NEW DESIGNS FROM THE RUNNING BEAR BLANKET

RUNNING BEAR BLANKET PATTERN HERE

Click the above link for the original pattern

I'm making Phil a Runing Bear Blanket for Christmas...my son snaffled the original.

As the original was made from left overs I can't make an exact copy. So it won't be exactly the same but a version of it.

There have also been a couple of new designs come from repeating a section on the new Running Bear....oh! to have another 12 hours a day!

 I need to crochet 4 of the daisy motif and do the shaded infill to check that the design works ok...but I'm 99.9% sure it will with the modified Daisy of the Running bear.

 Start of the Running Bear for Phil 

RULE OF 12 SCRAP YARN WRAP OR THROW

RULE OF 12 SCRAP YARN WRAP OR BLANKET PATTERN

HERE

 Make a wrap or a blanket with this pattern

COTTON CAL: Giant 8 petal Flower

All about colour today.

 The Original Giant Flower project was very big and bright, so for the smaller Cotton dk version i tired a softer look in pinks, red, oranges and purple shade with a green/aqua infill, slept on it and decided the infills were too overpowering. 

I have also replaced the first round in flower and infill with a finger wrap and sc same number as pattern but smaller stitch for the softer Cotton wrap.

PATTERN FOR THE FLOWER AND INFILL CLICK HERE

Infills have been replaced with a very soft warm pink...in one colour

far better than the 2 colour green/aqua infills i tried yesterday

I've also sampled, 2 strands of dk Cotton nearer to the original project too...2 shades of each yarn 

 Several shades of red, pink, orange and some purples with the 4th round in the green/aqua shades.

2 Strands of dk cotton and 6mm hook, 

nearer to the original in colouring and size 

you can see the difference in size from dk and 4mm hook to 2strands of dk and 6mm hook, above

So I'm using 2 colour options, softer one to wear and the brighter one as a blanket.

A few close up pictures to help with the 2strand mixing, they will help if you decide to use similar colours

First 3 rounds in the warm bright colour and 4th round in the greens and aqua shades and the infill in the yellow shade for the blanket

CIRCLE WRAP OR THROW

As its a scrap yarn wrap/blanket it will depend on what you have.

OR BLANKET

Love the blanket 

 and It's made quite a generous size blanket so far.

BASIC RULE OF 12 CIRCLE PATTERN

12, 24,36 dc in each round will give you a perfect flat circle for this pattern it doesn't matter which stitch you start in

Make 9 in each set of colours, to make a wrap the same as mine.

But, you could use one of the sets of colours if you prefer

or make them all mixed up instead of in blocks of shade of one colour.

Joining is done in one colour, but it could just as easily be made in lots of colours too say all the different shades of neutral instead of just one colour black, charcoal, grey, silver, oatmeal, cream or even navy of brown....just have fun with colour for this one and stash bust too.

PATTERN:

5mm hook and ARAN yarn

4mm hook and DK yarn, slightly smaller circles.

US Terms

Shades of Reds/Pinks/Oranges for the wrap...

Shades of purples

Shades of green

 Shades of Blues

Shades of Rust/orange

CIRCLE PATTERN

3 Round circle in 3 shade of one colour

Finger wrap of 4 wraps.

ROUND 1: cont. in same col. [ch2 counts as first dc], 12dc into circle wrap, sl st to complete

ROUND 2: [ch2 counts as first dc] 2dc in each st, sl st to complete. [24dc]

ROUND 3: [ch2 counts as first dc], 2dc in first st, 1dc in next st work alternate 2/1 to end of round, sl st to complete.

Set to one side or keep safe on a ring. We will be making all of the 9 blocks first before we lay them out and join then together.

YARN NOTES:

The Tweed yarn I am using I think is the Hayfields Aran, it was 400g ball, I had from my local wool shop, unfortunately i cant find it on the web site and i've lost the label so not sure, its a scrap yarn project so be inventive.

Black/grey Tweed yarns: Hayfields Aran Tweed, Woodcraft Aran [this is quite a dark one], James C Brett, Marble too in the black and grey would work and Scheepjes Secret Garden in col. 710 Stepping Stones.

