Nova (meaning new) is my first new start of the year! I've had such a busy start to the year with the day job and most of my current WIPs are quite big and perhaps labour intensive and I really needed something small and simple to relax with in the evenings once I'd finished work. Something that would grow quickly and give that sense of achievement in a fairly small space of time!
I love a ripple blanket and it's usually my go to for an easy on the brain pattern but I've made a lot of ripples in the past and fancied a change this time. The Cosy Stripe pattern by Attic24 is another lovely, simple, repetitive pattern, one I haven't used for quite some time and it fits the bill perfectly!
I had a look through my colour combo notebook (see my previous blog post about that!) to find something that I had all the yarn for. I really didn't want to have to order any yarn at this point, I'm still trying to work from my stash and I wanted to start it immediately!
This colour combo with 8 colours is perfect for a randomly striped blanket. It's much easier to do random the more colours you have. I do have a loose method for achieving a 'balanced random' look but it's not very easy to explain and is still a bit ad hoc as I go along.
Here are the colours I used.......
Yarnsmiths Create DK
- Navy Blue
- Steel Blue
- Duck Egg
- Antique Gold
- Plum Purple
- Rose Pink
- Peachy Pink
Scheepjes Colour Crafter
- Venlo
I try to pair some of the colours up and then alternate them throughout. So for example I'll pair the two darkest colours up, plum purple and navy blue, and you'll notice they alternate throughout. This gives balance with the dark colours, I wouldn't generally put two very dark colours next to each other. I usually pair the lightest colours too, in this case duck egg and peachy pink, although I haven't been quite so rigid with alternating these ones here. I often include a bold, high contrasting colour, I've used antique gold here, and I will try to make sure I use it in fairly regular intervals throughout.
The Cosy Stripe pattern is a really lovely one, it's so pretty and it's amazing how you can achieve such a pretty looking blanket with just one crochet stitch! It's the perfect pattern for someone who has learnt the basic stitches and is looking to dive into something to expand their skills but it's also perfect for the experienced crocheter too for those times when you just want something repetitive and relaxing to keep your hands busy.
I didn't start off with full 100g balls as I was working from my stash, they were all part balls so I used less than 100g of each colour for this baby sized blanket. I did play some hardcore yarn chicken with that Rose Pink though....it was touch and go right until the last few stitches! It came out around 65cm x 75cm
If you've made a Cosy Stripe before you may have noticed that you get a slightly uneven edge down one side where the pattern requires you to skip a stitch at the end of certain rows. A few years back (ten in fact!) I made a slight adjustment to how I work this pattern so that I get a nice straight edge. You can find the info here
The amount of yarn I had did kinda dictate the border. I originally planned a Duck Egg border but I couldn't find anymore in my stash so had to rethink. I didn't have enough of any of the colours to do just a one colour border so I decided on a striped ombre style one using all the pinks and the plum purple. I used camel stitch technique for my border, you can find my video for how to do that here
I'm really pleased with how it came out and think it may well have been a blessing that I had run out of the Duck Egg!
I can definitely see this colour combo popping up again in future, perhaps some granny squares next time!
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Thank you and happy crocheting
Faye :)
