a cloud of intuition

Posted on January 28, 2013 by bear loves dove

Cloud of Intuition Blanket.
Alpaca, cotton, wool, silk, linen, and probably a few other fibres too but I made most of this blanket such long time ago I hardly remember the yarn blends I used.

I do however remember that the cream colour in the squares is pure alpaca. A local alpaca whose name is Intuition. Cute name hey? I purchased this particular alpaca yarn from a local lady, who has a garage converted into a studio where she sells lovely yarns and knitted items. Intuition is her Alpaca who used the graze the grass in front of the studio I believe. He had moved on to greener pastures the day I bought the yarn but she assures me he was there and that she spun the yarn herself. But I digress… The blanket… Oh my… the blanket… It took AGES!

My dear sweet hubby models the blanket in the above two pictures because it’s sooooo enormous that I found it hard getting a good shot of it. Not that these are good mind you, but I’m just keen to finally have it finished and on the blog. I haven’t even washed and blocked yet so please ignore bumps and ripples.

I crocheted all of the squares a couple of years ago, then started joining them together. I found this cute way of crocheting them together… but it takes ages… and I got a bit disheartened… so I put it away for ‘a bit’…

About 2.5 years later, in the middle of a scorching hot summer, I dragged it out… As you do! I do crochet in summer mind you… but generally smaller lighter items, not king size alpaca & wool blankets! Nevertheless, when I get a bee in my bonnet, I tend to ignore common sense… Not only did it take ages to join the squares together, it took forever – ok slight exaggeration – a very long time, to weave in all the ends! Jeepers that is a crochet task that I do dislike… Feels like such a big chunk of time doing nothing… although I know it’s not nothing… it’s finishing something… something I’m just starting to get the hang of actually… finishing stuff.

The squares are a mixture of two patterns. One was called something with a ‘cloud’ in the pattern name and the other was called something with ‘mandala’ in the pattern name. Sorry to be vague but I just don’t remember. If you really want to know the pattern, leave a comment and I’ll do some serious hunting through my patterns for you.

This was one of the first major crocheting projects I ever did… I had edged a blanket before, and made a basic little blanket but this one was a biggie. I can see how far my crochet has come since this blanket and can pick little things that are not quite right in it… But I don’t mind… I love it… I love the colours… I love the yarn… I love the patterns… I love the randomness of the colours and patterns… I love that I used to be able to say – “I’m crocheting Intuition” when I was making it… mostly I love that I’ve finally finished it! This one’s a keeper for sure and will be keeping us warm at night when winter comes.

I’m off to tackle some other things on my ‘to do’ list now.
This blanket wasn’t on my ‘to do’ list for this week.
I was putting off the real ‘to do’ list.
I even extended putting off the real ‘to do’ list by writing this post.
Now I must get real and tick something off this weeks list.
But I do feel better having finished my Cloud of Intuition!

Do write yourself a ‘to do’ list and then ignore it too?

Hope you find some clouds of intuition in your day.

edgy blanket pattern

Posted on November 18, 2012 by bear loves dove

This post comes with a warning… it’s the first time I’ve actually had a go at writing down a pattern. Well not a whole pattern, just for the edge of a blanket. And I’m doing it from my memory (not very reliable!) and from looking at the blanket and the photos. So… consider yourself warned!

The blanket in question is my Cool Rainbow Blanket.

Do you remember it? I received some lovely comments (you know who you are Becky), and was asked ever so kindly if I could share the pattern for the edge. So here goes…

The blanket is all granny stitch and the edge consists of 3 rows. And I’m going to explain the first row in a bit of detail first, with the help of some pictures then go on to the whole edge pattern.

The first row is a double crochet, chain one.
Now where you put your double crochet is the important bit. It needs to be spaced out in a way that gives you a flat edge. Not one that ends up with too many stitches… which is what I seem to do. Often.
I find when following a granny stitch blanket, along the top and the bottom edge of the blanket, it’s simply into every second stitch. But do note that I finish my granny blankets with a row of single crochet as that’s how they start out… so we’re all nice and balanced…. top and bottom wise. It should look like the picture above.

Along the sides of the blanket I find it best to do the double crochet in each granny stitch row. Like this picture above.
The chain stitch after the double crochet works as a nice spacer and seems to fill the space nicely without creating too many stitches.

For the corners I do a ‘double crochet and chain one’ x 3 times. Like my corner above. It’s a slightly rounded corner which I tend to favour.

Making sense so far?
Now for the whole edge pattern. Ready?

Row 1
Starting anywhere around your blanket chain 4, *double crochet, chain one. Repeat from * all the way around the blanket, then slip stitch into the 3rd chain at the beginning of the 1st row.
Row 2
Chain 1, *single crochet into each stitch. Repeat from * all the way around the blanket, then slip stitch into the 1st single crochet of the 2nd row.
Row 3
Chain 1, *single crochet into the next 4 stitches, chain 2 then do a single crochet into the 1st chain. Repeat from * all the way around the blanket then slip stitch into the 1st single crochet of the 3rd row. The chain 2 & single crochet into the 1st chain forms the cute little picot/bump/bobble along the edge.

Hope that makes sense and I haven’t confused you. It is a simple little edge that gives an effective finish and I hope I haven’t complicated it in my ‘pattern writing’. Seems almost a bit ironic that I find myself writing a pattern when I don’t use them much myself, although I have started to a lot more lately. Well that’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it. Oh and I almost forgot, my terminology is US crochet so you’ll need to convert to UK if that’s your lingo.

Do let me know how you go with it if you try it out wont you?

May your days be ‘edgy’ in the best possible way!

baby beanie (modelled by muma owl)

Posted on September 1, 2012 by bear loves dove

Baby Lachlan Beanie
90% Cotton, 10% Silk, Crochet.

My cousin and his lovely wife welcomed their little baby boy Lachlan to world earlier this week. We got to meet him last night and boy oh boy is he a sweetie! I whipped up this little beanie for him to go with my Panda Lovin’ Blanket as a gift.

I didn’t use a pattern, just fluffed along as usual so it’s a little (lot!) big for him… but we all know how fast babies grow right? He’ll be in it in no time. Right?

I used a double crochet stitch for most of the hat except near the brim I reduced to a half double crochet then a single crochet. I made the little pom pom with a fork. Have you seen that technique on Pinterest yet? It’s very effective.

I use two strands of yarn together to create a more solid little beanie. The blue and white together for the top, then two whites and then finished it with a single strand of blue along the rim. It’s super soft being a cotton silk blend so perfect for a newbie babe.

Well I’m off to work on one of the 3 projects I have on the go at the moment. Two knitting and one crochet… But I want to start another one too… With some new yarn I have…I think I have a problem.

Do you have a few projects on the go at once too? Are you tempted to start another despite this? Are you a bit addicted to yarn shopping too? Happy crafting/shopping days to you!