Falling leaves

One of my newest projects is this fun mystery crochet-a-long

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I’ve still got a knitted dress and a crochet blanket to finish, so starting two new projects might not have been the best idea. But they both sounded like a lot of fun. Here I’ll talk about the first: a mystery crochet-a-long.

I only recently completed my first-ever ‘a-long’, a knitted shawl. I liked the finished piece and enjoyed the mystery element, so when the designer, Rohn Strong, mentioned a mystery crochet-a-long (MCAL) on his Instagram account I decided to sign up for it. All I knew about it at that stage was that it would be an afghan.

These were meant to be leaves; they look more like elf slippers, or maybe ears

The pattern calls for yarn in five different colours. It’s called Fall Garden, so I chose a selection of autumnal shade. The suggested yarn is Deborah Norville Everyday Soft, but I couldn’t find that in the UK. Instead I’ve used Stylecraft Special Aran, which seems to be very similar.

I’ve completed the first four clues and the fifth and final one arrived in my inbox late yesterday (27 October 2015). I had some issues with the first clue. I was supposed to be crocheting leaves but what I ended up with looked more like elf slippers. I did five of them before I thought to check on Ravelry. And yes, I had got it wrong. Thank the knitting gods for Ravelry and for people uploading their photos! A lesson on why it’s so important to read the instructions properly.

Leaves, as they're meant to look!

I undid the five elven slippers and made some leaves instead and from then on I’ve been going great guns. Clue 2 was a flower. Clue 3 was five more of the flowers in a different colour and clue 4 was the same. I like these easy clues! The final clue is how to assemble the afghan.

I’ve enjoyed this MCAL. I’ve learnt some new techniques and I think both the flower and leaf motifs look lovely. It’ll be interesting to see how it all hangs together.

My first flower. There are another 10, in two different colours.