Welcome to stop two on the Stylecraft Yarns 2017 Blog Tour! I’m your host, Polly, and this is Every Trick on the Hook – a little blog I call my own, where I share my patterns, tips, tricks, tutorials, and occasionally talk about living the yarn life (it’s like the thug life, but with yarn).
First off, I’d like to say, “Thank you very much,” to the lovely Emma Varnam for passing the torch to me. If you haven’t yet, visit Emma’s blog which was our very first stop on the tour. She shared a gorgeous granny shrug made with the “Desert” colorway of our specially designed blog tour packs of Stylecraft Batik yarn featuring the new Batik Elements. And! She’s giving away the pattern for her shrug free for the duration of the tour. Just visit her blog for details. Thank you, Emma!
Desert Colorway – Stylecraft Batik & Batik Elements
Now, back to today! I’m thrilled to introduce you to the “country garden” blog tour yarn pack. (See the picture at the beginning of the post.) When I saw this colorway I knew it had to be mine. The Batik Elements in Bismuth stole my heart the first time I saw it, so it was bound to win me over again. Here it’s mixed with several shades of Batik: Graphite, Heather, Mint, Pistachio, Raspberry, and Coral. These shades are positively bright and cheerful!
Keep reading to find out how you can enter to win one of these yarn packs today and each remaining day of the blog tour.
The Batik and Batik Elements yarns are simply stunning. They are soft and lovely to work with and use, and the colors are gorgeous. I loved every minute working with my yarn pack. Actually, I’ve been a bit addicted to Batik since working on my blog tour project, as evidenced on Instagram (see below), and I have to say how impressed I am at the color selection. There aren’t a lot of colors in the Batik line, but they work together so beautifully and seamlessly that you’ll never mind. And, now that Stylecraft has added the Batik Elements line there’s even more fun color play to be had.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZPWUDxBi6f/
For my project I decided to let the yarn do all the talking. I chose a really basic crochet stitch – moss stitch, aka granite stitch, aka linen stitch – and put my own little spin on it. Literally. About 45 degrees of spin.
Introducing a new FREE pattern! Corner to Corner Moss Stitch.
I am a bit of a moss stitch fanatic. It’s one of my absolute favorite crochet stitches, quite possibly my all time favorite. But who could commit to that? It’s at least in the top five. Top three? I really love it. It’s soft and stretchy, it works up fairly quickly, and it looks amazing. Could it get better than that? I think so.
Corner to corner moss stitch is all of those things multiplied exponentially. I’m positively thrilled with the outcome! The fabric is so stretchy and drapes beautifully. But even more than that, it’s stunning with variegated and self-striping yarns. Just look how the Batik Elements came out!
I’m calling this blanket “Baby Monet” because the Batik Elements Bismuth reminds me of Monet’s Waterlilies.
I decided to use the Bismuth as the background and the other shades of Batik for diagonal stripes. It landed somewhere between sporty, retro, and/or watercolors. Honestly, I’m not really sure how to describe this. The stonewashed look of the Batik in moss stitch blends the stripes and plays with your eyes. Call it what you will, I call it love!
And finally, here it is all laid out flat and plain. Honestly, I’m in love with this blanket more when it’s in use or draped nonchalantly on some furniture. It’s pretty cool when it’s flat, but there’s something about these diagonal stripes that say they want to be in use.
Technical Details
Here’s what you need to know if you’d like to replicate this little blanket.
I used the C2C Moss Stitch pattern now available here. I used the instructions for making a square.
Click here to favorite, queue, and hook up a project page on Ravelry.
I got a 34 by 34 inch pram sized blanket out of one Country Garden Yarn pack with no border. Adding a border would be as simple as grabbing a couple balls of your favorite color from the pack and adding your favorite border.
I used a 4mm hook and my gauge was: in C2C moss stitch pattern – 13 increase rows, square transition row, and 13 decrease rows is 4 inches square.
I ended up with about 8g left of each color.
Stripe Sequence
Increase rows:
- 56 rows Bismuth (I just worked 1 ball until I ran out)
- Two rows each of the following:
- Graphite
- Pistachio
- Mint
- Heather
- Raspberry
- Four rows of Coral
- Two rows each of the following:
- Raspberry
- Heather
- Mint
- Pistachio
- Graphite
- 18 rows Bismuth (Again, I just worked 1 ball until I ran out)
- Four rows each of the following:
- Graphite
- Pistachio
- Mint
- Heather
- Raspberry
- Three rows of Coral (do not fasten off)
Transition row:
- Coral (do not fasten off)
Decrease rows:
- Three rows of Coral
- Four rows each of the following:
- Raspberry
- Heather
- Mint
- Pistachio
- Graphite
- 18 rows Bismuth
- Two rows each of the following:
- Graphite
- Pistachio
- Mint
- Heather
- Raspberry
- Four rows of Coral
- Two rows each of the following:
- Raspberry
- Heather
- Mint
- Pistachio
- Graphite
- 56 rows Bismuth
The Tour Rolls On
Ok, ok, now for the fun stuff. You can win this very yarn pack that I used to create my “Baby Monet” blanket. Just click here to enter.
