Sudoku Blanket

 Sudoku Blanket!

I've used my usual Stylecraft Special DK yarn.

 

The colours used here are:

Granny Square version: (4.5mm hook)
Petrol, raspberry, mustard, denim, fuschia purple, gingerbread, cypress, tomato, violet.  I used a bit of midnight I was trying to use up, in between each square and black to join the groups of 9 squares and the edging.

You can, of course, use any 9 colours for the squares and a contrast joining yarn. 

Or no joining yarn! 

For the C2C version: (5mm hook)

Boysenberry, petrol, grape, khaki, gold, copper, cypress, violet, mocha

This one was done using a join as you go method found here.

And here is the sudoku I used for the granny blanket.

I had used a different one for the C2C but realised some colours were touching on the diagonal, and I didn't like that! I started doing sudoku like crazy trying to find one that had no diagonals but was coming to the conclusion that it didn't exist when I finally found one.

I then subbed the numbers around to get a 1,2,3... in the centre square, just because!

SO here is that one.

Have fun!

Fingerless mitts

After taking a break, I've decided blogging isn't for me!

But it is still useful for me to keep this blog and occasionally pop something on it.

It's a good way to share things with others where there isn't another suitable avenue.

Anyway, my hands are cold and I need to make some new fingerless mitts, so I thought I'd share the pattern as it's so simple.

Using DK yarn and a 4.5mm hook.

Pattern

Foundation sc 25.

1-10) 25sc (or longer if you wish)

increase for thumb:

11) 11sc, inc, 1sc, inc, 11 sc =27sc

12) 11sc, inc, 3sc, inc, 11 sc =29sc

13) 11sc, inc, 5sc, inc, 11 sc =31sc

14)11sc, inc, 7sc, inc, 11 sc =33scs

15)11sc, inc, 9sc, inc, 11 sc =35c

16)-20) 35sc

Separate for thumb:

21) 13sc, sk9, 13sc = 26sc

22-30) 26sc (or longer if you wish)

Done!

Binary Blanket finished

 Well you get the idea..

Here is the whole blanket finished. 

I'm not overly thrilled with it, I have to say. But it feels nice.

I'll have to have a re-think on the colours, that might help. And maybe smaller blocks, too.

They can't all be winners!

Binary Blanket, Y-A-R-N blocks

The first square is for the 'Y' in yarn and consists of 01111001 which will be:

Row 1 - warm colour

Row 2-5 - cool colour

Row 6-7 - warm

Row 8 - cool.

Using the colours petrol and tomato.

I love the waffley look. 

It's 19cm wide so 16 of them should yield a blanky about 76cm plus a border so may be 85cm square. A nice lap size. Also a good size for a pet or toddler to snuggle with.

The next square is for the 'A' in yarn. and that's 01100001 which works out to be:

Row 1. warm

Row 2 -3. cool

Row 4-7. warm

Row 8. cool

and I'm using Mustard and Bottle for this one.

I really do love the waffley look and it's reversible! 

The next square is for the 'R' in yarn, and that's 01110010 which works out to be:

Row 1. warm

Row 2 -4. cool

Row 5-6. warm

Row 7. cool

Row 8. warm

and I've got Fuchsia and Royal for this one.

as you can see, I've started labelling them!

The next square is for the 'N' in yarn, and that's 01101110  which works out to be:

Row 1. warm

Row 2 -3. cool

Row 4. warm

Row 5-7. cool

Row 8. warm

and I've got  Boysenberry and Proper purple for this one.

                                                        

Binary Blankie, colours and pattern

Happy New Year 🎆🎇

Colours.

I wrote about finger swatches the other day. Another thing I do is have a wee container of 12dc squares to play with. I've picked 8 colours out to do this blanky.

Warm: Tomato, Mustard, Fuchsia Purple, Boysenberry

Cool: Petrol, Bottle, Royal, Proper Purple

and I have chosen tomato and petrol for the first one.

Pattern.

