Patchwork Blanket {piecing it together}

Hello. How's your summer been? Mine's been busy, but nice.

I'm still working on my crochet patchwork blanket. Well, when I say working on, I actually just mean that it's sitting in a basket, unfinished. I'm hoping to get it finished by the time the baby arrives (due beginning of December), but if not, that's fine too.

I've had some questions about how I assembled my blanket, as I haven't followed a pattern. So, here I am, doing a blog post on it.

So, I first made a load of squares in different sizes, always sticking to the same size crochet hook and equal numbers of rows/rounds. When finishing each square, I left a nice long tail, because I knew that I would use these later to attach the squares to one another.

The edges of the squares curled a bit like these ones. To flatten them out, I pinned them to a notice board and sprayed them with water, then left them to dry, which did the trick.

Once I had a few squares to play with, I arranged them on a flat surface until I was happy with the arrangement. Then, out with the safety pins and I pinned them to one another, making sure the backs of the squares were all facing the back of the blanket.

The time then came to sew the squares together. As I said in a previous post, I wanted the stitching to be hidden but, as each square was finished with a different colour (unlike my laptop rug, where I could just sew them together with matching cream yarn), there was no neutral colour for me to choose. So, I decided to leave the super-long tails when finishing a square so that each square would be attached using its own colour. Does that make sense?

Here's an example for you. In this photo, the super long tail of the green square was used to join both the blue square and the orange square, with some yarn left at the end of the tail to join whichever colour I may put along the other side of the green.

I laid out what I had so far to see which colours I wanted more of and what sizes to make next.

I then made a sort of a plan (yes, the scribbles below are a plan) of how many 'rounds' each new square needed to have, along with which colours I would be using for each square.

Translation for the plan on the top right of the paper:
6 rounds: orange for the first 3 rounds, followed by 1 round of denim and 2 rounds of navy.

As I completed each square, I crossed it off the list.

I then went back to piecing them together and making another plan for what squares to make next.

This is what I have so far:

Still unfinished but rather large. The next step for me is to make the right sized squares to even it out. Once that's done, I'll do a border around the whole thing. The bit I'm dreading is sewing all of the tails in. I feel as though there's some big secret on how to do it without them unraveling which I have completely missed. If you know, please fill me in.

This blog post is a lot lot longer than I was anticipating. Well done for sticking with me. Now massage your eyeballs as a reward. Be sure to keep your eyelids closed.

If this blog post has helped you out with your blanket in any way, leave a comment. That would make me feel good.

Patchwork Blanket {attaching the squares}

About a year ago, I started my patchwork blanket. The first step was the most enjoyable crochet I've ever done: COLOURFUL SQUARES. 

I knew that I should really start sewing them together but that seemed like a massive, and very dull, task. So, instead of doing that, I used some of the squares to make a little laptop rug.

Since then, the many crochet squares have just been sitting around, waiting to be joined together. Until this weekend.

I wanted the stitching to be hidden but, as each square has a different border, there's no neutral colour yarn to choose. So, I decided to leave super-long tails so that each square could be attached using the tail. So far, so good: it's blending in nicely. There are some squares where the tails could have been longer so more yarn in that colour will need to be used.

My hair looks really short in this picture. I don't know why.

Good light is essential for this kind of work. And although it's not as instantly satisfying as making the squares, I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.

Another nice thing about putting it together is that it keeps my lap warm while I'm working.

My advice to you if you're thinking of embarking on a crochet patchwork blanket:

• Do it. It's enjoyable and even if your squares are a bit wonky, it doesn't matter because that's the style of the blanket.
• Leave the tails of the last colour (the final border of the square) really long if you want your stitching to be hidden.
• Don't leave your squares sitting in a box for months. It won't make itself.
• This blanket shouldn't take you a year. The only reason it's taken me so long is that I'm not disciplined with my creative projects. 

Have you made one of these blankets? Any advice you could offer me?

blankie for my laptop

It's not that I've been getting bored of my babatte blanket, I just wanted to complete something smaller, quickly. Also, I really don't like resting my laptop on an exposed desk surface. I know it's pretty robust (I mean the laptop, but the desk can put up with a lot too), but I don't like the sound of it. I feel as though the laptop will get scratched or something (you know that if it'd had a protective film covering the outside, I would have kept it on - like the watch and anything else with a film on) so I'd rather put it on top of something.

Well that was a boring paragraph. I might blog about my washing cycle next week.

So, for the last year (you're probably not interested in any of this) I've been resting the laptop on a very unattractive laptop case. Over the summer, Mr Pippa got me an amazing new laptop bag, but that will need a whole other blog post. So, I decided to make something pretty for it to rest on (or, something pretty on which to rest it if we're going to write proper).

I use the word so far too often.

So  A little while ago, I was inspired by Biscuit Monster (that blog is always a pleasure for the eyes), who was inspired by some other people. But, with crochet, I only seem to be able to keep one stitch in my head at a time: I paused working on the babette blanket to make a scarf only to find that, when I returned to it, I had to teach myself again because my crochet hook just wanted to continue doing whatever it was doing last (it has nothing to do with me forgetting how to do things). So, rather than teaching myself how to do granny squares or something, I made lots of little babette squares and joined them together (isn't the joining part the most boring?) and I am very pleased with the result.

The really dark one on the left is navy. It's clearly camera shy, as is the burgundy, next to the denim blue, which has turned itself black in all of the photos.

That's a happy laptop :)

 Isn't it cheerful?

make this bag

Yes, you've probably seen this bag before. I made it back in October '08, remember? 

Well, I've had so many comments on this bag over the last year and a bit (one woman even stopped me on my way out of the supermarket to find out where she could find one).

