How’s your gift hooking coming along? Are you ready for Part 3?
There are 3 designs in the pattern for Part 3 – Christmas Washcloths.
The washcloths have a seasonal theme and would be fabulous in Christmas colours. Find the pattern here or in the ebook bundle here. As usual the pattern is written in UK and US crochet terms and includes charts. Once you have made a few you could easily adapt them to other seasonal designs – how about a bell, a reindeer or a stocking? I would love to see adaptations!
It’s been lovely seeing the flurry of snowflakes from part 1, I hope you have enjoyed making them as much as I have enjoyed seeing them!
Today the second pattern in the CAL is published, the Advent Coasters
These are pretty coasters and a set of 6 would make a perfect present, or look great adorning your festive table.
The pattern can be found here and is also in the Advent CAL ebook bundle here. If you purchased the ebook then you should be able to find the pattern there.
The CAL includes 5 patterns – snowflake, coasters, washcloths, gift bag and cowl. These are all quick projects, ideal as small seasonal gifts. They will be published individually but will also be part of a collection/ebook called Advent CAL 2020 which will be on sale for a short time at the bargain price of £1.
Today the first pattern is published 2020 Snowflake
You know I love snowflakes, they are all unique and the hexagonal shape appeals to my mathematical mind! They are key decorations in my home but can be used in so many other ways
The pattern costs £2 and is available here, it includes UK and US crochet terms, a chart and photos of each completed round.
The ebook is available here and normally costs £5, but until midnight tomorrow (GMT) use coupon code CAL to get an 80% discount – that’s £1 for the 5 patterns.
The other 4 patterns will be added to the ebook as they are published on 17th, 21st, 24th and 28th November.
Please share your progress on Ravelry and Facebook – I really want to see a flurry of snowflakes!
Finally I must send out huge thanks to my small army of testers on this project – Tania, Louise, Sally, Maria and Helene. They have been fabulous and CALs like this would not happen without their testing skills – huge thanks to them all 🙂
The first pattern of the 2020 (pre) Advent CAL will be published in 7 days. I hope your hooks are ready!
As I mentioned last week, the first pattern of the 5 in the CAL will be the 2020 Snowflake. To whet you appetite here are the snowflakes from the last 2 years
2019 Snowflake2018 Snowflake
If you fancy a flurry of snowflakes before the CAL starts, these 2 are on sale on Ravelry at a discount of 50% until midnight GMT tomorrow (Sunday 8th November) if you use coupon code SNOWFLAKE on checkout, you can find them here: 2019 Snowflake and 2018 Snowflake
Last year I ran my traditional Advent CAL a little early and this was much appreciated as it gave everyone more time to make some gifts, which is what the Advent CAL is all about. So this year I’ve decided to run it early again as a “pre-Advent” CAL. There will be 5 designs in this CAL, each can be made in a couple of evenings or less – so they are perfect for gift making.
The designs will be released two weeks before Advent – the first on Saturday 14th November, the second on Tuesday 17th November, the third on Saturday 21st November, the fourth on Tuesday 24th November and the last on Saturday 28th November. As well as individual patterns, which will be available to purchase on Ravelry and LoveCrafts, the 5 designs will be added to a collection/book on Ravelry and for one day only (first release day plus a few hours) the ebook will be on sale at a bargain £1.
Previously I’ve treated this CAL as a mystery CAL but this year I thought you’d like an idea of what to expect as I suspect this year we will want to make more gifts than usual whilst we are ‘grounded’ and there’s nothing like preparation!
I design a snowflake every year and this year is no exception – so Snowflake 2020 will be released as the first pattern of the CAL, this could be used as a decoration or as a gift tag or a small thank you present for those who have helped keep some normality for us this year.
The other 4 designs would all make fabulous gifts –
a cowl made in DK or worsted yarn with a quick and simple pattern and an interesting feature join
coasters – always quick to make; make a set or 4 or more as pretty gifts or to adorn your festive table
a set of 3 washcloths – in quick and simple seasonal designs and a lovely eco gift
and a gift/toiletry bag – made with beads for sparkle.
Want a sneak peek? Here are a few tempting close ups:
These designs use all the normal crochet stitches, but the snowflake also uses picot and the bag uses some back post stitches and some beaded stitches.
More details will be posted in my Ravelry group here.
Don’t forget there will be a Twixmas Mandala CAL from 26th to 31st December (in DK or 4ply yarn) and starting at the end of January a wrap/blanket CAL using broadly the same motifs but different yarns and colour schemes. Just to whet your appetite here’s the yarn I’m using in the dual CAL:
Stylecraft Special Chunky for the blanket:
And some luscious 4ply for the wrap in some gorgeous muted colours:
So dust your hooks off and get ready for CAL season! It starts in two weeks!
In my last post I told you of my seasonal CAL plans. This one is an update.
The pre-Advent CAL items are designed and the samples well progressed, there will be 4 or 5 items in this CAL and it will run from early November.
