Stylecraft Blogstars Garden Party!

Hi everyone!

It's been an age - racing around after tiny people certainly doesn't allow much time for blogging, or crafting, or... well, pretty much anything else. Allie is 4 years old today, and the time has absolutely flown! 

We were so excited when Stylecraft and the Blogstars suggested a Garden Party for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this year - we hope you visited JosieKitten's blog for her gorgeous Macaron circular cushion pattern on Friday! 

The Garden Party concept was just the creative spark we needed to put together a new design in our Bargello series. This is our Bargello Ribbon Table Runner (all photos in this post credit to Stylecraft Yarns and their amazing photography and design team). 

I've had this design mumbling around in the back of my head for ages, but just haven't had time to activate my almonds and get it out of the brain and into some yarn. It's based on a quilted bargello table runner that my mum has in a glorious patchwork pattern book, but in a pastel rainbow. I love the illusion of the ribbon twisting around itself up your table!

As with our existing bargello patterns, I'm not going to lie - the style of writing the pattern is a bit strange. Please know that I tried as many different ways of writing the pattern as I could think of, and this was the clearest! I encourage you to read it all (even the boring introduction bit), and watch the videos linked in the pattern, and always reach out (on social media, or by email to wrappedwithlovebymichelle@gmail.com is more reliable than commenting here) if you need a hand to get going. The pattern has been tested by three crocheters of varying skill levels, and the text independently reviewed. 

A plus for purchasers between now and December 31, 2022 - US$2.50 (over half the purchase price after fees) will be donated to The Rotary Foundation's End Polio Now campaign. Rotary has been working to defeat polio for over 35 years now, and worldwide cases have reduced by 99.9% in that time. There are only two countries now where polio is endemic, and ever decreasing numbers of wild polio cases in the world. As a proud Rotarian, I'm honoured to be able to support this very worthy cause. We are THIS CLOSE to ending the scourge of polio worldwide.

And now, the pattern! To view or purchase the pattern on Ravelry, go here:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bargello-ribbon-table-runner

Keep bloghopping on 24 May to Janie Crow, who has created some really special decorations for our Garden Party!  

Yarn Review: You and Me!

Hey everybody! 

What an epic year we've had! Life regularly seems close to normal here in Australia, but we are still having outbreaks and mini lockdowns.

In between work and Rotary and now chasing two tiny humans around, I've had some time to try out Stylecraft's (now not all that new) yarn, You and Me. 

In short, I LOVE IT - and definitely not because they sent the first ball to me for free. As proof, I've been back to one of the big online retailers and bought more for myself to make jumpers for the kids. 

I made one of my Impossible Hexagon Sweaters for Allie first, and it came up so rich and warm and sturdy, I can't imagine she will ever be able to wear it out. 

The yarn is an acrylic and cashmere-effect polyamide blend - it feels like it has the strength and stitch definition of cotton, but the warmth of acrylic and just so ridiculously soft and silky. 

I wanted to branch out this year to some different cardigan and jumper designs, and my eyes just about jumped out of my head when I spotted the Jasmine Sweater by Mon Petit Violon... yes yes yes yes yes!

It's taken weeks of scraping out a few minutes here and there, but finally I finished it last night, and couldn't wait to share it here! 

(Please excuse the grubbiness of the model - she had an excellent play with her new textas *eyeroll*) 

I love how the self-striping yarn worked in with the pattern. Often I find that highly textured designs lose all their effect when worked with other than a plain coloured yarn, but this worked really well -  I think it looks a bit like a Monet?

It's so cosy warm too which is fortunate, because it looks like Sydney is in for a very cold and dry winter. 

Check that stitch definition! I did have to fiddle with the pattern a bit to get the sleeves to fit, but I do have a very long skinny bean to clothe. Her little brother seems to be going the same way, although already much bigger than she was at this age. 

Do you have any other toddler/preschooler jumper or cardigan patterns you can suggest for me to try crocheting for this monkey? I'd love to hear your suggestions! 

BAWJ2019 - Weeks 7 and 8!

Hi everyone! 

It's March! How can it possibly be March already - 2019 is zipping by at a terrifying rate. We've survived two weeks of multiple night shifts here and Miss Allie has her first tooth! 

