You can enter a giveaway today
 just for readers of my blog
to win your self a pack of this gorgeous yarn!
 It will be open to all entrants worldwide
 between the hours of
 10am GMT Monday October 30th
 and 10am GMT Tuesday 31st October 2017.


So what did I make?
As soon as I saw the pack I new it coordinated perfectly
 with my new curtains. Many of you will know that we moved house
 1 year ago and so I am still gradually making home.
This old table was due a makeover as its old much loved cloth,
 had seen better days and no longer matched with my colour scheme.
 A new granny table cloth was the perfect project for me,
 to test out this exciting new yarn.

I used the Batik Elements in Bismuth
along with the 4 shades that matched my curtains,
 raspberry, pistachio, heather and mint.


My table is a small side table with top measuring
44cm / 17 inches.

I chose a simple pattern to let the yarn do the talking,
 so the humble granny square was perfect
 to make a table cloth for this square table.
 If you are a beginner you may like to read my
as it contains many tips and tricks,
 for how to make a perfectly square granny that does not twist.


I began with Bismuth for the centre
then alternated it with the other 4 shades in the following order
bismuth raspberry bismuth pistachio bismuth heather bismuth mint.
It's as simple as that, just keep repeating the colour sequence
 until you reach your desired size.


Its good practice to take care of your ends as you work,
 so that you don't have a dreadful task at the end. 
You can read my tutorial
 of how I deal with ends on a granny square


I was inspired to create this look
 by the wonderful work I have seen on Instagram on #crochetrabbithole .
Take a look and you will see many wonderful inspiring
 creations made with remnants of variegated sock yarn.


The colours blend so well
 and it's difficult to see where one colour starts and another ends!
I am really pleased with how it turned out
 and the result is a soft squishy fabric
 which would make a wonderful warm blanket or shawl.


However my table needed a treat!

To turn my granny square into a pretty cloth
 it needed a lovely edging.


To make the edging
(UK crochet terms)
Ch 1 = chain 1   dc = double crochet  tr = treble
dc 2 tog = double crochet 2 together

Round 1
Use any colour of your choice
 (I used raspberry but ran out so ended in bismuth. 
Any combination of scraps will work as it blends in with the square)

Starting in a stitch 3 to the left of a corner,
dc around the whole square making 3 dc in corner stitches.

Round 2
Ch 1, dc in same stitch, * ch 1 skip 3 stitches,
 [(tr chain 1) 3 times in next stitch, tr in same stitch,]
 this creates a shell,
 chain 1 skip 3 stitches dc in next stitch.
Repeat from * to 2 stitches before a corner stitch,
 ch 1 skip 2 stitches, make a shell in corner stitch,
 ch 1 skip 2 stitches dc in next stitch, repeat from *
 around omitting last dc, join with slip stitch to first dc.

Round 3
Ch 1, *[dc in next treble, dc in ch space, dc in treble, 
dc ch 3 dc in top ch space,
 dc in treble, dc in ch space, dc in treble,
 hdc in ch space hdc in next ch sp, pull yarn through both to make dc2 tog.]
Repeat from * and join with slip stitch into first ch 1.




My square measures 66cm / 26 inches
 which is perfect for my table with a lovely overhang. 
I used only part of each of the 4 batik and 
2.5 balls of the Bismuth. So there is enough in the pack
to make a larger square than mine.


I am delighted with the effect
and my table is now dressed!


Keep calm and crochet on!


You can check back tomorrow
 and I will post the winner of the giveaway.

I hope you all have a lovely hooky day
Heather
x x x















28 October 2017

Sewing in ends tutorial


Colour is a wonderful thing!
 It makes my heart sing and my world go round.
My favourite kind of project is one involving many shades
 of the wonderful
In case you haven't come across this,
 it is a beautifully soft acrylic yarn which is washable, 
very affordable and comes in an amazing
  80 shades 
and there are always new shades being added to the range!


One of the most frequent questions I get asked by beginners,
 is how do I deal with all the dreaded ends!
So you've made a beautiful granny square,
 which looks perfect from the front,
 but when you turn it over its a disaster!

For this project I am working on,
 I have made a front and a back from my square,
 by threading all the ends through to one side. 
If you are making a blanket I would leave half on the front
 and half on the back then the blanket can be used either way.
When I start and finish off each colour
 I leave a tail of approximately 15cm / 6 inches.
It is important to leave long tails, so that your work
 can be fastened off securely, to prevent it from unraveling.


People sometimes ask,
 how I make my grannies so square and so neat
. . . if that's what you are thinking, you may like to read my
to find some tips and tricks!


Now to deal with these pesky ends,
 we need some sharp scissors and a darning needle.
You will see that when I made my square,
 I started each round in a different corner.
 This means I have about a quarter of the ends
 in each corner to deal with.

You are going to work with 2 ends of the same colour.


Notice that one end is at the top of the trebles
 and the other is at the bottom.
We need them both to be together at the top,
 see where my needle is pointing.


First I use my needle to thread the bottom end,
 up to the top, to be in the same place as the other end.
Simply weave the needle through and under
 the matching coloured trebles.


Next make a reef knot with the 2 ends of the same colour,
 to secure your work. This will not show it will hide under the stitches
 when we have finished.


Trim your tails to be the same length
 and thread them through the darning needle together.
Doing 2 tails at once will halve the time needed for this task!


I am right handed so I work from right to left.
If you are left handed work from left to right.



Weave the needle under the 3 trebles of the colour above (red here)
 then under a stitch in the pink row.
Pull the yarn through and make sure it is nice and flat.


Repeat weaving under the 3 trebles and under a loop of its own colour


Keep going till all the yarn is hidden
 and trim off the ends close to your work.


Turn your work around as you stitch to make it easier,
 always working from right to left if you are right handed
 and left to right if you are left handed.


keep going and enjoy the satisfaction of that pile of ends!


I like to think of sewing the ends in as embroidery. 
I would suggest that you do a batch of ends after every few rows,
 then you are not left with a mammoth task at the end!


If you are wondering what I'm making here . . .
this rainbow square will become a cushion cover.


Its simply made by wrapping a granny square,
 around a cushion pad and crocheting it together.
You can read my step by step tutorial here


So there you have it!
take care with your ends and your work will not come undone! 


Happy hooking friends

Heather
x x x




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