Elsa's shawl

I'm releasing a new pattern today. You can find it in my Ravelry shop.

It's a shawl made for my daughter. I was admiring some handdyed merino yarn at a craft fair, and she more or less told me to make her a shawl in this colour. Who was I to refuse, right?

The pattern is available in US English and Swedish. It contains written instructions and charts for the different parts.

It feels like a huge step to actually sell a pattern. But I figured that some of my patterns have taken a lot of time and thought to construct so those I could sell without feeling too greedy. I only have a part time job and a massive yarn addiction to finance so if I could earn a little on my hobby too, that would be great.

I have had help testing this pattern, so I hope it's clear and easy to understand. Let me know if you need any help!

Love, Nilla.

Ragdoll blanket

This is one of those precious tadah-moments! Yay! I have not only finished a very cosy blanket, I also have written down the pattern for you. A bit hastily, I have to admit, so pleas do tell me if you find any mistakes. You will find links to the pattern in English (US) and Swedish at the bottom of this post.

This pattern came to me one morning before work. I was having breakfast and scrolling through Instagram. I saw a picture of a beautiful knitted blanket with mitred squares. I started thinking about a crochet blanket with squares made from rows, not rounds. Would it be possible to even make it continuous? Just imagine having the squares but virtually no ends to fasten. I scribbled down a schematic idea of a pattern and sat down to test it after work. Well, the idea worked!

This blanket consists of squares made of dc rows. It is made diagonally, starting in one corner and ending in the opposite corner. If you felt your yarn together or use Russian join to add the next ball (or if you have a huge ball of yarn...) you will actually end up with only two ends to fasten! Isn't that glorius? Actually, if you are okay with crocheting over your ends and you make the border, you could end up with only one end!

I thought that this pattern would be enhanced if I used self striping yarn, that would change colour often enough to make each square somewhat stripey. So I went yarn hunting, and ended up with Incawool from Hjertegarn. I have used this yarn before and I like it a lot. It's an aran wool yarn with 160 m on 100 g and it's available in both print and single colour. I used both since I didn't want the border in more than one colour. It turned out the stop didn't have enough balls of the print I chose, so I used my border yarn for two of the diagonals. You almost can't tell.

The blanket has a scruff look to it, since I prefer to use a large hook when I make blankets (9 mm in this case), and since there will be gaps between stitches and the squares won't always look so square. But I like that. Everything doesn't have to be so perfect or even neat. And it works well with this yarn too.

So do you have to use aran wool and 9 mm hook? No no, you really don't! You could make this blanket in any yarn. You could make it with bigger squares or smaller. I would use a bigger hook than recommended for the yarn though, since I believe a blanket should be soft and draping, not stiff and hard.

I do hope you will enjoy this pattern if you make your Ragdoll blanket. Do tell me if something is unclear or if you find mistakes. And I would love to see your blanket!

If you want to check it out on Ravelry for size and other information I might have forgotten here, then here is the link!

Ragdoll blanket, mönster på svenska

Ragdoll blanket, pattern in English (US)

Love, Nilla!

It looks like spring

Hi! Long time no see, right? However, I doubt that anyone is in here regularly looking for an update. But if you actually have been here before, maybe you notice some changes? There's been a little face lift, but the big thing is that I've changed the name of the blog. Not very thought through I'm afraid. Now, old links to my blog don't work anymore. I think I've managed to redirect everything from my social media and Ravelry. And even though I might loose some traffic from links to old patterns floating around in the web, this feels really good. You know, this blog started in Swedish with no other intent than trying to find myself and what I liked doing. And now that it has turned into a craft blog, I guess my first mission is accomplished and I'm going all the way with being an internationally read crafter. However, I have never deleted any posts, my whole journey is still here.

Enough about that. The real reason I'm here is that I have a brand new pattern to share with you. Yay! It's a shawl that I hooked up a few days ago. That was the easy part. Writing pattern is tricky if you ask me. I want a pattern to be clear and easy to understand, but also fool proof. I'm afraid I didn't really succeed on the last part. It will help if you are used to reading patterns. I could make it clearer, but it takes so much time and I'm ready for new adventures with my hook now.

The name of the pattern is not very typical for a shawl. It's called "It looks like spring". I found it hard to come up with a name for it and asked for help on social media. Someone wrote "It looks like Spring" and that sentence stuck. Spring hasn't come very far where I live, but it's getting there. And the colors in the shawl is inspired by last years dead grass, dry oak leaves and bare branches, but also by the first flowers emerging here and there. Not very pink yet, more snowdrops and such, but sometimes the design has it's own life and you only get to tag along.

As usual, I have written the pattern in Swedish and English (US terms). Nobody has tested the pattern for me (I get far too impatient to wait, I want to share it immediately) so I hope it's not full of mistakes. Please, if you find one or if something is unclear - tell me! I want it to be comprehensible of course, and I love to help. No use sharing a pattern if noone can use it, right? So do me a favour and tell me.

Svenska
Uppdaterad
2 april - misstag på rad 17-19
4 april - rad 30

English (US)
Updated
April 2 - mistake on rows 17-19
April 4 - row 30

Please share your shawl on the pattern page on Ravelry! I'd love to see it.

I hope you will have fun making this shawl!

With love,
Nilla K