At last, a Summer Throw Completed

At last, at last, a final post about the Summer Throw, that has actually been completed so long ago and is in use on the bed, even as a winter throw, but oh, the shame...because there was still more than a few ffffrafels* to work away...

But luckily I have a wonderful aunt, who came to visit, and she loves helping out with predicaments like these, and she Sat Down and Worked All The Ends Away.

I have shown most of the blanket before, but here's some more :-)

Sometimes it's folded on my trousseau kist, and Chloe Cat** wil curl himself up on the softness.

Most often it lies in a crumpled pile on the bed, after one or both of the boys came through our room

I've long stopped trying to straighten it.

It's just easier leaving it on a friendly, crumpled heap.

...because this lasts only a few second for the purpose of this photo.

...then I fold it back to start folding laundry, and the boys come in, and start jumping/playing...and off we go again :-)

Here's some of the history, since this throw has been coming a loooong time:

First, I did it the proper way and made a mock-up, a trial version, to get the colour patterns right. 

Then, over some months, I hooked furiously, then let it lie, then planned a house, then moved across the country, hooking in between, and at some stage when it was begin enough, started using it, with fffrafels all over the place and no edge.

Here I explained my colour placement.

And now it's done, with unedited photos (I forgot) at various light levels and what not, but at least it's on the bed.

The pattern was the Sorbet & Lace Square in the Ideas Crochet magazine available on Zinio.

The yarn was the lovely 10 ply Colours of Grace Magdalene, sadly discontinued, but soon to be followed with something new...

I think I used a 4.5 hook...but there might have been a 4 and 5 appearing sporadically...

The edge - Edge nr 22 from Around the Corner - Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman

 *fffrafels = those ends.  Or where you joined yarn.  Anything that needs to be worked away. "Frays", in Afrikaans it's "rafels",, but then one becomes a bit bit agitated and adjectives are added...

***Chloe Cat = Chloe is actually a male, but when he arrived at the mine where he worked as a Mouse Catcher, it was thought that he was a she.  Which he wasn't.  When the mine closed, all the cats had to be re-homed, and my resident geologist chose Chloe, whom then flew 1500 km to his new home, and might forever still be address as "she", even thought Chloe O'Reilly is "he".

On the hook, at last, and randomising stripes

After nine long weeks of enforced hooky rest, the result of intense Elise Shawl-hooking, there are small signs of a recovering shoulder/elbow.  Let me not count my yarn balls too quickly, though!

So I'm slowly picking up work again, and first priority is my little one's Tommie-blanket, a summer throw for his bedroom.  Just a few rows at a time, so as not to overwork the fragile right arm ;-)

One row, and another...

Immediately I was asked about my random colours, and as usual, it is not random.  This Gemini mos wants randomised order (see the Project Bohemia summer throw).

First off, I'm using all my summery yarn stash: Vinnis Nikkim/Bambi/Serina, I Love yarn - Imagine, Sublime Egyptian Cotton, Rico Baby Cotton, Unlabeled Yarn That I Can't Identify etc...

The base colour is Vinnis Bambi "Blue-Gray", which you'll see in every third row.  Now...

I started with Base.

Then

Warm - Neutral - Cool
Base
Cool - Navy - Warm

Base
Warm - Neutral - Cool
Base
Cool - Navy - Warm

...ad infinitum until The End.

(I might have switched some around resulting in Warm - Navy - Cool, but it's not the end of the world)

But...Red is obvious, so it must be balanced and every 8th row is thus Red.

Navy is also semi-obvious and therefor every 8th row...balancing with the Neutral, you see :-)

And although Yellow is not strictly every 8th, it is more or less.

I'm not losing my mind, I'm keeping it together and furiously counting rows and colours!  And the randomness will be balanced and keep my colour-OCDness happy. 

Off I go, I hear a cocktail being mixed in the kitchen ;-)

Projek Bohemia...Trial Version

The end of the year is rushing up to me and I realised I'd quite forgotten to report on a few of my FO's!

In August, I started a trial version for my summer throw (at LAST I decided on something).  I absolutely loved the Sorbet & Lace square Cornel designed for Ideas magazine, and immediately all my other ideas for the summer throw flew out of the window.  First I tried it out a Elle Pure Gold, my favouite local acrylic (I had a ton of stash, and I had another idea for my own blanket...but first I had to master the pattern).

