Tag Archives: blanket

My blanket for Crochet For Kidneys Part 4

21 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, My crochet, My ramblings, Part 4

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We have one blanket for CFK4!

I just love granny squares! Just look at them!

I started the blanket on the weekend that I launched CFK4, and finished it yesterday. How super quick was that? Nothing beats a simple granny square for speedy blanket making or for a super fun time playing with colour combinations.

For the border, I used Border 138 from Around the Corner Crochet Borders book. It’s a striking border with a slightly raised ridge and very easy to do: just three rows of (UK) double trebles / (US) trebles, but on the second and the third rounds you work around the posts of the stitches in the previous round from the back. If each round is done in a different colour – in my case turquoise, grey and finally navy – it gives an really interesting effect.

I don’t know about you about I always place my darkest shade at the very edge of my border. I think a dark colour on the outermost edge pulls everything together.

The nitty gritty of my Blue Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 blanket:

  • Pattern: Traditional 6-round granny square, the last round of which is a different colour, arranged as 9 rows of 7 squares per row.
  • Yarn: Various DK acrylic yarns in shades of blue and a silver grey
  • Hook: 4 mm
  • Joining method: My Rose Valley’s Join-as-you-go method.
  • Border: Border #138 from Around The Corner Crochet Borders
  • Finished size with border: 135 cm x 97 cm

I am relieved that I’ve done my blankety bit for CFK4. Even if no-one else sends me a blanket for the kidney dialysis patients I know there’ll be at least one that I can hand over to the nurses at the Royal London Hospital.

I’m going to make one more blanket like this, but in shades of pink. Wouldn’t that look nice?

Before I start the pink blanket though I think I want to finish my Marie Wallin Rose top first – especially as it looks like Summer has finally arrived in the UK. Warm sunny days are not the best time to work on a blanket!

If you’re working on a CFK4 blanket, thanks! If you haven’t started yet, maybe you could consider making a blanket – it’s a great way to use up your stash and you’re make a comforting blanket for someone going through very unpleasant kidney dialysis.

All the detail on Crochet For Kidneys Part 4 can be found in this blog post.

It was all worth it

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Crochet For Kidneys, Part 1

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What a blessed afternoon we had! John is back from his yearly check-up at the Royal London Hospital and has dropped off the five blankets. He took the blankets to the dialysis unit where two of the nurses helped him give the blankets to two of the poorly folk who needed it most. The nurses will give the remaining three blankets, and the other two that I will be sending by post, to the other patients when they are in the dialysis unit again.

John and I are both so happy that the blankets would be used where it is most needed – right there in the very cold dialysis unit of the hospital where John & Pieter’s kidney transplant took place. We were told that blankets couldn’t be given out to people in the dialysis unit of a hospital due to the health & safety issues and hygiene. The plan was that the blankets would go to those who go through dialysis at home, but this way is so much better. The patients who receive our crocheted blankets would keep their blankets at home and only bring it in to the unit when they come for their dialysis sessions. No hygiene or health & safety issues! Yeah!

I am now even more fired up to start Crochet for Kidneys Part 2! Today we saw what a difference those loving made blankets have made, and that’s what counts. In total seven people will receive something useful and tangible that will bring them comfort and hope.

To quote what John wrote on the twoguysonekidney blog:

I had the pleasure of personally handing over two of the blankets to two very happy and amazed people. They were so pleasantly surprised that a complete stranger would come and hand over such a lovely gift to them. And that’s exactly why we decided to do it. We’re all connected, and we’re all a part of God (not apart from God) so what we do for others, we also do for ourselves.

Atlantic Waves ripple blanket Ta-daaaah!

08 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by in My crochet, Ta-daah!

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Ooo, wee this ta-daaah post has been a very long time coming. It’s been a draft post since February 2013! Shock horror. Hopefully you will understand why I have been hanging on to this one for so long, when you hear my excuse reasoning.

You see, the Atlantic Waves ripple blanket is inspired by the sea and made for someone who loves the sea. Hence, it is only fitting that I should photograph it on a beach of some sort. Seeing as the English weather have been grey and cold for, what feels like, a million years, I couldn’t go to the beach to photograph the blanket.

Luckily I have been on a South African holiday for a week…. my family is from Cape Town which means we are surrounded by water and encased in blue skies and sunshine…. and the recipient of the blanket is my Dad…. so I managed to finally take the photos just a few days ago!

