Hubby and I had a weekend away in May last year for our anniversary and I visited a local yarn shop and bought a lap rug pattern called Rockpool. My mum had just given me two large plastic canvas totes full of yarn from my gran’s stash, so to stop hubby having a conniption about taking on gran’s stash, I pulled a bunch of skeins of 12 Ply (bulky) that went well together and got started. (I was quite happy with the colour combination, considering the stash would be from no later than the 90s.)
I ran out of some colours so had to go and search for similar-enough colours and hope the differing yarn sizes didn’t matter too much.
I also had to buy yarn to make the squares around the circles, as the colour that I had planned to use (gran had about 6 skeins) just wasn’t quite right.
I used two different colours for the squares as I unfortunately didn’t have enough of the teal (which I love) as it was a mill end bag and there was only one. But it worked out that I had enough for the border squares, so a different colour wouldn’t look completely out of place.
Then all that was left was to add the border, which was five rows of double crochet (UK)(single crochet US) and then one row of crab stitch (which I had never done, so new stitch to the library!)
I wanted to make sure that I used the yarn evenly and made all the circles unique, so I spent ages on a pattern to mix the colours up. It was like a massive game of sudoku, with only a certain number of each size circle in each colour.
Here it is, in all its glory. Using 12ply ended up making it bigger than the pattern, it’s about 4’×5’. So quite big and heavy. I think I ended up using nine skeins of stash yarn.
First off, it’s just so attractive with the circles and squares and the color combinations. Second, it really flatters the kitties coloring! And third, I just love the story of your grandmother’s stash and your finding just the right modern additions to make it into this finished project! YEY!
It came out great! Perfect choices for colors and placements and I always give a standing ovation for that level of stash usage- vintage AND a large quantity! Brava!
Thanks everyone! I really enjoyed making this (even if it took me waaaay longer than anticipated) and I love the colour combo. It would have been easy to keep for myself, but I have given it to my MIL and she loved it.
WELL HERE ARE MORE PHOTOS! I am so in love with this! And now i can see your seeming is done in white! gah! there is so much to love about this!
i would never have included the red, and would have been so wrong. you have a great eye for color and harmony. and all your effort produced and excellent finished object!
I’m such a nerd that I couldn’t leave it completely random and I didn’t want the same colour order just rotating through the pattern.
I think I will need to type it up and keep it with the pattern, so next time I can just get going. Hmmm, but what if I use a different number of colours?
AIMR
(Linda -In the year 2025, I am happy to be alive! :us:)
18
I just found this post! wow…I am truly impressed with your chart…that is something I would do to make sure things were evenly dispersed.
It is very modern and yet the story and yarn are vintage. You made wise and artistic choices given what you had to work with. I does look like a random bunch of geods an yet it is all so cohesive.
Is that the birdy cushion cover from our swap ages ago? It can’t be.
so had to go and search for similar-enough colours and hope the differing yarn sizes didn’t matter too much.
