3 good reasons to upsize your Mitered Square blanket

Traditional, sock yarn mitered square blankets look amazing but they use a distressingly small amount of yarn. As I found to my cost when I made mine. I love it to pieces but it took the best part of two years (off and on) and my sock yarn leftover bag doubled in size while I was knitting it.

At some point I hit on the idea of holding yarn doubled for mitered squares though and I was gratified to see it eat through my stash with some rapidity

1. Make inroads into your stash. Each square of my monster mitered square blanket uses 50g sock yarn (2 x 25g balls). Enough to make the most robust stash quail.

2. You get to play with colour. Holding yarns double allows you to play with marled effects much more than you can with conventional squares.

3. It’s wonderfully squishy. Traditional sock yarn blankets are all well and good but at the end of the day they are just lightweight covers. A blanket made with yarn held double has a lot more weight behind it and is just the thing to have over your knees.

The basics of mitered square knitting have been convered on my blog before - here - but if you would like more detail in a easy to read, more condensed manner I have an ebook available at the link below.

Women hold up half the sky

Women hold up half the sky -Cowl pattern available on Payhip

“Women hold up half the sky” is a quote famously attributed to Mao Zedong. I came across it recently online and it has really resonated with me in the aftermath of my dad’s sudden death.

This pattern is dedicated to all of the strong women in my family.

It's been a difficult time, to say the least but together with the women around me we've got through it with tears, with laughter and with a gentle but indomitable strength.

We’ve looked back through old photos, we’ve remembered happy times together and we have supported each other, unfailingly in our darker moments.

Women everywhere, do indeed hold us up.

This cowl is knit in some glorious yarn from Black Stag Yarn & Fibre in a colourway called ‘Hat full of sky’ - a wonderful Terry Pratchett reference.

As soon as I saw it I knew it had to be something sky/star related and I hit upon this star stitch pattern, which I think looks fantastic spaced out across the stocking stitch background - like stars in the night sky.

The cowl is knit flat from a provisional cast on and grafted closed at the end. As I like my cowls quite snug there was a generous 40g yarn leftover from this one - probably enough for a short pair of fingerless mitts - but if you prefer something with more drape simply keep knitting until you’ve achieved the circumference you are looking for.

If you subscribe to my newsletter, please check your inbox as there should be a little discount code waiting for you there.

Spring socks

The title of this was going to be Spring Sock Sale - but honestly - try saying that 3 times fast.

Beltane is celebrated on May 1st - as it is the halfway point between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice.

These are the Beltane socks - a design that’s a few years old now but that is always one of my favourites. As with many of my sock patterns it comes in cuff down and toe up formats and features a cable design that it is fun and by no means as complicated as it looks.

Adding the Beltane pattern into my Payhip store lead me to do a bit of rearranging - it has a handy feature where you can group your patterns into collections. So I thought it might be a good time to do a little Spring Sock Sale - hence the tongue twister.

From now until 8th May you can use code SPRINGSOCKS for 20% off any (or indeed, all) of the sock patterns in my Sock Collection.

Scrappy socks...with a little bit extra

Smackerel Socks

In our house there are snacks and there are meals. But there is also an in-between category - a fancy snack which is known as a Smackerel.

And when I started working on these scrappy socks, the word Smackerel kept coming to mind. They are a bit fancier than a plain scrappy, striped sock but don’t require the effort and preparation needed for a full blown meal.

They are the perfect happy medium. Simple to work but fancy enough to show off. And each colour band uses just a hair over 1g, meaning that you can use up the tiniest bits of sock yarn leftovers that you have hanging around.

Fancy and thrifty - does it get any better.

Actually yes it does, as the pattern is written with both toe-up and cuff down options - just pick the option you want at the pattern download stage.

Shawls v cowls

The PPS

I asked a question on Twitter recently about whether people preferred making cowls or shawls and it generated such a vibrant debate that it prompted me to sit down and think about why we choose to make the things we do. Why we choose one pattern over another. And why in some cases do we choose to make the same pattern over and over again.

There are millions of patterns out there - both knit and crochet. The choice is astronomical, but for many of us we stick to many of the same familiar designers or styles.

