Moose Valley Winery: Our Journey in Home Winemaking: Beaujolais Nouveau

Moose Valley Winery: Our Journey in Home Winemaking: Beaujolais Nouveau: "I had no idea what this was until a few years ago when my aunt brought a bottle of this to Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a tradition for her ..."

How do you create a new row of color?

If you are knitting or you are busy with your crochet, you are going to want to end one color and join in another!  This is scary for a new knitter, or happy crochet queen, because you are actually going to have to cut that beautiful wool yarn...it always makes me cringe.

The thing you need to do, is end a color at the count of the row, or at the end of the row.  Then, just bring into your work the new color.  Keep the old color long and still tied to your yarn ball, and just work in your new color with a new stitch or a a new hook.  It is that easy!

Once you have the yarn new color worked in, and you like what you see, you can clip that old color.  Or, bring the old color up and create a series of stripes.  It is nice to have the variance, and this is great practice.  If you are worried about the end, tie a snug knot, and then at the end of your knitting or hooking performance, bring it up and work it again.

Do not worry too much about your finishing until you get there.  The real test of any crafting project is to try new and different things, find a challenge, and give it go! 

Stripes are great fun!  Enjoy yourself!

My Nephew's Crochet Blanket

This blanket was so much fun to make!  I made the pattern up all on my own, by doing some single crochet, some double and triple crochet.  I started with just four colors, and just kept it with those 4, to keep it natural and simple.  The big blocks of stitches are all single crochet.  They are all added together with 50 stitches in row.

Then, in the middle I did do something fun and very open, and used a shell hook pattern.  This is a really easy stitch which you use a second crochet stitch, and just keep going to the same spot to start say 5 stitches.  It makes a pretty fan!

Here's a close up of this stitch.  It is upside down from where you would start, but it is pretty isn't it?  The entire point is you can create your own blanket with some innovation and some new ideas.  The mix of patterns is very nice, and adds a lot of texture to this blanket!