The Geometric rainbow granny square blanket

Inspiration comes from many places, and as I've mentioned previously, I use Pintrest and Instagram regularly to come up with new ideas. I had decided that I wanted to make something involving a rainbow colour scheme. This design was inspired by a cross stitch pattern, but my crocheters eye just saw granny squares!

The classic granny square is such a simple yet beautiful thing to make. It was the first pattern I mastered as a novice crocheter. I sat and happily produced square after pretty square for this project, enjoying the colours and ease of the task.

With such a lot of colour changes it was important to be very disciplined and I made sure to sew in the ends on each square before starting the next. Theres nothing worse than coming to the end of a project and having to spend hours with a darning needle. If its done as the squares are made it is a very quick task.

The piles in my basket grew steadily. There were 64 in total to make an 8 x 8 square blanket.

 It wasn't too long before they were all made and ready to join. I laid them all out in formation on my kitchen table so I could organise them into the correct order for joining.

I like to use the 'Continuous join as you go' method to join my squares, there is a good tutorial for it here by The Patchwork Heart. I joined the squares in white to really allow the colours to steal the show on this blanket.

Its a very quick method of joining and before long I was considering which border would finish it off nicely

I decided upon rows of half treble crochet (uk terms) in each colour in rainbow order. The blanket had reached a good size at this point and it took a while to complete each round

After a few hours of work I was finally onto the last round in red

I love how tight and neat this border looks, yet it was so simple to do while watching the children or tv.

Then it was finished! A quick wash and a spell on the line completed the project. The border did curl slightly, so I gave it a little steam treatment with the iron to get it laying flat and beautiful

These colours make me so happy! I love that the simple, classic granny square can be used in such a way to make a modern, bright and cheerful blanket. It just needs to find a new home now and is currently for sale in my Esty shop: Here

Thanks for stopping by

Berni x

The Glitz Virus Shawl

Hello everyone

Another pattern that is constantly doing the rounds on Facebook, Pintrest and Instagram is the Virus Shawl. It is apparently called this because, like a virus, it is catching! It's actually a quite nice virus to catch and I thoroughly embraced the experience.

When I ordered my Ice yan for the 12 pointed star blanket (see below) I ordered another batch called 'Magic Glitz' in shades of turquoise.

This is another variegated/ self striping yarn, with a fine silver thread running through it to create a glittery effect. I chose this yarn with my Mother in Law in mind, as her birthday is in July and I knew this would make a lovely gift for her.

As with most of the patterns I choose to make, this one has a written pattern Here and a series of YouTube video's

The tutuorial was very easy to follow and I soon had the hang of it. Although it looks complicated, it only uses a couple of stitches and the pattern repeats every forth row, so it was quite easy to master quickly.

I chose to use my 5mm hook for this one, just to keep it nice and loose and allow the yarn to 'drape'

It's really quite nice to use this self-striping yarn too, as theres no colour changing involved and no ends to sew in. It worked up really fast and I was soon onto the border.

I decided to go with this one, in Stylecraft in Empire- a gorgeous dark turquoise that complimented the Ice Yarn beautifully.

Then it was done! Ta Da!

It's pictured here on my double bed, so you can see just how big it is. I completed 14 pattern repeats as I wanted to make sure it would have plenty of size to wrap around my Mother In Law's shoulders and keep her warm. This pattern can be done smaller to make a nice wrap around scarf too.

It made a wonderful gift and I'm so pleased with the finished result. It wont be the last one I make and I keep looking out for more suitable yarn for my next go. 

Thank you for stopping by
Berni x