There’s just a slight problem. My Dad and I went on a roadtrip to Cape Agulhas (where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet) on Wednesday morning. We drove the whole day and was only just able to catch the last rays of sun at the southern most point of Africa.

That meant that the next day had to be the day of The Seaside Photoshoot. That was also the one day out of my 10-day holiday that it rained. It basically looked like Britain. Gggggrrrrr. Hey-ho, my Dad and I now have a good story to tell about The Wet And Windy Photoshoot. Here you can see me, wind-swept and wet taking photos of his blanket. Oh the things you do in the name of crochet!

IMG_1282

More about the blanket.

Almost everyone that crochets knows Lucy of Attic 24’s easy ripple blanket. Lovely at it is, I didn’t want to make a Lucy ripple, but I did want to make a ripple. The term “ripple” or “wave pattern” always evoke images of water, the sea, waves breaking and water receding against a shoreline to me. It just felt right that I should use this pattern for my Dad’s blanket seeing as he loves the ocean and he loves blue. 

I wanted my ripple / wave pattern to be a little different and special, with texture and lots of interest. I paged through the Crochet Visual Encyclopedia and immediately fell in love with this pattern.

Atlantic wave crochet pattern

Guess what this ripple pattern is called. Atlantic Wave! The perfect pattern for my sea theme ripple blanket! The raised Fpdc adds the texture I was looking for and enhances the 3D effect of my dark to light to dark colour sequence. (It amazes me that they used a green yarn to demonstrate a sea themed pattern… strange don’t you think?)

To strengthen the sea inspiration, I used shades of blue ranging from navy to powder blue, and cream. I didn’t want the cream and navy to be next to each other as the colour contrast would draw too much attention, so I decided to go from dark to light and back to dark etc. That way I get a beautiful colour rhythm, gradual colour changes and a 3D optical illusion.

In my mind the cream is the sea foam and the blues represent the ocean as it changes from light blue just behind the sea foam, to navy at the horizon.

So here are the photos of my Atlantica Waves ripple blanket, taken with the Atlantic Ocean in the background!

Atlantic waves ripple crochet blanket

crochet ripple blanket

ripple crochet blanket

I think this ta-daaah post was worth the wait. Nevermind the wet, stringy hair and cold feet.

The nitty gritty of the Atlantic Waves ripple blanket:

  • Pattern: Atlantic Waves by Robyn Chacula
  • Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in Midnight, Royal, Aster, Cloud Blue, Cream
  • Crochet hook: 5 mm
  • Border: No. 39 from Around The Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman. It was the perfect border for this blanket – it even has a Treble, just like the ripple pattern!

Atlantic waves ripple crochet blanket

The blanket is now safe and sound (and out of the rain) on my Dad’s bed. Just in time for the South African Winter.

Dear Husband and my Dad really like the blanket. John like it so much that he actually tried to get me to not give it to my Dad: “He doesn’t know he’s getting the blanket. It could just stay here with me.” He really enjoyed “test driving” the blanket again and again and again 😉 It’s obvious that John would like his own blanket….. bring on Autumn 2013 – I’ll be hooking my husband a blanket. I already have a pattern in mind. As you do.

Crochet on TV (The Big Bang Theory)

01 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in As seen on TV, Other people's crochet

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It’s been a while since I’ve spotted any crochet on TV. In fact, I still haven’t seen any crochet since my last post. Where do the images in this post from Big Bang Season 5 Episode 18 come from then, you may ask.

They were taken by my dear Hubby. He was watching Big Bang in his Man Cave, while I was crocheting in my usual spot on the couch, watching Desperate Housewives. (He has been known to say things like “I can feel brain cells dying” when he is unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of Gabby/Bree/Susan/Lynette fretting over missing dead bodies/poisoned brownies/run-over PTA members).

He may be waaaay to cool for Desperate Housewives, but luckily not so cool that he wouldn’t take a photo of a granny square afghan for his crochet mad wife.  Love you Hubby ♥. 

But enough gushing for now, back to the hooking.

My very first “Spotted on TV!” post was about this very afghan in Amy’s apartment. You can see it here. These photos however give us a much better picture. It looks like the afghan is made up of 4-round granny squares, with the fourth round of each square in the traditional black. 

Usually the squares for an afghan made up of different colour combinations, are put together very randomly, but here the red-and-black squares are grouped together in clusters throughout the blanket. I can see at least three clusters of red-and-black squares. There’s also a diagonal line of white-and-blue squares. I can’t decide whether I like these groupings or not…. I wonder whether this was intentional? What do you think?

