Crochet Your Mood Blanket - Februari Granny - Free Crochet Pattern

I have finished Januari!! And I love it! My colors for are:

Blue - Clever - Because I was playing with my The Most Almost Invisible Hat Seam!
Lavender - Lazy and creative - It was the last week of the holidays, we we're very lazy spending days in our PJ's and I was just happily crocheting and creating.
Green - Joyful - We were just full of joy, because my little boy had a brilliant first week at school.
Pink - Inventive - Working on patterns and patternwriting.
Red - Passionate - In my campaign against the heaps of dogpoo in front of my house!
Yellow - Happy - Again my boy did brilliant and even the mornings getting him out of the house is going supergreat!
Blue - To represent my lovely blue bruises I got after a night of Roller Skating with my friend.
Soft Pink - For having good friends and trying to be a good friend


As mentioned before, I will be doing a different Granny every month. And the granny I will be using for februari is this one:

It is the same size as the Januari Granny, so they will match perfectly!

The pattern for the Mood Granny is below, you can also download a PDF here!

So many things to do.. so little time!

Hello!! It has been a while again since I posted. So BUSY!!!

Love Hearts by Pukado

I have been working on my pattern a lot. As I said it was a frustrating process to get it to work. It was an even bigger pain to write it down so it makes sense! Sure I could write down the pattern how I made the hat. But my style of crochet is not like the majority. I crochet loose... very loose! That's why I need smaller needles to get the same effect as other crocheters. I write my patterns with my gauge in mind. Otherwise I can't write a pattern. But what I do with 5 stitches, somebody else does in 10 stitches. So to make a pattern that is suitable for every one, I had to make calculations and tables so it is easy for some one who buys my pattern to make a hat that fits perfectly. And therefore I had to make 2 hats with different gauge to proof my point.

Pulled a lot of hairs and the other half turned grey! But I did it! Pattern will be in my shops this week!

Crochet Your Mood Blanket 2014

Yesss I'm still going strong! I am up to date and changed the rules a bit in the last week. Instead of 1 granny square a week, I will be doing 2! Therefore my blanket will be at the end of the year 8 by 12 squares. And each square is 15cmx15cm (6"x6").  So with out a border the blanket will be 120cm by 180cm! Nice and big enough to cuddle up on the sofa on New Years Eve!






You know, I hate repeating stuff! So this blanket was going to be a challenge anyway. So to keep me interested I have come up with an idea! I will use a different Granny every month!

This Januari I'm using the Pukado Mood Granny. A free pattern I created for the Crochet Your Mood Blanket. You can find it here and here!

I have made 6 now in different Rainbow colors that reflected my mood





I am using this as a mood board.

The good and the bad thing is, that it only has positive moods on there. And No, my moods are not always positive. I have been missing Frustrated, Angry, Exhausted, Envious, Prickly and Bland. BUT, by using this mood board I will need to find the positive moods I was in that week to reflect in my blanket. So it's basically a Positive Mood Blanket! And if I really can't find a mood I will take the opposite from that mood and make it postivie!

So 2 more Grannies for Januari and one of my colors is leaning towards excited!!!

For the next 11 months I will need to design new Grannies. I want to keep the style the same, so I will be keeping the border. The centre of the Granny is where the change happens!



For Februari I have designed this Granny.


The centre is taken from my Granny with No Name (you can find the original here). I will be writing the pattern and taking step by step pictures this week and will post it here on the blog and on Ravelry.

These Grannies are beautiful with color changes every row. But for my mood blanket I decide to stick to one color!

Pressies

I have been busy with making presents for people who are dear to me. I can't say much, just in case they are reading my ramblings here! But I promise you, next month I will post some pictures!

Spring time!!!

I know it's crazy, but my head is in Spring time lalaland already! I have these amazing ideas in my head and in my sketchbook and I'm just hoping they will come out of my hook and yarn amazing as well! Just waiting for my yarn and coton to come in!!

Yarn Addiction

Yes... I told myself I was going to save money. I need a new camera and preferable a good lighting box (I use a DIY transformed cardboard box now, it does what it needs to do, but would love a gooooood one). No more yarn, I said... Don't do it!! I lasted a week... and then my yarn addiction took over and I ordered the most amazing colors from @mycraftlife on Instagram.

Imagine all the crochet possibilities!!

And last but not least: My Personal Life

All is well, happy all the way.. but it will still keep you busy!! Darn you personal life!!!

xoxoxo

"The Most Almost Invisible Hat Seam" New Crochet Technique! Photo Tutorial

Seams! Aaarrrggggghhhh... horrible seams!!! I don't like seams, but they are inevitable.

