The Daisy Blanket

 Happiness has been flowing from my hook

 and filled the house with colour!

Judging by the love on FB and IG

 this blanket has made you all happy too!

I have used
Stylecraft Special DK
1 each of pomegranate, cloud blue, spring green, wisteria,
 turquoise, fondant, sherbet, saffron, magenta, apricot, aspen and shrimp
 and 2 cream for making the daisies and the border.

You can buy the yarn
HERE

Here are a few details of how I made my blanket

 to help you along.

I have used the daisy pattern by Tillie Tulip.

There is a tutorial HERE

I like to work in a production line system 

and so first make a pile of centres for the daisies.

 I used the bright yellow called citron for these.

Next I make them into flowers using cream to add the petals.

My blanket was approximately 110cm square

 and for this I made 100 daisies so 10 rows of 10.

 There is plenty of colour in the pack and you could easily make it bigger.I

Next the fun begins with the colours!

I line up 10 colours in the order I wish to use them

 and place a daisy on top of each.

 I can't help being organised it makes my heart sing!

I made the daisies into squares again using the Tillie Tulip pattern

and then used the join as you go method of attaching the squares.

 This is really fun and quick, you see the blanket appearing before your eyes!

There is a good tutorial here on

Attic 24 blog

if you have not learnt this method before.

I love the texture that this joining method creates,

it brings an extra dimension to the blanket and makes it very tactile!

Colour makes me happy

and every time I worked on this or even saw it in my room, it made me smile!

Planning the next row of colours was always my favourite part.

I line them up on the table,

 trying to have just 1 of any colour in each row

 ( I call it crochet sudoku!)

When the squares are all joined and the blanket is in 1 piece,

 it is ready for a border. To prepare for this,

I first make 1 round of cream using UK dc as a foundation row.

Where 2 squares meet the corners are rounded

 and so the edge is not straight.

 To level it out I make half a treble in the first corner

 and the same in the next corner,

 then finish them both off together creating just 1 stitch.

 You can see the stitch is longer than the dc on the sides of the square

 and so this makes the edge flat. I choose to crochet them together

 as this makes less stitches on the border so it will lie flat.

In the corners I made 3 dc.

You are now ready to choose your border.

I wanted a border that looked like the daisy and so used

border 140 from the book

"Around The Corner" by Edie Eckman.

This is written in US terms

 but is really easy to use as there are clear charts and instructions.

So there you go!

 Have fun making your daisy blanket.

Don't forget to share pictures of your makes inspired by The Patchwork Heart

in the

 Facebook Group

Thank you as always for your companionship on FB and IG.

I really love sharing my days with you all as I crochet along

Heather

x x x

Flower Garden CAL Part 1

Welcome to The Knitting Network CAL

 to make this stunning flower garden blanket.

The pattern, written by Lynne Rowe,

 is being released in 4 weekly installments on

 The Knitting Network website.

You will find part 1

HERE

It contains the first installment of the pattern and a helpful how to video.

 The remainder of the pattern will be released weekly on the next 3 Fridays.

I'm so thrilled to have you join me

 along with hundreds of others all around the world!

Make sure you join the Facebook group

 and share pictures of your makes as you go!

 If you have any questions

 please ask them in the Facebook group

 where there will be lots of help available!

You will need

 8 balls of Stylecraft Special Aran

in spice lipstick magenta plum lemon meadow fondant and pomegranate

and 4 balls of cream and a 5mm hook.

(This is the recommended size on the ball band.

 However this can be adjusted to suit your tension.

 If you have tight stitches you may wish to try 5.5mm or 6mm

 or of you have loose stitches you can try 4.5 or 4mm)

The yarn pack can be purchased
here for UK residents
and
here for overseas residents

or if you are making this from your stash
 and just need a few colours to top up you can buy the Stylecraft Aran
 HERE

Don't worry if you haven't got your yarn yet, you will soon catch up.
 The first week has only a small amount of crochet to do!
So go ahead and order now!

These gorgeous colours were inspired by

 a hot summers day, in a beautiful garden.

The first week of the CAL is making the 4 Daisy Squares.

I like to work in a production line system.

 This makes it quicker as your brain and fingers remember the pattern.

 So I began by making the 4 flowers,

 using lemon fondant spice and magenta

 for the first round of the pattern.

When each flower is completed

 sew in the ends on the back of your work

 using  a darning needle.

The 4 flowers are then going to be

 surrounded by the next colour using rounds 2 & 3 as follows

spice - lipstick

lemon - meadow

magenta - plum

fondant - pomegranate 

These daisies are really quite easy to make and have a stunning 3D effect.

 The addition of rounds 2 & 3 makes them really stand out.

On completion of each square

sew in the ends on the back of your work using a darning needle.

(Train yourself into good habits! Its always best to do the ends

 as you go, to avoid a marathon task at the end!) 

Then your finished squares are ready for the cream border. 

Follow round 4 using cream on each square

then sew in these ends.

You have now completed week 1 of the CAL

 and have 4 daisy squares edged in cream.

 These will be the centre of the blanket.

Come back next week for part 2 of the pattern

 which will be released on Friday 19th May.

I look forward to seeing you again

Heather

xxx