The Twixmas Mandala CAL is complete and ready for testing. Phew that was speedy for me!
After much deliberation the 2021 CAL is decided. It will use octagonal motifs and will be available as a scarf/wrap and as a blanket.
The designing is complete and yarn estimated. The blanket version will be a lap blanket around 1.2m square (that’s about 4ft square) using chunky yarn. I’ve chosen Stylecraft Special Chunky and just ordered plenty from Black Sheep Wools, my sample will be in shades of blue and green (yes, my favourite!) but I ordered more colours than I need so I can play with them 🙂
The scarf/wrap will be about 35cm wide by 170cm long and will be in 4ply yarn. I’m using yarn from my stash for this but will also provide estimates and colours of alternative yarns.
All I have to do now is start writing patterns, finish some samples and make the 2021 CAL samples. I’ll be busy for a while!
September is here already and my mind has turned to the CAL season. For anyone who doesn’t know what a CAL is – it is a crochet-a-long.
In the last few years I have run 3 regular CALs – an Advent CAL, a Twixmas mandala CAL and a Blanket CAL.
The Advent CAL is in design already. There will be 4 to 6 small patterns, each perfect for gifts. Last year I started it before Advent, so it was a pre-Advent CAL!
The Twixmas mandala is also in design. This will run from 26th to 31st December. Something colourful to brighten up our days under the dull skies in the northern hemisphere!
I have been pondering the Blanket CAL. I normally run this in February/March. These are the last ones:
I have started to design a blanket motif for 2021, which is octagonal, but I have far too many blankets and I think that maybe I could do a wrap CAL next spring instead. I have in my head 3 octagonal motifs and a joining motif, and even a border. This wrap would be beautiful in a light yarn such as 4ply/fingering/sock. There would be less work than in a blanket as a wrap will be smaller, despite the lighter yarn and smaller hook. The motifs would be suitable for a blanket as well, and I could do a small lap blanket to demonstrate this in a heavier yarn.
So what do you think? Blanket or Wrap or both? If you have any preferences or views please comment here, on facebook or on Ravelry.
In my last post I told you of my plans to launch 2 new square designs for Granny Square Day. Well Granny Square Day is on Saturday and it wouldn’t be fair to launch them on the same day would it? There will be so many squares to look at then that you won’t have time to make these as well!
So I am launching today. The 2 new squares follow the style of Noughts and Crosses, but are simpler and less textured. I’ve called the new squares Granny OX Square and Granny OXS Square and they are available (free) on Ravelry now. Here they are with Noughts and Crosses:
Granny OXS
Granny OX
One of the things I like with these squares is that you can mix and match the smaller squares. Here’s all 4 small squares in one:
These are such fun to make and I can see more variations of them in future, so look out for more in the series.
Granny Square Day is on Saturday 15th August this year. I have designed 2 new squares very recently, based on Noughts and Crosses. In fact when I designed Noughts and Crosses I had these 2 other ones in mind (and a few more) but never finalised their design. Like Noughts and Crosses they will be free. As Granny Square Day is very close, I decided that would be a perfect time to publish them. So look out for a bog post on 15th August.
Meanwhile I thought I’d share an old CAL I did in 2015 using traditional granny squares – the Spring Lifter Bag. This was a free CAL on my blog in 3 parts – start reading here. If you prefer the easier to read pattern there is a paid version on Ravelry here.
Zingy spring lifter
Will you make a Spring Lifter for Granny Square Day? If you do please share your progress.
During this month (July 2020) Drops has a cotton sale, a generous 40% off cotton and cotton blend yarns until the end of the month. Despite my large stash and my aim to control it better I do give in to temptation from time to time and I have often been tempted to try Drops Bomull-Lin, a linen and cotton blend yarn. Well it’s a cotton blend so it’s in the sale! You’ve guessed – I bought some, rather a lot actually, with a view to making practical gifts. But what to make?
The best thing was to start something straightforward and see how I liked the feel of the yarn. So I decided on a tea towel and before long these dropped off my hook:
The tea towel is perfect for drying glassware as the cotton has absorbency and the linen is good with glass. I had plenty of the brown left so added a simple glass polishing cloth.
These use only chain and double crochet (for US that is single crochet), have an easily memorised pattern and make up quickly. The pattern is written and available on Ravelry here, but use coupon code SUMMERLINEN and you will get it free, valid until end of July (midnight GMT).
There are so many other practical uses for cotton and linen in homeware (this yarn would be good in summer garments as well) and now is the perfect time to use it during the warm weather in the Northern Hemisphere. My thoughts will turn to warmer items in a few months and I have a couple of scarves languishing on the hook waiting for the opportunity. Meanwhile I have a large quantity of linen/cotton yarn in my stash and plenty of summer hooking ideas!
Happy summer crocheting xxx
PS If you are struggling to find the yarn try Purple Sheep Yarns or Woolwarehouse, both based in the UK, I’ve bought Drops from them before and they usually have a good stock. (And no – I’ve not been sponsored by them or paid to mention them!)
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