Do you remember me raving about King Cole's Bramble yarn a little while ago? It's a lovely, variegated DK weight yarn that I've been working with a lot recently. As well as knitting and crocheting with it, I've found that it's also lovely to weave with.
As I have all the shades of this yarn (of course I do), I decided to use six of them and weave 6" squares on one of my pin looms for yet another blanket. I wove eight squares with each colourway to give me a blanket roughly 3' x 4', not counting the border. For the crochet edging and the border I used my trusty Stylecraft Special DK in one of their newer colours, A Hint of Silver. This is the palest grey and complemented all the colours beautifully; I shall definitely be using it again.
Now I'm not very good at random; I do like to have a bit of order when planning my colours. So, when it came to arranging the finished squares, I started off by trying to work out an ordered system ... then another one ... and then another ... until I finally gave in and just kept changing the squares round until it looked all right.
Not a very good picture but at least you can see all the squares.
I slip stitched the squares together, working through the back loops of the crochet edges with the squares held wrong sides together (try it and see) which gave me a nice flat join on the right side.
The 'wrong' side looks nice too I think.
As ever, working the border took ages - why do I always end up doing this sort of thing in a heatwave? - but I was pleased with it. I often finish blankets with a simple line of holes like this and end with a round of crab stitch.
I love my new blanket. The woven squares make it nice and light and I just love all those colours.
I have trouble finding homes in the house for all the blankets I love to make. At the moment this one is flung over the back of a random chair as I can't bear to pack it away but it's not exactly blanket weather.
My house is even more chaotic than normal at the moment as I'm in the middle of a major re-organisation which involves building work, re-decoration and an awful lot of putting things in boxes. Basically, the things still in the two bedrooms on the top floor of my three storey house (which were the children's rooms) are going to be stored in one of the other rooms in the house so that I can turn one into my new bedroom and the other into a craft room. This is a logistic nightmare as we try to make enough space in one room so that I can paint it, meaning that everywhere else is crammed with stuff.
First on the list (obviously) is what is going to be my craft room. I am so excited about this one. This is what it looks like at the moment.
It may look cluttered but you should have seen it a few months ago.
It's a big room but, as you can see, it's also painted red. It's a lovely colour but my craft room needs to be light and bright so it's got to be re-painted.
There's just space in the room next door to squeeze in those big bookcases and the camp bed; the pile of Christmas decorations boxes in the corner are going up in the attic now that I have a proper new hatch and ladder.
That door is the door of what will be the craft room.
Any guesses on just how long it's going to take someone with Long Covid to paint a room this size? I shall work on it a little at a time; the joy is that I can just shut the door on it in between sessions. As the door has been kept shut on that room for years, the cats aren't entirely sure that it exists. They're going to be so excited when a whole new room suddenly appears on top of the house.
The idea is to assemble all my different crafts and their tools and supplies in this one room, rather than dotting them all over the rest of the house. It's going to be wonderful, even if the thought of planning it is a bit daunting. So far I've decided on white storage - IKEA Kallax of course - and several tables. I'm also considering buying a new backdrop for my photography, one of those portable screens that roll up. I think I shall have to move things gradually, deciding on furniture as I go along.
Just think - a whole craft room full of all the most exciting things I own. I may never come downstairs again.
Lovely blanket! What loom did you use to make it?
ReplyDeleteIt's a nameless 6" square weavette style loom that I bought at a show years ago.. Hazel Rose's makes a multi loom in this size which would be the same.
ReplyDeleteThe edging on your blanket is lovely -- can you elaborate on "I often finish blankets with a simple line of holes like this and end with a round of crab stitch" ?? Congratulations on creating a CRAFT ROOM! I am so envious -- yours is going to be lovely. Karen Hoyer aka harlanknits on Ravelry.
ReplyDeleteFor the edging I worked a round of half treble crochet (UK terms) with 2htr, 2ch, 2htr in the corners. The corners are always 2 sts, 2ch, 2sts.Then I worked 1htr, miss 1, 1ch all the way round to create the holes. You need an even number of stitches for this to work but you can always cheat a bit if they don't come out even. Once I'd made the holes I worked a round in double crochet, working two stitches into each hole and then finished off with a round of crab stitch (backwards dc), working into every other stitch with 1 ch after each stitch. I hope that makes sense.
DeleteThe room will be so lovely when finished. I love the fireplace there, too—even if it’s not working it will make the room even cosier when working on projects there :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, I particularly like this fireplace. There's an identical one in the room next door to it and bigger versions in the two rooms on the middle floor. I still have the fireplaces on the ground floor but they're not the original Victorian ones. I use the one in the front room regularly though and it's lovely.
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