So lots of black and white black and grey yarns for the back ground to pick from.

or mix your own with 2strands of a thinner dk.

Just work the two strands together to make one tweed yarn

Black and grey [softer] or black and white [slightly more dramatic], both work well.

3 options to try

JOINING CIRCLES TOGETHER

After making your 3 shade circles in chosen colours you will need to decide on a wrap or blanket....

Wrap: a long row of 6 blocks [9 motifs in each colour] over 6' long

or

Blanket: 3 rows of 3 colours side by side

so one more colour to come and you will be going them together

JOINING THE CIRCLES TOGETHER

US Terms as always 

 Lay out your 9 x 3 round circle in the colour group so you know which one is next to each other 

Att. joining yarn in any stitch, ch2 counts as first dc, 1dc in next 2 sts, ch3 1dc in next 3sts, ch3, repeat to end sl st to complete [ 12 X 3dc, 12 x ch3 loops]

 join with a sl st replacement for the middle ch st, work from top down hook the yarn and pull through both the ch3 loop and the st to att. 2 squares together as picture below, join 2 loops together on each join 

 When the first circle is complete then join the next one to the first one using a replacement sl st for the 2nd ch st in the 3ch sts, as above.

 Join 2 ch3 loops together on each side as below

 Join the circles in 3 lines of 3 motifs

 leaving one ch3 loop free between each join of 2, ch3 loop, on each square.

 Make sure you do leave one ch3 loop free when joining them in rows of 3 

 you must leave one ch3 loop free on each side for the in fill squares as below picture 

 so that you have a square with 4 loops x 3ch, one on each side ready to join the infill squares in PART 7

 join together with 2 loops on each side leaving one loop free between joins 

MINI INFILL SQUARE PATTERN

 the infill squares that pull the whole piece together and give you the almost complete design.

The joining together of the circles has left a square between each circle and you should have a free ch3 loop on each side of the square "hole" that needs to be filled. I did try all sorts of shapes and filing the complete hole too but my favourite is the one i'm sharing with you today and i feel it gives you a lovely secondary pattern.

INFILL SQUARES PATTERN

US Terms

Finger wrap of 4 wraps, 

ROUND 1: ch2, counts as first dc, 2dc into circle, ch1 sl st into the first ch3 loop of the "hole' ch1, 3dc into finger wrap, ch1 sl st into the next ch3 loop on the second side of the "hole", repeat until the square has been joined to all the 4 sides of the 'hole' sl st to complete. [12dc, 8ch sts, 4 sl st.]

Sew off all the ends securely, just the picot edging stitch to come next and that will be at the end of the week so this mini cal will end.

EDGING STITCH

The edging stitch has ch5 picots at every ch3 sp, the first and the last picots are joined together to 'straighten' the sides a little.

 pictures above and below is the joined ch5 picots that fill in the 'dip' and make for a straighter edging

PATTERN

US Terms

Aran weight yarn

5mm hook

dk 4mm hook

Black yarn to finish

ROUND 1: Att yarn in the second ch3 sp on any corner, 2sc, ch5 picot, 2sc in same ch3 sp, sc in next 3 sts, 2sc, ch5 picot 2sc in next ch3 sp, repeat for the next 4 x ch3 sps, 

sc in next 3sts, into dip, sc into centre join sp, sc, in next 3sts, of next octagon, 

2sc into first ch3 sp, ch2, use the next ch st as a sl st into the last picot loop of the previous octagon ch2, complete the picot, s2sc into same ch3 sp, sc in next 3 sts, 2sc, ch5 picot 2sc in next ch3 sp. repeat to end

Always joining the last and the first picots together to form a triangular join between octagon motifs

this will 'straighten the sides a little.....

 JOINING THE OCTAGONS TIP: 

replace the middle ch st and do a sl st into the last picot to join them together then continue to finish the first picot as usual

first and last picots joined

Love this edging to the wrap, tried it on the blanket and it doesn't work so there will be another edging for the blanket next week

Some pictures of the blanket so you can see that it's not working on a large area blanket. It needs something far deep maybe a couple of inches adding.

I don't think i will be unpicking whats been done, but adding to the edging stitch already there.

Love the blanket though just needs more inches!

 It's made quite a generous size blanket so far.