I have been working on my miniaturisation project over the last few weeks in between feeding the baby 7 times a day (hurgh I liked it better when she just had milk), persuading her to have naps and keeping up with work. So far I have 5 tiny monsters, and #6 is in progress but having a rest while I make a hippo for a lovely friend's upcoming tiny human! 

This week's post is a bit later than usual because Square 8 of the BAWJ2019 took me somewhat longer than previous weeks for reasons which I will describe below... 

If you want to join in on BAWJ2019, check out Julie's Facebookgroup, blog and Ravelry Board for more information.

WEEK 7 - JOYFUL by TAMARA KELLY

Pattern: https://www.mooglyblog.com/joyful-afghan-square-12/ 

Yarn colours: Krypton, Silver, Teal, Mint

This square was ok! I did alter the instructions slightly so I didn't have quite so many silver ends from the overlay rounds, just by starting in a different spot. 

It worked up fairly well, although it irritates my symmetrical mind that the mandala isn't straight on the square. 

I almost like the back better - the combination of colours and stitches (and the beautiful Batik yarn) gives it an impressionist look!


WEEK 8 - MOONLIGHT GARDEN SQUARE by ANNA PISKORZ

Pattern: https://aloopofsunshinecrochet.com/block-a-week-cal-2019-moonlight-garden-square/


Yarn colours: Phosphorus, Cream, Raspberry, Gold, Violet

Hoo boy, this was an interesting square. Pretty? Yes, I'll give it that. I liked the way the circular centre was squared up - very clever and much less awkward than other methods I have seen. 

I do not want to seem ungrateful because these lovely designers are offering squares for the BAWJ2019 for free, but... it makes me really disappointed when designers don't take pride in presenting a great, well-designed, well laid out pattern. And this one was a real challenge, not in a fun way. 

Julie noted as a "fun fact" in her introductory blog post that the designer has never made an afghan before! This became very obvious when there were two rows that had 16ch strings along the back. It's true, they aren't visible from the front. But as anyone who has ever made or used an afghan can tell you, having such long loose strings along the back can be very unpleasant for the toes as well as affecting the tension of the square! I ended up catching the chain strings into the following row to try and mitigate this a bit. But, you can see how the overlay crochet is sitting right up off the surface of the underlying stitches due to the tension of the chain strings behind. 

There were some issues with the pattern as well. In some places the colour change was not marked clearly, and the layout was not super easy to follow. 

The stitch counts and instructions for Rounds 18 and 19 didn't match. It was very confusing, caused a few bouts of ripping back and retrying before I could make it work. In case you're making this and are as perplexed as I was, I worked Rounds 18 and 19 as follows:

Round 18 - *working in BLO, hdc in first two st of one side including the first hidden st, 15 star stitches across, hdc in last two st, (hdc, ch2, hdc) in corner ch2sp*. repeat 4 times. (6hdc and 15 star st on each side) 

Round 19 - *hdc in first three st of one side including first hidden st (where Round 18 joined), hdc in top of Round 18 hdc to start first star st, 2hdc in eye of each star stitch, hdc in last 3 st, (hdc, ch2, hdc) in corner ch2sp* repeat 4 times (39 hdc on each side) 

More than one hdc round also twists a square quite badly because the top of the stitch is so far to the right of the post, as you can see in the back shot of this square:

Hopefully the power of peer pressure will pull it back into line once we join them all together.

Onwards and upwards! 

Stylecraft Blogstar Tour 2018: Stacking Hexagon Baskets

Welcome to Crochet Between Worlds for the Stylecraft Blogstar Tour! 

This year's Blogstar Tour yarn is Bellissima which came out earlier this month. Man, we are in love (and we are not obliged to say so!!) - it is incredibly soft and lovely to work with. It is effectively the grown up version of the Bambino yarn we made Michelle's baby blanket out of! 

So when we were asked to design a pattern with the yarn, we were very happy to do so! Unfortunately this year, we are both incredible busy during the Blogtour (and before) with life, so please bear with us if there aren't super fancy tutorials and pictures. We do have good excuses though (we think): Michelle has a newborn at home and Anne just moved country from Germany to the Netherlands last week!

The pack we used for our design is called Autumn Leaves (scroll down for a chance to win this pack!). It contains five colors and a skein has 100 grams. 

