My latest project: Making a baby blanket

Hello dear Blogfriends,

Thanks for all your lovely comments and your patience, too! I love to welcome a number of new followers, glad to have you here!

As always, I hope you will find some inspirations here!

Since my last blog post quite a few things have happened, and I feel like I should apologize that it has taken me this long for an update. Sorry folks!!!

But you know how it is:

Not all that wander are lost!

One thing was that I went through various tests and the end exams for my Dutch classes....

Another that I had a dental operation on my jaw a week ago and have been slowly recovering from it, it still hurts a lot, though the swelling has gone down a lot.

And last, but also with a lot of impact, our cat Twinkle has gone missing recently which was very much out of character for him since he never ventured outside the house (and he didn't know his surroundings here in Belgium). We have tried everything we could to find him so far, but without success. Twinkle is the brother of Jasper and we had both of them since birth. We are very upset and miss him.

Twinkle

Well, to show you what I have been up to, I decided to break it down a bit. I'm still having computer problems and this makes blogging more difficult. So instead one long catch up post, I will try to do a few more following this one. Promise!!!

Making a baby blanket

This is what I am currently working on, much to my own surprise. A girl in my Dutch class is expecting her first child, she knows it will be a girl. So I spontaneously offered to crochet her a blanket, I hadn't previously thought about it. So I started on Tuesday, 12th May. Initially I said I would do it over the summer, but as I got started, I thought maybe I can do it quicker?

So I started making crochet squares, pink and white ones from Veritas Apilou acrylic yarn.

First I was aiming to make 2 every day, meanwhile I have stepped up to making 5 a day!!!

My initial idea: 5 x 9 squares (a rectangle) - 45

Then I saw that a square blanket might look better

So I adapted my idea to make it 7 x 7 squares (49)

I hope you enjoyed this (long overdue) post. Let me know what you have been working on, I must admit that I seem to have a backlog when it comes to reading blog posts and leaving comments... hopefully things will get better soon!

Please leave me some comments, I love hearing from you all! And to the new followers: How did you find my blog (just curious!!!)

Meanwhile... Happy crocheting and knitting!!!

Quick South Bay Shawlette finished, Harlequin Blanket and Postcards from Antwerp

Hello!

It seems that summer has returned! Yesterday it was around 27 degrees as I went out in the afternoon to go to my knitting/crochet cafe! The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

Here a quick glimpse at my latest finished project - a quick version of the South Bay Shawlette using only one 100g skein of Fenna yarn (a true One Skein Project!).

South Bay Shawlette Neckwarmer quick version (front view)

Thanks for all your lovely comments last time! We had a great visit to England, the weather was fine, just right, maybe a bit cloudy at times, but we also had plenty of sunshine on Saturday. We managed to go out and visit Manchester with the second oldest daughter and my son, who was celebrating his birthday that day!
(He was very pleased with his new scarf and hat set that I gave him as a present - see my previous post! Now my daughter has also requested a scarf for her upcoming birthday!!! Looks like I will be keeping busy!)

I took the camera with me, and quickly snapped this old building in Manchester before we disappeared into the Arndale Shopping Centre. Then I forgot to take many more pictures as we were pretty busy! I noticed later on the way back how many new buildings have sprung up in Manchester, so old buildings like this will soon be gone!

Old Building behind the Arndale Shopping Centre in Manchester, UK

Back to the South Bay Shawlette which I just started on Friday evening, before our England trip. I managed to work quite a bit on it during our long travels and by Monday morning I only had to put on the last fninishing touches to make it complete. First of all, I only used one of the 2 skeins that I had. I knew that for a full size shawl I would have needed more yarn. However, I wanted to see all the lovely colours! What better way than to wear it as a neck scarf with the triangle facing frontwards! Also I wanted this to be different from my previous versions. The shawlette was large enough to fasten with a knot, but I remembered that I had some pretty buttons (that remind me of traffic lights!). I made a test by attaching some buttons with yarn scraps to see how best to fasten them. When I was happy with this, I sewed on 5 buttons along one side, see below.

Adding my 'Traffic Light' Buttons

Checking where to add Tassels

I had slightly more than 11m of yarn left, which I used to make some tassels, trying to mix the colours for each tassel.

