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 don't know yet how big it will end up, I’m using one 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'll probably just use this cake until it's finished and then use a neutral colour specifically for the border but I'm not at that point yet so haven't made any definite decisions.
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 won't know the size until I've finished it. If you have specific questions about the pattern please contact the designer directly, this blog post is just showing you what I’m making it with, I’m not affiliated with the designer nor can I answer technical questions about it such as what yarn to use and how much. You can find most of the technical information you’ll need about it already on the Ravelry listing.
Once I've finished I'll update my blog with more info.