life dk Archives - Lucias Figtree

The “art” of blanket planning…a beginner’s journey

Lucia & Francesca / January 20, 2018November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Patterns, Recipies, Stories

I am still thinking if I am going to have a theme or what I am planning for 2018… I have few deadlines I need to honour but after that, I am a free -bird and I can do whatever I fancy.

So in the midst of creating something new and exciting I am also putting together a program for classes for beginners and more advanced crocheters, because one of the highlights of last year was teaching, I discovered that I LOVE TEACHING! I like the excitement to meet new people, I like the energy and buzz that they bring to the table and I like that they go home, hopefully with some new skills to work with.

teaching to beginners is probably the most challenging of all lessons as it is often their first encounter with this amazing exciting artform and you want to pass on the rudiments of crochet as well as possible,

but at the same time not be boring or frustrating or altogether scary! so I engaged the help of my daughter Francesca to test some samples of possible projects to make sure that I teach them to walk before to run as Hussein Bolt! Francesca is great because she can crochet already, she is what I would call a very keen beginner and I think that is a good platform to start with.

While testing and chatting about several possibilities she said she wanted to make a blanket “all by herself” for someone very special… so I started to say ..ok what do you have in mind, what size, what colours, what yarn …etc.

It became apparent to me that you can make an original, interesting and exciting blanket from scratch even if you are a beginner, just following some basic rules.

So that is what this Blog entry is all about a beginner’s journey…and I will keep you updated on her progress and you might find something interesting to use on your projects at home.

So where to start…

WOOOW SO EXCITING I AM GOING TO MAKE A NEW BLANKET!….

then comes the frantic search on Pinterest , Ravelry, magazines, books, social media, and patterns of all sorts.. which is all good.

So I encouraged her to collect things, scrap of fabrics, leafs, stones , anything that can create a visual map . Even the process to combine them all together it is very important because you can focus on the colours and that will reflect on the choice of yarns you are going to make . so make a bord, take a picture with your phone and THEN CHOOSE THE YARN!!

Bring the picture with you at your yarn-store or use it as reference if you shop on line or even to select some hues from your stash..( because we all have one of those…).

So Francesca collected things she likes and patterns she finds interesting, but also I reminded her that if you make something for someone else your search should be focused not on the pattern you like or you want to make yourself, but on what he/she would like to have!

She made the boards and took the pictures herself …so this is a collaboration project!

Some nature’s inspiration….and , by the way, you do not need amazing skills or amazing landscapes, travelling or what so ever…just go outside !!!

Very often you see on social media fellow crocheters complaining that they spent a lot of time, efforts and money making what they thought was a lovely blanket ar scarf or whatever but they encounter a very tepid reception. Now I do believe there is always a rogue one that no matter what you make he/she still could not careless but you will find that 99% of the time people love receiving a handmade gift made with love. .. BUT you must follow a few rules to succeed…

I have to confess, I have seen some shockers on my computer that made me think ..oh well no wonder it didn’t work out!

FIRST RULE:

ARE YOU SURE HE/SHE WANTS A BLANKET?????

that is a GREAT START to figure that out first! maybe he /she prefer a new t-shirt, a pair of shoes, a concert ticket, been taken out on a special day, a Transformer, some Kyle Jenner’s makeup or a gosh.. a Gucci bag! I don’t know..million of different possibilities and remember

if he/she doesn’t really want a blanket it is not all lost! don’t get upset or deflated..just MAKE A BLANKET FOR YOURSELF ! or find someone else 😀

SECOND RULE:

DO NOT BITE OFF MORE THEN YOU CAN CHEW!

aghhhh really delicate point… I know we all have seen the most amazing and intricate blanket and we want to make one exactly the same but you must be realistic and not only look at your budget but also at your abilities especially if it is meant as a gift. it has to be right..none of that malarky “ohh I miss 2 stitches on my round 23..now I am at round 37 should I unravel and fix it?…if you noticed the answer is always YES!! totally utterly YES!!! I can’t stress that enough..the idea that you could call it unique means you are kidding yourself on ,it is like baking a cake and forgetting the sugar, apologies if I am being a little bit harsh.

I am going to tell you a little story… after the Frida’s Primavera was released I had a lot of emails from ladies showing me their progress and I really loved to help and compliment them on their efforts.. but I also had a lady who sent me a picture of the blanket and one of the hexagons had only 5 sides… she had joined the blanket and said to me..I know it has 5 sides and not 6 but will it be still ok? can you tell me how can I fix it ?.. what could I say? there isn’t a nice way to say…sorry but you have to unravel the all blanket because it doesn’t look right.. I did say that and I don’t think she was very impressed at all. I wish I had a “Magic Wand” or an a “Aladdin’s Lamp” to correct mistakes , but trust me..mistakes have to be fixed. I made tonnes myself and I have had to unravel countless times until I am entirely happy with it. So the bottom line is;

if you see it, others, even if they do not crochet, will see it too.

