Charity Yarn Bombing 2015 – Part 2

Here is the second part of the yarn bombing.

In addition to the five themes we had these gorgeous blankets that were donated by 2 lovely Mama’s. This one is called The Lily Pond and was very generously sent from Mama H, my lovely mother in law. There is so much work in creating a piece like this I don’t know how she could part with it, we offer our heartfelt thanks.

Colourful crochet hexagons make up the second blanket, these were made by my lovely Mum. The hexagons were made from a random batch of yarn and there was an odd number of each colour, this made it quite a task to get the layout right. We had it laid out on the floor so many times before we found a pattern where the colours balanced. I actually joined them all together and edged it and I think it worked out ok in the end.

This rose vine was very sought after on the day which was a huge compliment to the creater who fashioned this pretty floral garland out of donated oddments. Isn’t it amazing what can be made from scraps of yarn when you pass them on to a talented knitter?

Jungle Capers

Cheeky monkeys swinging amongst the vines were a feature in the jungle, these twin primates each sported a little flower, one blue and one pink. Don’t know how they managed to keep them in with all that swinging around!

“And how clever am I? Look one hand!” His lovely stripes must give him super gripping power.

Just in case you are wondering why they all have tickets pinned onto them, we used raffle tickets as an identifier. To make their bid our visitors filled in a form using the number and indicating how much they wanted to offer for the item before slipping it into a sealed box.

Slithering below were the snakes in there glorious stripiness.

This little critter was soooooooo long.

A host of other jungle animals gathered together on the steps just taking in all the adoration bestowed upon them

Under the Sea

If you saw last years event you may recognise the sea blanket but this year we focused on under the sea adding some more creatures and a trio of lovely mermaids. There were three honestly but one of our helpers popped into the pub over the road with a collection bucket and a local fisherman made such a good case for why she should allow him to make a generous offer (too good to refuse) and take her straight away, we were left with two. Their sister was already on her way out to sea on the fishermans trawler!

Sorry about the poor photography of the bicycle, I will try and get some better images for another post but for now I hope you can make out the little fishing boat with it’s net cast into the woolly sea on the front wheel.

And the fish and chip supper residing on the seat.

Round by the farm was also a basket of knitted fruits.

And a wheelbarrow just back from the yarn allotment.

Our event was suported by the local library and their knitting group sent us a several baby and toddler knitwear items. Also the sister of one of our dispensers is a prolific knitter, she sent us some gorgeous jackets and cardigans, I think we must have received one a week! Thank you.

We strung up a washing line and pegged out these hand knitted garments.

Last but not least at the bottom of the drive we put a rose tree and ………………

………….. a country garden crochet bicycle.

This shot was taken outside our house before it was transported to the surgery where it stood against the tree to attract passers by.

The event was a lot of work but so worthwhile on many different levels, it brought together patients, staff and friends of the surgery at our crafty Saturday morning gatherings. So many patients who couldn’t attend joined in by dropping into the surgery with yarn for us or with items they had made for one of the themes.  We were also very generously supported by the blogging community so thank you to all of you too.

 

Charity Yarn Bombing 2015 – Part 1

 

For those who followed the project last year you will know we are a small GP surgery on the beautiful coast of North Yorkshire. We have a group of patients and friends of the surgery who love crafting with yarn, following the sucess of the yarn bombing last year we ran the event for 2015 following a similar format for but with some new themes.

Dinosaur Park

I had my doubts about including dinosaurs anticipating it would be limiting in terms of patterns, couldn’t have been more wrong as you can see.

We had quite a few knitted prehistoric deliveries both large and small.

Lots of dino’s for our park in a variety of sizes from the miniature 4-6 inch creations above that patients brought in. To the rather large Stan the Stegosaurus who you may have seen in a previous post where I shared the working progress of creating this colouful prehistoric creaature.

And Monty the Diplodocus.

