It's Crochet, Knit & Natter 10: New Year, New Yarn, New Thread!

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

Time for a new thread for all the lovely yarn crafters!

Old thread here: http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/artsandcrafts/4557189-its-crochet-knit-natter-9-so-many-projects-so-little-time-oh-well-i-almost-made-it-rhymee_

@WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally @QuantumWeatherButterfly Thank you for your suggestions. Much appreciated

I do enjoy making crochet toys, especially as I have a purpose for doing them. My dd's interests spark my projects, I've made Harry Potter toys, minecraft, mario, Pokémon etc. I also make toys to accompany stories as my DH is a year 2 teacher, so I've made crayons for The Day the crayons quit, a fox for Fantastic Mr Fox etc

My next project will be a dog coat! My puppy needs a coat so I'm going to save the pennies and make one. Found a great free pattern on ravelry.

Let me know how you get on with the dog coat, @Whyisitdarkalready - I'm going to be making one in the autumn for my SIL’s dog. I’d do it sooner, but he’s still growing, and she’s asked for an adult sized one so I can’t get the measurements until then.

@Whyisitdarkalready I also want to make some dog jumpers for my mums dogs, I've already sewn coats for them and I just think little jumpers would be so cute!

I taught myself to crochet 4 days ago. 2 photos 4 days apart. Feeling impressed. I can only do this so far. So next up is pick up a YouTube tutorial and find another stitch.

@Whyisitdarkalready This counting toy is what I’m currently making and might be of interest for your DH. I also have a fairytale amigurumi book that I got from Amazon and has the characters from red riding hood, rapunzel, 3 little pigs, Snow White. For Christmas I also got the Edward’s imaginarium which is a create your own monster guide, which might be fun for DD or DH to take into work. Some of the knot monster patterns might be nice, the ones I was looking at for my DD were bunny olympics, sports and food. My DD is 1 but bunnies are her favourite, your DD might be too old for bunny olympics but imagine it would go down well at school with DH’s class.

@BryanAdamsLeftAnkle very neat. Keep going. It feels weird until one day it doesn’t and it’s just muscle memory!

Ah found you all! I’ve finally finished my temperature blanket and it’s massive (the pic is on a double bed). It’s nice and warm though so it’s currently on the sofa for evening tv watching.

That looks lovely, @StillNiceCardigan - I am in awe, I wouldn't have the patience!

Looking great, @BryanAdamsLeftAnkle, keep up the good work

That’s lovely @StillNiceCardigan! Impressive dedication to keep it up for a year!

Wow @BryanAdamsLeftAnkle, that’s brilliant! You’ve got the knack

I think it’s beautiful @WeCanLiveLikeJackAndSally, I’m sure your mum will be thrilled, I would be!

I’m so close to finishing my slipover and I’ve just realised I forgot a band of moss stitch. Not sure how I managed that but I’m continuing anyway. I’ve my next project lined up to start and it’s this one www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/grey-havens

@StillNiceCardigan that blanket looks amazing. knowing my stamina with blankets I've never started a temperature one so am always I a we of those who manage to complete it.

Im also new to this thread.

I can knit and crochet. But at the moment im favouring crochet, comes up so much quicker.

Im currently doing a baby blanket for a friend. Rainbow with clouds round the edge.

I really want to do a temperature blanket, i tried one years ago but i couldnt crochet at the time so knitted it. I did like 5 rows then gave up lol.

Where can i find the temperature for the past few days? as this thread has only just reminded me of temperature blankets.
also how do you decide on colours and which time to pick to know the temperature?

Finished my mums wrist warmers. Technically still Christmas so they aren't late

in the 1.5 hours since discoverig this thread and seeing the mention of a temperature blanket, i have ordered yarn and a shade card and little wooden buttons for each month lol. yeah my impulsiveness in full swing. and plnned it out. just need to find out the temperature for the last four days for my chosen place. we shall see. going to do lowest temperature for october to march then highest for april to september.

Christmas is absolutely not over until Saturday @CrochetBug . I've just finished DH's hat . Spanish people exchange Christmas presents on 12th night so I'm bang on time.

I did do the one that (I think) @QuantumWeatherButterfly suggested so thanks for that ( although I changed the brim). I made DH try it on with his eyes closed today and it IS big enough!

Can anyone recommend a chunky burgundy yarn that's not too expensive and all or mostly natural fibre? I ordered the Drops Air Ruby but it's too purple for my taste. I want to to a long chunky 60s style scarf but I can't find a yarn I both like and can afford.

