Like many people I started doing more gardening during lockdown. At the start no-one knew what was going to happen, so I wanted to grow some veg. And as we were going to be spending much more time at home, tidy the garden and make it prettier.

We did get lots of mange tout, a few courgettes, spinach, and loads of tomatoes!

I also planted lots of sunflowers, which go huge in the end. Here are some in progress photos:

However, while waiting for them to flower, I thought I would brighten up the front of the house with some crocheted sunnies! Along with some bees I crocheted a while ago 🙂

This one jumped out at me when watching one of Black Sheep Wools’ update videos by Sara. It was a great one to take away on holiday. A repeating Sea Shell pattern with a single cake of Sheepjes Whirl, again in rainbow colours for my niece’s rainbow baby.

I thought I had taken more photos of this…the border wasn’t quite finished at this point. But you can see the simple, colourful effect.

This is another one from the ‘Look what I made’ site (where I found the Block a Week CAL 2014), designed by Dedri Uys. I thought it would be nice to make a smaller version – just 4 squares to make a baby blanket. I used some Stylecraft batik DK that I had bought in rainbow colours a while ago, along with cream and grey. This seemed appropriate for my niece’s ‘rainbow baby’.

I loved the textures in this blanket.

I ordered a selection of Stylecraft Special DK from Black Sheep Wools when we first went into lockdown.

I think I had intended doing the Persian Tiles blanket, but a stumbled across ‘A Block a Week CAL’ from 2014 which had, as it says, a block a week – so much less repetition than some other block blankets I have done, or doing persian tiles.

In hindsight, for this, I should have done the standard square for each one, and then when they were ALL completed, decided which additional rounds were required to make them all the same size, rather than trying to get them the same size as I went along. If I am honest I loved some of these blocks, and really didn’t like some!!! Some of them just didn’t square up very well. But the point of it was variety, so I stuck at it. Some weeks I did a few blocks, others none (if I was sewing instead, or baby knitting/crochet!)

I would recommend the CAL for its variety and lots of different styles.

So what should I do with 42 squares? Just sew into another blanket, or do something slightly different?

I joined rows together with alternate colours with a very basic double crochet (single crochet US) on the right side. It is a bit bulky, so I may do a slip stitch join next time. I did want to do something slightly different to a standard blanket, but wasn’t really sure about joining to make a cardigan, as the squares are a bit big for that. So I went for …… a poncho!!

I have made a few of these now. The granny square bit is quick and easy.

This one was for my niece’s baby, Tod, who was born at the end of August.