Happy New Year!  I wish you all health, happiness and prosperity in 2017.

The turn of the year means spring is on the way, so today is a good time to introduce you to the Spring Blossom CAL, which is a blanket CAL starting on 21st January 2017.

What does it look like?  Well, there’s a bit of mystery in it, but here’s a sneak preview:

The name Spring Blossom comes from the scattering of pale colours, some of a floral design, over the whole blanket.   It is made of hexagonal motifs in 4 designs with a finished size, including border, of approx 165cm by 150cm.

The introduction to the pattern is available now here.  The full price is £4.50 but there is a discount code available until the start of the CAL (21st January), use code BLOSSOM at checkout to get £3 off the full price.

If you want to join in the CAL you’ll find the following information on construction, colour and yarn useful:

The motifs are designed to be made in 3 colours: the central section in 2 colours and a wide border in 1 colour, which I used as a main colour.  I used only 3 colours for the central sections and one colour for the wide border, because I wanted a pale and simple design. However, you could use many more colours if you wish – I would love to see this in lots of colours!  My main colour was cream and the centres are pale pink, blue and lavender.    But imagine what this would be like with a green background and lots of floral colours, or a sky blue background, or an autumnal sky background with autumn colours – the possibilities are endless.

The motifs are join-as-you-go, which I think gives a neat finish, but you could opt to join later by other methods (although this will need more yarn). The pattern includes details of my layout but you do not have to follow my layout or make all the styles of motif. In fact, if you don’t like one style just swap it with another. The border is simple but be aware that it requires 120m of each of the 3 contrast colours – so if you decided to use more than 3 colours you must ensure you will have sufficient of 3 of them to complete the border.

Yarn: I used Stylecraft Malabar Aran, 78% cotton/22% silk, 100g/165m per ball:
11 balls in Buttermilk 2520 (Main colour M)
3 balls in Petal Pink 2528 (Contrast A)
3 balls in Powder Blue 2525 (Contrast B)
3 balls in Lavender 2529 (Contrast C)
Unfortunately this yarn is being discontinued so an alternative is:
Stylecraft Special Aran, 100% acrylic, 100g/196m per ball.
Background requires 10 balls
Colours require 3 balls each in 3 colours of your choice (9 balls in total).
Hook: 5.0mm (US H/8) crochet hook

If you prefer you could make the blanket in a DK yarn using a 4.0mm (US G/6) crochet hook. The motif size using DK yarn is smaller and the finished size is estimated to be approx. 125cm by 140cm.
Recommended yarn quantities using Stylecraft Special DK, 100% acrylic, 100g/294m per ball.
6 balls in main background colour
2 balls in each of the 3 contrast colours (6 balls total)

There’s already discussion and a little excitement building on my Ravelry forum.  So please join in the fun.

Happy crocheting xxx

A summary of my designs in 2016, few words but plenty of photos!

5 blankets:

Some mandalas and tableware:

Bags and a purse…………………………scarves, cowls and shawl:

And the Advent CAL decorations:

Phew, what a year!

Happy crocheting xx

The topic for the last Crochet Club of 2016 was ‘Last Minute Christmas’ and I provided several patterns of little items to make quickly as last minute gifts. One of the popular makes was a quick purse pattern or ‘recipe’ which I thought I’d share with you.

This can be made in a couple of hours if a small purse, or you could use the same methodology to make a bigger purse or bag which would take longer.

The materials we used were:
8cm (3¼”) wide curved purse frames with a ‘kiss’ fastener and holes for sewing the fabric to (I sourced them from ebay)
Double knit yarn (only a small amount needed – 25g should be ample)
4mm (US G/6) crochet hook
Tapestry needle for sewing in ends.
Large eyed sharp sewing needle and thinner yarn or sewing thread

Your tension should be quite firm to create a strong fabric with no holes, so you may need to use a slightly smaller hook to get the fabric firm.  The advantage of making a firm fabric is that the purse will not need lining!

Abbreviations
English crochet terms used
St(s) = stitch(es)
Ch = chain
Ss = slip stitch
Dc = double crochet.
You also need to know how to make a magic ring

Recipe
The purse starts with a circle and increases in a similar way to a mandala, you are aiming to get the circle the right diameter to fit the frame for sewing to.  So start with a magic ring (or 4ch joined with a ss), work in a continuous spiral with 6dc for the first round, 12dc for the second round, 18dc for the third round etc until your circle is the correct size for the frame.

