Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Hisser Sisters CAL ... End of Week Three

August 21, 2016

Once again Claire & I are on target with our first Hisser Sisters CAL ... the Cottage Ripple Blanket.  I took a series of photos & picked out my favorite, but somehow I ended up permanently deleting all but this one!  Do forgive me for the very poor quality.

Claire's photo is, of course, much better!
We are currently at the half way point with our blankets, just having finished stripe #42.  There are a total of 84 stripes.  We will not, however, be crocheting all 84 stripes as neither of us wants a bed-size blanket, just a throw to snuggle up with while watching TV or working on another CAL or KAL   : )   We are ramping things up a bit this coming week with the plan to crochet three stripes per day rather than two!  

I am going to spend a bit of time now talking about the yarn we are using.  It's the yarn that the designer, Lucy of Attic24, suggests ... Stylecraft Special DK.  This is also the yarn that comes in the blanket packs that Claire & I both purchased for this CAL.  It is 100% acrylic.  I have never been a fan of acrylic.  Give me man-made fibers any day.  However, a couple years ago I started to make a blanket from 100% superwash worsted wool.  I got about a quarter of the way done with it & it was already extremely heavy.  It was to be a gift for my husband, & I pictured him napping underneath it & being unable to move ... like being trapped by a blanket of chain mail!  I did so want to gift him with a blanket though, & last year I thought I would give one of Lucy's blanket packs a try.  Here is that blanket (the Coast Ripple) which, incidentally, my husband loves   : )
So I was talking about acrylic yarn.  Stylecraft Special DK is a British produced yarn.  It is extremely soft & the colors (74 of them!) are lovely!  The yarn is a pleasure to work with.  It glides effortlessly through your fingers without you feeling as if you're crocheting with plastic, it isn't splitty, & I honestly can't say enough good things about it.  All my future blankets will be made with this yarn.

I have been hearing the cicadas every evening which has always, for me, been the sound that precedes the end of summer.  I remember hearing them when I was a little girl in the weeks before it was time for the new school year to begin.  I think it is a lovely calming sound.  For me, anything that indicates the ending of summer is a lovely thing!

2 comments:

Kaisievic said...

Yes, heavy wool blankets can make you feel trapped. Your yarn looks perfect, however.

Sarah in Stitches said...

Ooohhh, that yarn sounds so nice! The colors are lovely too :D