Hello lovelies ❤
As I mentioned in my last post, I have recently learned to crochet. I learned by watching the lovely Sarah-Jayne over at Bella Coco, who has some fantastic tutorials on YouTube. Find her blog here and her YouTube channel here if you are interested in learning crochet too.
One thing I have found difficult whilst learning is the difference in terms between the US and the UK. If you are following a US tutorial you have to remember to convert the terms. Here is a table explaining the differences.
Despite the confusion, I have decided to take part in the Yarnspirations 2015 mystery afghan crochet along (UK crocheters be aware that they use US terms). They also do a knitted version if you prefer. I think I may print out the pattern for the knitted version and make that one too. Here is a link to both the knitting and crochet clues.
The idea of this mystery afghan is that you get a clue per week every Tuesday for 10 weeks. You follow the clues without knowing what the finished afghan will look like. There are diagrams as well as the written patterns for the crochet version. I cannot yet follow crochet patterns or diagrams so I am relying on the videos on Yarnspirations YouTube channel. The videos guide you with the clues and the crochet ones feature the adorable Mikey from The Crochet Crowd. We are up to week 3 so far and it’s certainly looking interesting up to now. Week one was simply crocheting 20 granny squares. Week 2 was crocheting a cross on top of these 20 squares in a different colour. Week 3 is using 2 more colours to add more layers to the 20 granny squares.
Here are my completed week 2 squares. I didn’t take a photo of week one but it was just the plain green squares.
And here is the week 3 clue completed. The corners of the squares now have large loops made with the blue yarn which look a little strange but I have faith that the pattern will come together in the end.
Some of the ladies on Facebook have been brainstorming and have come up with some ideas for how the loops may be incorporated into the design. At this point I have no idea. I did originally think maybe they were going to be butterfly wings but now I am leaning towards the top right picture as I think that looks very effective. It reminds me of a Maltese cross. Hopefully we will find out next Tuesday when clue 4 is released.
Yarnspirations came up with a few different colour palettes for both the crocheted and knitted afghan using either Caron or Bernat yarn. I chose one of the Caron Simply Soft sets and I am using Pistachio for my main colour, Autumn Maize as my first contrast colour, Victorian Rose as my second contrast colour and Light Country Blue as my third contrast colour. I have never used Caron yarn before and I’m not totally sure if I like it yet. The strands seem to split easily which makes it difficult to work with and it has a very strange sheen to it that I am not used to. I love the colours though so we’ll see what it looks like at the end.
Are you taking part in any crochet alongs or knit alongs? This is my first one and I am very excited to see how it turns out. If any of you are on Ravelry please feel free to add me. My user name is SpiritWild12791 ( which, incidentally is also my Pottermore user i.d if you are on there 😉 ).
I’d love to see how you’re getting along if you are making this afghan.
Take care,
Jackie ❤
The readers roost 