Coast Ripple Blanket #5

The Ripple blanket has come back out to play after last being worked on about four years ago. This is what it looked like when I put it away to do some shinier, newer projects.

And this is what it looks like now.  I haven’t got much done, only 9 rows but I’d forgotten just how lovely and soft the Stylecraft DK is to work with. As it’s a simple pattern, I can do this while watching TV so I’m hoping to get it done fairly soon, and then I may do a smaller project or two, or I may carry on with Arizona and get that finished.

Last week I spent some time tidying and adding my yarn to Ravelry. I do have rather a lot, and my yarn boxes and drawers are full. Very full. I decided that I really needed to use a lot of it up before buying any more. So, no more trips to Aldi when the craft stuff is in, and definitely no more projects being started until the existing WIPs are complete.

Guess how long that resolve lasted? Right up until we went into Aldi for grocery shopping and found yarn there. Ok, so I only bought three packs, but one of them was such a good match to my winter coat, that I made a scarf in it. It’s a lovely squishy, chunky yarn and I decided to use Waffle stitch to make a textured scarf that’d be fairly stiff. The yarn is So Crafty Knit & Purl baby yarn and there were 4 100g balls in the pack. Just the right amount to make a scarf that can be worn like this. It’s incredibly warm, soft and snuggly so will be perfect for next winter.

A close up of the waffle stitch. The yarn was lovely to work with. I’d describe it as a chenille. No splitting and it flowed off the hook. It’d be great for making something like a loose cardi or jacket, instead of living in fleeces all the time.

Hopefully I’ll get back to the ripple now and have some decent progress to show soon.

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The poncho is finished!

Hooray, it’s finally done. This seems to have taken ages for such a quick, simple item. I finished the crocheting over a month ago but have been making pompoms for the edge. I had to stop making them after the first ten as when I was tightening the yarn round the pompom, it was cutting into my little fingers. I was trying to find a solution to that when I realised that if there were pompoms all around the edge, they’d stick in my back when I sat down.

So, I made a braid, threaded it through the top row of granny stitches and stuck a couple of pompoms on the end. I’m quite chuffed with the result.

The pattern is called Cowl neck poncho and is by Simone Francis, bought on Ravelry. I used Kirkland aran yarn, bought at Aldi.

 

It’s so weird crocheting big things!

I got so used to making those little hats that all my crochet WIPs feel enormous. I’ve got three things on the go at the moment, and by ‘on the go’ I mean that I started them and abandoned them for other projects.

I’ve got lots of lovely things planned to crochet but I intend to finish these three items first and now that I’ve said it here, I’ll have to do it LOL

The oldest of the three is a ripple blanket designed by Lucy. I made a decent enough start on it but put it away for the summer as it was too hot on my legs. Yeah, and that decision had nothing to do with wanting to start a CAL…

This is what it looked like last time I saw it in April 2016.
After finishing the two CAL blankets and a temperature blanket, which slipped in there somehow, I started a new blanket instead of going back to the ripple. The new one is gorgeous and completely seduced me so I make no apologies for it.

I was getting on quite well with it but found it was too large and needed too much concentration to take along to Craft Club at work, so I started a smaller project and never went back to Arizona.

This is what Arizona looked like when it was abandoned in May 2018. I really do want to get back to it as I was loving learning all the different techniques and stitches. The colour scheme is so striking too.

First though, I’m going to finish the smaller project that Arizona was abandoned for. I’d decided that I really needed a poncho to wear around the house in the winter. I dislike wearing anything too bulky or close-fitting and a poncho is easy to fling off while still being cosy. I had a pattern and a huge stash of the perfect aran yarn, due to going a bit mad in Aldi whenever they have craft stuff in. It’s a simple granny stitch so is great for doing while chatting or watching TV.

This is what it looks like at the moment.

Once it’s long enough, it’s supposed to have a fringe but I’m thinking about going wild and putting pompoms on the bottom instead. Any thoughts? Too tempting for the kitties perhaps? LOL

The big knit

I’ve finished making little hats and have delivered them to my local Age UK store. Look how many I made!

I’m really chuffed with how many I got done and I’ve really enjoyed making them. The last lot were all just more bobble hats, sun hats etc, so rather than showing you them, I thought I’d do a round up of the lot.

There were 7 ducks

18 elephants 4 fantasy creatures 12 assorted creatures including a few mystery creatures 😉 There were 49 sun hats

And 114 bobble hats, (one if which snuck into the sun hat photo).

The grand total was 204 which I’m rather chuffed with, especially as I was originally aiming for 50. I’m very keen to crochet something a bit bigger now though. I just need to pick which of my WIPs I carry on with. Definitely no new starts until they’re finished.

The big knit

My oddments bag is now empty. The only yarn left over from other projects now is all full balls. My yarn drawers look so much tidier.

I made lots of plain hats to use up the scraps, but had a brainwave and did the bobbles with two colours, which I think looks really nice. It’s also faster to make them. I fancied making some bluebells. I’m not sure if they look like actual bluebells but they’re blue and bell shaped and I even tried making a leaf for one of them. A couple more bobble hats made their way into the photo too.

Those took my total up to 150!

I needed to use the last few oddments so I made more bobble hats. I also made a start on the remaining Poundland yarn.Next I thought I’d make a few more assorted sun hats. That brings the grand total to ummmm, 183? I’m scheduling this post a couple of weeks in advance, so I reckon I can get to 200 before the deadline, and then I can get back to some of my other crochet projects.