The thing is, it took me quite a while to make this bag, so rather than spend weeks making another one, I thought I'd show you how to make one yourself! Great, eh?

But first, a sewing tutorial. I just need to finish putting it together.

I shall return very soon...

colourful crochet squares

Hello. How are you today? I'm alright. Pretty wiped, to be honest. But I'm alright. I've been having enough of computers and Html (as you may have seen if you follow my tweets), so today I'm going to do something with either paper, paint or the sewing machine. 

What's that? How's the blanket? Ah thanks for asking, it's coming along nicely. What? You want to see another picture? Alright, but just a little one:

I've done a lot more since this picture was taken. As I'm not following a pattern, I need to lay the squares out to see how they're looking together. That way, I can see which colour combinations to go with next. I think it's going to look amazing.

By the way, hello to my Norwegian reader!

(I found out in a comment on my previous post that the buyer of my first ever Folksy sale, who is from Norway, still reads my blog. That makes me all happy and giddy.)

my lovely crochet hooks

Have you seen my crochet hooks? I love them. I only realised how much I loved them when I tried to use a cheap plastic crochet hook recently.

A friend got these crochet hooks for me. In fact, it was the very same friend who got me crocheting in the first place! Oh, I miss crafting mischief with her. There's something special about crafting with friends, don't you think? For starters, they don't look at you as though you're some loony, "What kind of knitting is that?! With only one knitting needle?"

Wooden crochet hooks not only feel lovely in your hand, but they work with the yarn in a beautifully fluid way. Plastic crochet hooks, on the other hand, squeak and catch and don't seem to want to make something beautiful. And if you use a plastic hook with acrylic yarn... *shudders*...urgh.

Look! A heart :)


When I build up my crochet hook collection, I think a pencil roll like this one will be in order.

rainbow crochet squares

Alright so not quite a rainbow, but don't the squares look lovely arranged in colour-order?


I'm not using a pattern for my patchwork blanket, so it could go anywhere. The nice thing about that blanket is that it's meant to look random. 


I made a load of the smallest squares (approximately 37 of them, but I will be making more), then moved on to the biggest squares. I need to sew in the ends though and I don't have a clue how. Anyone know of any good tutorials?

massive photos {and a finished blanket}

Check it out: these photos are huge!

With my last blog layout I could take advantage of the new blogger feature of having extra large photos. I was itching to change it but can't be bothered to teach myself about html right now. So it's back to a plain template. No mess. No fuss. And massive photos!

I was calling it a lap blanket but I've decided to call it a baby blanket (if it's a baby blanket, it's okay that it's a square and it's okay that it's fairly small). I really like it! 

It began as a practice at crocheting the babette squares for my patchwork blanket, but ended up being good enough to keep (in my opinion, anyway).


Now back to that patchwork blanket...

the beginning of the patchwork blanket... kind of

One of the projects I'd like to complete this year is this:

(found on Flickr here)

It's called a babette blanket, but I just call it a crochet patchwork blanket. I love how it looks as though it's lots of random squares just thrown together. It probably took ages and ages to design though. In fact, I'm pretty sure it took ages to design because there's a pattern available from somewhere - why would they sell a pattern if it could just be thrown together and still look good? I, on the other hand, am going to attempt to save the money and design one myself. I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm still waiting for the rest of my yarn to arrive in the post. I went for a blend of 25% wool and 75% acrylic. Ideally I would have gone for 100% wool, but I'm spending my Christmas money, not my lottery winnings. Although, never having played the lottery it would be near impossible for me to have any winnings to spend. Anyway... I was just going to use the random bits and bobs of yarn I already have, but I'm told that, because they're different properties, it would warp and react differently to being washed and things like that. So, my other yarns wept a little. They were so looking forward to being used for something fun.

While waiting for the rest of my yarn to arrive, I thought I'd practice crocheting the squares with the cheap acrylic yarn I already had. (To which the yarn gave a squeal of delight!)

But then I couldn't stop. So I decided that this would be a blanket too. First a light turquoise, followed by a slightly deeper turquoise.

Followed by a light blue.

And then a dark/royal blue.

And I'm currently on the purple.

I think it looks alright, considering this was just a practice go.

Frustrating that there's a stripe of shadow. To get the light minus the shadow would meeting opening the patio doors though and I am not doing that. Don't you know how cold it is?!

Dear photographers, I know I haven't got the hang of white-balance yet. Please bear with me. I'm learning. Slowly.

last chance

This is your last chance to buy something from my Folksy shop. 

Well, not ever, just until after the summer. On Saturday, my shop will be 'on holiday' for the summer. If I haven't sold the neck-warmers by then, I think I'll take them to a bricks-and-mortar shop. So, was there anything you were wanting for the summer? Get in there quick!

When my shop re-opens after the summer (possibly end of August, but September is more likely), I'm hoping to have some new things and some different things in there. We'll see :o)

For now, I am super busy with wedding things. Oh, and I have my final British Sign Language exam in less than 2 weeks too. Oh, and I don't have an outfit for the wedding. So I'm kind of busy (hence the shop having a holiday). 

Please excuse me while I run around like a headless chicken...

sale now on

I'm having a little sale in my Folksy shop until 20th Feb. Anything you fancy?

I was going to show you this scrapbook page, but I've decided that it's not finished, so I might show it to you tomorrow.

Also, I think I've just made the best scrapbook page I will ever make. I love it. I've got it on display on my easel. I'll show you that later. Right now, I'm trying to catch up with life (it got put on hold while we had snow!).

Cheerio for now.

warm and snuggly

Another one in the shop.