The giveaway is open from 10am GMT October 17 to 10am GMT October 18. Winners will be announced around 2pm GMT on the 18th. Stylecraft will be contacting the winners. I’ll announce it too (but I’m much less reliable at following a schedule). There’s a chance to win a yarn pack every day of the Blog Tour and this year there are 16 bloggers participating. That’s 16 chances to win a yarn pack! Plus, you’ll want to follow the tour and see what other surprises await you from all the wonderful designers. So make sure and follow along.
Tomorrow you’ll be visiting Michelle and Anne of Crochet Between Worlds. These two always seem to have something new and clever up their collective sleeve. I can’t wait to see what they bring us tomorrow!
That’s it for this stop on the tour. Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the tour!
P.S. At the top right of this page you’ll find a place where you can subscribe to my blog if you’d like to get an email when I post something new.
P.P.S. My birthday is coming up next week and every year I have a little pattern sale to celebrate. The sale starts on Friday, so be sure to check back if you’re into that sort of thing.
Please check out the Patterns page here on Every Trick on the Hook or my Ravelry store to see more of my patterns, both free and paid.
The best way to keep up with my goings-on is to follow Every Trick on the Hook on Facebook. You can also message me there, post on the wall, and follow my posts for the latest news.
If you’re looking for a more interactive Facebook experience, join the Polly Plum Pattern Posse Facebook group. We’re a fun and supportive group. Really! There’s so much help there that chances are your question will be answered by someone before I even see it. It’s the best place to go with a question. It’s also a great place to share your Polly Plum makes and see what others are making.
If Facebook isn’t your thing you can also join the Ravelry group – Polly’s Place or follow @polly_plum_crochet on Instagram
Lovely blog, I like reading all the different blogs from the Blogstars. You are all stars in your own right.
Aw! Thanks, Tracy!
What a lovely tour from stylecraftyarns, so i am visiting all the blogstars from it.
This is so lovely, and the batik is just stunning yarn.
Isn’t the Batik lovely? I loved working with it SO much! Thanks for reading!
Fab design, that Yarn is stunning! Can’t wait to get my hands on some
You are so clever, thanks for another lovely leg of the tour!
Beautiful Colors and thanks for free pattern
Beautiful! I’ve added this to my list of projects to make . . . Thanks for the free pattern.
Love the colours. What pattern did you do that little sample square in batik?
Hi Sarah! I just grabbed the first variegated I saw on my shelf for the sample square in pink/green/teal on the pattern page. It’s a US yarn – Hobby Lobby’s I Love this Cotton in Peony. The stitch works really well with just about any variegated or short color change self-striping yarn.
Have not tried the Batik yet, but would love to! Hope I get the chance! xx
I love this. The drape is beautiful
Oh wow I love this! I have so much variegated yarn and didn’t know what to do with it as sometimes with crochet it doesn’t sit as right as it does with knitting, if you know what I mean! Plus I don’t like knitting. I’m going to try this straightaway!! I love moss stitch too so that’s even better, I was getting bored of doing the normal c2c but still love the way you can see how much yarn to use and not run out, work increase for half your yarn and then decrease.. This is going to be my go to baby blanket pattern!! Thanks so much for sharing x
Just wondering if the transition row would be in ist colour or second, if doing a half and half square.
Many thanks
The transition row is a center row. You’ll always have an odd number of rows when doing a square so it’s really up to you.
I just found this blog today. I found someone 2 days ago who used this pattern to make a baby blanket. I found some variegated yarn almost a year ago and fell in love with the colors and I knew I was going to make a blanket for Head Start (public preschool). I am a terrible chain maker and I have not gotten the chinless foundation down. I am not a true fan of the granny squares (thought I was). I been wanting to try the moss stitch for over 5 years, but chains. I did a Tunisian and an entralac blankets last year but it takes too much yarn and time. I tried the c2c for the 1st time in February to make a baby blanket. I really love the way your moss stitch blanket and I will be trying it on my variegated yarn. I wish we had Stylecraft yarn here. I have used a few patterns that used their yarn and loved the colors.