Up until now, there have been 2 Friends Around the World CALs over the last few years.  The first started in 2016 and the second started in 2018.  These are amazing CALs organised by the CAL – crochet-a-long group on Facebook, and bringing together afghan square designs by a huge number of exceptional designers from around the world. I was so pleased to be part of both of them and designed 2 squares for each.  If you need any help remembering here are 4 blog posts: Octoghan,  Flower Compass, Noughts and Crosses.

If you are reading this you probably already know that there is a new Friends Around the World CAL – the 5th Anniversary CAL – and I am absolutely delighted to announce that I have once again designed 2 squares for it.  This is another fantastic collaboration of over 30 designers from around the globe and promises to be another showstopping CAL.  No crocheter will want to miss this.  These CALs are, in my view, the biggest and best CALs in the world and take a humungous amount of organisation by the admin and volunteers.  Once again I give them my heartfelt thanks for all their work.

The first square for FATW5 is published today and it is one of mine!   Oh my goodness, it is such an honour to kick off the CAL with the first square.  I do hope you like this one, I call it Thistle

I designed it in 2 colours, but you could use more if you like.  I was inspired by all things Scottish when I designed this (I’m a big fan of Outlander!) so this incorporates a thistle stitch, which I have used before because I love the texture of it and it looks so like a Scottish thistle!

The pattern is available here on Ravelry.  There are currently 2 versions, one in UK crochet terms and one in US crochet terms, both also have a chart.  In due course these will be translated into other languages by the CAL team.

I can’t wait to see the first thistles of the CAL!

Details of the CAL requirements can be found here.  I will be following the CAL closely, and I am so excited to see all the squares as they are published!

I do hope you join in the fun!

Happy crocheting xxx