Stylecraft Special Double Knit and 4.5mm hook. Colours and quantities: 4 Parchment, 2 Copper, 1 Lincoln, 1 Silver, 1 and a bit (enough to do the last row of the border) Cypress
Measurements: 1m15cm x 1m3cm
Pattern by Moira of Daisyknots
I made this for my nephew (30), it was supposed to be longer, but I accidentally missed out a couple of sections in the middle. I was doing the border when I realised, so I had gone way too far to unpick. My nephew says he is happy with the size, which should look good as a throw on a chair or sofa and be the right size for a lap blanket. The colours are to go with his room, which is mainly greens, but he asked that I include a rust colour as he knows how much I love my rust and it would ‘add that Dondi touch’.
‘Dondi’ is the nickname all my nieces and nephews have for me. You might remember that another nephew even co-wrote a song “Singing this song for Dondi”.
I have just got the back border to complete. An envelope border to encase all the ends, as you only work on one side and start a new piece of yarn for each row. Cunning plan!
Joining in with Ginny for her Yarn Along
~
I have finished the book!
This is the first novel I have read for years – I don’t know what happened, but at some point I just lost interest in reading fiction.
I enjoyed the almost poetic descriptions – there are some beautiful scenes that really give you a sense of place and I enjoyed the characters. I could have done without the whole ‘whodunnit’ aspect of the book, especially the tying up of the plot which seemed rushed at the end and I did not believe in it.
Maybe Delia Owens would not have found a publisher without it being a murder mystery, which is a shame, because I would have loved to have spent more time in the marshes and enjoyed a few chapters of a happy dreamy ending with the hero and heroine in their isolated cabin.
Have you read it? I know Laurie and Lynn have.
I am interested to know what others think of the book.
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Beautiful pattern for the blanket! Have you secured off all the ends before encasing? I’d worry about holes with them just inside.
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I have just pulled the ends through the last stitch – I think that will be ok.
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The overall effect is brilliant, Sandra!
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I am so glad I tried the pattern – which I have admired for a while, but thought it would be too demanding. It was so much easier than I thought it would be.
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How long in total would it take you to crochet something like this, roughly?
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So hard to say, I never time myself.
I often answer – no time at all, as I am nearly always doing it when I am doing something else like, gently easing into the day, giving my back a break from gardening, waiting for something like an appointment, child-minding, chatting with friends or watching TV in the evenings.
Some blankets take me years to complete, some a few weeks, I always have about 5 on the go at any one time.
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Yes, I had forgotten this aspect of your multitasking, Sandra!! 😉
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I am going to make another blanket from this pattern (different colours) for another nephew, so I will time myself across one row. That will give some indication of the crochet time it takes.
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Should be an interesting discovery, I think!
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The blanket looks great and I have read and enjoyed that book, though it took forever for me to get into it.
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My friend is part of a Book Group which ahs been going for over 30 years and they all thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Oh that is awesome! I am really hoping that my book club survives Covid!
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Gosh – yes! I hope it does too.
My friend’s club have been meeting on Zoom and then as lockdown eased they have been meeting in each other’s gardens. All safe and well so far!
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Oh that’s good! I was away for the last meeting of mine but I think they did a backyard meetup too.
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What an absolutely gorgeous blanket! Wowsah! As for “Where the Crawdads Sing”…I completely agree with your assessment. For me, the ending was a complete flop. Given the character of Delia, totally unbelievable. If a mouse is going to turn, then that case must be made in a believable way, in the course of the book. The author did what I absolutely hate. That is, march her characters through the plot without any regard for their characters. I read a lot of fiction because the best of it, no matter the genre, gives insight into the human condition, and this insight always makes me feel enlarged. Not much insight in “Where the Crawdads Sing,” despite the lovely descriptions of the natural world.
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The blanket got a Wowsah!
Yip-yipiddy-do!
Yes – I thought the way the whole thing got explained away was totally at odds with Kya’s character and life experience.
I did like the description of the cat in the courtroom though.
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Oh, well…That book sure did speak to a lot of people, though.
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It did. 🙂
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The blanket is gorgeous! I have not seen that style before.