I don't like working in continuous rounds, because of the weird end and changing colors are never smooth when working in continuous rounds.

I'm too lazy to join each row with an invisible join, weave in ends and randomly start another row some where else. Too much hassle. It will tho give you the best looking hat!

Normally I work my rows in the round and start every HDC row with a CH1 and DC rows with CH2 and then SLST to the first HDC/DC of the row to minimise my seam. But working on some baby hats this week, the seams were like ELEPHANTS in my imagination. They were so noticeable, in your face, there. I just shuddered every time I came back to the first stitch to see that seam become bigger and longer every time.

So I was going to solve the problem!! That's me.. I'm a Gemini...

Remember that Gemini are just a little neurotic! Well, maybe a lot more then just a little, but they tend to live off people's nerves. If they have something ticking over in their minds they find it impossible to sleep until the problem is solved.

Yes, I use that excuse often :)

So I think I crocheted enough rows to make 20 hats in the last 2 days, just to get the right joining stitch! Because something might look good in one row, but 10 rows later it's not quite what you wanted. So rippppp and start over!

Once I had the basics of my joining stitch written down, I crocheted again enough rows to make 20 hats again for the pictures! So a lot of rows have been made and only one baby hat was the result. But I'm really happy with the result!

There are a couple of methods to joining your rows:
1. Begin your row with CH2/CH3 and join your row to the chain at the end.

This does not make a nice seam. Big gaps and if my seam is an elephant, this one is an argentinosaurus!

2. Begin your row CH2/CH3 and SLST to first ST (HDC, DC) of your row.

This will give you a nicer seam, at least the big gaps from method 1 are gone. But it will leave you with bulky seam.

3. Begin your row with a decreased Chain, CH1/CH2 and SLST to first ST (HDC, DC) of your row.

This is the one I used before the most and yes the seam is nice and not so bulky. I would recommend this joining, if you don't want to try out my new technique :) see picture at the side. It's almost invisible.


So what's my big invention? To create the body of the stitch in the last stitch of your row. It sounds weird but once you get it, it's simple!

This is what my baby hat looks like now!

As an example I used white to show you how the stitch works.

Ok let's get down to business!
PDF FILE Download of this blog post available here!
HDC Joining:

And?? Do you like??

Here is the DC version:

Please let me know, if it's working for you! I'm very curious!!

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Copyright Patricia Stuart 2014 ©.

You are free to create from the pattern and sell the creations.

Please do not copy, rewrite, resell or distribute as your own, this is prohibited.

Please give credit to my shop for the pattern and if you sell finished items online,

please provide a link to the shop (www.pukado.etsy.com) for the pattern.

Thank you for your understanding.

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Please visit my blog: Pukado - Blog

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Crochet Your Mood Blanket - Week 1! Free Crochet Pattern!

I'm horrible in doing afghans, blankets or other large projects. I just get bored, I can't do it. I have several scarves that still needs finishing! Hats are fine, hats are easy, hats are finished!

BUT, I do love my blankie on the sofa on a cold winter evening with a nice cup of tea, good show on tv and my crocheting. And honestly, I don't have a home made blanket. I have a nice shop bought Sea Green warm and fluffy blankie. And I love my blankie.. My son loves it and we fight over it constantly. Now with the cold days he's taking it with him to bed, horrible monkey!!! Leaving me on the sofa with a fleece blanket, that is just not doing the business!

Then I saw a post about "Crochet Your Mood Blanket" on Crochet me Lovely's Facebook! Basically you crochet 1 granny Square a week that reflects your mood and at the end of the year, you have 52 grannies to make a blanket and it will show you what kind of year you've had! How amazing is that!! So I think I can do a granny a week (but I need your help, so you may stalk, push, scold and harrass me!)

But I need a granny to work with. And I have several grannies, but they just didn't do it for me. Also I wanted one that works well with just one color or with multiple colors. Because my week is rarely just one mood, hahaha!

I tried a bunch of stitches, cross over DC's, drop down DC's and a lot of other amazing stitches. But they have been done already and I wanted something that reflects ME! With some help and great suggestions, I have incorporated my Ziggy Hat Pattern in the centre.

The pattern for the Mood Granny is below, you can also download a PDF here!

And my mood for the first week was LAZY, last week of the holidays, enoying my kids and PJ days! And lavender was the color that was suggested to me on my facebook page, thank you!!

You can find a Color Mood Chart here!

I should have used purple instead of lavender to get the deeply relaxed feeling I had.. But as I said, my mood is never just one mood a week. We had some big things coming up this week, so a bit nervous, questioning, wondering was done by me last week as well. So it was a good pick!

I will try and keep you up to date every week, please also check my facebook Pukado for more updates!