So CHECK YOUR WORK! and more importantly practice your square until you are completely happy with it, before embarking on a full blanket!. It takes just maybe an evening to practice a motif or a square, please make a swatch of the stripe, or wave or whatever pattern you plan to use..and I know it might be a bit boring and you are excited to start, but it will save you time and frustrations in the long run.

I have been going on a bit of a tangent..let’s get back on track…

so my advice is simple;

Do not bite off more you can chew.

Swatch whatever you think is good

Believe and be comfortable that you can do it.

And tackle the project head on!

Please always remember, that it is MUCH BETTER to make a beautifully executed properly planned, humble, granny square’s blanket, than a wonky striped blanket or a complex hexagon blanket with one of the sides missing .

Back to Francesca’s blanket…

As the blanket is for a guy she didn’t want a fussy pattern and she opted for ..the granny square. and I am very happy she did that because it allows me to show you what amazing potentials a granny square has!

So she did a few samples..until she was happy with it..then came the part I like most COLOURS !!! I leave you with a picture…and I will tell you the story next time 😀

love to you all,

Lucia xx

The Emily’s epilogue

Lucia & Francesca / March 1, 2017November 5, 2020 / Patterns, Stories, Travel

I finished the blanket about a week ago, but I wasn’t so pleased with the quality of the pictures I took indoor. The weather has been quite poor (surprise, surprise) and I couldn’t photograph outside, but I managed a couple of hours’ window on Monday and I got a few pictures. You must be wondering why I am so obsessed with outdoor’s photography; it is because my blankets are very much just about colors, and it matters a great deal to me for the images to be as ‘real life’ as possible.

I wish I had the time, last week, to go back to Haworth and photograph the blanket there, but I have been busy, and it is a long round trip from Glasgow. Said that the next time I am down in Yorkshire, I would!!. As an alternative location, I thought of Pollok Country Park , Glasgow’s largest park ,which features the impressive Pollok House as well as the renowned Burrell Collection. Both Pollok house and the Burrell collection are closed, at the moment, and under renovation, but the gardens are still open to the public.

It is a beautiful place, well worth a trip if you are visiting Glasgow.

Anyway back to the Emily:

The blanket measures: 140cm x180 cm, in total, the border is 14cm deep. There are nine squares by 12 rows for a total of 108 squares.

The yarn used is a combination of STYLECRAFT ALPACA TWEED DK, SPECIAL DK, and LIFE DK.

14 Colors used which are:

ALPACA TWEED DK: ocean, dusky pink, sea breeze, sage.

SPECIAL DK: copper,plum,mocha,pistachio.

LIFE DK: heather, stone nepp, chocolate nepp, pebble nepp, gorse nepp, mixture charcoal.

QUANTITIES:

one 100gr ball for each color plus five balls of mixture charcoal.

PLEASE NOTE: mixture charcoal is used for ALL the first 2 rows of the squares, the joining, and the border.

CROCHET HOOK size 4 . the squares measure 11cm

The squares measure 11cm

SQUARE PATTERN:

the square is my design:

ROW 1: 6 chains join in with an ss

ROW 2: in the 6 chain ring work as follow: 3 chains (that makes the first treble),1 treble,1 ch *2 trebles,1ch* repeat ** 7 times. ( 16 trebles and 8 ch1 spaces)

ROW 3 : *puff stitch in each of the ch1 space of row2 ,2ch*, repeat ** 15 times (16 puffs, 32ch)

ROW4: *4 trebles cluster in the ch2 space of round3,3 ch*, repeat **15 times (16 clusters, 48ch)

ROW5: we add the corners as follow: start in any of the 3ch space of round 4 and work* 1 dc,skip the cluster,3ch,1dc in the next 3ch space of round 4.; next we make the corner: in the next ch3space work: 5trebles,3ch,5trebles;1dc in the next ch3 space of round4,3 ch* repeat ** 3 more times (4 corners, 12 dc, 8ch3 spaces)

ROW6 and final row: start on the corner and work: 2htreble,2ch,2htreble, 5 back post half treble on the 5 trebles of row5,1 half treble in the space between the 5 trebles of row 5 and the dc of row 5, 2dc on the ch3 space,1 dc on the dc of row5,2dc on the next ch3 space,1htreble on the space between the dc of round 5 and the next corner .repeat all around.

REMEMBER ROW1 AND ROW2 ARE ALL IN CHARCOAL.

The others row, please alternate the colors, as usual, choose any of the two methods I had listed before in the past blankets I posted.

You have plenty of yarn to make the blanket, and some left too.

JOINING:

with mixture charcoal, a simple dc join.

THE BORDER:

ONE foundation row around the blanket of dc in charcoal to set the border then follow the diagram below:

a note about the pattern for the border:

I found the pattern on Pinterest. It is what I believe a shawl. I tried to go back to the source of the original designer, but I haven’t been able to find out who is. The watermark is too feeble, and I got nowhere with that either.I went as far as finding what I assume is a Japanese pattern, but again has been posted and re-posted several times on Russian/Romanian sites, and I can’t read Cyrillic or Japanese so , I am afraid, I have no idea.

