January | 2025 | Making Stitches Blog

Hello there! I hope you’re doing ok.

I know lots of people complain that January is a month that lasts forever, but I can’t believe how fast it’s whizzed by in my world. It doesn’t seem 5 minutes since we were celebrating Christmas & New Year and yet here we are on the cusp of a new month.

I’m afraid that although it’s been very busy for me, with work and non-photogenic things, it’s been rather uneventful in bloggable tit-bits, but here goes…

Feeling the cold

We started the month (and year) with a rather cold spell of weather. After a very damp and grey December it was to change. Although it was cold, the bright blue skies one the days we had them were very welcome!

Some local schools were closed due to snow and ice (for those who are used to heavy snow, I’m sure this will sound rather pathetic – but it was quite a big deal for us!).

One day, I was forced to work from home as heavy snow on the morning commute caused such chaos, I ended up turning round and going back home after taking 45 minutes to drive less than a mile!

The snow wasn’t that deep for us, it just fell at the busiest time of the day and caused gridlock! I was grateful to be in a position to work from home next to a toasty warm radiator that day!

I loved seeing these ice crystals on the roof of my car!

Birthday fun

I celebrated my birthday this month, which was rather nice. I took the day off work (I received these lovely flowers from my colleagues too). On the day itself, I had a really nice lunch out at a pub in Cheshire with my Mum & Dad. It was a real treat!

I am also just about to enjoy a very special birthday/Christmas present from Eldest this weekend – I can’t wait. It involves a trip down to London to see him too. You’ll have to wait for the Postcard from February to see that one!

Making Stitches 2025 CAL

On a bit of a whim, towards the end of December I decided to take the plunge and start hosting a CAL or crochet-along.

❄️ A flurry of January snowflake squares ❄️

I have taken part in CALs in the past – particularly when I was a full-time stay-at-home Mum. The little bit of crochet time carved out every now and again around Mum duties worked wonders for my sanity back then. There was the thrill of waiting for the next section of a pattern to be released, the fun of being part of a community of other crocheters working on the same thing at the same time AND the pride at the end of it all of competing a project – usually a blanket, which, if I’d been working on it alone would probably have ended up in the eternal WIP pile!

A year or so ago, I fancied the idea of trying to host a CAL myself. By then, I had designed patterns for my own online shop and for a couple of magazines, so I knew I ‘could’ write a pattern, but could I manage a CAL?

In the intervening years since my first participation in CALs, my life has become somewhat busier than before. There are less disturbed nights and needing to be in three places at once, but that’s been replaced by parenting teenagers and a young adult and a paid job. My days of being able to keep up with a weekly CAL are gone (temporarily I hope).

So, hosting a weekly CAL was off the cards for the time being and that dream was parked until my next holiday when I forget how busy life is and start thinking about all the things I could be doing! But what about a monthly CAL instead? If I could come up with a pattern on a monthly basis, that wouldn’t be so hard would it?!

There’s only one way to find out – just do it!

I felt a bit silly launching my January snowflake square on New Year’s Day when the weather was warmer than you might expect – it felt more like March than January. But lo and behold, just a few days later, snow began to fall in Manchester and I was able to dash out into the back garden and take some photos of my January square in the snow – vindication for opting for a snowflake as my motif for January!

Also, when I first said I was doing this CAL, I really didn’t know whether I was just throwing it out into the ether and no one would be interested. I was really pleasantly surprised to hear back from people who said they wanted to join along too. In some cases they told me they were pleased it was a monthly CAL rather than a weekly one because, like me, they struggle to keep up with a weekly one. What good luck that turned out to be!

Slowly throughout January, I began to see January snowflake squares popping up on Instagram! I can’t tell you how happy that made me feel! Friends of mine who have been crocheting for years, people I only know online and even some people I had previously never heard of said they were joining in! What fun!

You can see above (in the flurry of snowflake squares) that a small collection of beautiful January snowflake squares have, to date, been shared with me online. I know that there are others out there which haven’t been shared with the world yet.

This photo here, posted by @crochet_at_holme on Instagram, was the first one that I saw. Just check out the date it was posted – 4th January! It made its appearance just 3 days after I published the pattern!!

