The summer has finally arrived in Belgium, which is why it was so quiet here 
. And this night I’m leaving on vacation, so I’ll be away for a week.
I’ll be responding to the incoming messages when I’m back!
Cheers,
Charlotte
Kaleidoscoop TADAAA!
Thanks to the awful weather (Not that I’m happy about that. What kind of summer is this?) I managed to finish my kaleidoscope blanket already!
Only a couple of days ago I finished joining all the squares. I hadn’t even started with the border. But once I knew what I wanted, the border crocheted super fast.
Taking pictures of the whole wasn’t so simple, because the lighting was never good and using a flash made the white too bright. Luckily I managed to take advantage of one of the few times the sun came peeping through.
Front
Working with small granny squares was something I had been thinking about for a while now. And when it became clear that after my rainbow granny and hearts blanket I would still have plenty of yarn left, it seemed a perfect opportunity to use the sometimes small amounts of colour to crochet these tiny 2-rounds squares.
Back
My first intention was to make something smal, like a cushion cover, but it was quite clear that I had more than enough yarn to make several cushions. Therefore I opted to crochet another blanket, especially after seeing Sucrette’s Kaleidoscope.
Sucrette crocheted 160 squares for her blanket, which seemed do-able for me. My first square was crocheted back in March; the 160th and last square in May.
The joining of the squares was another matter all together.
I initial plan was to use Sucrette’s zig-zag joining, but in reality this didn’t look so good when I tried it on my squares. Thus, back to the drawing board. After some trial and error, I finally settled for a joining I thought of myself. This joining I have now dubbed the ministeck-join, because it reminds me a bit of the way the ministeck pixels are attached to their spine (ministeck official site).
At the front, this ministeck-join creates a sort of bridge between which the squares sort of float/hang.
At the back, you still get a sort of zig-zag effect, albeit different than Sucrette’s
For the border, I wanted something frivolous, something that would break the squareness 
and also something which would repeat the feel of the ministeck-join in the border.
I practised on some extra squares and finally I found what I was looking for.
In total, the border consists of 5 rounds. I will explain the exact way this was crocheted at a later time, together with the ministeck-join.
I really like how the border turned out. It does make the blanket curl a little bit, but for me that’s part of the charm.
I’m really, really, really happy with the end result. And I’m even more happy, because this time I didn’t blindly follow an existing pattern, but gave it my own twist
The details:
Yarn: 25 colours and white, all left overs from previous projects. Approximately 100gr of white yarn.
Crochet hook: 4,5mm for the squares. 4mm for the joining and border.
Amount: 160 squares
Measurements: Aprox. 65×105 cm. (10×16 squares)
Time: Crocheted sporadically over a 4-month-period.
DIY? Sucrette’s square chart – Ministeck join – Pattern border. (will be added)
Ta-daaaa: My Granny Stripe “Across the Rainbow Bridge”
Yes! Finally finished! My excruciatingly beautiful (if I do say so myself) Granny Stripe! 
I named him Across the Rainbow Bridge, a reference to a song by Areon:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGpSf_m85dw&w=420&h=315]
Almost a year I crocheted on this. Of course, not continuously, but still, almost a year. I’m soooooo happy a persevered and finished it. And he turned out so so beautiful!
The idea for this granny stripe stared when I wanted to get rid of my big supply of yarn in a bunch of different colours. Apparently this is called a stash busting project.
I wanted a sort of rainbow blanket in which the colours were interspersed with white.
Personally I prefer colours interspersed with white as opposed to full colour blankets. The colours are just as abundant, but it has a less chaotic/heavy feel to it. Plus the white gives the colours just that extra pop.
First I had selected 14 colours from my stash, but the people on Ravelry persuaded me to ad an extra orange shade to get a better rainbow. In the shop I eventually bought 3 extra colours, so now I had 17 different shades that formed a pretty convincing rainbow.
After one repeat of all colours, I calculated I would need 4 repeats to get the desired measurement. Man, what a big miscalculation!
I wanted a blanket to watch TV with. One in which I could cuddle while watching a movie. After some research I found such blankets are generally around 120-130 cm wide and 150-160 long. My plan eventually became 130×160, because bigger is always better, especially to wrap feet in. In the end my blanket is big enough to wrap my feet at least 3 times, because the blanket ended op measuring 138×196 cm
To take the picture below I had to move some furniture!
I did 3 repeats of all colours and a border. I felt this blanket deserved some kind of border, but a simple one, in white to frame the colours. I crochet two rounds of (US) double crochets followed by a round of (US) single crochets and a round of crab stitches.
This was a huge adventure for me. My very first grown up blanket.
At the one end I’m super happy that it’s finished, but on the other hand also sad it’s over. Only one remedy for that: Time to start something new !
The details:
Yarn: 17 colours and white of different brands. Mostly Wibra and Zeeman acrylics.
Hook: 4,5mm
Starting chain: 203 (201 + 2)
Measurements: 138×196 cm
Number of stripes: 3 repeats of all colours, interspersed with white, plus 2 stripes of white at the beginning and end. In total this counts to 106 stripes or 212 rows!
Quantity of Yarn: Approximately 50g of each colour. 11 and a bit skeins of white.
Time: Started on May 28th 2011. Finished on February 16th 2012. This is 8 months and 19 days!
Cost: Approx. €25
Real prics: PRICELESS!!!