A new WIP

No, I haven't finished the elephant but you should know by now that I like to have more than one project on the go ~ and in my defence, at least I'm whittling down the stash of shame  😉

I don't think I've mentioned that a couple of months or so ago we decided to switch back from a duvet to sheets and blankets.  You may be thinking that we must have lost our minds, but to be honest I was tired of wrestling with the duvet cover each time I changed our bed ~ it's bloody exhausting!  And for some reason our duvet would never stay in the cover properly, so one of us always ended up with a bunched-up section of duvet and the other with an empty bit of cover 😒  So the decision was made and I have to say that I love how cosy the bed feels with sheets and blankets.  I bought a pair of cellular blankets and a lovely old-fashioned candlewick bedspread from Ebay but the last couple of weeks have been pretty cold at night, so I added another (pre-loved) cellular blanket that I already had.  It's really meant for a double-bed so is a little small for our king-size but will do the job until I get this latest WIP finished. 

So this bundle of yarn from the infamous stash is destined to become a blanket to lay over the top of our plain candlewick bedspread.  It's Deramores Vintage Chunky (which has been discontinued, it seems), a 50/50 mix of merino wool and acrylic yarn.  I thought long and hard about which blanket pattern to use and in the end decided to make one with individual squares, rather than one made as a whole like the chevron blankets I've recently finished.

The pattern I've chosen is the Spring Garden Baby Blanket by Lullaby Lodge ~ obviously I shall be making rather more squares than are in the pattern 😏 I'm also making all my squares using the same colours rather than a mixture as in the pattern.  I thought it would be nice to do something different this time ~ not to mention it being easier to juggle small squares rather than a king-size blanket 😄  I know I shall have the size issue to contend with at some point but at least it won't be all the way through the project!  

I made a sample last night, all in one colour, just to see what size square this chunky yarn works up to.  As you can see it's a simple circle-in-a-square motif, which works up pretty quickly.  The label suggests using a 6mm hook but I preferred the slightly softer effect a 6.5mm hook gave.  I did also try a 7mm hook but wasn't so keen on how that turned out.  The squares are 6.5" and I've decided to make the blanket 10x10 ~ hopefully I will have enough yarn!  That will make the main body of the blanket 65" square.  The whole blanket has a border of three rounds of granny shells in one colour (cream in my project), followed by a fourth round in a different colour and finally finishing with a scalloped edging ~ I shall be using grey for the last two rounds.  Providing I have enough yarn, I can always add an additional round or two of the cream and/or grey to make the blanket a little larger if needs be.

I thought it would be nice to make one complete square to see how it looks.  I like these "dusty" shades, it's a pity the yarn has been discontinued. I'm going to make all the squares one round at a time, not least because I want to make sure I have enough of the beige yarn to make 100 centre circles!  I have the least number of balls of the beige but hopefully 500g will be enough.

I shall alternate between working on this latest project and Mr Elephant.  Needless to say the poor sofa blanket has taken another step back in the queue, but once I've got that first elephant finished I'll add it back into the crochet projects merry-go-round whilst I try to get my brain wrapped round altering said elephant pattern 😉