I've been trying to decide what to do the squares as. I'm so over grannies now. 🥴

Choices... plain dc, work between dc's, a pretty square like something from Lucy's collection...

I think it needs to have even sized rows for the colour to work. I'm still going with the illusion of someone reading the binary so I'd like it to be clear.

I did a whole big blanket in the work between stitch and really liked it. It has quite a thick feel to the fabric and has a sort of waffle texture.

The other time I used this stitch was on Doris Chan's All Shawl, being triples it came out nice and lacy. I think I used it on a Lion Brand bag pattern too, now I think about it.

The pattern is here, for the big blanket I made.  

(Kaz works with Lucy to re-imagine her designs with each new colour pack. Check out all the pretty Harmony blankets!)

Here is the one I made.

I've done a chart for the squares - up to row 8 as that's what we need for this project.

In between stitch square pattern.
Row 1. Ch3, join with a slip stitch (JSS) to form a ring. Ch3, 2dc, (ch1, 3dc)x3, ch1. JSS. Turn. =12dc + 4ch

Row 2. Ch3, 1 dc in same space, *1dc in between the next st to the corner ch, 2dc, ch1, 2dc in the corner ch * Rep ** 4 times, omitting the last 2dc of corner at the end. JSS. Turn. = 24dc + 4 ch

Row 3. Ch3, 1 dc in same space, *1dc in between the next st to the corner ch, 2dc, ch1, 2dc in the corner ch * Rep ** 4 times, omitting the last 2dc of corner at the end. JSS. Turn. = 36dc + 4ch.

Carry on like that for 8 rows total (for this project) in the colours as per the binary code.

I used a 5mm hook with Stylecraft special DK.

Binary Blankie

I thought I'd do a year long project, you know like a temperature blanket or scarf.

But I don't think I really have the patience for something that takes all year, though. and having something unfinished hanging around for a YEAR!! Nope.

I've done that before, a scarf. I didn't take a year; I looked up the temperatures from the year before and smashed it out over a couple of weekends.

I still like the idea of using data to make something though.

Interesting data sets might include:

idea 1:

How many traffic lights are green on my way to work each day.
I could do a 5 row square (there are 5 traffic lights) each row based on green/red.

I would have to pay attention and remember the lights and write them down when I got to work. All year. I probably wouldn't do that!

idea 2:

I can see a crane out my window. It has a flashy light on top. If I glance up at the end of each row and see if it's on or off, that would determine the colour of the next row. Lets see how that will work by noting it down --- oh the tree outside has leaves now. I can't actually see the flashy light at the moment!!

idea 3:

I like the on/off or yes/no idea. It's 2 balls of yarn. 

That's binary! I could write something and convert it to binary code 0010010100101111010101010 (not actual binary) that would make a nice stripe sequence. 

So I looked up how binary code works and each letter, or other character, is 8 bits (or rows for us) So I could do squares and each square is a character of 8 rows/bits. 

An 8 row granny or solid dc square is fairly big.

I could change the colours each square so it's not too samey-samey. 

Maybe have all the '1' in a blue/ green palette and all the '0' in a red/ orange/ pink palette.

Hmm, OK. So 3 rows of 4 letters (or 4 rows of 3 letters)

yarn     01111001 01100001 01110010 01101110

cake    01100011 01100001 01101011 01100101

hugs     01101000 01110101 01100111 01110011   

Ok, well the colours need work, but that's what the word yarn looks like in binary granny squares. I'm sure you Never wondered!

I used the first text too binary converter in google search to get the codes.

https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/ascii-to-binary.html 

And stitch fiddle to get an idea of what they look like.

Oooo, I likey!

Right so that's a plan.

Not sure about the rectangle though. What's another word to add?

yarn     01111001 01100001 01110010 01101110

hugs     01101000 01110101 01100111 01110011  

cake    01100011 01100001 01101011 01100101

love     01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101

and a border

This is going to be fun!

and the same thing in 2 colours:

I think I like the multi colour one better.

SO that's the plan - a binary blankie!

