The Hope Blanket

It gives me tremendous joy to share this with you. I have been working with a dedicated team of volunteers to design The Hope Blanket which will be the project at this year’s Crochet for Cancer event. At the event on Saturday 11 March everyone will be given yarn to make a few squares, and these squares will be worked together into blankets to be donated to CHOC.

The pattern is a free pattern. The yarn for the creation of the pattern, as well as for the squares that will make up the blankets for CHOC, has been very generously sponsored by Hester and Martine at Moya Yarn. The project has been designed in two colourways – pink and brights. You can purchase kits from Moya via the Afrique Yarn shop. For every kit you buy the designer commission will be paid, in full, to Crochet for Cancer. So, whether you are buying a kit to donate the finished product, or you wish to make one for yourself or someone you care about, you will be supporting this most worthy cause.

You could also choose from the large selection of Moya DK cotton and make your own colourway. The possibilities are endless.

About Crochet for Cancer

In today’s world, we often hear about how small actions can lead to big impacts, and a group of women who crochet
together are a perfect example of this. The crochet community is a very close community and what started as a
hobby, and a way to bond over a shared interest, quickly turned into a means to support a cause close to their hearts.
The crochet community spent hours chatting and crafting together, and the women realised that they wanted to do
something more, something that would make a difference in the lives of others. They decided to start raising funds
for CANSA, with cancer being a disease that had affected many of their loved ones. They put their crochet skills to work and began hosting fundraising events, crochet workshops and other fun events to encourage funding. With their hooks working, and their hearts full of compassion, these women came together to make a positive impact in the world, and so began Crochet for Cancer.

Visit the Crochet for Cancer Facebook Page for events. There is a big annual event, and many other fun events throughout the year to raise much-needed funds for cancer charities like CANSA and CHOC.

Volunteers

I designed the pattern and was most ably assisted with the tech editing by Mariana Müller. Mariana is a Pretoria-based designer who makes sublime patterns for her brand Sweet Crochet Dreams. You can find her on Instagram under the handle @sweetcrochetdreams. Mariana is very good at detail, and she works such interesting textures and stitches into her work. You can also find her on Facebook.

The beautiful photographs throughout this pattern were taken by Amor Nawn. Amor has an incredible eye, and her styling skills are fantastic. She is based in Pretoria and you can find her on Instagram using the handle @amornawnphoto, and on Facebook Amor Nawn Photography. Amor takes absolutely gorgeous shots of people, whether individuals, families, or other groups. Her talent speaks for itself.

The pattern was tested by Annelie Fouche, Adele Griesel, Charmaine Laurence, Elise Pieterse, and Elza-Marie van Lille. Testers are invaluable assets, and their care and patience is much appreciated.

Download the Pattern

The pattern is free to download and use. Please bear in mind that it is under copyright and cannot be sold or shared on other websites without permission.

There is a UK and US version available. The paper size is A4.

the-hope-blanket-uk Download

the-hope-blanket-us Download

I hope that this pattern will bring many hours of joy in making it. Thank you for supporting us in our efforts.

Standard Yarn Weight System

Welcome everyone! It’s 2023 already. I can’t believe how 2022 sped by. It wasn’t an easy year by any stretch, so I’m very hopeful that this year is going to be a much better one.

I’d like to chat about yarn weights. There can be a lot of confusion surrounding this issue, with different countries having different names for the same weight of yarn. For example, in South Africa, we sometimes call DK 8-ply, and the US might call medium worsted, or Aran yarn, 4-ply, which is a totally different thing in the UK.

The first thing that is pretty important to address is that the number of actual plies in a yarn is really not relevant anymore. You can find yarns whose weight was identified by the number of plies, might now have a different number altogether. Sometimes you’ll find a very chunky yarn, often referred to as 12-ply, actually only having one. You may have a fine 4-ply yarn with five. These standards really don’t make any sense as a way to identify the weight of yarn. These names can also cause a lot of confusion from country to country. Countries like South Africa, Australia and New Zealand (and a number of others that were former British colonies) generally tend toward the UK naming conventions for yarns, although this is not exclusively the case.

The Craft Yarn Council in the US has a standard weight system for yarns that can remove some of the ambiguity from the naming of yarn weights. The system is numbered from 0, which is extremly fine yarns and threads, to 7, which is extremely thick yarns. It’s a clever system that can aid in classifying yarn weights, and appears to be increasingly adopted.

You can download my handy reference guide to yarn weights below. If you need clarity on the hook sizes refer to my post on UK vs US crochet terms.

Yarn Weight Reference Sheet Download

You can also check out the video on YouTube that covers this topic.

Wishing you a very prosperous 2023. May it be a great year.

UK vs US Crochet Terms

One of the things I wish I knew right at the start of my crochet journey is that there are different crochet terms used in different countries. Sometimes, as is the case in South Africa, both sets of terms are used. For those new to crochet this can be very confusing, added to which that when YouTube is consulted the person offering the tutorial often doesn’t mention which they are using. Further, the US uses different hook size terms to countries that mostly use metric. It can be very confusing all round.

This prompted me to put together a Cheat Sheet that contains some pretty useful information that will help you with these issues and contains other information too. You have a hook conversion chart, a chart of basic UK vs US terms, commonly used terms, instructions, and commonly used symbols. I hope that this will make a big difference in demystifying the different information that comes up when you start crocheting.

There are two files available. The file indicated as “Letter” is 8.5 x 11 in and is more suited for US readers. The file indicated as “A4” is better suited to those from countries using metric. This will make for easier printing. Both files contain exactly the same information.

A4 Crochet Cheat Sheet

Letter Crochet Cheat Sheet

Quickies

Hello everyone. I hope you are having lovely weather in whichever hemisphere you find yourself.

I have started a series of shorter videos, called Quickies. In each I will demonstrate a single technique that may be useful. I’ve kicked it off with the Double Magic Ring. This is a fantastic way to start your amigrumi, and is sometimes overlooked, because some consider it more fiddly, but I think it is one of those things that if somebody shows you how, you realise how easy it is.

I’d love it if you’d watch my video, and please let me know what you think.