A stripe a day, keeps the grannies away!

Hello Lovelies!! Hope your all having a colourful weekend?!
Look at what the post man delivered earlier in the week!

17 scrummy balls of Stylecraft DK!! I ordered it from Masons last week and was very surprised to have it delivered three days later!!! VERY SPEEDY INDEED!!!
I love to order these Stylecraft assorted packs. Not only are they full of great colours, but they are also amazing value! This bundle of 17 different colours cost me only £25.50 (plus postage), If that isn't a bargain I don't know what is?!

Now I don't want to sound like a 'Yarn Snob', but I don't usually go for acrylic yarns.
My favourite yarns include a nice Cashmere or Merino, so soft and snuggly. The problem with always using fancy yarn.... is the price. It's soooo damn expensive.
So when the budget is a little tight, I find myself looking for cheaper alternatives. Acrylic yarn tends to tick the boxes in terms of price.
The problem I have with SOME acrylic yarns is that quite often  I find them to be just a little too plasticy for my liking. I want my yarn to feel luxuriously soft and not scrunchy and cheap.
For me Stylecraft fits the medium perfectly. Its great value but it doesn't feel like I've dropped down in quality. Its feels lovely and soft. There is such large selection of colours that you can't help but be drawn to it.
This is why I've used Stylecraft for many projects, Its acrylic that doesn't feel like acrylic. Look how wonderfully colourful it is when worked up!:

I ordered my Stylecraft with the intention of making another Granny Stripe Blanket (using the Attic24 pattern). A colleague of mine (Dani) had seen my crochet work and was so smitten with the Granny Stripe, that she asked me to make her one. I'm not usually so keen on making items for people when they know about it. I feel under pressure to get the project finished fast. Instead I like to make a project secretly and give it as a surprise, that way I'm under no obligation to get the project finished by a certain time.
This was different, It was for Dani!
Dani works at the theatre and is part of the wigs and make-up department. She is such a lovely woman! Always has a smile on her face and is so fun and crazy.
Dani and I help each other with our language learning. She speaks to me in English and I'll correct her when she gets stuck. Then she does the same for me in German, it's a win win Situation!
So of course when Dani asked me for a bright (like her personality) blanket, I got straight to work.

Dennis and I have both made granny stripes before. I made mine with Merino the first time around:

Dennis made his with the Stylecraft pack:

As I've just bought the Stylecraft pack, I'm going for a Granny Stripe similar to Dennis'.
Dani told me that there is no rush for the blanket so I'm making this a sideline project. A project that I'm always working on, but that doesn't always have to be my main focus. I hope that this way I won't get bored of it and will have time to work on other projects. :-)

With that in mind I've decided to do just one stripe a day. A stripe is taking only about 20 minutes to complete, so I should be able to fit easily one per day.

With the amount of stripes I'm hoping this blanket will be finished around early September. I'm thinking that's perfect! It will be finished in time for Autumn. So Dani will have a bright and gorgeous blanket to snuggle in during the cold Autumn and Winter months. I cant wait to give it to her!!

There we have it!! Day seven and I'm mid row on my 7th stripe. I'm giving the random colour approach a try, let's see how that turns out!

Have a glorious Sunday!!
Matt xxx

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Granny Stripe!

The first time I wrote the title of this blog I missed out the 'S' so you almost had a blog entry all about Grannies Tripe! Not sure if that would have made particularly nice reading! So thank God I noticed the missing 'S'!

Well, anyways..... Its here and its done! After weeks of ferocious crochet I now have my first Granny stripe! A delightfully thick and soft blanket to snuggle under and hide from the cold dark nights that are all ready creeping upon us!

You may remember about five weeks ago I posted a little picture of some gorgeous Merino wool I had just purchased at the craft store. Ten yummy shades of Soft Merino by Wolle Rödel and each one of them really was 'Oh so soft!'

 I saw this wool in the store and immediately had to give it a squeeze it looked so luxurious and the different shades available were to die for! The colours were slightly darker than I normally go for. They have a soothing warmth to them and make me feel all Autumny. I couldn't get the thought of having something this soft and warm to wrap up in once winter hits Hamburg.

The problem was that It was so expensive and I really did hesitate before spending a small fortune on wool. Normally I work with Stylecraft, I love to do so because of the great value and vast range of colours. And if I'm not feeling Stylecraft, I would normally take a trip to the wool factory and buy in bulk. Buying at the factory usually comes out much better value than buying 50g skeins on the High Street.
I had a little battle with my conscience and finally decided to go for luxury. It  was kind of a treat to myself since I had just been given a slight pay-rise at work.

So home I went, all ready to start my first Granny Stripe!
I started with the blanket and had decided to give "Random" ago. Not putting the colours in a pattern but having them in random sequence.  This worked out well in the beginning and I was so happy with how it all looked! However, the more I went on the less happy I became. I really didn't want to mess this up!
I found it very hard to place the yellow colour as it would clash with most other shades. I also found  the grey too dark and I really wasn't happy with how it looked compared to the other warmer colours.  I had to make a decision because it was starting to go rapidly down hill. I decided to take the grey out of the blanket and save it for a future project. I also decided to stick to a formation of colours rather than playing chance with 'random'

I 'frogged' my project up until the point I became unhappy.

It turned out to follow a rainbow pattern (how predictable am I?.) I decided to keep the rainbow and started repeating it, but in reverse.

Each night I would come home from work and spend a little bit of time on my blanket. Sometimes I'd pour myself a glass of wine get some snacks at the ready and get down to work.

The thing I loved about this pattern (once again by Lucy at Attic24) was how simple it was and how fast you would see results. In just a couple of weeks I could see I was on the right track towards blanket heaven! It was really nice to work those clusters of double crochet and feel the soft yarn gliding through my fingers.

Each time I would pick up my work I couldn't help but notice a resemblance in its colour to that of the changing seasons out side of my window. It reminded my so much of the leaves that were falling and littering the streets.

Are you ready to see my Autumn/Winter Granny Stripe in full? Here Goes:

90 stripes in total!!! Sounds more than I thought! I may have got a little carried away ;-)

I also followed the pattern that Lucy gave for the border and think that it finishes it off perfectly.

I like how stripy it is, but am totally in LOVE  when it's a pile of stripes rippling over each other in a heap on the floor. It looks so warm and cosy.

This is my favourite picture! It makes me want to jump right on into the stripey warmth. This picture sums up how the blanket makes me feel. I'm in Love!!!

Look how lovely the border hangs over the side of my bed. I think that it looks kind of eligant.
Here it is on my bed with all of the cushions Dennis and I have made! I Cant wait to jump into bed tonight!

Now to crack on with this Bunting........Yiiiiiiiipeeeeeeee!!

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