In most cases I stick to the mantra of never knitting the same thing twice - life is too short after all. But there are a few notable exceptions. I must have made well over 10 Honey Cowls during my time as a knitter - most have obviously been given away as i think I only have one left in my drawer. I’ve also made quite a few of my own Fuss Free Festival shawls (and not just for sample knitting).

Both of these patterns share common features. They are relaxing to knit, they don’t require very much active thought - leaving your brain free to go off and do it’s own thing. And they both work with a variety of yarns. meaning that you can ‘shop your stash’ at 2am and cast on exactly when the mood takes you. Sometimes the planning of phase of project is enticing and enjoyable - the yarn selection, the ordering, the swatching. But sometimes let’s face it you just want to grab your yarn and needles and get cracking.

Anyway, back to shawls v cowls. Shawls won the day but only by a narrow margin. I do love a good shawl, don’t get me wrong but when it comes to actually wearing my handknits, my cowls are worn far more often than my shawls. Especially these days where I’m rarely doing anywhere fancy. For me, cowls are way more practical for everyday wear.

I guess that’s another point isn’t it. There’s a difference between what we choose to knit for fun (maybe to give away or just ‘because’) as opposed to what we knit because we want to wear the end product. but that’s a philosophical question for another day.

With my mind on all things neckwear I thought I would put together a discount across all my shawl and cowl patterns - running from now until the end of January. Another bonus of shawls and cowls is that they knit up quickly, so if you cast on (and you are in the northern hemisphere) you still have a few months of cosy wear ahead of you. And if you are in the southern hemisphere - well you are just getting cracking ready for autumn.

You can find my shawl and cowl patterns here, and you can buy as many as you like with the 50% discount code WARMTHOUGHTS.

So, how about you - are you Team Shawl or Team Cowl?

New Year, New Blanket

I think everyone needs a good dose of colour at this time of year, and bright cheerful colours were very much the order of the day when I was planning this simple crochet blanket.

My youngest son (now 15) asked for a replacement stripy blanket as his old crochet one was showing distinct signs of wear and tear after many years of faithful use. He wanted stripes - “quite thick and not too holey” so we settled on a crochet blanket using simple UK treble stitches.

After a lot of faffing over yarn choices we opted for Stylecraft Special Acrylic DK, mainly because of the amazing colour range. My preference was strongly for natural fibres but it proved difficult to find a range that offered the colours he was looking for at a price point I could afford :)

When starting the blanket I asked for advice online - as the looong foundation chain needed for straight blankets is always my undoing with crochet. I was recommended this superb method for avoiding the foundation chain altogether. It was so straightforward to do and got me off to a flying start in no time - highly recommended if you haven’t tried it before. The video is from the very talented Sarah who is @yarnandblarney on Instagram.

REQUIREMENTS:

Stylecraft Special DK - 15x100g (colours listed in order below)

Hook: sized to give a fabric you like. I used 3.5mm as I am quite a loose crocheter

Terminology used is UK throughout - Treble (tr) and Double (dc) stitches are used.

STARTING:

Start with 200 stitches in the first colour - Grape

Row 1: continuing with Grape ch3 (counts as 1 tr). Tr into each stitch all the way across. At the end be sure to work the last tr into the top of the last st of your starting row.

Row 2: Turn. Ch3 (counts as 1 tr) and continue to work tr st all the way back. Break yarn and join next colour.

Following colour repeat below, continue to work 2 rows of each colour.

Repeat until blanket measures 66” or until desired length.

BORDER

I used 3 colours, working 1 full round of each. Join yarn and work 1 round of dc stitches. At each of the 4 corners, work 1dc, ch2, 1dc. When you get back to the first stitch, join with a slip st to complete the round.

COLOUR ORDER

1067 Grape
1432 Wysteria
1188 Lavender
1302 Denim
1003 Aster
1841 Cornish Blue
1708 Petrol
1062 Teal
1722 Storm Blue
1019 Cloud Blue
1820 Duck egg
1842 Spearmint
1712 Lime
1065 Meadow
1203 Silver

This pattern is offered for free here with love. If you would like a PDF with all the information clearly laid out along with tips and tricks that I, as a by-no-means proficient crocheter found helpful, then you may use the button below to purchase a copy at nominal cost.

Credit: Full credit for the colour choices go to my son, Joseph Tilbrook who dreamt up and then laid out the design. All proceeds from the sale of the PDF go to his college fund.