Catherine's Crochet Corner

Phew, what a month it’s been. December was such a chaotic, hectic whirligig that I’m not even certain I know what happened in it, except that there was a week where it was so horrible cold and I had to keep going out into it to defrost the chickens water, and obviously there was Christmas preparations, and I had a few medical things to deal with, not least of which was finally catching covid, nearly three years into a global pandemic.

Thankfully I am fully vaccinated and had had my most recent booster only six weeks before, but hoo boy, it was still Not A Fun Experience. Objectively, it was pretty mild. Subjectively, I had four or five days of feeling like death warmed up – agonisingly sore throat, frequent cough, no energy whatsoever) and a bit of a runny nose. Then it started to lift, but I was still testing positive on the 22nd, when my brother was due to arrive for Christmas. After much deliberation (and much reminding of myself that he is a grown-up and can make his own decisions!) we decided it would be okay for him to come if we both wore good quality masks, and opened windows/doors periodically. Thankfully that seemed to work; he came for Christmas and did not catch covid from me. Hurrah!

But it definitely wore me out, and the fatigue has lingered. I’m only now beginning to recover from it. However, I am recovering, slowly, so I’m optimistic 🙂

And somewhere in the middle of that I did manage to get some crochet done!

I finished the Granny Go Mad blanket that I started back in November, and I’m so pleased with it. As is the recipient, young N, who apparently has it on her bed and finds it very warm and snuggly.

Given I had no ‘plan’ when I started – just a goal and a couple of guidelines – I’m really pleased with how it’s come out.

The guidelines I went with were to keep all squares a multiple of two – so two rounds, four, six, eight, etc. That way I knew I would be able to fit all the squares together, which I did – though some of the ‘fitting together’ did involve some of those very small two-round squares! I think you can tell where I started, because there are more of the bigger squares, compared to where I was squaring it off and trying to fill in various little gaps with two, four or six-round squares. Still, I’m very happy with it, and pleased that I could ‘freeform’ a blanket like this. It was definitely fun to make!

For the border, I worked eight rounds of granny stitch, and then worked a final round of 9dc shells, anchored with a sc between shells.

I used a 4.5mm hook and Stylecraft Special DK in four colours – Powder Pink, Fuschia Purple, Mushroom, and Plum. I used less than three balls of each, except for fuschia purple, which used a smidge over three balls – I had some lurking in my stash, and I reckon I used about 15g at most. It’s a very ample lap sized, but also big enough to put on a bed.

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I also whipped up another blanket as a Christmas present, for carer J’s other daughter. It didn’t feel fair to give a blanket to one and not the other! But I was running out of time, so I decided to use a chunky yarn and a maaaassive hook, to make a thick, cosy blanket in no time at all.

With Stylecraft Merry Go Round XL, in ‘Rainbow’, and a 12mm hook, I worked up this moss stitch blanket in a matter of days – eight days, in fact, including sewing in all the ends!

Moss stitch is great, particularly when you’ve got a gorgeous colour-changing yarn like this one. I chained 100 to begin, and kept going until I’d used 11 balls. Then I stopped and used one final ball for the border, which was two rounds of moss stitch. Quick, warm, and colourful 🙂 this one is definitely a lap-blanket size, but sooooo warm.

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I finished this rainbow blanket just before covid hit me, and since then I’ve been making a whole set of crochet angels, from designs by Oombawka Design Crochet. I’ve been meaning to make them for ages, and finally had time and inclination. But…there are nineteen of them, so I think I’ll save them for another post all of their own 😀

What have you all been crocheting over Christmas? I hope you all had peaceful, enjoyable holidays, filled with plenty of yarn, because as we all know, there’s no such thing as too much yarn. Anybody who says otherwise is just plain wrong. And yes, I did get some yarn for Christmas. Oh yes. Lovely lovely yarn. So much loooooovely yarn 😀

I’ll be back soon with the promised post all about my crochet angels 🙂 meanwhile, stay safe, all!

xx

Catherine