The pattern hooks up quickly and makes a nice, large square - great if you want to make a quick blanket :-) I wanted to try out some new colour combinations - bright, contrasting edges to each square, and also wanted to figure out the layout, which had to be seemingly random but not, ordered, but not.  That's the Gemini brain speaking.  Even when trying to work totally random, I'll still order around colours, as the lights and dark, cools and warms must balance.

Almost at the end, I made such an epic mistake, I still laugh at myself for it :-D  

But it was easily corrected and I could lay the blanket out, work away the ends and declared myself satisfied. 

A nicely sized lapghan

I used a different joining technique as I didn't want the large gaps of the original pattern, so used granny clusters of four stitches where I joined in the clusters as well as in the chains.  A friend and I sat over a coffee one day to look at the options, and decided that joining with SC's would look better than slip stitches, as it just give that tiny little bit of extra space to allow the join to lie flat.  

I don't try to block or even steam block acrylics, just gave it a quick wash, shake-out and let it hang to dry.  

This blanket was then donated to a hooky friend's charity group and will be donated to an elderly or wheelchair-bound recipient next winter.  

--- X ---

Sooo...in the back of my mind...was this, all along:

Colours of Grace, a 10 ply cotton, in the most beautiful colours. I bought more than a bag full and quickly had to try out a first square in this dusky pink:

It might be one of the most beautiful colours on earth.  And I'm not even a pink person.

It is available online from Beatrix at Btrix Designs or Hilda at Yarn in a Barn.  The autumn blanket by Pigtails in Simply Crochet 23 was also hooked up in this yarn.

I've made a decent pile of squares, but had to put it aside to quickly finish a few year-end projects, but come December, after unpacking in my new hometown, this is one of the first projects to pick up!

--- X ---

PS - a friend at Ons Hekel is using the same principle to make up a Bohemian Blanket, with a square of her own design, but also the colourful, contrasting joins, and it looks stunning so far.  She's using Vinnis Nikkim.

Look. At. This:

Gina's Bohemian Blanket.
I'm jealous.

I had the lazies.

I had the lazies...the laziest couldn't-lift-a-finger-to-write-even-one-blogpost lazies. 

Lethargic might begin to describe it.

Was it the long, long summer holiday?

We had a looong 6 weeks, of which 4 were spent by the sea, of which 3 were splashed in blasting hot sunshine and blue skies - not quite the usual during December on the Garden Route where you'll often have windy days.

Hartenbos has the finest, softest beach

Was it the excitement of planning a new house?

Fourteen years ago we had the opportunity to build a new house, and now we have another take. Lucky to have found an architect who 'got' us, and could produce a concept within a week.

Was it the worry over my youngest's little friend who was diagnosed with kidney cancer the week after schools closed?

He's had chemo, and a tumour and kidney was removed, and is bravely facing another 27 sessions of chemo, but he's doing well, and his parents are absolute beacons of hope and faith.

Was it the overwhelmedness (that might be my own new word) at the outpouring of love and caring from Ons Hekel-members for a fellow member whose daughter had to undergo open heart surgery?

It went well, she was discharged, sent us a message...and then suddenly died :-( 

Members spontaneously arranged for a blanket to be hooked for her mother in memory of the daughter. We're hooking 20 cm squares with some purple in it (her favourite colour).

Was it the thought of the 45 text books I had to cover for school, and then start gr 4 again, 32 years after passing it the first time?
Gr 4 changed quite a bit :-)

Or what is I Just Plain Lazy?
That might be it...

Joining ancient rectangular doilies to use as bunting during a quick overnight break to Rietfontein Ostrich Palace

The tan is still there (plus the extra kg or two...), the plans for submission are being finalised, we came through a week of two anniversary dates and three birthday parties in two days, I enrolled for a year of Bible School, my youngest have lost his two front teeth, my eldest decided he is going to love Natural Science in Gr 4 (good boy!), my husband is furiously training for Ironman, my ferritin stores are back to normal, my domestic worker has gone on pension and ... The Boss will be in town this week! And I'm going to try and stay awake for the whole thing. No choice there, seeing as it's standing tickets :-D

I did manage to complete a tiny very few little things, mostly crocheting while we were driving across the country and back.