Starbright Blankie

I think I'm just about grannied out after this one!

So we had an election. It was a sad outcome. No more caring compassionate leadership here. It's all about the $$$ now. 

Which left me blue. So I stopped the doom scrolling and went in search of something to cheer me up. Where else but Attic 24!

And what do you know Lucy had just released her new pattern!

A bright and beautiful blanket called starbright.

https://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/starbright-blanket.html

And I had nearly all the right colours, I just had to sub a few.

Lucy has done the blanket in an interesting new square motif, but alas, I didn't have the brain power available to learn it. So I did ... Grannies...!

I'd love to get the actual colour pack one day and do it properly. But for now it filled the need to do something pretty and positive.

Figuring out colours

 Here's how I like to put colours together to see how they look.

and also to save a stripe sequence so I don't forget what I decided.

The finger swatch!

My google photos is littered with these pics.

Big bear, Stripey bear and bear gauges

 A couple more snuggly bears to add to the hug.

Did you know that a group of teddy bears is called a hug!

First up is BIG bear.

I made this one with the yarn held double (Special DK grey) and an 8 mm hook.

You might have thought doubling it would need a 9 mm hook (2 x  4.5  mm) but I've noticed this before when I've doubled something that the hook might not also double but be a wee bit less. 

If you are using different yarn, or want to check your tension, you can make the arm or even half an arm and poke a bit of stuffing in. See how it looks. Can you see heaps of stuffing? is it a bit stiff? (Some amigurumi needs to be stiff, but not this bear!)

And just completed is the bear with a stripey top!

Hmm, might have to move those eyes in...!

To figure out where to put the stripes, I got the picture of mocha and scribbled on it with the highlighter tool. After a couple of goes I was happy with this one.

Wow, it came out looking almost identical! 

The colours in the actual one are: Walnut, denim and gold.

Goldilocks bags!

Yup, that's right, BAGS!

First up I used the round Goldilocks to make a half round bag.

 

Making just half the circle until it was wide enough, then switching to straight rows across the top for a wee bit more height. 

Then I made a meshy style bag in black. I used an 8mm hook here to get a loose mesh.

I started with the round pattern for 6 rows and then continued on with no increase (ie the straight pattern)

 
Here it's flat and here stuffed full with my favourite big blankie.

For a bigger market style bag (on the to do list!) I'll try going to 9 round rows first and see how that turns out.

SO many options!

Links:
Blanket patterns Ravelry

Previous posts start here

Square

 Oh, one more then.

Here is the Square version. I love options!

 

Once again with the Stylecraft! and a 5.5mm hook now. That gives a lovely drape.

Here is the colour sequence if you wanted to follow along.

(Only I stopped at row 36- Shhh!)

1-15 is the palette.

Pattern is available here on Ravelry, with the Round and Straight ones.

Straight on with it

Well that circle was FUN!

What else can I make with that little 3 row repeat...🤔

How about straight rows to start with.

I had some Stylecraft left over from the Lucy's Harbour ripple blanket

so I've used that for this blanket.

 

I had a 5mm hook for this one, but I think a 5.5mm would be nice too.

Pattern:

Stitches:

V = dc, ch1, dc in st/sp indicated.

Sp = space

Ch = chain stitch

Dc = double crochet

St = stitch 

Fdc - foundation double crochet - see below pattern

(= ||-V-V) etc. are little visual pictorials of the row

Pattern:

Fdc 151  (or any multiples of 3+1)

1. Ch3, dc in next st, skip 1st, *(V in next st, skip 2 st) until 4 remain, V in next st, skip 1st, 1dc in last 2 st. Turn

= ||-V--V--V……V--V--V-||

2. Ch3, dc in next st, 3dc in next ch space across, 1dc in last 2 st. Turn

= || \|/ \|/ \|/…….\|/ \|/ \|/ ||

3. Ch3, 1dc in each dc to end. Turn

= |||||||||||......|||||||||||

And repeat those 3 rows!

The pattern is available with the Round, and Square here on Ravelry.