Thank you to everyone who has, so far, joined in with my CAL. Thank you too to everyone who has cheered me on from the sidelines with lovely comments and words of encouragement, you’re all lovely!

I can’t wait to share the February square with you tomorrow….. I LOVE it (hint, hint)!

That’s just about it for my Postcard from January. Thank you very much for stopping by and having a read of my ramblings, it’s lovely to have you in my little crocheted corner of the internet.

Until next time, take care!

Lindsay x

Happy New Year! 2025 is upon us and rather than make some resolutions I probably will struggle to maintain, I thought I’d do something I’ve been thinking about for years – hosting a crochet-along or CAL.

This New Year is a special one for me – 2025 marks this little blog’s 10th birthday (officially later on in the summer time).

It felt appropriate to mark this significant year with some crafty fun, and what better than a year-long CAL? So each month I’ll be sharing a granny square pattern which is pertinent to that particular month. My plan is to use this opportunity to use some of my considerable stash of DK yarn – Stylecraft Special DK specifically which I have left over from quite a few previous projects. By the end of the year, I am hoping the finished blanket will be a riot of colour.

A selection of CALs I have taken part in

I have taken part in quite a few CALs myself in the past with Lucy from Attic 24, Eleonora from Coastal Crochet and the special Pandemonium CAL during the Covid lockdowns with The Crochet Sanctuary ladies Lisa & Lynda-Rose. I completely take my hat off to them with their ability to get patterns out every week for a period of often a few months. I know with my schedule of work and juggling everything else that there’s no way I could maintain a weekly CAL, so I’m going to be releasing patterns on a monthly basis at the start of each month.

Each square will be themed to the month it’s released in in some way, so this month being January when it’s often very cold and frosty and we even get a bit of snow, I’ve opted for a snowflake…

If you’d like to join me, I’d love that. There’s no pressure on time, this is an open ended CAL, I intend to publish 12 squares throughout the year, and the joining method & border will appear at some point along the way. I’ll let you into a little secret – I haven’t designed all of the squares yet, so I don’t know what the finished blanket will look like. I feel very much that we don’t know what lies ahead this year for us, so in much the same way, this blanket will be a voyage into the unknown.

My pledge to you will be to release a square pattern at the start of each month and although this is meant to be a stash busting project to use up some of the excess yarn I have in my secret hiding spaces around Making Stitches Towers, I will share the yarn shades I am using if you would like to replicate the yarn I have used.

What do you reckon? Fancy joining me with a new blanket CAL for 2025?

I’d love it if you joined in. If you do and you are on social media, please tag any photos of your growing collection of squares with the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL as I’d love to see what people make along the way.

So, here goes, here’s the first section of the 2025 CAL!

2025 CAL Part One : January – Snowflake Square

I used: Stylecraft Special DK yarn in white (1001), aster (1003), silver (1203) & denim (1302), 4mm crochet hook, yarn needle, scissors & a stitch marker.

Tension: Tension isn’t important for this project as long as you maintain the same tension throughout the project so all your squares are the same size. Once blocked this square will measure approximately 20cm x 20cm. The stitch count of the final round of each finished square will be 120 plus corner chain spaces.

Abbreviations (in UK terms): ch = chain, dc = double crochet, dtr = double treble crochet, htr = half treble crochet, mc = magic circle / magic ring, rep = repeat, slst = slip stitch, st = stitch, tr = treble crochet.

Pattern:

We begin with the snowflake.

Round 1 Ch2 (not counted as a st throughout), 12 tr into MC, join round with a slst into top of ch2. (12 tr)
Round 2 Ch1, 2dc in front loop only of every st around, closing the round with a slst. (24 dc)
Round 3 work in front loop only – 1dc, 1htr, 2tr, 1dtr 4ch picot 1dtr, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, 1slst Repeat twice
Round 4 Work in back loop of Round 2, slst ch7 slst into 4th ch to form a picot & 1dtr in first back loop, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, slst, 1dc, 1htr, 2tr, *1dtr 4 ch picot 1dtr, 2tr, 1htr, 1dc, slst, 1dc, 1htr, 2tr repeat from * then slst into 4th ch of first ch7.

