Simply striped

I feel strangely unmotivated this week.  I should be making great PCH strides, but I'm not.  I had a thousand crafty ideas a while ago, but now they've lost their dazzle.  I seem to be floundering a little at the moment, undecided or quite what to do and quite where to start.  Unfamiliar territory for me as normally the 'next big idea' has already formulated in my head and is ready to go.  So by the time I finish on one project, I'm ready to go straight off onto the next.

All in all, it's a good job I had a rather exciting finish at the weekend that I can share with you.  And, it's a good one (I think), so hopefully I will feel bright and breezy and my Mo will be very much back with my Jo by the end of this post.

What do you think so far?  Like the look of it?  I do, I love and adore it very much.  I keep touching it and unfolding and re-folding it and smoothing my hand along it's softy cottony expanse.  Delicious!

I did mention to you that you'd gotten some Kool Kotton recently didn't I?  Well, that's what I've been playing with the past couple of weeks and my word have I had fun playing!  I've enjoyed myself ridiculously, it probably should be shameful, but I don't care.  Yarn and wonderfully yarny colours make me so silly happy and I love it!

Let's talk about the yarn for a moment, because I know some of you want to know.  I think this yarn is fabulous.  It's soft and works up beautifully.  It splits occasionally, (it is cotton after all) but really not much.  It's very reasonably priced and I only found one knot!  (See Rowan!!)  The only problem with this yarn is the limited colour range available.  Having said that though, the colours they do have, I loved.  They worked so well together that nearly every combination I picked up worked, it was great. 

I think it's another reason why this project was so enjoyable to make, I didn't fret and fuss over colour combinations for these stripes, everything seemed to come together easily and with little effort.  That's not always the case I assure you!

Having said that, I did have a little false start at the beginning.  I's only got a few stripes in when I suddenly panicked that my colours weren't quite right.  I had two purples, which were a little too similar and wondered if I needed a little something more.

So I hunted around for a compatible yarn to throw into the mix and settled on Sirdar Calico.   Not a perfect match at 158m per 50g rather than Kool Kotton's 130m but as the closest matching ones were over £5, I decided the Calico would do.

 So I swapped one of the purples for the yellow and reserved the spare purple for the border.  I do love the little colour injection that the yellow brings but you know, I think the blanket would have be great without it too.

I spotted the Vintage Vertical Stripe pattern ages ago on Ravelry and had squirrelled it away in my favourites until the right moment came along.  There's some gorgeous VVS blankets on Ravelry if you want to take a look.   I just added my own concoction of a shell style border to finish it off.

This delightful new addition can't stay with me though.  It's due to go to a new home sometime in the summer, to meet a different sort of 'new addition'.  I shall find it hard to part with I think, but at least I'll get a little more time with it before it has to leave!

Data, data, data:

The pattern:  Vintage Vertical Stripe by Bella Dia (Rav pattern page)
The yarn:  James C Brett Kool Kotton and Sirdar Calico

The colours:
1.  Kool Kotton - Tomato (KK11)
2.  Kool Kotton - Denim (KK3)
3.  Calico - Bandana (728)
4.  Kool Kotton - Olive (KK12)
5.  Kool Kotton - Putty (KK9)
6.  Kool Kotton -Tuquoise/Aqua (KK8)
7.  Kool Kotton - Coral (KK7)
8.  Kool Kotton - Mint (KK6)
9.  Kool Kotton - Pale Pink (KK1)
10.  Kool Kotton - Mauve (KK10)
11.  Kool Kotton - Purple (KK2)

Hook size: 4mm (US - G) for blanket and 5mm (US - H) for the starting chain.
Starting chain: 113 (110 trebles, plus 3 for the turning chain)
Rows: 105
Yards: 1520
Size (with border): 80x95cm (31x37.5in)

I think that's all.  If there's anything else you'd like to know, just ask!

S x