Monthly Archives: March 2015

Crochet

In Progress: Chunky Rainbow Patchwork Blanket

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A few months ago I brought the Lucy rainbow pack from Wool Warehouse but could  bring myself to use it. I loved looking at all the squishy wool and dreaming of making something awesome. After thinking I decided to make a giant patchwork blanket. To get a chunky look I held two strands together and used a 7mm hook. Using my trusty crochet to corner pattern I set about to make squares 7×7 rows. Each ball of wool gives me 4 squares.

After a lot of maths I figured I need 15 balls of yarn to make this blanket a decent size. The squares crochet up fairly fast and it’s an easy project to carry around with you. This time I am making sure I weave the ends in before I sew them all together!

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Yarn

Yarn Review: Ice Yarn – Magic Light

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If you love super soft wool with beautiful colours then you’re in luck! I’ve used the purple and blue variety of this wool and I love it! This wool is extremely soft, much softer than Dancing Baby. The colours available are gorgeous! I double stranded the blue/green and made a super chunky blanket, it is so soft it feels like a cloud! This would be great for a baby blanket or a throw for your bed or lounge.

Available in lots of 4, I use 8 balls of wool to make a fairly decent sized blanket. The gradient in colour is perfect for the corner to corner style blankets!

Buy it here : http://www.iceyarns.com/baby-yarns-magic-light

tutorial

Tutorial: How to dye cotton

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After my food dye tutorial a few people have asked for a tutorial using cotton. Well here it is!

For this tutorial I got all my items from Lincraft. If you’re in Australia they are the ones to use! Such fast shipping and quality cotton.

You will need:

Dylon dyes

Sunflower Yellow
Available here: http://www.lincraft.com.au/dylon-hand-dye-2
Flamingo Pink
Available here: http://www.lincraft.com.au/dylon-hand-dye-4
Bahama Blue
Available here: http://www.lincraft.com.au/dylon-hand-dye-3
Squeeze containers similar to tomato sauce/mustard bottles

Cotton yarn
I used this one http://www.lincraft.com.au/shop/knitting-crochet/yarn/lincraft-cotton/lincraft-cotton-8ply-natural
Elastic bands
Warm water
Plastic bag
Gloves

I began with crocheting my squares, but you can also dye the uncrocheted item. I love the chunky look so doubled the yarn and used an 7mm hook. Once everything is crocheted up it’s time to prepare for dyeing!

There are several ways to dye cotton, and my way is just one of many. I found it worked for me, but experimentation is the key.

Once again, I did this outside as the dye is unforgiving.

I wrapped my crochet squares with elastic bands. This was basically to keep them together for the first stage. Don’t worry too much and you don’t have to do this step if you don’t want to.

Next I mixed the dyes with warm water. Always follow the directions on the packet, but in this case I mixed one pack with 250ml water. I put this into the squeeze containers. Make sure it is well mixed! The containers make it easier to control the dye and is different to traditional dyeing where you submerge the item into a bucket of dye.

Now if the fun part, make sure your gloves are on!

Pour the dye into the cotton. Small amounts at a time until you are used to it! There is no right or wrong way. I found adding a tiny bit of water and squeezing the dyes together gave a really nice effect and helped them blend. I then cut the elastic bands off and filled in the remaining areas  with dye. Keep going until you are happy with the results.

Place your item into a plastic bag and leave overnight where cats/dogs/small children cannot get at it.

Rinse the item in water until the water runs clear. Place somewhere to dry and enjoy!

The result is unpredictable and amazing! I love playing with colours and seeing what happens.

I’ll turn these into cushions so stay tuned for photos!

Crochet, Finished

Finished: White Chunky Blanket

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Finally done with this blanket! Only using one colour was a challenge and it did get boring after a white. I used two strands of aran weight yarn held together with a 15mm hook that I had to buy from Ebay.

My cousin requested a grey border so I used Stylecraft Aran weight yarn in silver and an 8mm hook.

I did my usual corner to corner pattern and just single crochet around the border. This crocheted up quickly due to using a giant hook and chunky yarn. I can’t wait to get back to my colourful blankets!

Pattern: http://thecrochetcrowd.com/crochet-corner-to-corner-afghan-project-youtube/

Yarn: http://www.loveknitting.com/red-heart-soft
http://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/special-aran-all-colours

Yarn

Yarn Review: Ice Yarn – Dancing Baby

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I first came across Ice Yarn on Instagram. I was drawn to the amazing range of rainbow colours and the awesome effect of the gradients. After some googling I found where I could buy it online and luckily they shipped to Australia. Living on a giant island I assumed the price to ship would be outrageous, it was, but the yarn was super reasonable so it all worked out. Plus, there is nothing like it in any of our craft stores! I ordered 12 balls, they only send it in lots of 4, and it arrived within 8 days of clicked “buy”! What great service.

The wool was even more brighter in real life and fairly soft to touch. Instantly I started to crochet and fell in love with the bright colours and design.

I’ve since ordered the blue variety, and the orange rainbow and was equally impressed. This is a favorite of mine and will continue to use it for upcoming projects.

Buy it here : http://www.iceyarns.com/dancing-baby-yellow-orange-lilac-green-fuchsia

Crochet, Finished

Finished: Valentines Blanket

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Words cannot describe how much I love this blanket. The photos don’t do it justice. I used the wool I dyed using food colouring so there is a real hippy vibe to it. I wasn’t sure about the various colours when I started to make this and seriously thought about frogging it and starting something else. But I continued. It wasn’t till I was finished and I took a look at the completed blanket that I realised how unique and beautiful it actually is. I used a 7mm hook and my fave corner to corner pattern. One of the befits of this pattern is when you only have a limited number of balls of wool. Simple divide in half and use of half to increase and one to decrease.