No matter whether you like the placement of the squares or not, no-one can deny that Sheldon looks so sweet and comfy under his blanky. Covered with a granny square afghan is like getting a hug from, well, your granny. Got to love it!

Terrific Tuesday

28 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Etsy, My ramblings, Terrific Tuesdays

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On a Monday I can still remember the fun I had over the weekend, Wednesday is the middle of the work week, on Thursday I start getting hopeful and on a Friday I can taste the weekend. But what about a Tuesday? It’s so…. just there. Weekend memories are too far away and the upcoming weekend might as well be a year away.

What we need is a bit of colourful inspiration to get us going on a Tuesday, don’t you think? A pretty picture, beautiful scenery or colourful imagery. Yup, that’ll liven up Tuesdays and turn it into a terrific day!

From now on I will go through my photos and Pinterest likes every Tuesday and find us a pretty picture to add colour and joy to the day.

xxxxxx

Source: etsy.com via Natasja on Pinterest

 

I love everything about this image. The granny square fabric covered mannequin (which you can buy  here, on CorsetLacedMannequin’s Etsy shop), the sky blue chair, the white wood panelling, the mirror, the Attic24 style hexagon blanket: everything is gorgeous!

Surely this is enough to turn Tuesday into Terrific Tuesday.

Have a good one!

Natasja

 

Three to go

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Etsy, My crochet

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Nevermind cats & dogs, it’s raining zebras & elephants here this afternoon. Pouring down!

I will be braving the waters to post a baby blanket that was bought on Folksy yesterday.  (Yeah! I love getting sales!) Somewhere in Wales there’s a baby boy waiting for his blanky, so off to the post office I will go.

After last night’s sale I now only have these three blankets left over in my Etsy shop.  If you click on the photo it will take you straight to the blankets section of my shop.

Off I go. Umbrella in hand through the raging waters. Okay, it’s not that bad, but it’s still wet.  I think I’ll have to pop into Costa for an Earl Grey with soy milk on my way back from the post office. Right?

 

According to Matt (and Dennis)

13 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Other people's crochet

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What do you think of this?

Isn’t it divine?! The colours, the design, the tassels! This proves once again that you just can’t go wrong with a granny square. It also proves that guys can hook. Yup, the blanket was crocheted by a bloke: Matt of the blog AccordingToMatt.

AccordingToMatt is written by Matt Farci and Dennis Marquez of Hamburg, Germany. The two of them make the most beautiful things and the photos on their blog are absolutely gorgeous. In fact, it was through their Instagram photo feed that I found the blog.

It’s not all crochet though. Dennis has recently gone over to The Dark Side by venturing into the murky waters of knitting. Shock. Horror. However, he’s so good at it that even I will be following his progress.

I really love AccordingToMatt. Not because it’s two guys. No, it’s because the blog is written in such a nice, informal, chat-around-the-kitchentable style and their photos are stunning. Go have a look. There’s a link to AccordingToMatt on my blog roll on the right of this page. You won’t be sorry. Promise!

Crochet on TV (The Middle)

12 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in As seen on TV, Pattern

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A few weeks ago in The Middle Season 3, episode 12 I fell in love with yet another crochet afghan. This show really is a treasure trove of crochet blankets!

I love the zigzag, retro, colourful look of the blanket on Sue’s bed.

I’ve been searching high and low for something even remotely close to this zig zag pattern and today I found it in Robyn Chachula’s Crochet Visual Encyclopedia. I paged through the book in my local Waterstones during my lunch break. When I saw it, I almost screamed out loud – on the inside I was punching the air. 🙂 I had a feeling that a stitch dictionary / encyclopedia would contain the stitch and it did! I then, very sneakily, tried to take a picture of the page so that I could post it on the blog for you. I returned  ran back to the office, eager to download the photo from my camera phone only to find it wasn’t there! Covert operations are obviously not my forte….

But fear not ye hookers, the Gods of Crochet were on my side: a quick Google search produced the exact pattern, and more!

This link takes you to the US Amazon page for the Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia. The bonus is that at the bottom of the page, there are sample patterns for you to try, and it includes “Malawi” which I think is the closest match to Sue’s blanket!!! How cool is that!?

