The story of the grey blanket

 This last month I have been on a crochet journey outside my comfort zone 

working with a colour palette chosen by a customer. 

Stylecraft Special DK 

in grey with spice, parchment, meadow, petrol, silver, lime,

 storm blue, mocha, denim and graphite.
You need 1 each of the 10 colours and 4 grey for joining.

She chose a solid granny square pattern which I love

 as in this pattern I can crochet over all the ends!

 First I made all of round 1

then added round 2

round 3

in all colours

round 4 and 5

and finally all edged in the grey joining colour.

Matching my mugs to my crochet was a challenge this month

 as the observant amongst you will have noticed

 that I tend to favour pretty florals in pinks and reds and blues!

But what a delight these squares became

and it wasn't long before I was enjoying

 a touch of Orla Kiely colours.

At first I thought the blanket 

was going to be dull and masculine

but it soon grabbed my attention

and the change of colour palette has been very refreshing.

64 solid granny squares

all edged

and not an end in sight!

My mathematical brain loves the patterns created by these squares

 from the stripes and the holes.

Joining was fun

and snuggling under the blanket as I made it was a pleasure.

Stylecraft Special DK

 is such a pleasure to use for blanket making,

smooth and soft

and beautifully even.

Its no wonder this blanket has been so popular!

You can read how I make these solid granny squares

on my earlier

Crofter Blanket Post

Hope you are all having a happy hooky weekend!

Heather

X X X

My Crofter Blanket

It seems a good few weeks now

 since the first excitement of starting my colourful Crofter squares.

 They have now been edged and joined with cream

 and the blanket finished off with a deep straight border.

I was inspired by the lovely blanket made by
Anita Mundt
and have made my own version here

So here as promised is how I made my

 Crofter Blanket

it has 81 squares and measures approximately 115 x 115 cm

Yarn

 7 balls of cream Sirdar Snuggly DK

8 balls of Sirdar Baby Crofter DK

2 Elsie

2 Kaitlyn

2 Mimi

2 Maypole

you can buy the yarn
HERE

(Edit :: Elsie has now been discontinued, but can be replaced by Winnie) 

I am using a 3.5mm hook and UK crochet terms,

 for American terms you will find a conversion chart HERE

The Solid Granny Squares

Round 1 ~ Make a magic loop, you can follow a tutorial HERE

Round 2 ~ 3 chain 2 trebles, 2 chain

* 3 trebles 2 chain *

repeat from * to * twice

slip stitch into top of 1st 3 chain 

      

Round 2 ~ Make 3 chain for 1st treble then

 1 treble into the top of each treble of previous round

In each corner make 2 trebles 2 chain 2 trebles

So each side of round 2 has 7 trebles when complete

Round 3 ~ Make 3 chain for 1st treble then

 1 treble into the top of each treble of previous round

In each corner make 2 trebles 2 chain 2 trebles

So each side of round 2 has 11 trebles when complete

Round 4 ~ Make 3 chain for 1st treble then

 1 treble into the top of each treble of previous round

In each corner make 2 trebles 2 chain 2 trebles

So each side of round 2 has 15 trebles when complete

I made 10 squares from each 50g ball so that made 80 squares in total.

 This would make a rectangular blanket 8 x 10.

 I fancied a square blanket though

 and had enough yarn to make 1 more square 

giving me 81, which made a 9 x 9 arrangement.

If you missed the original blog post

 about the making of the squares you can read it HERE

The squares were all edged in cream and the ends sewn in.

If you missed the previous blog post about edging 

you can read it HERE

To join my squares I worked from the back

 using dc through both loops

This makes a good strong join

 and creates a nice neat look from the front

You can read last weeks blog post about the joining method

 HERE

With the blanket now in 1 piece it was time for the border.

After much procrastinating and trials of several borders,

 I finally decided (with the help of my Instagram friends)

 that the joy of this blanket is the colourful squares.

 The purpose of a border is to frame

 and in this case

 it must not detract from the beauty of the squares.

So

and I kept it simple

 with a continuation of the same rows of trebles into each stitch.

To help the border lie flat

 I did 2 trebles then treble 2 together 

all the way round on my 1st round of the border.

 This decreases the stitch count and removes any frillyness.

I am totally in love with my finished Crofter Blanket 

and it is already feeling very much a part of Patchwork House!

This yarn has been a delight to work with.

 Its is smooth and slightly finer than most DK

 creating beautiful stitch definition.

The colours in the Baby Crofter are stunning making every stitch a joy.

This blanket is a keeper and will become a family treasure.

I hope you have enjoyed the watching

and maybe fancy having a make yourself?

Happy hookin!

Heather

 X X X