I love a Crochet-A-Long (CAL) especially the ones by Lucy of Attic24. She has been designing and hosting one in January for a number of years now, I almost always participate. It gives me something to look forward to in the cold and dark months of January and February. She always has a yarn pack you can buy from Wool Warehouse UK to go along with it, and I usually buy a pack, but some years I don’t, perhaps the colours don’t call to me, or I decide that I really should use yarn I already own and do some stash busting, or my daughter decides the blanket should be hers and picks out her own colours…
This past December we had a mail strike in Canada so I couldn’t order the yarn pack without paying more for DHL shipping, which is always a last resort for me. Luckily I had a Starbright Blanket kit from Lucy that I hadn’t used yet, and many of the colours of the Canalboat CAL were in it, with a little stash busting I was able to pull my own yarn pack together.
This year my husband James was the lucky recipient, I hadn’t made him his own blanket yet, he wanted one for his lap that the cats could cuddle on when he was in his recliner. I think they approve of it. They both supervised it’s creation.
I really love the folk art feel of it that Lucy was going for, it definitely adds a bright splash of colour to the livingroom! Details of my yarn substitutions are below, I’ve also noted how many grams of each colour that I used in parenthesis behind the colour name.
2 January CAL
Pattern: Canalboat Blanket CAL by Lucy of Attic24
Craft: crochet
Hook: 4.5 mm and 4 mm
Size: 46 x 78″
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK
Colourway: Apple, Aster, Bottle, Claret, French Navy, Fuchsia Purple, Kelly Green, Lipstick, Lobelia, Gold, Magenta, Pomegranate, Powder Pink, Teal, Turquoise
- Notes: I decided not to use the Canalboat yarn pack, there was a mail strike in December which meant I couldn’t order it on time, plus the colours aren’t really calling to me. I decided to stash bust and am using most of the Starbright yarn pack, but switching out two to get more contrast and match the folk art feel of the pattern. Removed Empire and Lapis from Starbright kit.
- After row 5 my blanket is 132 cm wide
- Two hook sizes, because I always start off with looser tension in a striped blanket and have to go up a hook size after 5-6 inches or my blanket narrows noticeably.
Canalboat kit colour replacements
Royal = Lobelia
Green = Kelly Green
Sage = Aster
Lime = Apple
Camel = Fuchsia Purple
Fondant = Magenta
Tomato = Pomegranate
Colour list and amount used in grams
Apple = 70
Aster = 78
Bottle = 74
Claret = 70
French Navy = 74
Fushia Purple = 71
Gold = 65
Kelly Green = 81
Lipstick = 11
Lobelia = 70
Magenta = 62
Pomegranate = 75
Powder Pink = 75
Teal = 75
Turquoise = 65