Teddy Bear’s Picnic

This was one of my favourite pieces, you can see from the size of the raffle ticket just how tiny these little teddies are, they sat on their little picnic blanket contemplating their miniature sandwiches and cakes throughout the weekend. As I am sure you can imagine they were one of the first items to receive a bid.

There was an array of little woolly bears and teddy toys gathered in the picnic corner to share in the knitted and crochet cakes, biscuits and sanwiches including Mrs Baker Bear sat on the chair with piping bag in hand to finish off the last bun.

Rollo the african flower bear settled down amongst the log pile for a snooze after devouring his fill of the picnic.

To sit alongside the picnicing bears we had a stand (ok and yarn bomed step ladder) laden with tea cosies.

These were a very popular contribution to the event, it must be in celebration of the great british brew!

Down on the Farm

One of our group particularly requested we include a Farm theme this year, she had a new book by Sarah Keen that she was dying to try and we were so pleased with results, you can almost hear those little piggies snorting.

Our Parctice Nurse managed to aquire a hay bale for us to display our farmyard creatures, I was thrilled but my lovely hubby was less so as I used his car to collect it! Four weeks on and he has just about got the last of the straw removed from his car boot.

A patient kindly donated this gorgeous african flower horse, I believe it is from the Heidi Bears pattern but sadly the donator remains anonymous so I cannot be sure.

We also had a gathering of owls nestling in the bushes casting their wise eyes over the weekend proceedings.

And in the hedgerow below gathered a collection of bunnies and other creatures.

And birds simply sat on the fence watching the world go by.

 

I don’t want to bore you so will call this post part 1, I will continue working on compiling the other half of the images to post early next week. I am working tomorrow as we are open for our first Flu clinic, it is always a bit crazy at this time of the year when everyone wants to get their vaccination done early to protect against catching a flu bug!

 

 

Scheepieswol CAL Completed

I have kept the words to a minimum as this is such a long post with all the images of each week. I did enjoy making this blanket even though the yarn and hook size were finer and smaller than I usually like to work with.  I find that smaller hooks are more stressfull on my wrist.

I made this for a very close friend and I am pleased to report that she was very happy with the finished blanket. There is something special for me in gifting a blanket, I think it’s because it’s a timeless item and is a reflection of our friendship.

So here are the week by week images.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

I did start with the intention of doing all the squares in single colours but just could not continue when I got to week 4, I thought the flowers were just crying out to be shown off.

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

All squares joined and finished with a simple edging.

My grateful thanks to A Creative Being for running this CAL, I commend you for the way you delivered the patterns, so easy to follow and keeping the printing to a minimum.

Cushion for Miss A

Trying to be good I have used up some left over squares from making my daughters blanket to make her a matching cushion. I use the term matching rather loosely as the squares used for the cushion are the patterns that were rejected from the blanket.

Luckily I had enough squares to make it a double sided affair so she can switch it around as the mood takes her.

If you want a peek at the full blanket post you can see it here.

Charity Blanket Squares Are On Their Way

Well thanks to Mama H there were many more squares on their way to Best of Crochet.

I got a phone call to say that she was going to join in but when the parcel arrived look how busy she was!

This really boosted our little stash so now I feel that we have made a good contribution that am pleased to report is winging it’s way to Best of Crochet to join up with all the other lovely squares that I have been reading about.

It has been quite hectic here at the Grange these last few weeks so regrettably crafting has taken a bit of a back seat. I am hoping to be back to it soon and have more to share with you all.

Charity Blanket Squares – Crafters Call to Arms

Found this great idea and wanted to share with you all as I know you too will want to join in and gift a few blanket squares to charitable causes.

It is very brave of our fellow crafter to volunteer to join all the donated squares as we all know this can be the most trying part of blanket making!

As soon as enough generous crafters pledge squares to make this a viable project the instructions will be published and we can all get going, I can just hear it now needles clacking and hooks a-hooking, it is after all the season of goodwill.

