A Crochet A-Long designed by Helen Shrimpton of www.crystalsandcrochet.com for Crochet Now magazine.
I love designing afghan squares, and I love the flexibility they give you in creating your own blanket.
When Crochet Now, a very popular crochet magazine in the UK, asked me to design a crochet a-long for their readers I straight away knew it had to be squares.
Then I started to go through my process of what was I going to design, how was I going to find the inspiration for a 13 part cal?
12 squares would make up 12 parts, and the final part would be the joining and border, well that was easy, but where was my inspiration coming from?
While designing this cal last year I was still grieving for the loss of my Mother, I was trying to sell her home and find my forever home, there seemed to be so many obstacles.
So, in true Helen style, I asked my Angels.
The first thing that came to me was…
What inspires me?
What is my ethos for life?
And then the ideas and visions of what I wanted to create flew through my mind like a whirlwind.
I wanted this to be a progressive learning project for people of all skill levels, so whether you are a beginner or experienced crocheter you will learn some new stitches as you progress through the cal.
Important information.
The cal will be published in Crochet Now magazine over 13 issues, which covers one year.
The cal is available in UK terms only in the magazine.
For UK residents there is a special offer for subscription and a smaller yarn pack and is Stylecraft Special DK but in very similar colours to The Sky’s the Limit colours.
Subscription link for UK residents only.
For those of you overseas there is a different subscription link.
Or you can save on cost and go digital.
Digital subscriptions are available from www.pocketmags.com
The subscription is for the full magazine, not just the cal, so every four weeks you will have all sorts of goodies to make, and articles on crochet from many different designers.
There will also be a Facebook group to help and support those of you crocheting a-long.
There are 2 yarn packs available in my Deramores store, both packs will make a full size blanket.
Packs available from Monday 25th February.
Or you can purchase any of the yarns in different colourways by using my partner links on the right of this page.
Finished size…56” x 80” 142cm x 203cm
“The Sky’s the Limit”
Stylecraft Life and Batik ~ Recommended hook size 4mm
Yarn Pack is available online from Wool Warehouse
C1 Batik Coral 4 x 50g 552 meters
C2 Life Ice Blue 2 x 100g 276 meters
C3 Life Cascade 3 x 100g 894 meters
C4 Life Denim 4 x 100g 1192 meters
C5 Batik Storm 5 x 50g 690 meters
C6 Life White 2 x 100g 596 meters
C7 Batik Silver 5 x 50g 690 meters
Total – 25 balls total 4890 meters
Colour per round is included in the pattern.
“Happiness”
Stylecraft Special Dk ~ Recommended hook size 4mm
Yarn pack available online from Wool Warehouse
C1 Jaffa 3 x 100g 885 meters
C2 Empire 3 x 100g 885 meters
C3 Sunshine 4 x 100g 1180 meters
C4 Emperor 5 x 100g 1475 meters
C5 Bright Pink 2 x 100g 590 meters
C6 Bright Green 3 x 100g 885 meters
C7 Wisteria 3 x 100g 885 meters
Total – 23 balls total 4890 meters
Each square represents an aspect of my journey through life, the things I have come to learn and believe in.
As each part is published I will show you photos and give some handy hints to help you along the way.
Here is a list of the issue numbers and dates for each of the 13 parts of the cal.
♥ Part 1 ~ issue 40 ~ 28th March 2019
♥ Part 2 ~ issue 41 ~ 25th April 2019
♥ Part 3 ~ issue 42 ~ 23rd May 2019
♥ Part 4 ~ issue 43 ~ 20th June 2019
♥ Part 5 ~ issue 44 ~ 11th July 2019
♥ Part 6 ~ issue 45 ~ 1st August 2019
♥ Part 7 ~ issue 46 ~ 29th August 2019
♥ Part 8 ~ issue 47 ~ 26th September 2019
♥ Part 9 ~ issue 48 ~ 24th October 2019
♥ Part 10 ~ issue 49 ~ 21st November 2019
♥ Part 11 ~ issue 50 ~ 12 December 2019
♥ Part 12 ~ issue 51 ~ 9th January 2020
♥ Part 13 ~ issue 52 ~ 30th January 2020
For those of you unable to follow the cal in the Crochet Now magazine, I will be republishing in both Uk and US terms later in 2020.
Here are a few of the A Life Inspired blankets made by my testers
Ineke made a 2nd blanket as a lapghan, using Aran weight yarn and a 5mm hook, the squares come out at 12 inches each, and she made just 1 of each square, and as you can see the texture of the squares shows beautifully when a light solid colour is used.
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