Rainbow Colors for Your Crochet Projects

The use of the rainbow colors for crochet projects is something that I've come to love.  I can remember the acronym of ROY G BIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue Indigo, Violet) from art class in high school and for some reason this has stuck in my head all these years.

Red Heart has a page for helping in selecting various shades of the rainbow colors for your projects and I think it's something to bookmark for color combination inspiration.  You can find their rainbow yarn page here.

Rainbow Colors in Red Heart Yarns

Benefits from Crocheting

I enjoy crocheting as a hobby and pastime and have personally benefited from the positive health related aspect of crocheting.  Crocheting has helped me in reducing some stress and anxiety and in the process I have created some pretty amazing (bragging, I know) pieces of work.  When my mind is racing and I need to slow it down, crocheting helps as it forces me to concentrate on what I am doing and the repetitive nature of crocheting helps me to focus.

Here are several sites that have articles, tips, etc on the health benefits of crocheting:

• All Free Crochet - 7 Surprising Crochet Health Benefits

• Red Heart - Health Benefits of Crocheting and Knitting

• Little Things - Experts Say Knitting And Crocheting Can Have A Surprising Impact On Your Health

• Lion Brand - 10 MOST IMPORTANT HEALTH BENEFITS OF YARNCRAFTING

• Countryside Daily - The Benefits of Learning How to Crochet

• Craft Yarn Council - The Truth About Knitting and Crochet….They are Good for You!

• Anxiety Resource Center - How Crochet and Knitting Help the Brain 

Crochet Friends - Out of the Parc Designs

As time goes on and the more that I have shared my own work through the various social networking sites, I have gained several friends in the fiber arts world.  I've already introduced my friend Amy from AmyBStitched and today I would like to introduce another great friend - Lyn Wilson.

Lyn is a small business owner, fantastic fiberartist and and wonderful blogger.  She owns and runs Out of the Parc Designs.  Her blogs are constantly informative and inspiring as she highlight various fiberart designers and some great charities and causes.  I've had the extreme pleasure and honor of being mentioned in some of her writings and that, to me, is really something special.

Please take some time and visit Lyn's blog - you won't be disappointed and will find a treasure of articles/entries that can provide some inspiration!

Crochet Friends - AmyBStitched

Last June, I had the honor to collaborate on a crochet project with Amy Brewer. I found her site and pattern for her Meandering Paws scarf and the pattern really caught my interest. I had recently lost my beloved cat Snoopy and wanted to come up with something to remember him by.

After many starts, stops, errors and trials, I was able to adapt Amy's paw print design from a scarf to and afghan. I created a Rainbow Bridge pattern using the paw print design and shared it with Amy. In a short time, the project was published by Amy on her blog/page and it was and is a success and very well received.  Even after one year later, this pattern is still used by many.

This is a project that I am very proud of and was one that was very therapeutic and enjoyable to work on and I would like to thank Amy for the opportunity to collaborate on this project with her. Many who have had their fur children cross the Rainbow Bridge have appreciated the project. On the various social media groups that I belong to, there have been over 2000 likes and shares. And to be very honest, that is a great feeling!

Meandering Paw Prints Over the Rainbow Bridge

In January of this year, Amy and I collaborated on another project called "Meandering Paw Prints Heart of Duchess.  I had the idea of using Amy's paw print stitch in a heart formation for an afghan and after much trial and effort came up with the Heart of Duchess design in honor of one of our other cats who has passed on.  This pattern has also been met with great success and was once again a great honor to collaborate with Amy on another project.

Heart of Duchess Meandering Paw Prints

Please visit Amy's blog, A Stitch At A Time for Amy B Stitched to see her wonderful work!

In Flanders Field Square and Afghan

In Flanders Field Square and Afghan

The inspiration for this work is the poem "In Flanders Field" by John McCrae.

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae, 1872 – 1918

 In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place, and in the sky, 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high! 
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Notes:

·         Materials: black, red, dark green and white yarns – quantities vary depending upon the desired finished size.

·         Size I/5.5 mm hook

·         Terms are in US Crochet terms

·         Ch 3 count as a dc

                       

With black, ch 4 and sl st to first chain to create a loop.

Rnd 1.  Ch 1 (ch 1 does not count as a stitch) and 16 sc into loop; sl st to the ch 1 (16 sc).  Fasten off. 

Rnd 2. With red, attach to any sc, ch3 and 6 dc in same stitch, ch 2.  *(Sk 3 sc and then 7 dc in next sc, ch 2) Repeat from * twice and then sl st into top of ch 3 of first cluster.  Fasten off.

          

Rnd 3.  With green, attach in any ch 2 space, ch 3, and 2 dc in the same ch 2 space.  Skip the next 3 st and 3 dc, ch 2 and 3 dc in the next dc. *(3 dc in next ch 2 sp, sk 3 st, 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc in next dc).  Repeat from * twice and sl st into top of ch 3 of first 3 dc cluster.

Rnd 4. Ch 3, dc in next 5 dc; *(1 dc, ch 2, 1dc in corner sp.  Dc in next 9 dc.). Repeat from * twice.  1 dc, ch 2, 1dc in the corner. Dc in next 3 dc and sl st into top of ch 3.  Fasten off.

Rnd 5. With white, attach in any ch 2 corner space, ch 5 and dc in the same space.  Dc in the next 11 dc.  *(Dc, ch 2, dc in corner sp; dc in next 11 dc). Repeat from * twice; sl st in 3^rd chain of the ch 3 of the corner st/chain.  Fasten off.

Weave in all ends.

Finished square measures approximately 6-inches by 6-inches.

Assembling:

Below are some common sizes for crocheted afghans.  The number of needed squares are in the parenthesis for each size.

Twin – 7 squares x 13 squares (91 squares)/10 squares x 13 squares (130 squares)

Full/Double – 9 squares x 13 squares (117 squares)/14 squares x 15 squares (210 squares)

Queen – 10 squares x 13 squares (130 squares)/15 squares x 16 squares (240 squares)

Places squares with the right sides facing each other and whipstitch the square together for the number required for each row.  Then place rows of squares with the right sides facing and whipstitch together to attach each row to each other.

Squares and rows can be attached to each other by slip stitching or single crochets instead of whipstitching if desired.

Any type of border can be added to the afghan if desired.  A simple double crochet border of the dark green or white would be complimenting to the finished afghan.

A pdf of the pattern can be found here

This is an Original Design by Doug Speeckaert. Feel free to make and sell the finished product for profit, but remember to give credit to me, and link back to my blog https://dcspeeckaert.blogspot.com/

Thank You!!! Doug

A lot of hard work goes into writing patterns. Please feel free to share the link to this blog, but DO NOT copy and distribute this pattern by any other means.