The big knit

I finally got around to using some of the lovely new variegated yarn from the Poundshop. It’s so pretty! And, I got eleven hats out of one ball. At one point I got a bit quackers. There are some assorted hats, some using variegated yarn, but mostly using up more oddments. I’m really pleased with the orange/blue stripey one. The problem with doing stripes when you’re working in a spiral, is that the joins look really odd. I had an idea that if I had two colours going at the same time, with both going round in a spiral, it’d look better, and it does. It was quite fiddly to do though.

Finally, I was so chuffed at getting so many hats done that I went a bit bananas… I made that up as I went along. It was easy enough, it just took a little longer than a simple hat. I liked the little stem that I put on the top and thought it could turn a frilly hat into a bellflower so I made some of those too.

I think that’s another 33 hats and the oddments bag is almost empty. Just a bit more to use up and then back onto Poundland yarns.

The big knit

I’ve made another thirty hats for the Innocent Smoothies Big Knit, taking my total up to one hundred!

I’ve been concentrating on using up odd part-balls of yarn left over from blanket making so the latest batch look a bit samey.

The first ten are elephants again. I made mostly two-tone ones this time.

The next ten are a mix of different pompom hats. And so are the next ten, still using up oddments. I love that variegated yarn for making pompoms. It brightens up the more boring colour hats very nicely indeed.

So, I said I wanted to do 100 hats and I’ve got there. I’ve still got time to do more though so the aim now is to finish using all the oddments and then see how much of that pretty Poundland yarn I can get through before the deadline.

The big knit

I’ve been very busy with my little hats recently. I’m getting quite fast at making simple bobble hats and have been mostly concentrating on those. I’ve used some lovely yarn from the pound shop. It was on offer at three for £2 so I ended up buying six balls. There’s a sparkly white one, a pastel variegated and a slightly brighter one. There’s also a very bright variegated one with a short colour-change that makes great bobbles.

I made a couple of creatures. I made them up as I went along so we’re calling them fantasy creatures as they don’t resemble anything real.

I made a couple more sun hats.

Most of these are one of the pretty variegated yarns. It makes lovely striped hats without having to change yarns. The other is the brighter one.

This is mostly the more pastel variegated yarn. I used the sparkly white one for the bobbles and I think they look pretty.

That’s another twenty for the collection taking my total up to seventy. I should have no problem getting to one hundred at this rate.

I’ve been back to the Pound shop since making these to get more yarn as I’d run out of two of the variegated ones. I got a nice dusty pink and a sparkly purple one too.

I also found another variegated one at a different pound shop, which I haven’t photographed but you’ll see made up very soon.

The big knit

I’ve been busy crocheting little hats again and have quite a few to show you. I thought I’d do a few more simple hats, as they all raise the same amount of money, regardless of whether they take 30 mins to do or several hours.

This is the first batch that I did. I really must stop using the coloured googly eyes. The black ones look fine but the pink, yellow and green ones look quite creepy!

I saw on The Big Knit Facebook page that some people had found multi-coloured yarn at Poundland and thought it’d make a nice change to do some really brightly coloured ones. I found the yarn ok in our local store but as it was on offer at 3 for £2, I got a couple of the other colours. Then I spotted another colour that I wanted so ended up with six balls in the end LOL

There were three multi-coloured ones, a really bright one with a very short colour-change, which made a nice sun hat. (I’m thinking it’d make a nice psychedelic elephant!) There are two pastel ones with a longer colour-change. I took one of them with me to the Craft Group meeting at work and made a few bobble hats plus another elephant. The bright yarn makes lovely bobbles! Ruth brought along one that she’d made to add to my collection. Isn’t it pretty! I made another octopus. I may make more. They’re quick, easy and fun to do. I got a booklet in a crochet magazine that had patterns in to make egg cosies. They’d come out way too big if I followed the patterns exactly as they’re in 4-ply and I’m using DK, but with a bit of adapting, I managed to make a dragon. He’s a punk dragon!

I also made a unicorn. One of the Poundland yarns was a white with sparkle which screamed Unicorn at me. I used the other colour-change yarn to do his mane and tummy.

That brings the total up to 50, so halfway to my target.

The big knit

And there are more! I downloaded some more patterns from Jo’s Big Knit and had fun making some of them. There are several crochet patterns there but mostly they’re knitted ones. I found enough crochet ones to keep me out of mischief for a while though.

I liked the pig, especially his wiggly tail. The sunhat is one of my ‘make it up as I go along ones’. I did a rabbit and a rat. I couldn’t fathom out the instructions for the rabbit’s ears so I made my own. They both have tails, one a pompom and one a long thin one. I loved the frog pattern and the octopus was fun to do as well. I may make more of them at some point. I did a few more bobble hats. They’re quick and easy and are good for using up the last bits of a ball of yarn. I’ve finally got a pompom maker so I can do matching bobbles! Then I thought I’d try the elephant pattern. I really liked that one and may have got a bit carried away. Aren’t they cute!? I may make more elephants. I’m wondering how many different colours I can make LOL

These little hats are great to keep my hands occupied while I’m watching TV and don’t take long to make. I may get back to other crochet projects at some point but at the moment I’m having far too much fun with these.