Find the correct diameter by folding the circle and hold against the closed frame, you need to ensure part of the circle creates a gusset at the sides of the frame.

Once you have the correct diameter work rounds with no increases for about 6cm (2½”), break yarn, fasten off and weave in ends.

Finally sew the purse to the frame.  I used cotton dk yarn which I was able to split to make a finer thread to sew the purse to the frame, but you could use matching sewing thread.

For my purse I did 9 rounds of increases (to a circle of 54 sts around) then 13 straight rounds, but some people in the group used more sts and rounds as their tension was a little tighter than mine.

If you make one of these as a gift, you could pop some ‘universal gift vouchers’ inside!

Happy crocheting xxx

There’s lots of news on CALs this week.

First the Advent CAL is now up to pattern 9:

And here are patterns 1 to 8:

The Ravelry group is very active – over 100 photos have already been shared of various Advent CAL decorations and many people are doing more than one of each.  Some are using just one colour, but others are using up to 3.   There are some sparkly yarns and many embellishments,  and even a lovely set of felted decorations.   Do have a look on the finished objects thread on Ravelry here.

There are still another 3 patterns to be published.  Pattern 9 is one of my favourites from the set of 12, but my most favourite is number 12; I’m saving the best til last!

Second CAL news – Over the festive period I am running a Christmas Mandala CAL.  This will start on 26th December 2016 and each day from then until 1st January 2017 a round or 2 of the pattern will be published.

I haven’t reviewed my pattern prices for a long time.  When VAT on digital downloads was introduced (and hence my digital pattern sales on various websites became subject to VAT) I decided to absorb the VAT rather than have people around the world pay different prices.  At that time I intended to review my prices after the whole VAT situation settled down, but I never did.  So I am long overdue a review.

Pricing is very hard, but the one thing I do know is that I should not undervalue my work.   So I have done a thorough review and the result is that I will increase most of my prices from 1^st January 2017.  This may not happen instantly on that date as it takes time to update all the individual patterns on the websites I use, but within the first few days of January each pattern will have been reviewed and the price updated.  In general the pricing structure changes for the 3 main types of designs will be:

Shawls and scarves are currently priced between £3 and £3.50  – they will rise to between £4 and £5

Cowls are currently priced between £1 and £3 – they will rise to between £3 and £4

Blankets are currently priced between £3 and £3.50 – they will rise to between £4 and £5

All prices are inclusive of VAT, so everyone pays the same (apart from the effect of currency fluctuations that I cannot control).

I do hope you appreciate the need for this review and update.

Today I published the 4th pattern in the Advent CAL collection of 12.  You can find it here.

These are the first 4:

There are lots of variations of these appearing on Ravelry, well none of number 4 yet as it was published only this morning but there are more than 50 photos of numbers 1 to 3!

Have you joined the CAL yet?   There’s lots of fun to be had……and prizes!

Happy crocheting xxxx

Pattern 2 has now been added to the Advent CAL.  You can find it here.

Don’t forget you can still get a discount until midnight GMT tonight, details on the Ravelry group here.

Happy crocheting xxx

 

 

Did I mention there are prizes?

Oooops…..I forgot.  If you go onto the Ravelry group check out this post which tells you about the prizes and eligibility.

The top prize is this:

So join the CAL and get hooking!

Happy crocheting xxx

PS tomorrow morning part 2 will be published, and the discount code will still be available until midnight GMT tomorrow.

 

 

Here in the UK it is almost 9pm on 30th November, but in Australia it is almost 8am on 1st December………..so just for today I’m publishing the CAL pattern in Australian time!

Pattern 1 is now live, turn away if you don’t want a spoiler.

Pattern 1 is a snowflake:

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You can find the pattern here on Ravelry.

And don’t forget there is a discount code if you look on my Ravelry forum group, available until midnight on 3rd december.

Happy crocheting xxx

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The Advent CAL is now open to subscriptions.   You can purchase the pattern here.

But do have a look on the Ravelry forum here, as you may find a discount!

The 12 decorations will be published from 1^st December until 23^rd December and there is a prize draw at the end of the year for members of my Ravelry group who share photos of their finished decorations on the discussion thread on Ravelry.

Happy crocheting xxx