Bee My Baby blanket

Poised for a ta-da moment?

I started making this honeycomb hexie blanket what feels like absolute yonks ago and I'm over the moon to be able to share it with you at long last! This is my second ever crochet blanket design and, due to my love of both bees and the colour yellow, it's an instant fave.  

After finding the ultimate grellow palette in DROPS' Cotton Merino range, I got hooking. A little bit of maths was required, to figure out how many hexies I'd need in each colour to make one big hexagon. This yarn is an absolute winner - super soft and really good stitch definition. I've been using the leftovers to make cute baby bootees. 

Many, many hexies later and the blanket was complete. My favourite bit was creating the little daisies and the bees with their flappy wings! And, not only am I chuffed with it, but pattern is in Simply Crochet issue 65. 

I'm hoping to be able to give my finished bee blanket sample to a special new tiny one in the fam soon! Not bad for the last FO of the year, I reckon. What's been your fave 2018 make? 

Kitchener stitch and patterns on Ravelry!

Between the day job and my To Be Adorned side hustle, I'm managing to cram in few sneaky rows of knitting here and there. We've moved a little further out of the city centre so my day generally includes a bus journey or two, which is prime stitching time! 

As usual, I had grand ideas about all the amazing yarny gifts I was going to make for Christmas gifts this year, but as the end of November is fast-approaching, I'm going to have to swallow the craft guilt, scale it back and make peace with working on with my WIP instead. When you think about it, it is a bit bonkers to feel guilty about your own unrealistic goals that only you knew about anyway. Currently on my needles is a pair of Edith mittens, and while I shouldn't have to justify making something for myself instead of Christmas gifts, I do actually need a pair.

I'm using the leftover red DROPS Nepal yarn from my Miette cardigan (so cosy) to knit these, and am loving the simple lace design. So far I've completed the first mitten, minus the thumb, and am well into the ribbing on the second. All plain sailing, until it got to grafting the top of the mitten together. Knitting socks isn't really my thing and I've never grafted stitches before, so this Purl Bee tutorial on Kitchener stitch came in very handy. I literally couldn't have figured it out otherwise. I'm not quite sure I've nailed it, I think it could be neater. Do you have any tips or good resources for Kitchener stitch? 

The other yarn-related news is *drumroll* two of my Simply Crochet designs are now available to buy on Ravelry! My Over the Rainbow ripple crochet blanket and Figgy Pudding festive hat topper patterns are out in the big wide world. While I've added the odd simple design to Ravelry before, this is the first time anything's gone up for sale.



It's been a while since I've chatted yarn here, so I'd love to know what's on your hook / needles right now and what's in your Ravelry queue. Fill me in!

off the hook: over the rainbow crochet blanket

It's no secret – I've been AWOL for some time because I've been busy making all of the things ever. One of which is this crochet blanket. The fab news is, not only is my latest blanket off the hook, I designed it and the pattern is in the new issue of Simply Crochet magazine! Wahoo! Grab a copy of issue 56 if you fancy making it (shameless plug). 

Blankets are always a bit of commitment. They're a labour of love, really, as they take such a long time to make. But when I first clapped eyes on these fantastically over-saturated, Crayola-esque colours, I instantly felt a crochet blanket coming on. Have you ever had that feeling? When you discover a new yarn and it just shouts it's intentions at you? Sometimes it's "I NEED to be a cardigan!" or "I'm a shawl! I'm a shawl!", but it could equally be "Keep me in your stash and squish me". In fact, most yarns seem to say that to me. 

Not KnitPicks Shine Worsted, though. These babies were destined to become a rainbow crochet blanket and no mistake. Zig-zagging ripples were the order of the day, so I played with a few different stitch combos and settled on this repeat with clusters and back loop details to highlight the colour changes in the stripes. The texture and colour changes are what kept things interesting through this project. I just couldn't wait to see how the pattern would look in the next shade of yarn, and the next, and the next. Colour is very exciting, you guys. 

Naturally, I fell head-over-heels for this yarn during the process. The sheen, smoothness and depth of colour in KnitPick Shine Worsted is amazing, and it's loosely plied without being splitty at all. I'm currently plotting what to make with the leftover scraps. Maybe some granny squares for a rainbow cushion? I'll keep you posted.

Mr P kinda loves this design too. He keeps asking when we'll get the sample back and we've decided it'll take pride of place on the sofa for lap blanket duties. I often joke that I'm never happier than when I'm in a blanket, but in a rainbow crochet blanket of my own design I'm sure to be ecstatic.