A blanket in the making

I have decided to Bring over my blog posts from Swap Workshop, as I know it's not viewable to non-members. - Here is part one of the "Blaket in the Making" series. I will post them gradually, and bring you the final episodes here as well.

This was originally posted on May 1st

You see this is all new to me and so is my newest project.

A few weeks ago I saw forum post which caught my attention. Kimminita was posting on her wishlist forum thread that she was after a blanket. Was anyone willing to take on the project?

Being a bit out of season for hats and being as HUGhats was kinda bored making the darn things just now, I thought; "why not? Give the hats a rest, give the cowls a rest and let's give this thing a go!"

After having a look at some examples posted by Kimminita and a few messages back and forth to find the details of the ideal blanket, I started my research.

What kind of yarn was available to me and could I get both the colours in the same thickness of wool?
How much would be needed and would it be affordable? Finalising the dimensions and proportions of the blanket was done and I went around to my local wool stores.

There were potential in all three of them but in the last one I found what I was looking for :) Since I was never a maths wiz I decided to get help calculating how much wool I'd need to make the blanket (200cm x 140cm).

Sitting in the yarn department of a massive department store I found myself making crochet samples and chit chatting with the wool girl about blankets and such. Very nice really. When my crochet sample was done the lady kindly calculated how much I'd need in both colours.

I thanked her and paid at the till.

Home I went with a massive bag full of these;

Rowan yarn, Organic Belle DK, Ochre

Patons Merino Wool DK, Thunder

The two colours are fantastic together and I am kinda in love with the Organic Belle ♥

Next task was to change the pattern around so that it would fit the proportions of 70% main colour / 30% accent colour.

I made a few examples in a spreadsheet so I could easily play around with it. After some reviews and moving about, I was finally happy to start the blanket.
I made the first part of it during that first week. Very pleased with it I was as well. Until it turned out to be too wide thus not leaving enough fir the height. some careful calculations later and I have decided to unravel it and start over. I mean, if the blanket stretched a full 5cm widthwise and the edging is not even on yet there is going to be a problem later on.

Rather undo it now and not later. So I am now at the starting point having done the foundation chain again and part of the first row. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to things like this :) I will add a few photos of the yarn and the project as I go along. I'll keep you posted and will add photos soon. Enjoy the reading!

Starting to get hooked (pun fully intended!)

I remember visiting my mother-in-law once and she had this colourful book of knitted squares (by Jan Eaton, [see here]). I was really into it and loved all the different patterns she made and the gazillions of combinations you could create from the many squares. Only problem: I cannot knit. My hands used to cramp up when trying to knit, so I'd left that idea behind.

You need to know that my mother-in-law lives in Cornwall, and most of the people we know there are creative people. They either paint, knit, make ceramics, take photographs, are amazing gardeners... or some combination of these. I always feel inspired when I am there. Always feel that my regular office job is definitely not the long-term future for me. I need to do something creative. Arts were always my favourite lessons in School :)

I thought; if only that book was about crochet squares, then that'd be the book for me. So I went to my old friend Amazon when I came home. I found the crochet version of the book and I decided straight away that I wanted it. I got that book along with a "crochet for beginners" book. I needed something to show me the basics again. Was a bit rusty. Plus it was in English and explained the different stitches with their English names and pictures.



This is why I can now follow crochet patterns in English or American... but not in Danish! I simply didn’t learn crochet that way from my mum. She explained how to get the different looks from the different stitches. I never paid much attention to what the stitches were called, and I never followed a Danish pattern.

So with these new books I started playing around with crochet a bit more seriously. I love it... and the internet was full of amazing patterns. A whole new world of creativity opened up for me. I realised that you didn’t have to be a knitter to create amazing stuff with yarn.

Introductions

My mother taught me to crochet. Just the basics though. And I made a scarf, all by myself. Still have it as well, though I never use it now... That was 6 or so years ago.

Clearly I did not have any notion of matching different types of yarn and using the correct size hooks. But the colours match each other. At least it's not a collection of different left over yarns, but actually some quite nice Norwegian wool. Hand-dyed in cream and rusty brown. The ends and the edgeing is fine thin wool of a dusty brown varirity. Hook size used; probably a 3.5mm or 4mm. Not the right size for either of the wools, but nicely in the middle.

It's somewhere in my wardrobe, but it's too chunky to actually wear. I look at it with a sence of pride from time to time, but I really ought to unravel it and make something else out of it.

The wool is too nice to let it go to waste like that. It was wool I got from my grandmother when her arthritis and limes disease got too advanced for her to continue knitting. She bought it herself on one of numerous trips she did with my grandfather to Norway when they were younger. 

Yes I must really unravel it and create something worthwhile and deserving. It's only fair on the wool. Nor my grandmother.

When my sister-in-law was expecting her first baby I made them a baby blanket made of squares stitched together. They loved it and have since used it for their 2nd baby and I am sure baby no 3 (due any day now) will also be swaddled in it. I like that idea. I handmade item which is appreciated, loved and most importantly; used. 

Here's a photo I took on my mobile. Please excuse the quality. It was taken about 5 years ago, before the time of fancy camera-phones ;)

So when my sister was pregnant with her first baby I also made her a blanket. I made her mostly hats though;

I have no idea how many hats I made her, but there was an element of "dress-up" going on. From both my side and my sisters. Poor niece ;)

One day my sister told me that the nurse coming to measure and weigh the baby had seen the hats. She'd loved the hats and said "your sister should sell these!". 

Wow. Just wow. What a compliment. 

That's when the seed for the idea of HüG was planted. It took a while before it spurted and started to grow...

Wool

Image via Wikipedia

I live in Scotland. One of the countries which has the largest amount of sheep. Wool comes from Sheep as we all know. Therefore you'd think there would be an abundance of wool mills around and that teh wool would be easy to get to at a fair price.

Even people I know who knit or crochet in Denmark are jealous of me living in "the land of all the wonderful and cheap wool". Well. Unfortunately that is not the case. At least there are none anywhere near anything that I have ever heard of!? Unbelievable. Scottish wool costs the same to buy in Denmark as it does in Scotland. Something wrong with that picture!