Catch-up week times two – no way!

Why on earth are there such things as catch-up weeks in CALs? And how could it happen that this week was catch-up week on BOTH CALs I am currently participating? Why was I punished like that? I participate in two CALs at the same time in order not to have too much waiting time! I was devastated….

So actually I was wandering back and forth and looking at my yarn stash, trying to figure out what to do with all that spare time. And even though I didn’t want to start another big project I could not resist for long. I started my own Charlotte’s Dream throw for my bedroom. I love when a color scheme I had in my head works out just perfectly. I love this pattern so much – the texture, the central flower, the easiness of creating it. Each square is huge but I still need at least 23 more. It will be my in between project, so it might take eternity until finished.

Then I decided to do something about all those squares already on my blocking board. I can still remember how hard it was to join all those squares on my Nuts, so I didn’t want to wait until the end with the Stardust Melodies. I was undecided which join to use – I was torn between the celtic  lace join and the flat braid join. I tried the celtic lace first but it was way to dominant for the squares. I wanted something that helps bring out the texture of the squares not distract from them. The flat braid join works perfect for that – I totally love how it adds a filigrane feeling to the rather solid squares.

 

Stardust Melodies – the Music continues

Did you know that there actually exists a youtube playlist for the Stardust Melodies CAL? Each square is designed around a peace of music and it’s really fun to listen to it while crocheting along.

The second square was fun to make as it creates a lot of texture with simple stitches. It’s called Fools Rush In and it is well named – I did rush in, messed up in the beginning and had a hard time figuring out where I went wrong.  I had quite a laugh afterwards about that.

The third square is called Don’t Fence Me In – a nice and easy pattern that will actually make a great square in between some busier squares. I am now trying to take the complexity of the pattern into account when choosing the colour of the square. I have settled on a colour layout right in the beginning and now need to fill in the appropriate squares when the pattern is released. As you can see in the picture the square fits well next to the Fools Rush In but lacks next to Begin the Beguine.

The CAL continued with a square called I’m Beginning To See The Light. Now if you  need to practice bobbles you should try this square. But it’s fun to see the square in the square growing in the process. It’s a little bit wobbly and needs blocking but I just store it on my blocking board for the moment until I am sure that each square ends up the same size. Until now it works fine but my experience with blocking the Nuts about Squares CAL has shown me not to get to cocky. One square might just make me reconsider the size I thought would be appropriate. Even though that means that I will have a lot of squares to block before being able to crochet them together.

A finish and a new beginning

Last week was actually the last week for my hygge – and I am really a little bit sentimental about it. It’s been a long journey with quite some ups and downs and it was a really hard work blocking it in the end too. It softened up after wet-blocking so actually using it as a wrap might be an option. I have not found a fabric yet that spoke hygge or Danish mermaid to me. So I did not line it yet and at the moment it is just hanging around a little bit waiting for the right usage.

 

As it seems now I have a lot of spare time and as I promised last week there’s a new CAL I am participating in. It’s Stardust Melodies by the gorgeous and creative designer Polly Plum. It’s all about textures, so I picked some Paintbox cotton aran as cotton makes stitches more defined than the fluffy acrylic yarn. My hubby picked the colour scheme and I ordered three packs without knowing how much I will actually need for the blanket. Seems I have miscalculated a little bit but Loveknitting was so fast delivering that I am not concerned about ordering more as soon as I need more. They missed to send one yarn ball though – you can see the missing dark blue in the top row – but resent it without any trouble. Really great support service!

I started of cause as soon as I had my yarn with the square called Begin the Beguine. It looks complicated but actually is really simple as soon as you have figured it out. It’s a little bit smaller than I expected – it will block to 20 cm – but this just means that I might have to make more of the squares. At the moment I am planning on doing 2 of each for a 6×8 sized blanket. I have not done the second one as I am not sure about the layout  of the blanket. I’ll make one of each square and then check out which fit together best. They are actually really nice and easy to fit in every evening – maybe because the are single color – so no weaving in of a million threads like the Nuts about Squares CAl. In case you want to try to create one too, make sure to check out Polly’s great video tutorial on Youtube. It is really very helpful in case you are not the pattern reading type of crocheter or if you want to clarify where to put a specific stitch.

Now I am off to do my next Nuts about Squares squares – I can tell you for sure that next week there will be some beauties showing up here!

Nuts about Roses – Squares, Squares and more Squares

What’s my favorite shape at the moment? Squares! Each week I am at least finishing three of them each week for the Nuts about Squares CAL. If you have not checked it out yet, you really should – it’s amazingly creative, fun, pretty and so out of my comfort zone :). In the meantime I have a neatly stacked little tower of squares that I love to look at. I hardly can wait to join them together. Maybe I am the only crazy one laying them out every week in different ways just to take a look at how they come along. Would be great if you leave me a message if you do that too, so I know that I am not just weird 😛

The next square I have not shown you yet, as it was on the blocking board last time, is Rachel by Melissa Green. It was the first square I actually considered changing. When I took a look at the square on Ravelry, it was so not my style. Not only am I definitely not a flower power girl but those color schemes in the pics really don’t work well with the pattern in my opinion. That’s really sad because the first impression is usually what counts. Now I am happy that I actually stuck with the original design – also due to the fact that I just don’t know which squares will come up and don’t want to accidentally change to a pattern that needs to be done later. To be honest I am a little bit in love with the treble border around the flower.

Last week then came Bavarian Beauty by Heather Gibbs. Now this is a square to my liking. Not only is it so much fun to make, I also love the geometric look.  If you ever had troubles with trebles – that’s the square you should consider making as you will get a LOT of practice ;). What I can highly recommend – and I have probably written it now several times already – is to watch Esther’s videos. In the beginning I was really used to written patterns and was thinking along the way of “I don’t need a video to crochet! I am an expert!”. Well, but Esther’s voice is so nice to listen too and it’s much easier to just crochet along to what she is saying than reading the pattern and figuring it out myself. I am a lazy girl, I know. But time is essential when crocheting – so many projects, so little time ….

Well, concerning projects I will be bugging you with progress pictures for another CAL pretty soon – to be precise as soon as the yarn I ordered from Loveknitting finally arrives. Postal service is soo terribly slow here. The CAL I am so urgently what to start with – but I promise, only after I have finished my Hygge – is the Stardust Melodies CAL by amazing designer Polly Plum. It’s a afghan that will challenge me with totally new texture crochet. But I love a really good challenge – and this year’s winter my husband and I will be kept really nice and warm with all the blankets I am creating 😉