Corner to corner crochet throw

I have seen several versions of this corner to corner crochet pattern, and I was intrigued to try it.  The advantage is that as you start from a corner you don't have to decide on a size in advance.  You turn the next corner when you decide it is wide enough and the third corner when it is long enough.

I found a pattern, by Carolyn Calderon, on Ravelry.  It is very simple crochet, chains and double trebles all along.

I wanted to use my double knitting weight cotton yarns, starting with Rowan Pima Cotton, knitted into this cardigan from a Debbie Bliss pattern.  I had troubles when I knitted it, and I redid the yoke smaller because it slipped down my shoulders.  Even the smaller version did, and I hardly ever wore it.  It was a shame because the yarn is so nice, in the Bark shade.







With it I added various other cotton yarns in similar shades.  I particularly wanted to use up a Jaeger Albany ribbon yarn that I bought one day when I was in particular need of buying yarn.  It is a nice light pink shade and to my surprise the ribbon structure fitted in well.

The crochet flowed easily.  I discovered a problem that I had not anticipated.  The rows became very long and I did not want to change yarn in the middle of a row.  So I had to estimate at the beginning of a row if there would be enough yarn to complete the row.  Luckily I did it with success every time, and I did not have to unravel any.  But it disrupted my shade pattern.

It was really nice when I had turned the third corner, and the rows were getting ever shorter.  I didn't do the edging in the pattern because having used several yarns I needed to cover the ones I had brought up along the side.  I did my standard edging of one row dc and one row picot stitch.









I am quite pleased with the blanket or throw.  I don't like the gaps the pattern creates - you can't see them when the blanked lies flat, but it becomes obvious when you move it.  So I don't think I will do the pattern again.

Corner to corner crochet throw C45

Yarn: Rowan Pima Cotton, Jaeger Albany and other DK cotton yarns

Hook: 4 mm

Size: 115 cm by 160 cm

Weight: 1415 gr

Done 3 October  to 28 December 2019

Blanket #211

The next blanket #211, is another in darkish colours, red, blue.  I enjoy putting these together.  I did a regular stripe of a nice Malabrigo kettle dyed wool in a brick shade.  The mohair was Sirdar Supreme Mohair in mulberry.

I unravelled this tunic dress in a nice cable pattern.  It is a Debbie Bliss design, Mathilde from Winter Essentials in her Cashmerino DK.  The dress annoys me.  It is my size and I would have enjoyed wearing it, except for the neckline.  It is too low.  On me, shorter than average, it is in danger of slipping indecently low because there is nothing to hold it up as the ribbed neckline is too stretchy.  The dress is so heavy that it can only be worn in cold weather, and then I would need something to cover my neck and chest.  A warm top underneath would make the dress feel even warmer.  A scarf would not cover my chest adequately.  It is such a shame.  The yarn itself is useful in the blankets despite the synthetic content.

Broken garter stitch blanket C44

This is the next blanket in chunky yarn.  I started with the yarn, Rowan Kaffe Fassett Colourscape, random dyed in long runs.  I bought several lots half price when it was discontinued in 2012.  I have since bought more odd hanks in charity shops.  This time I started with the bag of 10 hanks in the brown rust colourway.

I am always on the lookout for an easy pattern, lots of knit stitches and easy to memorise.  In Noro 14 I found a pattern called broken garter stitch by Cheryl Murray.  It means that you (knit x purl x) st and on the next row you knit the knit stitches and purl the purl stitches.  It creates neat columns.  I converted this to a sequence knitting pattern.

I was intrigued by sequence knitting when I first came across it.  But then I realised that if you get one stitch wrong you upset the sequence and the pattern changes.  It is not TV knitting.  My simple sequence became k10 p10 (to create wider columns than the Noro pattern), but I started with k5 before continuing (p10 k10) ending with k5.  So the next row became k5 p10 k10 creating a perfect sequence and sticking to the broken garter stitch pattern.

I added some of my precious Rowan Cocoon yarn in brown every third row, and started knitting.  It was easy and enjoyable, and I like the result.