I have not read Where the Crawdads Sing, but I am like you, I am not reading much fiction anymore. I think I have just read so much that I find plots and characters too familiar. But two I have enjoyed are All the Light We Cannot See and Everyone Brave is Forgiven. Both are set in Europe during the WWII era but there is no overlap between them, and in the second one if particular I never saw any of the plot twists coming!
And I agree with you that I would be happy to read books with more setting descriptions and less formulaic plot. 🙂
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Thank you for the book recommendations, I’m hoping other readers will enjoy knowing about them. I read so many books about The Wars when I was a teenager – I had a really gruesome interest in it all and now, I can’t read, listen or watch anything to do with War of any kind – which does cut out a huge raft of entertainment that is produced – but that’s ok because I have crochet! HaHa!
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I know what you mean, I am much happier with peaceful books. In theses two, the war is more or less in the background but it does creep in. I particularly loved the language in Everyone Brave is Forgiven — the author used different styles for the different characters. That made it stand out to me.
If I think of any other good books, I will let you know! 🙂
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Thank you. that book does sound good.
We seem to have similar tastes in fiction. 🙂
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Wow beautiful blanket! Looks like a lot of intricate work!
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The pattern is worked from a chart – the intricate bit is designing the chart (luckily Moira did that!) – following it requires concentration, but it is much easier than it looks.
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Lovely blanket. The edging part is fascinating. I presume the front border is round and round mosaic crochet from what I can see, and then the back part to cover the edges. After the photo you sent me I could imagine using mosaic crochet for a rug but that would be a long time hence as I am planning a blanket for my granddaughter first.
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Yes the border is round and round. The back and front are joined together with a slip stitch to hide all the loose ends.
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Beautiful, beautiful lap rug, and if you hadn’t mentioned the mistake no one would ever have known…. I’ve read the book in book form, as it were. I enjoyed it enough to finish it but not to take it out of the library again and definitely not enough to buy it. I felt the ending was rushed, but the descriptive prose was lovely.
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I am definitely going to make another blanket with that pattern – it is fascinating to se the pattern evolve.
I agree – the ending of the book was far too rushed, especially after the beautifully languis pace in other sections – it was almost as if someone had suddenly given her a deadline and she had to get it done.
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I am in awe of the crochet. And I love reading, always have my nose in a book (or now my Kobo)
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You might well enjoy this one then.
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The blanket looks amazing- you can’t have a stitch out of place with a pattern like that. I don’t know the book you mentioned, will you read another novel do you think?
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Sadly I don’t think so – I remember the days when I devoured books and loved to get lost in them – that never happens nowadays. I listen to Drama on the radio, but reading takes up too much crochet time! 🙂
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Wow! Your blanket is fantastic! Such a different type of design. Another one to be treasured by a member of your family.
As for the book, I had a slightly different experience to you as I had this as an audible book so was greatly influenced by the reader. Sometimes, this enhances a book for me as with the Trinidadian accent in ‘Loverman’ by Bernadine Evaristo and the Irish accent in the current one I’m listening to, ‘The Hoarder’ by Jess Kidd, However, in the case of ‘Where The Crawdads Sing’ the accent drove me mad and distracted me from the story – I felt the reader made Kaya sound like a real drip. I didn’t warm to any of the characters much (possibly due to their voices), I found the plot unfeasible, there were too many clichés in both characters and storyline and I felt some sections went on for too long. Apart from that, I agree with you that the descriptions of place, nature and wildlife are excellent which makes sense as the author, Delia Owens has co-written three non-fiction books about her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa.
But, what do I know? There are tons and tons of people who love this book.
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I think I will trust your judgement on this book and give it a miss.
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Well, I don’t want to put you off reading it as my judgement was partly swayed by the fact that the narration wasn’t to my taste. I think I’m in a minority so you might be one of the ones who love it and I wouldn’t want you to miss out. Plus, you would enjoy the pieces on nature and wildlife.
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Yes, lots of people I have spoken too really love this book – some say they cried at the end and some have said they didn’t want it to finish. I guess there are hooks in a book that like Velcro sticks to bits in us – we all have differnet varieties of Velcro.
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An interesting analogy 😊
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