The finished Shawlette viewed fastened at the back

This is the Shawlette, to be worn as a neckwarmer. The buttons can be fastened through the pattern loops in a multitude of ways, so quite adaptable! Finished size: approx 76cm wide x 38cm long (43cm including tassels).

I already wore this to my Dutch class on Monday evening and was very happy with it. It looks colourful and pretty! It also kept me warm on my way home late that night when it got a bit chilly!

Below you can see my progress with the Harlequin Blanket, adding new colours with my own 'Rule of 3' - meaning that ideally the last 3 colours should go well together! We'll see how that works out! ;)

Harlequin Blanket 15.09.14

Harlequin Blanket 16.09.14

Close up of the Blanket

Harlequin Blanket 17.09.14

I leave you with a few photos I took yesterday between 5.30 and 7pm.
I will call them Postcards from Antwerp! I am thinking of showing you more of the places around me and I'm hoping that you might be interested? (I just have to remember to pack the camera together with the crochet project before I go out!!!)

Antwerp yesterday around 6pm!

(old) Justitiepalais, Antwerp

Wool Shop Lana, Anselmostraat, Antwerp

Flowers at a square (Ridderveld) in Wilrijk, Antwerp

Route: getting off the tram near the old Justitiepaleis in Britselei (There is a new building now in another location, which looks very modern, you can find a multitude of images here! They couldn't be more different from each other!), walking along the side of it into Anselmostraat, to visit Lana, one of my favourite haunts (such a brilliant Wool and Craft shop, stocking many of my favourite quality yarns, such as Rowan and Noro!), later getting off a bus at Ridderveld, Wilrijk where I saw these pretty flowers! Then walked until I reached my next connecting bus stop and caught the bus home, and continued on my blanket a bit more!

How was your week so far? I feel that I still have many things to catch up on, from washing to catching up on my blog reading, not to mention 3 month's worth of craft/crochet magazines which I brought back with me from England!!!

Please leave me a comment! I love reading each and every one of them (and the magazines can wait after all!). I'm happy to see that more people started to follow my blog which is really kind of you, thanks for taking the time to read it! And don't be shy - write a quick hello! :)

New Harlequin Blanket and an old favourite returns!

Hi everybody!

Since you have been curious about my blanket that I started yesterday, I will do a quick post with some photos to show it here.

But first I want to show off a lucky find today!

Colourful Fenna yarn

Another new WIP: The South Bay Shawlette!

Today I managed to find some gorgeous new Fenna yarn - but there were only 2 balls in the shop!

I just couldn't resist to start with my old favourite - The South Bay Shawlette. The first stitches were just flying off my needles! I just wanted to show you the lovely colours in the yarn. This is what I made this early evening.

Another South Bay Shawlette in the making!

New WIP: Harlequin Blanket

First I practised my stitches. The stitch is also known as Large Catherine Wheel Stitch (using UK treble stitches). Each pattern repeat goes over 12 stitches!
Initially I worked out from my sample that I wanted to do 50 x pattern repeats (12 stitches) = 600 stitches + 2 extra for edges!
So I started chaining and counting!!!!
However, in the end I only needed 480+2 (40 repeats will be more than 2m large!)

The (printable) pattern is here: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yC9ySJTXW3I/SeYIaN9h2FI/AAAAAAAACJ4/b-pXJvzrqPM/s1600-h/Wheel+Shell+Stitch+-+Triple.jpg

You Tube Tutorial


  

My Harlequin Blanket - Here is my quick countdown:

Yesterday midday - 602 chains = 1st row!

Yesterday afternoon - first 2 rows

This morning - starting on the 4th row

This afternoon/now  - starting on the 6th row

Here I laid it out next to each other so to give an idea what the overall pattern will look like. Obviously I will be using a new colour next!

Can you see the Harlequin pattern emerging?

Close-up stitches

Sorry to be so short this time, I must get ready and pack a few bits, we are leaving in the middle of the night. By breakfast time, when you might be reading this, I will be in England already!!! (Needless to say, the above projects are coming with me!)

Have a lovely weekend and please leave me some comments, I look forward to reading them when I return!