Broken garter stitch blanket C44

Yarn: Rowan Colourscape and Rowan Cocoon in brown

Needles: 6 mm

Tension: 13 st per 10 cm 

Size: 125 cm by 170 cm

Weight: 1500 gr

Done 20 June to 2 October 2019

Blanket #210

The next blanket, #210, should be a standard with white blue grey beige shades.  The pictures don't show any white.  With some effort I recognize the rest.  I am so far behind in blogging my projects that I just can't remember.  This blanket was finished late October and the pictures were taken early November, so it must be right.

Account for 2019

My resolve, made in 2018, to buy less yarn worked well at the start of the year, and I regularly kept within my allowance of 75 gr per week, so much so that I could buy some reduced on the internet.  This lasted until the first week of June when I couldn't resist over 1 kg oddments of random dyed sock yarn, very reasonably priced.  The picture shows about a third.






After that there was no going back.  I continued buying, and at the end of the year I find that my purchases amounted to more or less the same as the previous year.  I have refined my selections now.  I no longer buy yarn that will go straight into the blankets.  As a result I have ended up with a lot of lace weight yarn, so much so that I will have to make a start knitting with it.

An expensive item was Marie Wallin British Breeds yarn, some that came in a presentation box at an unbelievable price.  Charity shops often price their goods using the internet as a guide.  I bit my teeth and told myself it was all for charity.  The yarn is so nice.

Another good, and expensive in comparison to shop price, purchase was two 240 gr hanks of Estonian minimally processed and dyed wool.  Was this 8 ounce hanks?  (The brown yarn is Greek goat's mohair, bought at Alexandra Palace.)











As to the finished projects they amounted to more or less the same as in previous year, 23.1 kg.  And 2020?  I will continued buying yarn.  It gives me pleasure.

The next blanket

The next blanket, #209, combines two of my less favourite colours, bright red and yellow.  The yellow, in a regular stripe, came from two boucle yarns, the first an unlabelled wool, tightly spun and very bright.  The second was a ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan, quite pleasant with the microfibre and cashmere blended with wool.

If you look at the blanket from a distance it looks quite cheerful.  I was pleased to use up the yarns.  Boucle is awkward knitting, but it does add a lot of texture.

For this blanket I unravelled this cardigan.  It is a Kaffe Fassett pattern, Wentworth, from Rowan 46.  The pattern is completed in numerous shades of Rowan Kidsilk Haze.  The knitter here included several shades of a non-mohair yarn, I think it is Rowan Felted Tweed.  It adds stability to the garment.  In the blanket the short lengths of Kidsilk Haze add a surprising amount of softness, in addition to the Debbie Bliss Angel mohair that I also included.

Sock yarn blanket 5

This is the next bus knitting, another blanket using sock yarn.  I bought the yarn, Regia 4 fädig Multieffekt Color in a pack of 10 balls, half price in a sale with the intention of knitting a sweater for myself.  When I came to use the yarn, some eight years later, I really did not want to wear light blue, so it became this blanket instead.  I knitted the yarn doubled with Jaeger Matchmaker 4 ply pure wool from a charity shop, in a deeper shade of blue.

This was satisfying bus knitting in my usual bias garter stitch blocks for over a year.  I stopped knitting when I ran out of the sock yarn.  I did three more blocks using a grey yarn to get a rectangular shaped blanket.  Then it took me another six months to get round to joining the blocks and doing the edging.  I did it by crochet.  I am not pleased with this way of doing it because it looks crude.  Next time I might do it by knitting instead, even if it takes longer.

The blanket feels heavy, but it will no doubt be warm and practical.  It will be machine washable too.  I like the way the striping forms crosses at the corners.

Sock yarn blanket 5

Yarn: Regia 4 fädig Multieffekt Color and Jaeger Matchmaker 4 ply pure wool
Needles: 4.5 mm
Size: 100 cm by 140 cm

Weight: 1120 gr

Done 21 January 2018 to 23 September 2019