Those of you who follow my socials will have seen me using this beautiful Yarnsmiths Headliner yarn cake in colourway Lilac Garden a few months ago to start a 'Bakewell' blanket.
I got a little way in and was just finding it more and more tedious and as a result it got abandoned! I have to 100% enjoy what I'm making and if I'm not enjoying it then I stop, frog and step back for a while so I can rethink things.
This yarn is so beautiful I really wanted to find something that would do it justice. The thing I like about the Ravelry website is that you can search under yarn brand and it will bring up lots of projects people have made with that yarn which is so helpful when you only know what you're looking for when you see it!!
Yarnsmiths Headliner is a fairly new yarn, it is very similar to Scheepjes Whirl which has been around many years now so I searched for Whirl projects and there was lots and lots to look through (thank you to everyone who takes the time to document their makes on Ravelry!)
I came across a few mentions of the Whatcha-ma-call-it pattern by Hooked On Sunshine and knew instantly it was 'the one'!!
Well, what a beautifully designed and written pattern it is too! Well worth the approx £4.50 I paid for it, in fact I would have happily paid double, it goes above and beyond what I expected!
Every now and then I come across comments on socials from people complaining about the cost of knitting and crochet patterns. I'm a reluctant pattern writer, I don't particularly enjoy it and if you've ever had a go at writing a pattern you'll know how much work is involved. I'm very happy to support a designer who has done all the hard work for me!
When I first started crocheting back in the 90s written patterns were text only in traditional pattern abbreviations/shorthand. Nowadays patterns are expected to come with step by step photos, text, chart, stitch tutorials and links to videos. In many ways I think this is great because we all work differently, some of us are very visual so really appreciate the photos and videos, some of us find charts must easier to understand than text, it's great to have different formats available if possible as it makes the pattern more accessible. Don't forget though that to produce all this takes time and know how, you're also paying for the designer's ideas and skills, patterns have to also be edited, tested and advertised, and of course there are listing and sales fees to pay and once all that has been taken into account there's not much left of the £4.50.
There really isn't much you can get for a fiver these days that would give you so much lasting joy. Even a cuppa and a cake will cost more than that now and once it's gone, it's gone! A crochet pattern can be made over and over.......£4.50 to use this pattern as many times as I like forever,? Yes, please! Crochet is my relaxation, the thing I turn to when the world is too crazy and loud so I would go so far to say that buying a pattern like this is an investment in my wellbeing.
Anyway back to the project in hand.......I’ve used one Headliner yarn cake but as the pattern says you can make this blanket as big as you like, you just repeat the pattern rounds until it's the size you want. As it's difficult to know how much yarn I'll need to keep back for the border I decided to just use this cake until it's finished and then use a neutral colour specifically for the border using Yarnsmiths Support Act which compliments the Headliner range. I used a 3mm hook however the yarn recommendation is 2.5mm - 3.5mm. Hook isn’t one size fits all, tension varies person to person so you will need to see which hook size suits your own tension best and the drape you want.
I get asked a lot of questions about sizing, yarn quantity etc and I'm afraid I don't have a magic formula that I use in advance to predict these kind of things, most of the time I just wing it and hope for the best.
I finished my cake after completing round 21 of the pattern repeat. I then worked a border using Yarnsmiths Support Act in Off White. Instead of doing the back post stitches for round 22 I used camel stitch technique so that the contrast colour didn’t show around the posts of the stitches of the previous round. I then did round 12 - 15 as per the pattern and finished with the picot shell border. I needed two Support Act cakes to do this.
My finished blanket came out approx 75cm square.
I love the vintage vibe it has with the lacy edging and the yarn produces a lovely drape
Since I posted my progress of this blanket on my socials I have received lots of questions (and as usual got a few unnecessary comments/messages) and I think there is some misunderstanding in some cases. To make it absolutely clear I am not affiliated with Wool Warehouse nor the designer Hooked On Sunshine, I don’t sell the yarn nor the pattern. At no point anywhere, at any point have I said I designed this pattern, quite the opposite, I have championed this designer from the minute I bought the pattern and I don’t appreciate messages accusing me of stealing the pattern and claiming it as my own. Posting on my Facebook page in particular has become a bit like going into the Lions’ Den and it never ceases to amaze me how a bit of crochet can provoke so much ridiculous and unnecessary vitriol.
Please read the information provided in my posts before making assumptions and accusations
I write my blog so that I can compile the information about my makes in one place rather than answer hundreds of comments asking the same thing.
I can’t answer technical questions about the pattern and I don’t provide video tutorials for it, for that kind of information you need to contact the designer of the pattern. I’m also not able to answer questions about how to order yarn, when you will receive an order or when yarn will be in stock (yes I really was asked this stuff!) for this information you need the contact the retailer.
I thoroughly enjoyed making this blanket and I enjoyed it so much that I have already started Marnie’s Garden which is another exceptional design from Hooked On Sunshine.
Since finishing this blanket I have continued to receive unnecessary, ignorant comments on my facebook page. I’ll yet again be taking a break from posting there, it just isn’t worth the stress at the moment, I just don’t have the headspace to continue with it right now, the facebook haters win! You can still find me on Instagram and I’ll still add my blog posts.
Thank you to all of you who have supported me over on FB, I may return at some point in the future but for now it’s time to take control and do what’s right for me.
My blog is not monetised, I did for around three months introduce google ads to my blog posts however I just wasn't happy with the interruptions to my posts and the general look of it and I know as a reader myself that I much prefer to have a more flowing reading experience so they have now been disabled by choice.
I know some of you do like to in some way support the work that I do and so if you would like to support the time involved in producing the blog and videos and all the information I provide you can do so by 'buying me a coffee' via my Kofi page. I am always extremely touched anytime anybody chooses to do this, thank you.