Yesterday I finished my 8 motifs for the CAL.  It has been my ‘knitgroup’ project, so I’ve been doing a little every few days, I had a spare couple of hours yesterday so decided to finish them.

Here’s a progress photo:

You will notice that I have a chain running off the corner of each motif.  This is my way of ensuring I have enough yarn on each motif to slip stitch them together afterwards.   You see a chain st uses the same amount of yarn as a slip stitch, so if you work out how many slip stitches you will need all you have to do is a chain the same number (plus a bit spare) and you should have enough yarn to join the motifs at a later stage.  Just don’t tie off the chain, leave it loose so that you can pull it back quickly.  For me this meant a chain of 70 sts, because each motif has 33 sts down each side and most of the motifs will be joined along 2 sides – so 2 times 33 plus a bit equals 70.  I guess this is Tip number 6!

How are you getting on with your CAL?  Have you finished all 8 of the first motif yet?

Well, if you have you may be getting impatient, so I’m planning a quick CAL in the week up to Christmas which should keep you interested.  And I plan to do it for charity.  All you will need are some scraps of cotton dk yarn in some nice colours – up to 9 colours.  More about this soon 😉

Happy crocheting xxx