PLEASE if you do know the designer behind the diagram, let me know, and I will credit her/him. THERE IS NOTHING OF MORE ANNOYING THAN PILFERING OTHER DESIGNERS HARD WORK WITHOUT, AT LEAST, THE COURTESY OF ACKNOWLEDGE THEM!

following what I wrote above I am adding this here, on the 3rd march, 1917:

I just got a message this morning from a nice lady called Lynette Williams, she found the original designer on Ravelry. I am very happy to say it is a free Ravelry download pattern so I havent infringed any designer’rights. This is the link to it : http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/erigeneia

the designer is called: SILKE TERHORST, and the shawl is called : ERIGENEIA which means “Early-born” and is an epithet to the greek goddess Eos – the goddess of the Dawn. How nice is that? I love the name and the story!

THANKS AGAIN LYNETTE!!!

Has the Emily been a success? Can I imagine the blanket sitting in a corner of the parsonage? maybe yes or maybe no. All I know is that has been a lovely journey and the blanket will always remind me of my trip to Haworth and how much I love the Brontës sisters.

That is all, thank you for reading my blanket’s adventures, for been patient with what I believe, are quite pedestrian, and often sketchy pattern details. I will get better, I hope, with practice!

Happy crocheting!!!!

Lucia xx

My yarn room makeover

Lucia & Francesca / February 24, 2017November 5, 2020 / Lifestyle, Stories

Hi, Everyone!

If you follow me on Facebook, you might know I spent the past two days trying to re-organize my studio.

It wasn’t meant to be a big job; just assembling two small bookcases and shifting some of the books to create more space for my yarn.. because I am, as probably many of you are, a”yarn collector”!

Some will say a “yarn hoarder,” but I don’t like the negative connotation which comes with the term hoarder.

I simply just LOVE yarn!

I love all the all aspects of yarn; I like the feeling of it, the texture if it is a hand dyed skein, I love the story behind it and the origin of the fiber. I dabbed into spinning and hand dyeing too but again there are so many talented artisans out there that make a much better job than I do, as both dyeing and spinning require a great degree of skills.

My yarns are like color pencils, and that is why I love them displayed and divided by hue, fiber content, and yarn weight( 4ply,DK,chunky).

You probably have spotted I have a lot of STYLECRAFT’s yarn because it is what I use mainly for my blankets.

I try to stock at least one ball for each color in the main ranges I use which are: SPECIAL DK, ALPACA TWEED DK,BATIK, LIFE DK and CLASSIQUE COTTON DK. There is a gap in the library because all this ‘one blanket for each month’ makes the yarn flying out of the shelves so quickly! If I might make a suggestion, you love making blanket , you do not have a stockist near you , or, you are like me, and you get overwhelmed when visiting a yarn shop, the best way about it is to choose a brand and a weight. Then invest in one ball for each color of the range you selected as it makes the process to choose the colors for projects much easier, it streamlines your stash too. And if you have some space where to display it is a total bonus!

I a

When come to storing or displaying yarn I am always on the lookout for the easy and inexpensive way to do it, and I might have a couple of tips to pass on…

My studio furniture is a mix of IKEA and some old vintage pieces.

IKEA is cheap and does the job very well. My sofa is from Ikea, has a washable cover ( very useful for the cat, and the tea and cakes crumble…) the bookcases are all Billy

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/search/?k=billy the big one is several years old, and I have been adding modules as I need them.

The shelving is IKEA too and so are most of the storage boxes.

My overflow of yarn is on top of the bookcases in boxes those are DRONA boxes, http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/small-storage-organisers/storage-boxes-baskets/dr%C3%B6na-box-beige-art-70298813/ the retail price is £2.50 and they come in a variety of colors. I love them because they are really cheap but well done, made of fabric they are strong enough to hold the yarn and be positioned on their side. For extra strength and stability, I used some velcro tape so to join all the boxes together.

For the cotton yarn, have used MOPPE http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/small-storage-organisers/paper-media-organisers/moppe-mini-chest-of-drawers-birch-plywood-art-40216357/

They are mini chest drawers (42x18x32cm) made of solid plywood, perfect for storing cotton yarn and as books dividers too.

The extra vantage is that the drawers do not have a handle, so I use the frame without the drawers as a mini bookcase, then the drawers too can be filled with more yarn and positioned on their side. Doing, so I double the amount of yarn I can store and display, and I can combine the different size drawers together. the plus side is that plywood is a natural product (yarn doesn’t like plastic…)

So you can keep an eye on what you have available, no more rummaging in bags stashed all over the place and I might be bias, but I think they look pretty too!

have a lovely day, thank you for reading,

Lucia xx