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 

Stylecraft Blogstars.

  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

Stylecraft Yarns

and on Instagram at

Stylecraft Blogstars

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 

Crafternoon Treats.

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

 Jane Crowfoot 

 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

HERE

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

Granny Square Tutorial

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

HERE

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

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

  Stylecraft yarn Batik.

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, 

200 Crochet Blocks by Jan Eaton.

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 

HERE

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

HERE.

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

Around The Corner by Edie Eckman,

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