To pledge your interest click on the link below and leave a comment.

Help Needed to Crochet for Charity

Related articles

• Crochet Squares – Join the Bunch! (pattern-paradise.com)
• New Charity Crochet Outreach Program for 2014 (thecrochetcrowdblog.com)

Update on Blanket CAL

Well here it is at the end of week 4.

It is going really well I think, each week there is a new pattern stitch to learn supplemented  with some basic stitches. Week 2 was this little beauty. It tended to come out a bit tight so I took it back and re-did it using a size larger hook.

The following week we had the star stitch, I really enjoyed this one although I could have picked colours that photographed better! It does look better in real life honest.

Week 4 we had the bobble stitch which I was quite familiar with.

Then this week we had this little lovely, the wave. So here you have it up to date, ready and waiting for the next instalment on Saturday.

Related articles

• CAL: week 5 (notyouraveragecrochet.com)
• CAL: week 3 (raggz2baggz.com)

 

Flower Motif Blanket Square Tutorial

To create your Flower Motif Blanket Square you will need:

• 3 colours of yarn
• Crochet hook
• Scissors
• Wool needle

I have used Debbie Bliss Rialto Double Knit and a size 5 mm hook. Size of the finished square using this yarn and hook size is 14 cm, 51/2 inches.
Choose the colour for the flower centre and start – chain 6

Slip stitch into the first chain to form a ring.

Slip stitch onto the centre of the ring.

ROUND 1

Chain 1
Work 15 double crochet into the centre of the ring.
Slip stitch into the first double crochet.
Cut yarn leaving approx. 5  cm and draw through the loop to fasten off.

Round 2

Join the flower colour.

There are many different ways to join yarn but this is how I do it.
Tie the new colour to the finishing tail of the last yarn colour.

Slide the knot down the tail and tighten so it sits snuggly against the last stitch.

Pull the yarn through the top of the first double crochet of round 1.

Chain 3 (counts as 1 treble), 1 treble crochet into the same space. You can work in the tails as you crochet by holding them to the back of your work and enclosing them as you make each stitch.

Work 2 trebles into each of the remaining 14 double crochet.

See how neatly the tails can be worked in as you go.

You now have 30 stitches.

Slip stitch into the 3rd chain of the first 3 chain of this round.

Front view.

Rear view.

You will see there is only the starting tail showing as the tails from joining the new colour have been crocheted into the round.

Now to start making the petals, we are only going to work into the front loop of each stitch. The back loop will be used for round 4.

Round 3

Chain 1 (counts as 1 double crochet).

1 double crochet into the next stitch.

1 half treble into the next stitch.

5 trebles into the next stitch

1 half treble.

1 double crochet to complete the first petal.

Continue working into the front loops only to make 4 more petals.

Each petal is worked into 5 stitches, the pattern for each petal is:

1 double crochet, 1 half treble, 5 trebles into the same stitch, 1 half treble, 1 double crochet.

For the last petal work:

1 double crochet, 1 half treble, 5 trebles into the same stitch, 1 half treble, 1 double crochet, slip stitch into the chain made at the start of the round.

Front view.

Rear view

Round 4

Now we will work into the back of the loop that you can see above on the back of the flower.

Start with the flower facing you and slip stitch into the loop immediately below.

Chain 3 (counts as 1 treble).

1 treble into the same loop.

1 treble into the next loop.

Continue the round alternately working 2 trebles then 1 treble into each loop.

You will have 45 stitches, have a quick count to check as you will not be able to complete the next round of petals without the correct number of stitches.

Slip stitch into the 3rd chain of the 3 chain worked at the start of the round.

Round 5

Again we are only going to work into the front loop of each stitch for this second round of petals. The back loop will be used for round 6.

Chain 1 (counts as 1 double crochet).

1 double crochet into the next stitch.

1 half treble into the next stitch.

5 trebles into the next stitch.

