Stylecraft Blog Tour '17

The Security Blanket

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

Oh, hang on, right sentiment, wrong event. Let me start again.

On the twelfth day of the Stylecraft Yarns #blogtour17 you get me, or rather, you get my input.

So, if you are new to my blog, hello and welcome! I'm Angela, I have three beautiful children under 10, and a husband of 20 years who is to die for! I know I say that I'm slightly obsessed with yarn, but the truth is I'm decidedly obsessed with yarn, lol. I'm thrilled to bits to be participating in the blog tour this year, I had not long signed on as a blog star last year and had just given birth to our baby girl, Sophia, so understandably I couldn't participate, so this is actually my first blog tour where I've been able to be a part of the process. Did you see Catherine's blog post yesterday? If not, you can find it here: Catherine's Crochet Corner Stylecraft Blogtour 17

Remember to read to the bottom for details on how to win today's yarn pack, and to find out where the tour heads off to, tomorrow.

At this stage in the tour, I don't think I need to introduce the yarn in too much detail. Stylecraft Batik has been around for a while, but the Batik Elements are a new range of variegated yarns in the line and I love them all. I have a reasonable collection of Batik in my stash, and I've loved sitting and playing with them and seeing how all these marvellous colours go together. I think I might need to blog in future about some of the combinations that I have come up with, but for today, I'm working with the Lagoon Pack.

The Lagoon Pack consists of 4 balls of the new Batik Elements in Krypton, plus one ball each of the following colours: Silver, Indigo, Teal, Sage, Lupin and Storm. 10 dreamy balls of colour that just sing to me and my love of cool shades.

So, I have ten balls of gorgeous yarn, what to make?? If you've followed me for a while, you will know that I'm inspired by everything around me. Not just the "pretty stuff" but interesting shapes and colours that can inspire me to create. The first picture of my inspiration is hardly pretty, lol.

It looks a bit like a prison, doesn't it? We live in a rectory, and people assume that there's money here to be handed out to the poor. Most places, us included, no longer hand out money, rather we give food hampers or we're able to direct them to places where they can get help. We got quotes for a famous style of screen for our windows. What we imagined was almost impenetrable (hey, if they have a grenade, not much is going to last, lol) screens, but ones that didn't need this criss cross of mesh. There apparently was miscommunication and this is what we got, and because they were made specifically for the quirky shaped 125 year old windows, it wasn't a case of swapping over. Can you see the diamonds that are connected by small squares? Because that shape is my inspiration. Here's the first few pieces joined together.

At this stage I was still playing around with the layout of the colours. I was trying to find a way to use as much of the pack as I could, while making the colours flow together. As I looked at it, I was reminded of a print of a wood block by M. C. Escher. My maths teacher in high school had huge posters of his work around her classroom, and I always thought they were so cool. I was specifically reminded of one that had geese and fish, and I had a quick google to see if I could find it, because I loved the play of light and dark as the picture flowed downward, and the morphing of shapes.

I knew that somehow, I wanted to incorporate that feel into my design. There was lots of movement and frogging and eventually, I came up with this combination:

So, because this is a security screen inspired blanket, I'm calling it the Security Blanket. Giggle. It will be available soon on Ravelry, and there will be a coupon code for the first 100 to download it for free - keep watching my blog for the pattern launch!

It wasn't all smooth sailing you know. Aside from the agonising over colour placement, we had some health issues (some sealed under the cone of silence so that you don't have to bleach your brains lol - Rotavirus is awful), and a seriously adventurous 4yo who found a pair of scissors.

He was living on borrowed time for 24 hours, but I managed to turn it around by taking step by step photographs of the repairs so that I can write up a tutorial on crochet repair for you.... coming soon!

My friends will tell you how many versions of this I came up with before I was happy, lol. But where are the elements colours? Well, they are the framework for this blanket. The border and the edging. Take a look here:

First I had to make the border, and then I had to come up with the edging. I had a basic idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but it was only this morning (keep in mind that I'm in Australia and I'm posting this at 9pm Sydney time) that I had an even better idea of what to do!

Finally, we ended up with this. The Security Blanket.

Now for the nitty gritty. Just exactly what is the Batik yarn like?

Label Information for both Batik and Batik Elements:
Meterage: 138m or 151 yards
Recommended hook or needle: 4mm
Yarn Weight: DK
Fiber type: 80% Premium Acrylic 20% Wool
Ball size: 50g

The yarn is light, soft and gorgeous to touch. It's spun a little loosely so that it gives a nice drape. The down side to that is occasionally you will stick your hook through the working thread rather than around it. To be honest, it doesn't happen often. It has a little stretch but it's not springy. The meterage is very good. I wasn't paying attention for the plain colours, but for the elements balls I could make 13 diamond motifs from one ball and join most of them onto the blanket using the same ball.

If you look carefully, you will see that the plain colours, each was used for something aside from the motifs. Some were used as joining colours to provide contrast and a kind of ombre effect across the joins. Some were used to provide an extra row of motifs, and one was used as part of the border. I still had yarn left over, but it wasn't enough to add another row to the blanket in its entirety. You could use it to make embellishments, or even start another project with it like a stripey scarf. I'll be playing with my leftovers and I'll let you know what I eventually come up with.

This is a great yarn to work with, I have quite a bit in my stash and I'm going to enjoy using every single gram up. I already have another design in the works using the desert pack.

Ok, now for the really exciting stuff. I hope you enjoyed your visit today, and tomorrow the tour heads over to Helen's at The Woolly Adventures of a Knitting Kitty don't miss it.

Here's how to enter for your chance to win today's yarn pack, the competition begins at 8pm Sydney time which is 10am GMT time and is open for 24 hours to allow WORLD WIDE participants. Simply click on the link below:
Today's yarn pack give away is here, just click on this sentence and enter for your chance to win!