I haven’t found many places with reliable temperatures but this seems to have the recent ones.

www.visualcrossing.com/weather-history?s=wd&location=

I’m doing the highest temperature of the day for first half of the row and lowest temperature of the day for the second half of the row.

When I was picking colours I used this site as you can select your colours and assign them to your temperatures to see examples of how they would look based on previous years.

www.temperature-blanket.com/info/project/2909/london-england-united-kingdom-from-01-01-2004-to-31-12-2004/

I used an average daily temperature for mine from here www.wunderground.com/history/weekly/gb/bishop's-stortford/EGSS
and my colours cover ranges of 3 degrees although I did need to choose an extra colour for the summer as it was so hot. I knitted a little key for the back of the blanket to show the order of the colours. I used yarn from hobby craft so that I could easily get hold of it if I needed an extra ball.

They’re gorgeous @CrochetBug! I love them! Did you make up the pattern yourself?

Oh, I am so cross with myself! I have screwed up one of the sleeves of DD's Granny-Go-Round jumper.

I knew I was playing yarn chicken on it, and worked out that I was absolutely down to the wire with the amount of yarn I have for 2 of the 4 colours. In an attempt to make it go a bit further, I decided to try and take the yarn inside the sleeves without tying off to avoid having multiple tails wasted, but it looked really messy so I decided not to continue. But instead of doing the obvious thing and just taking it back, I fastened off instead, and then I noticed a mistake in one of the rounds. If I take it back now, I definitely won't have enough as I can't reuse the yarn I have (I don't think - when I've accounted for what I lose when I rejoin, plus the tails, there wouldn't be enough anyway).

In the meantime, I've started the other sleeve while I wait for the extra yarn I ordered to arrive, hoping that the dyelots aren't too different given that the colours aren't right next to each other. If it's OK, I'll take it back and redo it - but I don't even have the band for one of them so I don't even know if I've ordered the right one. Aaaaaaargh!

@SpinMeRightRoundBabyRightRound not this time no, but finding a few bits in the pattern that didn't make sense/ didn't add up means I've designed a similar pair in my head. I just need to find the time to make them!

They are on ravelry here

@StillNiceCardigan lovely blanket. I’m about 6.5 months behind in mine…

@fidgetcube I used this site for my temperature data. I used the high at midday and the location changed if we were away for a night. I used a rainbow scale because I’d bought the wool for another project but decided I wanted to do this instead. As it was so hot in the summer I ended up buying two more balls of yarn (aubergine and purple). I also ended up not using any teal so I could have shifted them all a bracket - whereas if I’d done last December I’d have used the teal loads (my blanket is my DDs first year so it goes from Nov to Nov). As Nov and Dec 2021 were so mild, I have quite a lot of ‘fir’ in my blanket and had I known that I’d have probably picked a slightly different colour scheme! I guess that’s the thing about temperature blankets though you aren’t sure how much of each colour will end up in it.

Thank you guys for all your replies on the temperature blanket front.

I have decided to do 5 degree gaps so it’s a little bit cheaper and I don’t have to buy quite so many yarns.

I have quite a specific location I want to do, so I actually contacted the guy who runs Highlands and Islands weather Facebook group/page. And he gave me the link to the wunderground site for the specific location I want. but thank you for all the links.

im excited. Just need my yarn to come now. And hopefully I can keep this up.

They’re so lovely @CrochetBug!

I hate patterns that are badly written. I bought one recently because it was only £2 but it was dreadful and I ended up having to work it out myself for the fiddly bit I thought was worth paying £2 to avoid having to work out!

Wow - lots of posts since I last popped in! Welcome @BryanAdamsLeftAnkle - looks like you're making great progress wthe crochet! I've got some brand new crocheters at my school knit & crochet club and they are getting there too.

Absolutely love those gloves, @CrochetBug - I keep meaning to make some fingerless ones! And @StillNiceCardigan the blanket looks fab!

I'm hopefully about to cast on the hat I'm going to make with my handspun alpaca. The second skein is soaking right now - I just wound it off the bobbin. I'm glad I did something spinning-related today, because it turns out that 7th January is Distaff Day which I only just found out about!

For those that are starting temperature blankets or just finished one this might be of interest.

Can’t wait to see your hat @Fairislefandango! I’ve been switching between spinning merino/silk fibre and whitefaced woodland and I’m really enjoying the contrast between the two.

Hi all I'd love to join this thread. I mainly crochet but am quite determined to learn how to knit this year.
I've not been able to do much over Christmas because of work, but now I'm off for a few weeks I'll be able to do more of the king size blanket I started 6 months ago