Knit, Crochet and Natter 3: Is it really still January?!

[lazylinguist]

All welcome! Previous thread here

I know I shouldn't laugh at something someone made but that's @lucysmam (sorry). The second one is brilliant! I wish I'd been able to crochet when my dc were small enough to appreciate ice pop holders! I used to wrap them in a tea towel. Mind you DS1 (16) would probably love one if I made it look like a unicorn horn.

Ha, it made me laugh too . Dd2 is actually 11, years, not months. She just has a thing for ice cream & ice pops. Oh, and ice cubes. Sucked, on their own with no drink weirdo

scoobygang the job I applied to didn’t have this part included but it’s evolved to that. It doesn’t cause me any issues though. In more likely to experience a bird related issue in town with a child chasing a pigeon than at work out in the countryside where they’re just doing they’re own thing.

So I had to frog 6 rows of the bloody CAL. No idea how but I’d ended up with an extra 3 stitches, which meant an extra shell on grannies. Could not work out the last row of lattice stripe. So I’ve changed colour for that row and I’ve managed to crack it now and just trying to finish part 5 without further incident.

Omg @lucysmam what a fab idea! - I'm stealing it 😂

@InTheNightWeWillWish oh no 😭 how gutting! Somehow in the lattice row I skipped two stitches instead of one so when I got to the end I was so confused until I saw my mistake..which was right at the start so I couldn't be bothered to frog it all the way back so I just added an extra stitch at the end 😂 I don't think it's noticeable and at this point I just want it done so I don't really care (not the attitude to have I know but yeah haha)

@sophs29 I used this pattern but there are loads on Pinterest.

There were light sabres, and disney, and other water themed ones that I saw from a quick scroll :)

Oh brilliant thank you @lucysmam

Thinking about it though, if you do have a go at one; I'm fairly sure that making the fin first, then attaching it to the first few rounds of the actual holder, would give a neater look overall.

I might try it with the lighter rainbow yarn later on just to see.

@sophs29 I have absolutely no idea what I did on that last row. I attempted it twice and couldn’t get the right number of stitches at the end. Both times spotted my mistake but evidently still continued making the mistakes. Third attempt it seemed to work but evidently didn’t but I counted and had the right number. So I continued into grannies and they lined up beautifully, so didn’t question it. As I got to the second row of granny blocks (so close to the end), I noticed I’d lost the straight edge and the blanket had started creeping out. Counted the grannies - all had too many shells, one too many so just 3 tcs. Balled up the wool as I frogged the rows and I’m reusing them now on the exact same rows but I’ve now got really long tails to the end of each row. One tail is 140cm long that was a normal length of about 10cm before I frogged it. So somehow I’m making 3tcs use over 1m of wool I’m going to get DH to count the stitches later as clearly I can’t be trusted but my count is currently right!

Oh no @InTheNightWeWillWish that sounds so frustrating!
I wasn't even bothering to count my stitches but I have started now, and I also get my DP to help 

@CrochetBug the border on your CAL looks lovely! are you happier with it now?

Oh I feel for you, @InTheNightWeWillWish! It's so annoying, especially when you can't quite work out why you went wrong! I've had a few rows mistake-free, but I've certainly done my time in Counting Corner during this CAL!

I hate it when you can't make the stitch count add up! I started making a blanket when I first learnt to crochet. Half way through i decided to check my stitch count. It varied from 30 odd to 50 something

Thanks @sophs29. Yes I love it now!

I love everyone's CALs. It's amazing how different it looks in different colours!

I was hoping to join the KAL, not that I can knit mind! I had what I thought was the perfect yarn. Then I realised its made with Aran weight, and the yarn i have is DK. I'm not sure adapting the size on my first ever project is sensible. Is it?

I'm on the border of my blanket and not happy. It's fine on 3 edges but the side where all my ends are sewn in is a mess. I'm not sure whether to carry on and live with it or pull the lot and not bother with the border

Are all your ends on one side @tizwozliz? Mine were all over! There's a couple of places where it looked a bit... not great. I usually do a round of dc to set up for a border and hide all the messy bits but just couldn't be bothered although I was tempted. And now it's all done there's so much colour everywhere that i don't think it shows unless you look really closely.

