The Buttons Baby Blanket (aka The B.B. Blanket or The B.B.B.) : make it or not?

In February I started a small, but industrious project, which I completed before the Easter weekend ...

 

I had a big (500g !) yarn ball in silver (from Robin DK 500g) and I wanted to use it since a long time, so I collected a pile of crochet patterns books from my bookcase and I started to browse trough them all ...

It didn't take a long time to find the right pattern. I wanted something different and challenging in various ways...

First, I never tried a ripple pattern before, NEVER ! Unbelievable, if you think how easy it is and how common it is between the blankets makers!! There is always a first time, right?

The other thing that I was dreading was to start a long foundation chain for the blanket to be, but the pattern I found didn't need one!!!! How great was that!!!

You "just" need to crochet "some" circles to start your blanket : I know, this could be a time consuming task, but it made my blanket special ! Worth it!

 

The pattern I'm writing about is by Leonie Morgan and you can find it on one of her books, that is 100 Colourful Ripple Stitches to Crochet, on pages 114/115.

 

Luckily the pattern is developed both in written and charted (the one I prefer) forms, so it was not a problem to follow. I agree with the personal author advice, who underlines the skill level as advanced.

You have to be a confident crocheter with some experience, because, for example, I found the written explanation for row 5 not well done .... but the chart and my personal crochet knowledge helped me a lot to figure out how to crochet properly row 5 (that is the row with the circles ! ;oD).

 

I even contacted Leonie via email to ask if I could share the pattern with my readers, to explain how to crochet this blanket and she was so kind to reply to me and she clarified all the copyright issues, that at the end I decided just to show you my result, with no photo tutorial/pattern along : sorry!

 

After this long introduction, let's start with the usual flow of pictures and comments from me!

 

Together with the silver yarn, I chose to use some discontinued Lustruous Extra Fine Merino DK by Sublime Yarns (shade 293 saffron and shade 294 folie) along with some Katia Kiss (shade 55 camel, shade 60 fuschia and blue navy). The hook used was a 4mm one!

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of this project, I decided to crochet 20 circles for each colour, starting with saffron for the bottom border of the blanket...

 

 

 

 

The pattern repeats itself every 4 rows and I followed it for the first 16 rows, using the silver yarn as the background for the blanket, while I was just changing the colour for the circles, for each new row with them in : saffron, folie (delicate pink), fuchsia and camel ... each row is made of 20 circles ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm thrilled with the 3D effect given by the circles!!!

 

The pattern for the blanket was developing little by little, as I progressed with the crocheting and I took al the time I needed...

Did I want only rows of circles? Only the colours used until the end of row 16? Some different embellishment to add? Too much??

Well, let's start with some basic surface crochet, that was done in the between of rows 4 and 5 of the crochet ripple pattern... The colours sequence was totally repeated as for the circles ...

 

 

 

 

 

After that, in the middle of my project, I had the idea to add an extra colour (navy blue) ad to vary slightly the pattern ... This time I crocheted 40 circles in one colour ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the blue was done, I started to repeat the previous pattern, simply reversing the colours arrangement for the surface crochet and changing a bit the circles layout ( more like < and >)...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last 3 rows of circles required 22 camel circles, 18 delicate pink circles and 20 fuchsia circles.

I needed, instead, 20 saffron circles for the top border of the blanket (as for the bottom/start), which were embodied in the third ripple row (counting the rows after the last row of circles made), This is also the last row worked for the blanket ...

 

 

 

 

 

After that, well the blanket was DONE !!! This baby measures : 98cmx96cm ...

 

 

 

 

Both sides of the blanket have been smoothed simply working groups of 4 chains, joined to the blanket with the help of slip stitches ...

 

 

 

 

Last extra photos ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all !!!

xxxx Alessandra

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Something different : a water dispenser cover (or cosy?) !!!!

A friend of mine asked me to crochet her a cover for her terracotta water dispenser ....
I never did that before ....
I checked on Pinterest to find some inspiration ... almost nothing ...

I asked my friend to take some measures (circumference, diameter and height) and knowing that she loves the blue&green combo, I started to crochet a circle for the top ...

I've been using some turquoise yarn from my stash and a 4mm hook and my design involved some filet crochet !!!

As the subject was "water" (and because of the colour selection), I decided to consider some fish to crochet on the cover ...

The fish pattern was taken from Betty Barnden's FILET CROCHET and I adapted it (on a piece of paper with small squares) accordingly with my needs (number of stitches, groups and spaces) ...

... and after some rounds, I started to see the fish ...

The thing is that, because starting to crochet from the top to the bottom, you have to read the chart upside down !

To check properly the design, I put the cover on a lamp that I have on my computer desk, that is next an Egyptian panel with ... fish! ...

After the trio of fish was completed, I decided to add some waves (pattern taken from the same book as for the fish) ...

To break the sameness of the work, I began to decorate the top of the cover with some neon green and slip stitches ..

... and the waves were getting more and more ..

I like when you are approaching the end of your work and you realize "It makes sense!" ...

I added some extra designs to the cover (another kind of fish and some seaweed) and fringes to complete it

as you notice, at a certain point my turquoise yarn ended and I had to replace it with some other yarn... I was disappointed, but then I thought that the abyss are darker than the surface water, so .... it was not completely wrong and I patted my shoulder to cheer me up !!!

These are all the designs I used in the cover (the seaweed is mine!) ....

the cover in all its length .....

I gave the cover to my friend last Friday (she was so excited!) and later she sent a picture of her terracotta water dispenser all covered up for the occasion ...

.... and the picture arrived with a caption "Happy water filter" !!

She rolled it a bit (I think we had some problems with the conversion of the measures from inches to cm !!!!), but she loves it and she said the colours are fantastic!!!

I like to notice that in the back of the pic there is a cat bowl with fish on .... !!!!

I'm curious to know your opinion on it!!!!!

xxxx Alessandra