If you follow our blog, you know that we dislike sewing. And we love useful and easy things. Combining these "features" the Stacking Hexagon Baskets were born. They can we used for everything really... a bread basket, a toy basket or whatever tickles your fancy. When not used, they can easily stacked into each other, so they won't be space eaters. We hope you like them as much as we do!

Want to win a Autumn Leaves Yarn Pack to make these baskets? The giveaway is open until 10am GMT tomorrow! The giveaway is run by Stylecraft yarns.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tomorrow the Blogtour will stop at Cherry Heart! 

Make sure not to miss out on the other Blogstars' patterns (and more chances to win yarn). The tour will run for quite a few more days.

You can visit their blogs here: Crystals and Crochet, Get Knotted Yarn Craft, Every Trick on the Hook, Zooty Owl, Lucia's Fig Tree, Cherry Heart, Hand Knitted Things, Josiekitten, The Twisted Yarn, Annaboo's House, Crafternoon Treats, The Patchwork Heart, Emma Varnam,  Jane Crowfoot and Catherine's Crochet Corner.

Anyway without further ado.... the Stacking Hexagon Baskets!

---------------------------------------------------

FREE PATTERN: Stacking Hexagon Baskets
---------------------------------------------------

Queue and favourite on Ravelry here: 
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stacking-hexagon-baskets

Materials:

5 balls of Stylecraft Bellissima or other 8 ply yarn

4mm hook

scissors

yarn needle

Stitches:

US terminology

st – stitch

slst – slip stitch

ch – chain

dc – double crochet

Notes:

1. Use the same pattern for all 4 baskets - just add rows to each hexagon to make each consecutive basket bigger: 

• Basket 1 - 4 rows
• Basket 2 - 6 rows
• Basket 3 - 8 rows
• Basket 4 - 10 rows. 

There is enough yarn to make another 4 row basket, possibly 6 rows depending on your colour choices. The size 8 and 10 baskets are real yarn eaters - they look very innocent but man they are hungry! 

2. The first three hexagons of each basket are made in Colour A, and the second three in Colour B.

JAYG INSTRUCTIONS

Basically, the joining method is to drop the loop from your hook, insert your hook front to back through the top two loops of the corresponding dc on the adjacent hexagon, pick up the loop again and pull it through. 

For joining to one corner: After the first dc in a corner chain space, Ch1, drop loop from your hook, insert hook front to back through the chain space you want to join to, pick up the loop again and pull it through. Ch1. continue with the second dc in the corner space.

For joining to two corners: After the join to the final dc, ch1, drop loop from your hook, insert hook front to back through the first corner chain space you want to join to, pick up the loop again and pull it through. Ch1, drop loop from your hook, insert hook front to back through the second corner chain space you want to join to, pick up the loop again and pull it through. Ch1, continue with the second dc in the corner space. 

I've had another go at a brief tutorial video - I hope it helps! 

PATTERN

Start with a magic circle

Row 1: ch5, (2dc, 2ch) 5 times, dc, join to 3^rd of ch5 with slst.

Row 2: slst into chain space, (ch5, dc into same chain space). *dc in each dc, (dc, ch2, dc) into chain space.* Repeat * to *, omitting last dc on final corner. slst to 3^rd of ch5 with slst to close.

Hexagon 1:

Repeat Row 2 until the hexagon is the correct number of rows. 

Hexagon 2:

Repeat Row 2 until you are one row short of the correct number of rows. On the final row, JAYG to Hexagon 1 on two sides.

Hexagon 3:

Repeat Row 2 until you are one row short of the correct number of rows. On the final row, JAYG to Hexagons 1 and 2 on 4 sides.

Hexagon 4:

Repeat Row 2 until you are one row short of the correct number of rows. On the final row, JAYG to Hexagons 1 and 2 on 2 sides.

Hexagon 5:

Repeat Row 2 until you are one row short of the correct number of rows. On the final row, JAYG to Hexagons 2, 3 and 4 on 4 sides.

Hexagon 6:

Repeat Row 2 until you are one row short of the correct number of rows. On the final row, JAYG to Hexagons 1, 3, 4 and 5 on ALL sides.

(The giveaway is run by Stylecraft Yarns, so this makes this a sponsored post. Please note that even though we are Stylecraft Blogstars, we are not obliged to say anything nice or bad about the yarns - we can share our opinions freely and we aren't compensated monetary in any way).