Small Things

Following on from my post Finito, I have a few other small items to show you that I've finished recently. Once I'd finished the Blossom Shawl I needed something else to work on in the car. I remembered that I had some Aran wool that I bought a couple of years ago while on a short holiday in Galway. The wool is spun in Donegal and has a bit of a slub and little nebs of colour in it that make it very interesting. It also smells the way I remember Aran wool smelling when my mother bought it years ago. She seemed to always be knitting an Aran jumper or cardigan for someone in the family!

When I was buying the wool, not being able to decide which colours to take, I bought two balls of thirteen different colours. For a long time now I haven't made things for myself so, part of the thought process in deciding what to make next was that I'd like something for me. Deciding what to work on next is sometimes a long, thoughtful process but at other times it's an instant (or almost instant) decision. Next I needed to decide what exactly I was going to make and how. I have been thinking for a while about making a sort of poncho/capelet type of thing. Not big; just something to cover my shoulders. Well I was almost there. I picked my favourite seven colours from the stash of Aran wool and, rather than try to make up some sort of square myself, I decided to use the Willow block pattern from Jan Eaton's 200 Crochet Blocks book.

The wool choice was like this....

I took a photo after making the first three blocks. Jan Eaton's book says that the squares are all 6" if you use DK yarn and a 4mm hook. My yarn was Aran weight and I was using a 5mm hook. I only crocheted the first four rounds of the Willow block and this produced a 6.25" square but that was fine for me. Because I'm still loving the flat join method I used it here as well.

 

I couldn't believe how quickly this worked up. Before I knew it the poncho/capelet was finished. While I was crocheting it I was thinking ahead to what sort of edging I could put round the bottom and round the neck. But when it was finished I decided that I liked it the way it was without any edging. So I just sewed in the ends and gave it a little bit of a block and that was it - finito!!

Front view

From the back

Even though it has been so warm here recently I wore it one day!! It was admired and then, being almost overcome with the heat, I decided it was better to take it off and keep it for cooler days.

Here are the details of how I made this and what materials I used.

100% Aran wool - a total of approximately 320g

I used seven different colours, with three in each block. You can decide your own colour scheme of course.

5mm hook

I made 16 squares each 6.25". My pattern was the first four rounds of the Willow block from Jan Eaton's 200 crochet blocks book. You could do a simple Granny square so long as it ends up approximately 6.25" square.

The squares are arranged in two groups of 3x3 but with a corner missing from each group. Have a look at this photo to see how the squares are arranged. The two groups of squares are then also joined. You don't have to join the squares as you make them; you could crochet them or sew them together at the end.

 So what do you think of my little poncho/capelet thingy? I'm really, really please with it!

All the very best for now.