Ripple Star Blanket - PATTERN LINK

It's just the beginning of our home isolation due to COVID-19. I finished the week's section on my Crochet Along last Friday. I've been spending this last week inventorying our stock of supplies, and purchasing what we need for the next month or so...NOT hoarding, mind you. Just what we would need.
Everything's been cancelled. All my kid's activities, sports, (we already homeschool, so school's not cancelled!!), and even CHURCH is cancelled. I have a leadership role in my local congregation so all my meetings have been cancelled. ALL of this means I had a lot of extra crocheting time.
I have a few ladies I know who are having babies in the coming months. I wasn't planning on making anything for them, but now that I have all this extra time, I decided to find a pattern to make something small and simple for them.
Enter this lovely pattern by Celeste Young:


https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rainbow-ripple-baby-blanket

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase an item through one of the links on this site, I may receive a small percentage of that sale at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure policy.Thank you for helping support this blog!

However, since I didn't want to leave the house, I had to make this using yarn in my stash. I had an idea... what if I used Mandala yarn by Lion Brand?!!

I happened to have a few skeins of this lovely Lion Brand Mandala Yarn in the color scheme called Pixie. It's super cute, gender neutral, and so I decided to give it a go.

I started work on the blanket and felt like it was going to take forever. At least, if I were to JUST use the Mandala yarn by itself.... So I had an idea... WHAT IF I added a solid color strand of Caron Simply Soft and crochet the two strands together?! This way it would add bulkiness and make the pattern work up quicker.

I've done this before for several patterns. However, round patterns can be tricky because there is a lot of math involved. Sometimes the designer didn't' have a larger scale in mind, and the yarn just would warp, or not lay flat. So I was nervous to start over and maybe have it not work out.

But BOY WAS I WRONG. Not only did it work, but it worked AMAZINGLY. I loved how it was turning out that I accidentally finished the skein (and blanket) that night. Oops!

Materials used:
2 skeins Caron Simply Soft - White
1 skein Mandala Yarn (Pixie is what I used, but you can use any color combo.
J hook (6.00mm) for stiffer blanket, K (6.50mm) hook for looser blanket

Gauge: 
Using the J hook, the blanket turned out 35" across from point to point. Using the K hook, the blanket turned out 36" across from point to point.

Crochet the pattern as written by Celeste, only using the two strands held together. Here's the link to the pattern again. You will absolutely LOVE the way it turned out. You will run out of the white one time, and just add the second strand of yarn and keep going. The self-striping yarn makes a beautiful design without having to cut and attach new strands every few rows.

It's beautiful!! I hope you do make one using my two-strand technique!

Custom Order - Crochet Chicken

Occasionally I'll post in my local Mom's group that I crochet, and I invite them to like my Instagram or join my facebook page. I post with the hope that I'll get more followers, not custom orders.
I find that custom orders can be tricky, if the client is very specific about what they want, color demands, or specific pattern requirements.... and usually they want to pay pennies for my time put into the project.
Well, last month I did my usual "check me out!" post and I got a private message with a custom order request. The request was simple, she wanted a crochet chicken to give as a gift. She shared a free pattern on Pinterest that she liked, and I quoted a fair price for the materials and time it would take to make it. At this point, I'm kind of holding my breath because I'm expecting hostile negotiations about to begin....But she gladly accepted my price and while I couldn't start right away, I was excited and happy to work on this project for her. And I think it turned out lovely!

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase an item through one of the links on this site, I may receive a small percentage of that sale at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure policy.Thank you for helping support this blog!

Link to pattern: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hen

I started out by working on the various appendages. They're smaller and work up faster. It's easier to squeeze in those pieces when I need a break from my other projects. I wanted to work up the body in one sitting, so the tension would be the same throughout the piece. So I started that one later.

I got all the pieces put together, and all that was left was the assembly!

I didn't want to stuff it the way it was with the fiber fill. The yarn we decided on (Lion Brand Hometown USA - White) was bulky so it left larger holes between stitches. I took some white fabric from my stash and sewed an insert in the appropriate shape, and put a little bead pouch at the bottom to help weigh it down. I was VERY PLEASED with the way it turned out!!!

Isn't she so cute! I probably should have made some little eggs to go with it! How cute would that have been?!

Happy Crocheting!

Flower Puddles Blanket - Pattern Review

I somehow stumbled across this beautiful pattern from the MadMadMe blog:

http://madmadme.com/flower-puddles-collection/

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flower-puddles-ripples-blanket

**Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase an item through one of the links on this site, I may receive a small percentage of that sale. See my full disclosure policy.Thank you for helping support this blog!


And I fell in love! The pattern is now $4.00 and as a pattern writer, I have a hard time purchasing patterns if I absolutely cannot come up with a similar design on my own (for my own use). I couldn't get very far so I took the plunge and purchased the pattern and I love love love how it turned out.

I began working on in right away. I got so excited to see the ripples form and the petals blooming. I just love the way the back post double crochet stitches make an elegant design across the entire blanket. It only took me about 2 weeks and I was able to finish a 26" mini blanket.

I really love this color yarn. As you might know, I use, almost exclusively, Caron's simply soft yarn. This color is called soft green, although I like to think of it as a muted mint. The color is so gorgeous this photos simply don't do it justice.

The soft green blanket took me 2 skeins of yarn with a size J hook. The pattern continues so you can make it as big as you want but I decided to stop at this point.

I loved this pattern so much, I have already started a second pattern made with two strands instead of one. I'm interested to see how large this piece will work up, and I love how the thicker yarn is making the ridges and ripples more defined. 

I purchased this pattern on Ravelry:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/flower-puddles-ripples-blanket

and I highly recommend the pattern. I wasn't a huge fan of how the pattern was written, the author put in parenthesis the British crochet terminology right inside the pattern, which was written in US terminology. It was kind of agitating to look for a stitch count only to have those terminology bits stand out so much. 

The pattern is written out in a paragraph format, so there are no shortcut quick reference to look at really quickly to remember what I'm supposed to do for a certain round. After working through the pattern I simply wrote down one line translating the paragraph format into a shorthand crochet pattern so that I could quickly review what the pattern was for that line. It made it SOO much easier and I was able to work through the pattern much more quickly with the reference.

I also had a problem with gauge. There is no explicit gauge on the pattern, only that "if it starts buckling, use a larger hook". I know I crochet a little tightly, so I went up from an H hook recommended by the yarn manufacturer to a J. There was still buckling in the back but I think it is going to happen no matter what because of how many back post double crochets are in the pattern.

Overall, I am very satisfied with my purchase and I highly recommend this design.

Happy crocheting!!