Southbound through the Karoo

This flag bunting was designed by my friend Cornel and featured in the Idees magazine a year or so ago.  The idea was to use it as tree decorations (the young karee outside our little beach house), but it also ended up as being used for little yarn bombs. I used Raeesah cotton,  a DK yarn with the most beautiful, solid, clear colours, but spliiiiity, splitty, splitty.  Very much the same as Drops Cotton Light that some UK/European bloggers complained about.  My sis even abandoned her plans of joining and edging a baby blanket with it, and sent me the whole batch to try out/re-distribute.  I kept one. 

However, it worked out fine, and I left my tiny bunting at a favourite farm stall (Camdeboo Farm Stall in Aberdeen), at a get-together with fellow hookers in Klein Brakrivier, another old favourite roadstop - Smitswinkel Farm stall,  a new favourite LYS-when-on-holiday (Needle Nook in George), De Vette Mossel beach restaurant in Tergniet, and Bizarre Bazaar, a great new second hand shop in Mossel Bay.

Hooking my way through  the holiday

There was some left for my tree, with a few stars.

I yarn-bombed the nearby stop sign, as nobody stops there...

STOP now!

And I completed exactly a measly five squares of The Summer Throw that was going be finished...and then back  home I realised I used a different hook size to the first four...

I probably wasn't concentrating too hard...

Oh jeepers tog.

So I frogged four, re-hooked the lot, and completed my purple Anja-square today.

Also the Mt Vernon square, with a few rows added, unblocked here

The anniversary.  We've been married 18 years :-0 Where did the time go?

As we're not the traditional anniversary-gift-type, we settled into the happy arrangement of me going to the Le Creuset shop to get something  "for us".  This year, however, I was ambushed by this chair en route to Le C...and after some sweet talk it now resides in the home office!  So I declare the appropriate 18th year anniversary as "leather swivel chair".

Feels like you're sitting in a hug.

Right.

Back now to the Summer Throw...with autumn just around the corner :-P

It's giving me a slight headache.

Happy new year :-) 

The Summer Throw (cont.) - Plan D & E

What happened then with the Summer Throw...

I looked at one or two other possible joinings, three or four other possible squares, and then went back to one printed out almost a year ago:  the Mount Vernon Throw

Blocking away

And added a square that came past on Pinterest.  

I will combine these two, and ponder for days On What Joining To Use...

On figuring out a summer throw

I need some advice here.

The idea of a summer throw started brewing in my head shortly after the one of a Certain  Uncompleted Great Romany Blanket.

But it stayed there.

Slowly I began gathering a few possible patterns on Pinterest, look at possible colours in Vinnis or Bambi and then drank a coffee and forgot about it for that day.

Then winter-that-was-just-a-rumour ended, I took the winter duvet off already by the end of July, and during the three days that spring lasted I realised that I am not going to make it through summer under a summer duvet.  It's just going to be to hot.

Rewind to Summer Throw Idea and fast forward to actually start doing it.  

A day was spent roaming the net for possible square patterns.  It had to be light, lacy, open, as to not be too warm.  It had to be neutral enough so my poor husband would have to sleep under a girly throw.  Multi-coloured was going to take to long, I didn't want to work masses of ends away.

In the end, I decided on the Coral Trellis Square from the book 75 Crocheted Floral Blocks:

One done, now for joining

It came out nicely; I blocked it to make sure, so then it was onward to see how I would join, and that is where I hooked myself into a corner:

See?

I want it open and lacy, yet not with these huge holes - fingers and toes and kids' elbows get stuck in it and it's a tear waiting to happen. 

This is how it would look following the join  recommended in the book:

Nope

A friend suggested I join it like a puzzle, e.g. a SC join into the three long picots, and extra picot joins into the SC's:

Also not quite right.  

Need to figure out what to do before I fall out of love here.  

Do I make plan C?  Or do I use another motif (Plan D, E or F?)

Or do I just use a plain and simple Granny Square, maybe doing the clusters as DC3tog, join-as-you-go, with an interesting edge?  Because the Nikkim Bambi yarn is nice enough as it is.

What to do?
What Would You Do?

PS...I'm also wondering - should I take the hook down a notch or so?  Did the above with nr 5, because I like loose work, but maybe I should try out nr 4.5.