A Winters Tale Throw

I don't know about anyone else in the UK but certainly here in Leicestershire, we have had some bizarre weather going on over the last couple of months. When I was growing up snow came in Winter sun came in summer.  Last year snow came in March and this year we had a mini heatwave in February.  The world seems to be turning on its axis.

I  know we are finally into Spring now shoots and buds appearing all around us including in the garden, even if the weather doesn't always feel like it, and I have been waiting to share with you my A Winter's Tale throw for my colleague's birthday, but had to wait until the big day had arrived. She has long admired my efforts at crochet and had fallen in love with the A Hazy Shade of Winter throw I made for my daughter's birthday and that of a colleagues last year. 

It all started with a scarf  my daughter had given me for Christmas which had all the above shades of grey, red, burgundy and white and it seemed the perfect choice to use in her throw. As my colleague has a working cocker spaniel who likes to snuggle up with her mummy of an evening, and I know from my own three that it is easy for them to get their claws caught so, I chose to use the  solid granny square to prevent  her from catching her little claws in it. 

I can tell you that when  my colleague saw the squidgy parcel sitting on the desk waiting for her to open it there was a lot of squealing went on and the further into the parcel she went the more she squealed to the point I thought she may hyperventilate.   I tried to get her to calm down which proved easier said than done as she is a very excitable lady and I felt sure there may be tears before bedtime as my mum would of said.

You can't really see how the diagonals are placed in the top photo as it was a bit of a misty day at the farm house and therefore a bit dark and murky on the inside too, but the graph above shows you the effect I was going for. Initially I wanted to make 15 squares in each colour to give me  a  total of 90  days of winter but,  in order to get the diagonal pattern I had to work 14 in the red & silver and 16 in white & grey and 15 in graphite & burgundy for a  9 x 10 square blanket and I think it has worked pretty well and she certainly loved it which was the main purpose of the exercise wasn't it. . I joined the squares together with burgundy and graphite and finished off with a simple border, again to avoid little pup getting claws caught, with two rows of single treble in graphite and a row of slip stitch in burgundy. The finished blanket  measures approximately  130 x 150 cms or 51 x 59 inches in old money .  I used my trusty 3.5mm hook and each square is made up of 6 rounds rather than the 5 in my hints and tips just to make it slightly bigger. I used 200g each of red, silver, white and grey and burgundy and 300g in graphite and cost of the wool was approximately £26 or $32

I know we got to enjoy some glorious weather over the Easter break and this weekend is a bank holiday weekend here in the UK , but looking at the forecast and listening to Carol Kirkwood on the radio this morning I don't think we are going to be quite so lucky, which is unfortunate as I planned a weekend of pottering in the garden.  I say pottering there are yet more beds to be dug, more plants to planted.

Worst case scenario is that it rains all weekend and I will be stuck in doors with my craft of choice, which could be crocheting, cross stitch or knitting  and if the domestic goddess decides she wishes to make an impromptu appearance then there may even be a little bit of baking too.

I think I can live with that

Whatever your plans for the weekend

Enjoy 

Mx