Round 5 Work a slst around the edge of all the sts on the snowflake. At the 6 picots work 5ch and slst into the picot 3 times into each one to form the 3 ‘lumps’ on the end of each ‘arm’. Where the two layers of the ‘arms’ of the snowflake meet, work through both layers to join them before moving on to go around the next ‘arm’. Work all the way around and fasten off white yarn and break yarn.

Now the snowflake is complete, it’s time to work on the square.

Round 1 This is Round 1 of the snowflake
Round 2 With aster blue yarn, join yarn into one of the back loops of Round 1. Ch2 2tr into that first st, 2Tr in every back loop around, slst into top of ch2 to close round, (24tr)
Round 3 Ch2, 2tr, 1tr rep around, slst into top of ch2 to close round. (36 tr)
Round 4 Ch2, 2tr, 1tr, 1tr rep around. slst into top of ch2 to close round. (48 tr)
Round 5 Ch2, 2dc, 1dc, 1dc, 1dc rep around, slst into top of ch2 to close round. (60 dc)

Round 6 turning the circle into a square

Round 6 Ch1, 1dc in next 6 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1dtr 2ch 1dtr in next st to form corner of square, 1tr in next 2 sts, 1htr in next 2 sts, 1dc in next 6dc, repeat around. It’s useful to mark the first dc with a stitch marker so you know where to stop! Slst into top of first ch1 to close the round. (64 sts)
Round 7 Join white into any st, 1dc into every stitch around and work 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner space. (Each side will have 18 sts – 72dc in total)
Round 8 Join silver grey into any st with 2ch, 1htr into every st around working 1htr 2ch 1htr into each corner space. Fasten off. (Each side will have 20 htr – 80 htr in total). At this stage it’s a good idea to stitch the arms of the snowflake into place using white yarn to hide the stitches.

Round 9 Join denim blue yarn into the last st of one of the edges before the corner chain space. Work 1dc in that last st, then 1dc 2ch 1dc into the corner chain space and 1dc around as before with 1dc 2ch 1dc into each corner. Slst into the top of the first st to close the round. (Each side will have 22 dc – 88 dc in total).

Round 10 Ch1, 1dc, 1dc 2ch 1dc into corner space and work 1dc into first 4 sts of the next side. Make a 4tr bobble into the next st using white yarn, closing the bobble with denim to give a clean effect (see instructions below if you are unfamiliar with bobbles). Using denim, work 1dc into next 4 sts then repeat with a white bobble, repeat this process across that edge until you have 4 bobbles and end with 4dc in denim before turning the corner. Repeat the process all the way around with 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc, bobble, 4dc on each side until you come to the last side where you work the remaining stitches after that last bobble and slst into the top of the first st to close the round. (Total of 80 dc and 16 bobbles).

To make a 4tr bobble:

Yarn over hook (white yarn in this case), insert hook into st, yarn over, pull up loop, yarn over, draw through 2 loops on hook – repeat this another 3 times so you have 5 loops on your hook and all are worked into the same st. Yarn over with denim yarn and pull through all of the white loops to close the bobble. If the bobble is poking through the back of the work, gently poke it back through to the front. If you would like a bigger bobble, try it with 5 treble stitches instead.

Round 11 Ch1, 1dc into every st around working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Fasten off and break yarn. (26dc on each side and 104 dc in total).

Round 12 With silver yarn, join into any st, ch2 and 1htr into every st around, working 1htr 2ch 1htr into every corner space. Slst into top of first st to close round and fasten off yarn. (28htr on each side and 112 htr in total).

Round 13 With white yarn, join in any st, 1ch and 1dc into every st around, working 1dc 2ch 1dc into every corner space. Slst into top of first st and fasten off, weave in all the ends. (30 dc on each side ad 120 st in total.

And that is the end of this first part of the Making Stitches 2025 CAL. If you are joining in with the CAL, please do let me know, tag me on Instagram @making_stitches_blog and use the hashtag #MakingStitches2025CAL so I can see how you’re getting on.

I can’t wait to see this blanket develop over the coming months! I hope you enjoy it too.

I hope the start of 2025 is a great one for you! Happy making!

Lindsay x