Mystery CAL 2015 – Overlay Crochet

It seems like it’s time to announce my Mystery CAL 2015 (with official start on 26th of June). This will be the first CAL in my life and no need to say how excited and nervous I am about it. I sent you a newsletter not long ago and since then I’ve got lost of requests on this CAL: what it will be, when it starts and so on. So the right time has come to tell something (not everything yet) about it.

This CAL will be first of all interesting for those of you who love to crochet granny squares. As at the end of this project you will get a decoration for a pillow cover consisting of 9 squares. As far as they are made in overlay crochet – this CAL may also be interesting to those of you who would like to be introduced to this amazing crochet technique. I tried to create not tricky patterns which will be fun to make for advanced beginners, too.

All the patterns will be published on my blog only (one tutorial each week) and they will be illustrated by lots of pictures showing every small detail of the progress. The patterns will stay free and you will have a lifetime access to them. I think it is nice to feel comfortable and not in a hurry, and to know you can come back to any block’s pattern again at any time. There will be ten parts of the CAL: nine blocks and one part describing how to join them together in one square and how to crochet a border around it.

To be honest I haven’t finished my own pillow yet, so there is a huge mystery for me as well. I did design all the blocks a few months ago. They all except of one have been tested already, but I haven’t decided on the border yet… Well, I still have two weeks for that as my CAL will officially start on 26th of June. In two weeks on Friday I will publish a tutorial for the first block.

What you will need to participate in this CAL

• You will need yarn in minimum 6 colors. This project will be really colorful and those of you who has already tried to crochet my mandalas knows what it can be like. You will need approximately the same amount of each color (maybe a bit more for the border, but I haven’t finished it yet so I cannot tell right now for sure. I will write a separate welcome post for this CAL and exactly indicate the amount of yarns I used). You can of course use more colors if you wish. I used yarn “Cotton Light” by DROPS. (Yarn weight: DK. Texture: 8 ply (11 wpi). You can choose other weight and it will influence the size of each finished block. And what I like about this CAL is that you can actually use the scraps of yarn.
• Crochet hook of the appropriate size – which suites your yarn and gives you an acceptable gauge.
• Ready fabric pillow cover. This will be a CAL for the front decoration only. You can of course crochet the back part of the pillow cover and make it completely crocheted. But it’s just me who loves to combine yarn and fabric. I find that fabric pillow covers with crocheted decorations look very modern. I usually sew my pillow covers myself so that they suite the size of crocheted decorations in the best way.

There is no official sign-up for this CAL. But you can subscribe to my blog to get weekly newsletter with each new tutorial. And I’ve also created a group on Ravelry (finally!!!) which you can join. There I plan to launch separate threads for each block from this CAL once the tutorials are published. You can also chat about (all) my patterns, ask questions and show your finished projects. I am very new to all “group-issue”, so I am not sure at the moment what this group should be like. I will add some new threads (about new releases, sales and discounts) soon. Please, be patient with me as I need time to look around and to learn everything. Oh, and let me also introduce amazing Donna Wilson who will kindly help me with moderating this group (she is a very good crochet tester, byt the way!). Thank you Donna so much!

And also don’t forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest.

There are two weeks left before my CAL starts and in order to be prepared for it you can check a separate section about Overlay Crochet on my blog. There you will find all the necessary information on how to choose the yarn for overlay crochet project, how to crochet in back loops, how to insert the hook while attaching overlay stitches, how to invisibly join the rounds and so on. I know it’s lots of reading but you will definitely need this information during the CAL. So it’s better to read it now and not to come back to it later…

And I rather come back to my crochet. To be in time for 26th of June…

See you very soon!

Tatsiana.