Rooster Yarn

My newest work in progress started when The Mother bought me a yarn park from The Homemakery. It is quite a posh pack, the most expensive wool I've ever used! This particular one is made by Rooster and is an Almerino Aran, 50% Baby Alpaca and 50% Merino Wool, and comes in the most gorgeously rich colours (50g balls). The Homemakery have put together a selection to make up a yarn pack and The Mother chose their Merry Berry Yarn Pack for me.

From top left round the colours are:

Brighton Rock * Sorbet * Mushroom * Spiced Plum * Strawberry Cream *

This wool is so soft, it is lovely to work with and my fingers were itching to make something with it almost as soon as the present was opened. The fact that the colour palette is already chosen for you and that the colours just work together makes things very easy when starting out. Any colour to come out of the bag next will be the next round colour.

I was very excited and have made just over 20 squares now since Boxing Day. The 50g balls together made about 12 squares and I have since ordered another pack from The Homemakery myself, which arrived very quickly and with a hand written note! Love touches like that.

This is a really lovely square pattern to use. It works up very quickly and once the pattern is in your head it just flows off the hook which is appreciated when all you want is some relaxing, almost mindless crochet. The pattern comes from my tried and tested 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans Book by Jan Eaton which I bought about three years ago and refer to all the time when starting a new blanket. I love the lacy star pattern which is inside the block, whilst the rows of treble stitches give it a really solid and firm feel- gorgeous!

Although my colour use started off quite random, I was quite conscious that I haven't used 50g balls before, usually I go for the cheap and cheerful Stylecraft Acyrlic yarns which come in 100gs and go a lot further, and I felt that some sort of strategy was needed so that I didn't overuse one colour. There are four colours needed for each square but five colours of yarn so I have been keeping a chart of which colours I have used to for square and made sure that an even number has been used. So far it seems to be working quite well, as long as I remember to document the colours of the rounds and not get carried away!
I presume this is going to be a blanket, albeit the most expensive one ever made by me, and will let you know how I get on!