Well, the time has finally arrived to begin the Marguerite Crochet Blanket CAL! Let me just don a party hat and pull out some streamers, and we’ll be ready to go!
In this post, I’m going to break down the timeline for the CAL, and address some questions about the first part of the pattern. There won’t be a post every week, just to kickoff each new “phase” of the pattern (making full motifs, making half motifs, etc.).
Let’s get started!
Introduction
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out the Introductory and FAQ posts for important information about the CAL. You can read about choosing yarn colors, how to calculate your blanket size, and more.
Timeline
Here’s the breakdown of the timing for the CAL:
- Weeks 1-3 (February 8 to February 28): Making and joining the full motifs
- Weeks 4-5 (March 1 to March 14): Making and joining the half and quarter motifs
- Week 6 (March 15 to March 21): Making the full and half triangles
- Week 7 (March 22 to March 28): Joining the triangles
- Week 8 (March 29 to April 5): Making the border
No need to worry if you fall behind the schedule, or want to work ahead. Since the entire pattern is available from the getgo you’re welcome to work at your own pace! I’ll be releasing tutorial videos on the above timeline.
Full Motifs
Tapestry Crochet Tips
The full motifs are obviously the bulk of the blanket. Once you get the hang of making them, the pattern will fly off your hook like nobody’s business!
But what if you’re new to tapestry crochet? No worries, I’ve got you! Here’s a video demonstrating some of the basics of tapestry crochet as worked in the Marguerite pattern.
There’s information about how to change colors, how to carry the unused color, and tips to keep your work looking neat and tidy.
Join As You Go
After you’ve finished your first motif, it’s time to work on the joining process. See the FAQ post if you choose not to join everything up right away. You’ll want to be sure not to sew in your ends, because the motifs are joined as you go.
If you’re new to join as you go techniques, you’ll find the video below helpful in explaining the basics. It can be confusing and daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it, a whole new world of joining motifs opens up to you!
Be sure to look through the step-by-step photos in the pattern for guidance as well. You will join the full motifs on a different number of “sides,” depending on where in the blanket they lie.
Troubleshooting
As you’re making the full motifs, there are a couple of common problems that might crop up.
Curling
If you find on later rounds that your motif is curling up a bit, you can try any, or all of these suggestions:
- Go up a hook size
- Make sure you’re not pulling the carry yarn too tightly
- Tug outwards on the motif after each round to flatten things out
- Check your stitch count and make sure you have the correct number of stitches (too few will make the motif curl)
- Block individual motifs
- Don’t worry about it!
That last suggestion might seem strange, but if your motif has just a little bit of curl, there’s a good chance it will flatten out when everything is joined up. Some of the samples I crocheted curled a little, and others didn’t. It depended on the fiber type and the hook size. But they all flattened out when joined.
Carry Yarn Showing
Working up a piece of tapestry crochet using double crochet stitches can sometimes lead to the carry yarn “showing through” the worked stitches. This is especially true as compared with working tapestry crochet using single crochet stitches.
All in all, it’s not something I stress too much about, as it becomes much less obvious when the whole blanket is put together.
But if it bothers you, try to hold the carried yarn a little behind the previous row, rather than on top of it. I demonstrate this in the tapestry crochet video above.
Next Steps
In this first three-week period, we’ll get a good portion of the blanket finished! In the next CAL blog installment, I’ll provide tips for how to work up and join the half and quarter motifs.
If you choose to share photos on social media, please tag them with #margueritemotif or #margueriteblanket so we can all share in the fun!
You can also consider joining us over at the official Facebook CAL group, and/or the Ravelry CAL hosted by the fabulous Julie Yeager!
Thank you for the informational videos! I’m a newbie to this stitch, and it seems pretty clear now! The tips are great!
Lotus
I’m so glad to hear that the videos were helpful!
I love this pattern. I’m planning to make the Marguerite blanket. I’m trying to figure out how much yarn I need for each motif but don’t see anywhere in your instructions how many yards of each color are needed, or how many motifs can be achieved from one skein of yarn.
Thank you!
Good video, thanks!
It confirmed for me that I have the technique down.
Most importantly for you, it means that the pattern is clearly written : )
That’s always good to hear, thank you!
Hi, and thanks for this beautiful pattern! It’s been challenging to work out some of the instructions, but once I sort it out, I get right into a groove and it’s a fun piece to work on 🙂
About the join-as-you-go, I had one misunderstanding and I thought that sharing my confusion might help clarify for someone else! In the instructions to join #1 and #2, the instructions say: .
“Insert hook from front to back through st to the right of the “point” on adjacent motif.” Which I took to mean, start to the right of the point. Now, watching the tutorial, I see that it’s really starting to the left of the first point of the area you want to join, and working the area from the left of the first point to the stitch to the right of the second point. This leaves the points unjoined and only the area between the points joined.
I”m going to have to run back to my full motifs tonight and frog the join and rejoin with that understanding.
(Also, for some reason, two of my full motifs are very close in size, but one is significantly smaller o_O but that is a different matter entirely!!)
Thanks for pointing that out – I can see why what I wrote would be confusing. Which is right and which is left depends on which way you’re looking at the adjacent motif. I was seeing it from the perspective of how it was made, not how it was laid out. Which is definitely confusing. Thanks for the clarification!
Great and clear instructions! Thanks. On the two videos, you switched hook sizes. Was there a reason for this?
Oops, I missed that! No, no reason other than not paying attention (enter facepalm here!).
Would like the pattern for marguerite cal how do I get it
Hi, the full pattern is available for sale on my Etsy and Ravelry sites.
Hi there, absolutely love your pattern and the colors you have used! Any chance you can provide the details of the colors and yarn you used for the blanket in the image?
Is there a written pattern somewhere? I do better with written patterns.
Yes, the full written pattern is available for purchase on Etsy and Ravelry.