Rosslyn and Crochet Butterflies

Rosslyn variations.

I am making a Lap Blanket each for my twin granddaughters who have a birthday coming up.

It has been fun making them the same but different, and playing around with Helen Shrimpton’s excellent Rosslyn Pattern.

In order to make them rectangular instead of square I added a few rows and some butterflies at each end, before adding the edging.

Twig’s Lap Blanket

The first pattern for a butterfly border I found was this one by Debi Dearest

I left the antennae long until just before I was going to finish them off by snipping them and melting the ends next to the flame of a candle to seal them.

Debi’s method of making the bodies so that they do not move around can be found here

Then I found another pattern for Twiglet’s butterflies

Twiglet’s Lap blanket

 

Crochet Butterfly Stitch

 

To make the body and antennae I found that wrapping the yarn round twice on each side and then knotting the two ends together after the intial reef knot gave a slightly better finish, giving the butterfly a head and keeping the antennae in line rather than going off at odd angles.

The yellow one above is made as in the video and the pink body is made with my variation.

Next I seal the ends of the antennae by holding them near to a candle flame to melt them together so they don’t fray.

Washing and blocking these two blankets with all those butterflies and picots round the edge – as well as the roses took a whole day.

I still have some roses to sew on to Twiglet’s blanket before the blankets are ready for packing and posting.

Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK

Duck Egg, Cream, Storm, Raspberry, Buttermilk, Lincoln, Pale Rose, Soft Peach

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Yarn Along: Rosslyns

The Rosslyns are coming along.

It is fun to make the same pattern in the same colours but in a different order.

I’m not totally sold on the pale pink (Soft peach) rows in the one on the left – what do you think?

It might look better when I have done a few more rounds.

I don’t like how the ‘roses’ turned out in the one on the right so I will be making some flowers to sew on for the other one.

This is Helen Shrimpton’s paid for pattern made in Stylecraft Special DK with a 4.5mm hook

8 colours:

Buttermilk, Duck Egg, Storm, Lincoln, Cream, Old Rose, Raspberry, Soft Peach

Joining Ginny’s Yarn Along

Ginny likes us to add the book we are currently reading, but as you may know I hardly ever read fiction nowadays. I do however love to listen to the Radio whilst crafting and am really enjoying the new comedy on BBC Radio 4, ‘Ground Control’, starring Tamsin Greig.

Yarn Along with Gudrun

I love Ginny’s Yarn Along – a chance to meet up with other yarn lovers and see what they are making and what they are reading.

Here is my progress report on the two Rosslyns so far

A paid for pattern by Helen Shrimpton.

This is a really lovely relaxing pattern to make and just the thing to be making alongside the current Cosmic Cal. I usually finish the rows given for the Cosmic Cal a few days before we are given our next set of instructions, so I then move to working on the Rosslyns.

As I have mentioned before I have made a few alterations to the pattern

and now I have also added some butterflies – pattern by Debbie Dearest.

My intention was to make a single bedspread, as a birthday present for each of my twin granddaughters (they will be 6 in October). The butterflies were there to make the finished bedspread rectangular rather than square.

Once I had done the butterflies and a bit of the border, it felt like the right time to stop.  Just to be sure I tried one out on Little Bro’s bed

Yes, that looked fine so I made the edging and finished one, with just the butterfly bodies to complete and ends to sew in.

This means they will be lap blankets instead of bedspreads but they can still go on their beds.

Also joining Ginx Craft.

Whilst crocheting I have been enjoying the

The Gudrun Saga by Lucy Catherine

I’ve listened to all of the Series and currently Series 4 is being serialised on BBC Radio 4

Overseas readers might be able to catch it on 4 Extra

Do you listen to the radio or podcasts whilst crafting? If so I’d love to know which ones.

 

Crochet Progress

A bedspread in the making for one of my twin Granddaughters.

I am mostly following Helen Shrimpton’s wonderful Rosslyn Pattern. This is a paid for pattern and worth every penny!

It is a wonderful pattern to follow and very relaxing to make. Well it would be if only I could stop myself making a few additions, changes and adjustments as I go – the creative mind is never at rest!

The 5 Changes I have made:

1. Surface sunrays were added over 2 rows
2. The popcorns are closer together than in the pattern – this happened by accident, but I decided to leave them in
3. There are some breaks in the row of popcorns, with some plain stitches
4. There is a colour change in this row
5. 8 colours have been used instead of 5

I was wondering if I was making the pattern look too ‘busy’, but I think I will stick with my changes. What do you think?

The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK, the hook 4.5mm.

The 8 colours:

Soft Peach, Buttermilk, Duck Egg, Pale Rose, Cream, Raspberry, Lincoln, Storm.

At this stage it measures 28 x 28 inches or 72 x 72 cm.

Have you made any of Helen Shrimpton’s patterns? If so please leave a link, I’d love to see them.

And if you enjoy a good old natter, pop along over to Cathy’s place for Knit and Natter Friday.

Rosslyn

My Wednesday Wip this week is one of Helen Shrimpton’s paid for Patterns – Rosslyn

Photo taken with my iPhone, it looks a bit harsh as if made of cotton, but it is in Stylecraft Special DK, made with a 4.5mm hook.

8 Colours chosen from the centre:

Buttermilk, Soft Peach, Pale Rose, Duck Egg, Cream, Lincoln, Raspberry …….. Storm.

This is a wonderful pattern to work with. A pattern I will be happy to make twice as I am making one for Twig and one for Twiglet, my 5 year old twin Granddaughters.

I’m loving the way the characters of each of my 8 grandchildren are reflected in the colours and patterns of their blankets. I have already made 4.

The first was Miss E’s daisies . To see the finished blanket go to the Throws Page and scroll down through links to other blankets and throws I have made.

I am joining Ginny in her magnificent YARN ALONG – she asks us to share a book we are reading and this is mine

Novels take up too much crafting time for me but I have been bingeing on watching Outlander on DVD whilst crocheting

I loved the books by Diana Gabaldon in the days when I did read fiction,  now I’m enjoying the emotional rollercoaster of the DVDs.

There is a mass of Outlander knitting pattern sites on Etsy .

Happy Yarning!