1 half treble

1 double crochet to complete the first petal.

Continue the round following the pattern set for each petal:

1 double crochet, 1 half treble, 5 trebles into the same stitch, 1 half treble, 1 double crochet.

For the last petal work:

1 double crochet, 1 half treble, 5 trebles into the same stitch, 1 half treble, slip stitch into the chain made at the start of the round. 9 petals.

Cut yarn leaving approx. 5  cm and draw through the loop to fasten off.

Front view

Rear view

With the flower facing you and slip stitch into the loop immediately below.

Round 6

Join the next colour by tying a knot around the tail threaded through the loop.

Turn the flower around to face you, hold the top petals down and draw the yarn through the loop.

Chain 3.

Treble 2 into the same loop.

Chain 3.

3 trebles into the next loop.

Chain 3.

Count along to the 5th loop from the last loop worked. Work 1 double crochet into the 5th loop.

Chain 3.

Count along to the 5th loop from the double crochet loop worked. Work 3 trebles into the 5th loop.

Chain 3.

Work 3 trebles into the next loop to form the second corner.

Continue the round as follows.

Chain 3.

Count along to the 5th loop from last three treble worked. Work 1 double crochet into the 5th loop.

Chain 3.

Count along to the 5th loop from the double crochet. Work 3 trebles into the 5th loop.

Chain 3.

3 trebles into the next loop.

3 Chain

Count along to the 5th loop from the last 3 trebles worked. Work 1 double crochet into the 5th loop.

Chain 3.

Count along to the 5th loop from the double crochet. Work 3 trebles into the 5th loop.

Chain 3.

Work 3 trebles into the next loop to form the fourth corner.

Chain 3.

Count along to the 5th loop from last three treble worked. Work 1 double crochet into the 5th loop.

Chain 3.

Slip stitch into the third chain of the first 3 chain worked at the start of round 6.

Round 7

Work 3 chain (counts as first treble).

Work 1 treble into each of the next 2 trebles.

2 trebles 2 chain 2 trebles into the corner space.

Work 1 treble into each of the next 3 trebles.

3 trebles into the next chain space.

1 treble into the double crochet.

3 trebles into the next 3 chain space.

1 treble into each of the next three trebles.

Work 2 trebles, 2 chain, 2 trebles into the corner space.

Continue working

*1 treble into each of the next three trebles.

3 trebles into the next chain space.

1 treble into the double crochet.

3 trebles into the next chain space.

1 treble into each of the next three trebles.

2 trebles, 2 chain, 2 trebles into the corner space.*

Repeat from * to * 1 more time.

3 trebles into the next three trebles.

3 trebles into the next chain space.

1 treble into the double crochet.

3 trebles into the next chain space.

Slip stitch into the 3rd chain of the first 3 chain worked at the start of this round.

Round 8

Chain 3.

*1 treble into each of the next 4 trebles.

2 trebles, 2 chain, 2 trebles into the corner space.

Continue along to the next corner working 1 treble into each treble. 17 trebles.

2 trebles, 2 chain, 2 trebles into the corner space.

Continue round 8 working *17 trebles, 1 into each treble, and 2 trebles 2 chain 2 trebles into the corner space* twice.

Work 12 trebles ending with a slip stitch into the 3rd chain of the 3 chain at the start of the round.

Round 9

Chain 1.

Continue round 9 working 1 double crochet into each of the next 6 trebles, 4 double crochet into corner space.

*Work 1 double crochet into the next 21 trebles. 4 double crochet into corner space.* three times.

double crochet into the next 14 trebles.

End with a slip stitch into the chain made at the start of the round.

Cut your yarn leaving a 3 inch tail, pull the tail through the last loop and pull to tighten the knot.

Next you need to sew in any of the ends that you have not managed to crochet into your square.

