The Giraffe Blanket and Comforter

I came across a style of blanket I'd never heard of before while browsing various pages on Facebook and Pintrest- and I knew straight away that I had to try it. It's called a Graphgan- an Afghan made from a graph to produce a pattern or picture.
With further research I discovered that people were producing the graphs from Pearler bead patterns found on Pintrest. From what I understand, Pearler beads are a creative kit for kids to make pictures with and I believe they heat them up with an iron to fix the beads in place (correct me please if I'm wrong!)

While browsing through these patterns - I love Pintrest and could browse for hours!- I came across a lovely simple design for a baby giraffe and I knew it would be perfect for my first graphgan project.
The only problem was who to make it for? This was quickly solved when my good friend and childminder announced that she was pregnant.

There are several ways to make a graphgan, the corner to corner method is very popular, but due to the simplicity of this design I decided to make solid granny squares and stitch them together. I traced out my graph onto squared paper and worked out just how many squares would be required in each colour. Now this is just a basic design of 13 x 16, but that still totals 208 - not a number to be sniffed at.

To keep me from getting too bored I decided make a row at a time and stitch them together. The stitching was quite fiddly until I got the hang of it- I've mentioned before that I'm not as good with a needle as I am with a hook.

To keep me sane I did work on other projects between making these little squares, but the blanket steadily grew.

Then before I knew it, it was finished! Next comes the border- I found this lovely design in a book by Jan Eaton that I borrowed from the library- its called shell and lattice edging. Before the blanket part was finished my friend had announced that she is having a little girl, so I knew straight away the border would be pink.

Now, as with the corner to corner blanket I recently made, I felt it needed a little something extra to make it a complete gift. I didn't fancy a hat this time (and baby is due in June) so I decided to try a comforter instead. I found the pattern for this one on ravelry and managed to make all its limbs in just one evening.

I sewed it together and voila! all done :)

Earlier today I attended my friend's baby shower and presented her with my gift for her daughter to be. She was very pleased with it and my warm and fuzzy feeling is here again.

Berni x

The Easter Bonnet

At the beginning of term my son came home from Preschool with a newsletter detailing all the activities for the next couple of months. I diligently wrote all the events down on our calendar and subsequently forgot all about them. Luckily a week before the event the preschool sent home a reminder that they were having an Easter parade and activities day on the Monday before the end of term- and that each child would require a handmade Easter Bonnet.

During some moment of madness and over-ambitious appraisal of my own skills I decided to put myself forward for the title of "Crafty mum that took it too far" and crochet the items for his Easter Bonnet. With one week to go.

I started with the eggs. This was my first go at 'amigurumi' The Japanese art of creating stuffed toys or objects with crochet or knitting. I followed some tutorials on YouTube and within an evening I had created 4 small eggs. There's something very satisfying about getting it right first time and my confidence lead me to start searching for more Easter related patterns.

Next came the bunnies- these are so cute and still quite simple to make. After the first one was born from my hook it was immediately claimed by my son who has a penchant for the furry lop-eared creatures. It wasn't easy to remove it from him to attach it to the hat! The finishing touch on the bunnies was the little pom pom tail!

After this I just went a little mad, I made chicks, daffodils, more eggs, flowers and a chick applique. I was constantly wondering if I had enough, then just making a couple more to be sure. I even managed a couple of baskets to hold a Cadbury's Crème Egg each!

The hat was actually purchased from Home Bargains for the grand sum of 99p, I'd decided from quite early on that I wasn't going to crochet the hat too- far too much work on top of what I was already doing and I was working to a deadline.

The most fiddly and difficult part of the whole project was sewing everything on. I've said before that sewing isn't my thing, and I spent my whole Sunday evening before the parade cursing and swearing and sucking on my poor injured fingers every time I stabbed myself with the sodding needle. I had to leave the egg baskets off in the end as they were just too heavy, the rim of the hat kept collapsing under their weight.

The next morning I anticipated my sons reaction to the hat like a child waiting for Christmas morning. I imagined him squealing with excitement that he would get to be the one in the best hat, parading it around for everyone to see. Unfortunately I am not the mother of such a child and "I not want hat- Get it off" was not the reaction I had hoped for.
Luckily once the other children started the parade with their own hats, he decided he would quite like to join in.

Maybe when he's older (and has worn the hat to every parade for the next five years) he will appreciate just how much work went into it. Maybe :)

Berni xxx

Baby blue corner to corner

For a while I've been wanting to try a corner to corner blanket. It's naming comes from the fact that you start your stitches in one corner and increase its size to the desired width. Then you decrease each row until you end up at the opposite corner. It produces a lovely diagonal striped affect which can be created by changing colours or by using variegated yarn.

Some good friends of ours are due a baby boy at the end of March, so this was the perfect opportunity to create them a gift for his impending arrival. I have to admit that I chose my colours based on what I had in my stash. Stylecraft comes in many shades of blue and I chose these 7 as I felt they complimented each other: Aster, Cloud Blue, Denim, Sherbet, Storm blue, Petrol and Turquoise.