I’m also going to update my post of 22 December to include a link to the “Double Crochet Track Seam” and  “Chain Space Seam” sample patterns, as more ways to join the grannies like in the Dooms Day Killer’s victim’s  blanket.

In the same episode of The Middle, Mike is sitting under a grey and red crochet afghan. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to locate the stitch used in this one. In my defence, the blanket doesn’t appear for very long so I can’t get a very good look at it. If however you think you know what pattern they used, please let me know!

I think I’ll have to invest in the Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia in the very near future (it really is a brilliant book!). Covert phone operations and Google searches won’t snip the mustard yarn* for much longer….

*my crochet version of “cut the mustard”

Identity Crisis blanket Ta Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

07 Saturday Jan 2012

Posted by in My crochet, My ramblings, Pattern, Ta-daah!

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It’s a long “dah” today, but that’s because it’s proportional to length of time it took me to finish this bad boy*. To wit, 2 years, 1 month, 25 days in the making. Or to put it differently, 785 days / 67,824,000 seconds / 1,130,400 minutes / 18,840 hours / 112 weeks.  (*The link takes you to the post that explains where I got the name Idenity Crisis from. You’ll see… It makes perfect sense.)

To be fair I couldn’t work on it, or should I say “under it”, during the Summer and it a very big blanket. The point is: I finished it and I’m proud of it!

Blanket statistics are as follows:

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK. I think I used roughly 5 skeins of each colour, but it may be more.

Colours: Plum (maroon), Meadow (green), Denim (dark blue), Parchment (off-white), Cloud Blue (light blue) and Mocha (brown).

Blanket pattern: Spicey Delights by Lionbrand yarns

Border pattern: Border #112

Layout: 72 rows of stripes, one row of 21 4-round granny squares, 20 rows of stripes, one row of 21 4-round granny squares, 20 rows of stripes, one row of 21 4-round granny squares and a final 72 rows of stripes.

This is where it all started. I took this photo on 21 November 2009 – one day after starting the blanket. I can hardly believe the blanket was ever this small!

It hasn’t always been an enjoyable journey though… Here is what I wrote in the Notes of this project on my Ravelry page.

I’m making this afghan to match the Granny and Grandpa square cushions in our bedroom. I had to promise hubby that I won’t use any pink, but that’s a small price to pay to get my hooky way 🙂

I’m using Biscuit and Jam’s Random Stripe Generator. What an amazing tool!!!

31 December 09: I am really getting tired of working on this ginormous blanket. The only thing keeping me going is seeing how it changes as I add more stripes. Thank goodness for the stripe generator!

5 January 2010: I’m starting to resent this blanket cause it just doesn’t want to get bigger even though I already have 72 rows! I hook and hook and hook and it still looks like a really big scarf.

29 May 2010: I’m starting the blanket again, but I’ll be doing 4 round granny squares for the middle section.

30 August 2011: I’m baaaack….

31 December 2011: All rows are finished and the blanket is the size I wanted. Weaving in of the ends and edging left to do.

1 January 2012: All the ends are woven in.

2 January 2012: Added Around the Corner Crochet Border # 112, and I’m done, finish, kaput! 20 November 2009 – 2 January 2012 in the making.

It was all worth it in the end though. Here’s why.


Thank goodness we have only one double bed in our home, otherwise I might just be tempted to make another huge blanket because, all things considered, I would do it again.

Crochet in the movies (Smurfs)

06 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in As seen on TV, Other people's crochet

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In the latest Smurfs 3D movie there is a crochet afghan and a circular tablecloth in the livingroom. Have you seen? Isn’t the blanket just totally amaaaaazing?!

The blanket definitely has a distinct Babette blanket look to it. You can recreate it with the free Babette pattern on Interweave’s website.

If you don’t feel like crocheting the blanket, you can buy the blanket here. The link comes from a comment by Regina Graves, who was the set designer for the movie, on the Knit One Knit Two blog, so you know it’s the real deal.

As for the circular tablecloth, try Crocheting with Raymond’s pattern for a circular granny mandala and just keep on going until it’s the right size. To get the shabby look like in the movie, use a too big hook for your yarn, for instance a no. 6 with DK, or a no.4 with fingering, that way it will be very open and drape nicely. When you’re done crocheting the circle, add pompoms. Sarah London recently blogged about her pompoms here.

So there you have it – you can buy or recreate the blanket and you can recreate the tablecloth as used in a Smurfs movie.

Who would have thought that the Smurfs and crochet would ever be mentioned in the same sentence?!