It looks a bit out of alignment for a square at the moment but I always like to pin out each square on the ironing board or other flat surface and either lightly steam and leave to dry or lightly spray with a water mist and leave to dry naturally. This sets your square so make sure you pin out the corners neatly.

Now you can make other colour combinations and make into a cushion or blanket. If you have an questions please do not hesitate to let me know and I will be happy to help if I can.

I would also love to see any photos of your squares.

Happy crocheting!

The idea for the flower pattern blanket square came from making this lovely blooming flower cushion which I have made a couple of times now for my wonderful girls. I absolutely love it and wanted to incorporate the flower pattern into their blankets that I have made.

Pattern by Attic 24  blooming flower cushion.

Update for Multi Flower Squares Crochet Blanket Number 4

I have been busy making a blanket for each of our 4 children and this is the 4th and final one which is for our eldest daughter, Missy L. I recently posted Multi Flower Squares Crochet Blanket Number 4 of 4 and thought I should give you an update on progress.

So here goes! I started making a few squares with no absolutely no idea about the final pattern design, here is my nicely growing stack of squares.

In addition to the squares in the last post I have done some more different patterns for the plain colours.

And another variety of Granny Squares, these will be in different colours too.

The brief for this blanket was “I love Granny Squares and would like the pattern to be a bit random, ‘hotchpotchy”, which was vague but fine, however I wanted it to have a floral influence and after all I am making it aren’t I?

So here are the flower patterns.

and this one that I have made up myself, really pleased with this one! A tutorial will follow this post.

It has been a real challenge to create a pattern that would fit the brief for a random look and include my flowers. I created these two rows first and was really happy with how they looked.

But after making some granny squares and adding them into the mix I started to have doubts.

But I resolved to continue making squares and each time I set them out I came up with a different formation.

Oh dear, I started to get really worried that this project was not going well. I was simply not feeling it, you know how it is when your developing a project, you just instinctively know that something is not right, the colour balance is out.

Then one evening I got out the squares again and set about laying them out and at last it started to fall into place. I realised that a totally random selection would be difficult to make work and that it needed some kind of sequence.

There are 2 sequences at work in this pattern and both include order and a randomness.  Working diagonally from bottom left to top right are the plain colours, order comes from being the same colour, randomness from each square being a different pattern. Working from bottom right to top left are the flower and granny squares, here order is represented by the same pattern being repeated but the use of different colours provides the random feature. Now all the gaps are filled in it looks like this.

You can see the pattern sequence more easily now all the squares are there.

Now I am really happy this is going to work into a real fine blanket. All I have to do now is crochet them all together and add the border then I can share the ta dah moment with you.

Related articles

• Granny Flower Square – Crochet Flower Granny Squares (imaginemechanix.com)
• Granny Squares: An Homage to My Great-Grandmothers (avienadawn.wordpress.com)

Multi Flower Squares Crochet Blanket Number 4 of 4

This is the last blanket, number 4 for my lovely Missy L and these are the colours from the Debbie Bliss Rialto DK range.

We have not discussed the pattern yet so I think I will be doing my usual and just starting with a few squares at random and seeing where it goes.

I found a pattern I really liked on Ravelry called Groovyghan although it gets its name in part from the bright colours used and my colours are more muted I wanted to use this particular flower pattern.

My thoughts are to do a few different flower pattern squares, I have chosen this design too which is a bit of a hybrid made using different patterns and some of my own interpretation.

I also want to incorporate a traditional granny square pattern.

These designs will be broken up with some self coloured squares. This is from the Jan Eaton 200 crochet blocks book that I have used before, pattern number 86 Sunray.

And pattern number 30 Shell Lace.

Now I am getting a nice collection of squares together I will have to start and work on the layout for this blanket soon. I think I am starting to have an idea about how it will work but I will share that with you soon.

Related articles

• Colourful Crochet Blanket – No 3 of 4 (thegrangerange.wordpress.com)
• Granny Flower Square – Crochet Flower Granny Squares (imaginemechanix.com)