 

The pattern works up reasonably quickly and before long I was considering the border. I cannot claim any credit for the design as it was the creation of a lady called Heather over at The Patchwork heart blog. She calls it geometric edging to compliment the mathematical nature of this blankets design. Here's a link to her instructions: The Patchwork Heart Corner to Corner.

Once the blanket was complete I felt it needed a little something extra to make it a suitable gift, so I whipped up a little newborn sized hat to match. I love how quick and easy these are to make and was able to finish it while my own little one had a nap. I used the same colours as the border of the blanket- Storm Blue, Turquoise and Sherbet.

 

The finishing touch was one of my new labels! I had these made by a company called Label-on. They're not much fun to sew in but I think they complete the project. I had the washing instructions printed on the rear to make it much easier for the new owner to care for it.

 

 

I do hope the little bundle enjoys snuggling under this as much as I enjoyed making it. It's a pleasure to create things for babies, hopefully he won't keep his parents waiting too much longer before he's welcomed into the world.

 

 

 

 



 



Thanks for reading, my next project isn't far from finishing so I'll be back again soon

Berni xx

The Rainbow Ripple

I'm a naughty mummy. From the moment I finished Aria's blanket (see previous post) I have been promising my son Blake a blanket for his bed. That was five months ago and that's why I'm naughty mummy. I will use the excuse that I had a few other things in the pipeline and then we had Christmas which kept me busy making gifts, so as soon as the January pay packet landed I put a yarn order in and set to work.

I did however use those five months to ponder over what to make him. There are so many beautiful designs out there and so many wonderful colours to choose from. Sometimes starting with a blank canvas can be daunting, so I went to my client and asked him what he would like. This wasn't actually the mistake it could have been as he's only three and some three year olds can have very vivid imaginations!

I started with a simple question and the conversation went like this-
"What's your favourite colour Blake?"
"Red"
Great, something with red, maybe some thing complimentary like grey... "and Blue" ok ok, I can do blue too, that's not a problem "and Green" Green too huh? Maybe a patchwork of three main colours could work "and Yellow and Orange and Purple and Pink and" STOP.

I thought for a moment as an idea began to form in my mind.

"Blake- Is your favourite colour Rainbow?"
"YES!!!" Cue renditions of the rainybow song from episodes of Bing Bunny (Non mummies of toddlers I tried to find it on youtube but you've been spared)

So rainbow colours it was, but I still had the pattern to think about and I didn't think asking a three year old if he preferred a half treble stripe over chevrons was going to end well. I pondered over granny squares, stripes and even a corner to corner - it very nearly was a corner to corner, but I eventually settled on another ripple.

Picking the colours was a little more difficult this time and I changed my mind several times before placing my order. I wanted to use more than just seven colours and felt it would have a nicer effect if I could have at least two shades of each colour required to make it flow. I spent a lot of time looking up rainbow designs on Pintrest before I picked out the final 13:

Lipstick, Spice, Sunshine, Citron, Spring Green, Bright Green, Aspen, Turquoise, Aster, Lavender, Violet, Magenta and Boysenberry.

I was determined to use bright green in there as I bought a ball of that ages ago and wanted to use it. If I'm totally honest I think I should have used that as the lighter green and used something more 'Grassy' instead of the Spring Green. We're all our own worst critics right?

Once my yarn arrived I set to work. I love how easy the rows of a ripple are made but have to admit that I made several mistakes while tired or after too much wine and had frog it back to put it right (Note- to Frog is to Rippit Rippit, its a legitimate crochet term I swear) the problem with a ripple is there is nowhere for mistakes to hide.

It was also stolen off me on a regular basis for sofa snuggles which slowed my progress somewhat!

 

 

 

I have to admit that it was an absolute pleasure to make, its colour therapy in its most concentrated form. I found it quite easy to spend each evening gleefully completing each row just so I could start on the next colour and it kept me lovely and warm as it got bigger. I even worked on it in bed one night and left it on the bed until morning so I could enjoy it's warmth.

 

After just 3.5 weeks it was done, and I couldn't wait to lay it out to see it in it's full colourful glory. 

 

 

Yes- that is a racing car bed, what toddler wouldn't want to sleep in that?

I should also mention that in our house, blankets are akin to empty cardboard boxes- as soon as you place one down it's cat magnet is activated.

 

 

My girls especially like to have a good rub on a laid out piece of crochet, so if I making something for somebody else I'm careful not to leave it unattended!

 

 

I love how the colours just seem to run into one another here, just like in a real rainbow!

 

So its all done, I have fulfilled my promise of a blanket for the boys bed. I hope he grows to appreciate the love that is stitched into every row and I hope it will keep him warm for many years to come. If he should ever decide that he's too big or too cool for a bright rainbow creation, Aria already has her eye on it!

 

Here's the sniffly little monkey getting some use out of it "I not very well, I need rainbow blanket and bunny"

 

 

 

Thank you for reading, hope to see you again soon!

 

Berni x