Hello, hello!! Welcome to the last of this winter's, Winter Project Link Up Party!!! Can you believe we are in March already? I can almost believe that the Spring is very nearly here when looking out of the window at the beautiful sunshine and gorgeous blue sky, the garden studded with delicate crocuses and pale snowdrops....however, walk out of the door into all that loveliness, and goodness me!! The wind near takes your breath away sometimes! It has been really windy and cold, especially in the mornings whilst standing at the bus stop, and I'm still wrapped up in woolly hat and scarf, jogging from foot to foot in an attempt to keep warm. At least it is much lighter in the mornings now. I'm still getting up before the sun, but it is bright enough to not have to turn the lights on to get out of bed.
It's been rather lovely to be able to walk in out of the cold and wrap up warm in my Moorland CAL blanket. You probably all know that for Christmas last year I was given the yarn needed to join in with the crochet-a-long designed and run by Lucy of Attic24, for the Moorland Neat Wave blanket. It has been fascinating to see other participant's progress on social media as we all use the hashtags #moorlandcal and #attic24cal. Some have used the yarn colours but a completely different pattern, some have used the pattern but chosen their own colours, some have used the colours and the pattern but in a different order, and others have followed everything to the letter. If you have access to places like Instagram or Facebook, see what comes up when you search for those hashtags, it's fabulously colourful!
Following on from where I left off a month ago, there was another set of 20 colours for the sky, followed by an extra 15 colour rows and finally, the body of the blanket was complete! It almost snuck up on me as I was concentrating so much on ticking off the colours on my list that it didn't really register that I had ticked my last colour!
The colours have grown on me as the blues were added in. I was concerned about there being too much brown at the bottom and, to be honest, if I were to make this blanket again I would probably remove the brown rows and add another green in its place. But the sky is such a pretty combination that it lifts the whole blanket and I love it all the more.
I did make a teensie weensie change to the directed edging colours, but I was given total permission in the pattern where it said to choose your favourite colours for the border. Lucy used Storm Blue and Lime which I kept, but I swapped her Cypress and Grape for Sage and Plum as I wanted something a little brighter for the edging and I love the strength and depth of colour of the juicy plum. The edging itself I thought was really interesting as the first three rounds are worked into the back stitches only of the previous round which creates a raised line. The final, purple, round is worked into both loops of the previous round which twists it forwards and creates a stronger edge.
It makes my eyes go slightly swirly looking at the blanket for a long time as there are textures within textures and rows crossing rows. The raised textures creates ripples that go the length of the blanket, perpendicular to the actual rows of colour and it feels really lovely when you brush over it with your hands. I have already had this blanket on my bed for the last couple of nights and can confirm that it is lovely and warm and quite dense in comparison to some of my other ripple style blankets.
The cat has of course been watching every stage of this blanket's completion, as is his duty as feline of the household. He likes to sleep on the balls of wool as they are bundled together in the organza bag they arrived in, and he likes to sleep on the blanket whilst you are making it (which causes some issues when you need to turn the blanket for another row), and of course he is called upon when the blanket is ready for the final seal of approval.
I am happy to report that the Moorland Blanket is now fully C.A.T tested and approved!
So if you have popped over from Jen's blog for the WPLUP, thank you for reading this little post and for all of your very supportive comments on my other party posts, it is always lovely to hear from you and I love to pop over to the other side and see what you have been up to this winter. I hope very much that ThistleBear will play host to another link up party when we reach winter once again, and no doubt that will spring itself on us before we know it! So for this month's ThistleBear party post, click here and have a look for yourself at what everyone has been up to.
If you would like to revisit all of my party posts for the winter of 2016/2017, I have listed them below, or you can find them under WPLUP in the category cloud to the right hand side of the page.
Your project is so lovely and colorful and of course the white cat wants to balance all of that lovely color out with some white shedding! I too have a white cat though her hair is just a wee bit longer. She does like to participate in my projects just as yours does :)
ReplyDeleteIt is a pretty blanket, I have been watching the progress on Lucy's blog. I understand what you mean about the brown stripes, I sometimes have that feeling when I follow a pattern that is not my own. I always try and trust the designer on their choices but it is not easy if a colour is chosen that you are not comfortable with. The brown is a very dominant colour on the moors, particularly during the winter months. Glad the cat has given full approval. x
ReplyDeleteHow lovely! Good to see the cat enjoys it.
ReplyDeleteHi Beth, thanks for joining in with my link party! I think your blanket came out beautifully. I've enjoyed watching your progress as well as the whole thing on Lucy's blog. I've never been to the moors but I can well imagine what they must be like now that I've seen this lovely design.
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