Dada's Place

Crochet wonderland

Blooming Blanket

by Filed Under: Crochet baby blanket patterns, Crochet blankets Leave a Comment

I am happy to present the latest blanket pattern in Dada’s collection. The Blooming Baby Blanket! It is flowery, colorful and romantic, and very simple and easy to make, which is always a plus, at least for me.

The idea for this blanket came to my mind totally unexpectedly, when I was working on my Vintage style teddy bear blanket. Needless to say, I stopped working on teddy bear blanket, grab some leftovers from my yarn stash and tried to make this flowery granny square. And it worked! It turned out exactly as I had imagined. I didn’t have to adjust it at all. That’s maybe because the granny square is actually very simple, the basic one.

The blanket is 70 cm (27.5”) wide and 84 cm (33”) long and it weighs 515 grams. The square measures approximately 11 x 11 cm (4.3” x 4.3”). I love to work with 100% cotton yarn, and this blanket isn’t an exception. I combined two kinds of yarn. The first one is my beloved “Tango” from St. George, which I used so many times before, and the second one is gorgeous “Vera” from Yumco (also manufacturer from Serbia). They are the same weight: 125m/50g and very similar quality.

For this flowery, colorful blanket I made 42 granny squares in total and joined them together using Join-as-you-go method. In the end, I added this simple edge. At first, I wanted to make some rich, lacy edge, and I spent maybe 2 days designing and developing the perfect lacy border, but I wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Then I asked myself: What is the most obvious solution? I looked at the blanket and I instantly knew that I had to simply incorporate the same elements of the blanket into the edge. From that point on, everything went smoothly. Once again I learned my lesson: the best solution is always the most obvious, and usually very simple. But, for some reason, we like to complicate things, even when it comes to crochet.

I would say that this blanket is suitable for advanced beginners who master the basic stitches. The pattern is very detailed, with lots of step-by-step photographs (98 in total).

For the first time, this pattern is available in both US and UK crochet terms! I love and appreciate my British and Australian customers, so I wanted to make the whole process of crocheting even easier and more enjoyable to them, and from now on, every new pattern will be written in both US and UK crochet terms.

You can easily make this pillow using the Blooming granny square pattern. Just omit the last row of the square, and join the squares with single crochet (double crochet for my UK and Australian followers). You can add whatever border you like. I used the simple shell stitch border, but the Pom Pom edge would also be great.

As you can see, these bags are made of 4 Blooming granny squares (here I’ve also omitted the last row of the squares), joined together with single crochet (double crochet), I used different colors for joining, which makes them even more colorful and playful. You can really be creative with these simple crocheted bags and and let your imagination lead the way, expecially because it seems that you can’t go wrong with them.

If you want something to bloom in your home 24/7 all year long, maybe this pattern is for you! Click here to get the pattern.

Crocheted wedding flowers

by Filed Under: Other crochet projects 3 Comments

Recently, when one of my oldest girlfriends (who I have known since kindergarten), asked me to crochet her some little flowers for her wedding, I didn’t have a clue what to crochet.

I haven’t  crocheted flowers very often, but then I remembered that I made some cute roses before, for my tote bag with crochet flowers, and I really loved how they turned out, so I decided to use that pattern (found in a Japanese craft book) again.

The flowers are actually quite small, only 2.5 cm (1″). I made them with thin crochet thread for doilies. I think that I used every possible color that I had because I wanted the roses to be colorful, playful and happy, which I also wish my friend to be and feel in her future married life.

When I finished all the flowers, I made these little leaves (I found the pattern somewhere on the Internet and adjusted it a little), then sewed the roses on the leaves. At the end, I just attached brooch pin backs, and the little crocheted roses became brooches for my friend’s wedding guests.

So, once again it showed how miscellaneous and useful (not to mention creative and beautiful) crochet can be. That’s only one of the reasons why I love it so much!

Vintage Crochet Teddy Bear Blanket Pattern

by Filed Under: Crochet baby blanket patterns 6 Comments

This is my second Teddy Bear Blanket Pattern. Vintage style this time. You may be wondering now: “Why did she decide to make another teddy bear blanket pattern?” Initially, I didn’t. It just happened. Like it had happened with so many crochet projects of mine before.

The story goes something like this: I wanted to take some new pictures of my old teddy bear blanket, to update my shop, but since I had sold the blanket a long time ago, I decided to make a new one and to take pictures of it later. And I wanted to add a few little changes to the pattern. Nothing big, only one or two small improvements to the existing pattern. But once I began making the square, it started to live a life of its own. It wanted to look like something my grandmother would crochet for her kids back in the time… so, I followed, and the square turned out quite different from the original one. Then I decided not to replace the old pattern with the new one, but to add it to my existing patterns. Because, after all, they are completely different patterns. Even the bears aren’t the same. That’s the reason why I now have 2 Teddy Bear blanket patterns in my shop.

Let’s say a few words about this blanket. The blanket measures approximately 78 x 94 cm (30” x 37”) and it is made of 42 Teddy Bear granny squares. The edge is very simple, almost indiscernible, and it merges with the blanket, which is exactly what I wanted to achieve because let’s be real, the stars of the blanket are the teddy bears, so I didn’t want them to be overshadowed by the edge.

The choice of yarn is very important to me. Not only the quality of the yarn, but also the colors. Especially the colors. Although this blanket isn’t particularly colorful, I chose these colors very carefully. I took several important things into consideration. First, I wanted the colors to match and complement each other, secondly, I wanted the colors to have a vintage touch. And I wanted to keep it simple, and to use as few colors as possible. I reduced my color palette to only three colors. I think that’s enough. At least in this case. The yarn I used is my beloved 100% cotton yarn “Tango” 125/50m from St. George.

I used 3.5 mm crochet hook (USA – E/4; UK – 9). The pattern is written in English using standard American crochet terms. I would say that it’s suitable for intermediate level of crocheters.

The pattern is very detailed and easy to follow, with more than 120 step-by-step photographs on how to make Teddy bear granny square, how to join the squares together, and how to make the border.

So if you like this blanket and you’ve decided to add an adorable teddy bear’s vintage touch to your (or somebody else’s dear to you) nursery, click here to buy the pattern.

What else can I say? Grab your crochet hook and some yarn and enjoy!