Welcome to the Hooked and Locked CAL 2022 – Solid Squares (HAL CAL 2022) – In mosaic crochet
<Edit May 16 2022: The pattern is no longer available for free. You can buy it from my Ravelry shop (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/the-craftsteachers-ravelry-store). The parts for the tutorials are still available.>
You know that interwoven crochet is my specialty. I designed a new blanket for a variation on regular interwoven crochet, the solid squares technique. You can read all about it on this page (click here). Here you see the front of the blanket in interwoven crochet. The blanket in mosaic crochet will look practically the same. The border will be wider, or you could have fringes on the sides.
Mosaic crochet is very popular at the moment, and I can transform my interwoven crochet patterns to mosaic, so that’s what I’ve been working om the last couple of weeks to have that finished in time (well, almost, still have to do some work on the files). I had to transform the pattern charts and the written descriptions, make a new practic piece and a new video, calculate how much is needed to make the blanket in mosaic, and test that of course by crocheting a part of the blanket a second time. There will also be a photo turorial later.
As you can see in the picture it is a blanket again with a border and blocks with different patterns, just like the HAL CAL of 2018 (click here).
The technique
I ‘redesigned’ a new practice piece that you will also use as a gauge swatch, the Diamond practice piece. Maybe you think: hey, that looks familiar! That’s right! I also used this pattern for another tutorial for mosaic crochet, but for this tutorial I adapted it slightly. I’ve also made a new video to show the technique in a quick way and explain how to read the written descriptions and pattern charts. You can find the pattern and the written tutorial here on this page: click here.
In 2 languages: Dutch and English
The pattern for the blanket is available in both English and Dutch. Go to https://www.dehandwerkjuf.nl/ for the Dutch version.
General information
Pay attention: this information is for the mosaic crochet version!
For this blanket I used Scheepjes Colour Crafter in 2 colors. Choose 2 colors that have a good contrast.
I used Roermond (1123, dark red) for color 1 and Lelystad (1026, pink)for color 2.
Take 15 balls for color 1 and 12 balls for color 2. This is enough for both the blanket and the practice piece.
If you want to do the border in two colors (stripes, or color 1 at the front and color 2 at the back, see the tutorial about the border here), you need 1 ball less for color 1 and 1 ball more for color 2: so 14 balls for color 1 and 13 balls for color 2.
The balls are 100 grams and have 300 meters working length. It is a 100% Premium Acrylic (Anti Pilling).
I used hooksize 4 mm.
The size of the blanket is about 164 cm x 224 cm.
Please do the practice piece first, to check the gauge and your yarn usage.
What I will give to you
Website
I have made an extra tutorial on the website to guide you through the setup: click here. Or look in the menu under HAL CAL 2022. The tutorials will stay here after the end of the CAL!
With the tutorials you will also get the links to the videos that I have on YouTube.
YouTube
On YouTube I have an English channel (The Craftsteacher, click the link) and a Dutch channel (De Handwerkjuf, click the link) where all my videos are. For this CAL I made a separate playlist for all the videos: click here .
Please subscribe to my YouTube channel (or channels), and check that bell, so you will get a message when a new video is published. This really helps me enormously. And if you like a video, please give it a thumbs up, this way you can show your appreciation for the work I put into it.
I have facebook groups that I also used for my previous CALs. For English: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HookedAndLockedCALEnglish/ and for Dutch: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HookedAndLockedCALNederlands/. You can ask questions there, so others can help you, and of course you can help others by answering their questions. I will also be there a lot for help. I will also announce there when a new part is published. You can also show pictures of your version of the blanket there.
Availability of the pattern
During the CAL the pattern parts will be available for free. The practice piece and the bottom border can be downloaded from the website and will stay there also after the CAL, because they also serve as tutorials.
Through the newsletter
For the other parts you need to subscribe to the newsletter of The Craftskid (click here). You will receive a new mail each week (starting with block 1, after the bottom border) with a link to the place where you can download the files. The links in the newsletter will only be valid for one week, because we want to prevent as much as we can this will be shared on the internet outside of the newsletter. Did you forget one week? No problem, because the new place where you have to download will also have the files of the weeks before (with exception of the bottom border). So keep an open eye on your mails and check your spam folder!
The advantage of subscribing to the newsletter is that we will also be sharing our discount codes that way, or other news, like the release of our new patterns. Discount codes will not be shared anymore through FaceBook or other channels. The Craftskid (my daughter) and I are very holding back with sending mails (because we really do not like if companies send us an email each day!), so don’t be afraid your mailbox will be filled with our mails.
After the duration of the CAL the downloads will still be available for a while for free, but I will remove them May 14th 2022. After that the patterns will only be available on Ravelry at the regular price.
Paid pattern
I will also offer this as a paid pattern on Ravelry. There you will get the entire(!!!) pattern right away, so you can make the blanket full speed :-). During the CAL this will be offered for a highly reduced price. The discount code will be sent to you in the newsletter (click here).
If you buy the pattern, then I would like to ask you to wait with showing your pictures on Facebook until the ones that joined for free also have come to the point where you are. So, for example, only post pictures of your blanket that is done to block 4 until I have released that part.
Don’t loose your files!
I’ve seen with the previous CALs that people lost their downloaded files, and for a while I offered the parts on request. I will not do that anymore because of the growing number of participants, so please don’t loose them! Put it on your computer in a place where you can easily find them, or save them in the cloud, like on Google Drive, on OneDrive or in Dropbox.
Release schedule
I will publish the parts on the following dates (with reservation). So keep your eye on your mailbox on these dates.
February 19 2022: The practice piece for interwoven crochet (click here) and the practice piece for mosaic crochet (click here) . Also the tutorial videos for the practice pieces will be released then.
February 26 2022: Introduction and the bottom border
March 5 2022: block 1
March 12 2022: block 2
March 19 2022: block 3
March 26 2022: block 4
April 2 2022: block 5
April 9 2022: block 6
April 16 2022: block 7
April 23 2022: block 8
April 30 2022: top border and border around the blanket
I am wishing you lots of fun with crocheting this blanket!