I'm very excited to revisit my crochet skills. It's been too many years to count since I wielded a crochet hook, and I only knew a few stitches at that time. You may wonder what has got me fired up again.
I came across a photo of this beautiful Fruit Garden blanket designed by Jane Crowfoot. Jane drew her inspiration for this from the embroideries of William Morris' daughter May. The look of the Arts and Crafts movement definitely appeals to me.
When I found out the instructions were free and there were helpful accompanying videos, I thought it MIGHT be possible to do. She says the designs start out easier and continue progressively harder to help crocheters build on their skills.
I assumed I would never be able to produce such a work of art, BUT I wondered just how far I could manage it. If I was to really go for it, it would be a sizeable investment in yarn (by my standards), and I didn't want to commit to it until I had some reason to believe I could actually do it.
So, I waited for the detailed photo tutorial patterns and videos to start coming out (she releases a new portion every two weeks). In the meantime, I sourced some inexpensive yarn and a crochet hook. Then, I watched the first two videos and attempted to "crochet along" with Jane.
I had to start, stop, rewatch some bits, and there was a lot of ripping out, redoing, and improving, but I finally got through that motif and my piece looks right! I'll try a few more portions of the design to see if I can follow the "progressively harder" steps. If I can, I'm ready to commit to the proper yarn and start the real blanket.
Therein lies several problems. The kits of yarn are not currently available and neither are many of the individual shades called for by the designer. Sold out! Additionally, they are a bit beyond my budget. So, I started to research what I could substitute. And I think I've found a solution.
There are two colour recipes available. The first is for the one pictured above. It uses the less expensive Stylecraft Life DK (double knit) and Batik DK acrylic/wool yarns. The second darker colour recipe uses a finer Stylecraft Cotton + Bamboo yarn.
I found a yarn with the same gauge as that used for the first colour recipe instructions, made by the same company, with a wide range of shade options - Stylecraft Special DK. After a bit of investigation, I think I've found shades that should work out almost the same as the originally indicated Stylecraft Life DK yarns.
What do you think of that!? The Stylecraft Special DK yarn is 100% Acrylic (versus the 75% Acrylic/25% Superwash Wool content of the Stylecraft Life DK yarn). But Yarnsub notes "The warmth, drape, elasticity, durability and softness of this yarn are a reasonable match with the original." The pattern additionally uses 5 skeins of beautifully variegated Stylecraft "Batik DK" yarns. These are priced similarly to the Stylecraft Life DK yarns but are half the length, and thus half the price. Since they are so unique, I decided to keep them as is, and not do an inferior substitute.
The next problem involved where to get these yarns. Stylecraft is manufactured in the UK, and is more widely available there than it is in the USA. There is a tradeoff - Pay less for the yarn and more for postage (and delays) by buying from the UK, or pay more for the yarn and save on shipping by purchasing it in the USA.
Right now there is a fantastic solution. Almost all the shades are available from Deramores US branch. They don't carry French Navy 1854, my preferred shade substitution, and the Heather 1906 Batik DK is out of stock.
Last week (June 16), they were celebrating their birthday and offered a 20% off code: BIRTHDAY20. I hope you were able to take advantage of that. This week, there's 20% off on Stylecraft yarns (but it excludes Special Ranges). :-(
If you're like me, and have been looking for a way to make this blanket a bit more affordably, or were having trouble with the original yarn choices being out of stock, I hope my solution works out for you too.