Yes, this is my woodland blanket so all the ends end up on the same side as each stripe is two rows of stitches

Of course, sorry! I forgot anyone is doing anything other than the CAL

I'm not sure the KAL pattern is agreed-upon yet, @CrochetBug. I'm definitely happy to go for the Versa Cowl - I love it! But I'm not sure who else on the thread wanted to join in with a KAL. Maybe it's time to suggest a tentative show of hands and ask if anyone's got any other suggestions apart from the Versa Cowl? I also posted a suggestion, which was the Coffee Shop Wrap here but that's aran weight yarn too!

If we do the Versa Cowl, I'd be interested to know if anyone can work out what colour of Malabrigo Rios has been used in the original picture I really like the effect and would want to try and use the same yarn!

I’m back at granny blocks on part 5 (which is where I was last night). I’m thinking ahead to the border and I’m thinking of changing it from my list. I have odd amounts of yarn left. Some will probably do one round of the border and some have got loads left and I definitely need to find new projects for (not the yarns that the designer identified either, my smallest ball is the one that she recommended doing the swatch in because there was more of that left ). I’ve currently got 3 rounds of turquoise down on my list, with a dusky pink, mustard and a beige. The dusky pink and the beige will probably do a round each as they’re meant to and I don’t need to worry about finding a scrap buster for them. However, I’ve got loads of the gold, purple and turquoise left, which I really liked when I used those 3 colours earlier in my blanket. That section isn’t halfway, it’s about 3/4 of the way through the blanket and I’m a bit worried it will look odd replicating that on the border. As there’s loads of yarn left for those, I could probably spin those out into a separate project by themselves, especially if I pad it out with a cream/white. Plus the turquoise and purple might be quite heavy for a border? I’ve got two fairly full balls of turquoise in ever so slightly different shades, so it doesn’t matter which turquoise I use round the outside, so I can still use the smaller balls with turquoise and have a turquoise left for the gold and purple.

It's looking beautiful, @InTheNightWeWillWish- I love your colours! I'm at the Granny Blocks too. I've just been looking at how to start repeating sections. I've decided just to start repeating from the beginning of Part 1 until it's long enough (minus the initial Granny Blocks from Part 1, otherwise I'd have a double section of Granny Blocks!). When it comes to the border, I'm considering doing a plain several rows of dc in 1 colour border like I did on my othet blanket.

Well the border is done. Not entirely happy with it but it'll do. It's not bad enough for me to start over.

Rewarding myself for finishing with a yarn order. I've finally decided on my temperature blanket design - will be 365 hexagons, one for each day. So getting yarn ordered for that plus the baby blanket and maybe a few other bits :-)

I'm not loving the border on my ripple blanket either. I really need to find a way of eliminating gaps on the turning chains. I've seen lots but always forget to actually try them

@CrochetBug .... I'd be interested on tips to solve this too. I didn't realise there were ways to stop it.

My plan for this evening is to test some techniques. I will report on my findings

Thanks lazy.

I’ve finished part 5 and have a few ends to see in. I’m hoping to get as many as I can done before dinner, as I won’t be able to do much after. It’s our anniversary today, so we have a restaurant at home kit with cocktails. We’re adding wine and champagne to that so I’ll be in no state to sew in ends after that. But hopefully I won’t be too worse for wear tomorrow then I can crack on with my border.

Ooob @tizwozliz I like the sound of a hexagon temperature blanket!
I know that people can frown on them a little but Im really enjoying mine, and I love the fact that you don't have to make decisions about what colour goes next, and its got a little extra meaning behind it.

@sophs29 the tail on those ice pop holders is much easier to position properly if you make it first and then attach it. I did it at round 5, on this one I'm doing now & the pink one I made this afternoon, for my colleague's grandkids.

I also increased round 4 to 16sts (inc, sc, sc x4 to give 16) then carried on to round 20 with 16sts. It's a bit easier to get the ice pop in with the extra stitch :)