Coming out of your comfort zone is tough in the beginning, chaotic in the middle, and awesome in the end…because in the end, it shows you a whole new world.

I wasn’t planning on starting something new, but while I was in my summerhouse aka my craft room/husband and kids dumping ground, four brightly coloured skeins of yarn jumped out at me and I knew I had to use them.
They are a little out my comfort zone especially put all together, but for some reason, they were just calling to me.
Unfortunately I only had one ball of each colour so a quick online shop at, Love Crochet, I ordered more, and decided on a pattern.

I wanted something simple, fast and something I have near on memorised.
Briar Rose, by Vanessa at Hooked on Sunshine, jumped to mind and even though I had not planned on making another “Briar Rose” blanket for a while, I knew it would be perfect.
As I have already made two Briar Rose’s, I felt I needed to spice it up a little so I wouldn’t get bored. I decided on making four squares, one in each of the four colours.

I set to work making the squares, each looking very bright and vibrant.
They sure were testing my comfort zone. I questioned myself all the way through and when it came to joining them, I questioned my joining colour choice.
I had planned to join them with Wine Red, but my boys were quick to give me their honest opinions and told me I should join in black or dark grey.
After much toing and froing, I decided on Granite Grey, luckily I had two skeins in my yarn stash.

I joined the four Briar Rose, squares with the Single Crochet Join and edged them with a round of single crochet in Granite Grey.
Starting on round 6 of the Briar Rose pattern, I set about making a border.
I worked the pattern from round 6 -17.
I than repeated rounds 6-12 and finished off with Round 1 of the border pattern.
Throughout the whole pattern including the single squares, I modified round 16 by using Double Crochet instead of Half Double Crochet.

The yarn I used was Paintbox Simply Aran, from Love Crochet.
It’s such a smooth soft yarn to work with.
It’s a great price at £1.99 and even cheaper if you buy the multi packs. It’s machine washable and can even be thrown in the tumble-dryer.
I used colours, Blood Orange, Mustard Yellow, Tomato Red, Wine Red and Granite Grey.

The border colour system I used was as follows –
Round 6 – Blood Orange
Round 7 – Wine Red
Round 8 – Mustard Yellow
Round 9 – Wine Red
Round 10 – Wine Red
Round 11 – Granite Grey
Round 12 – Wine Red
Round 13 – Tomato Red
Round 14 – Wine Red
Round 15 – Wine Red
Round 16 – Wine Red
Round 17 – Wine Red
Round 6 – Blood Orange
Round 7 – Wine Red
Round 8 – Mustard Yellow
Round 9 – Wine Red
Round 10 – Wine Red
Round 11 – Granite Grey
Round 12 – Wine Red

And for the final edging border I used
Round 1 – Tomato Red

My Autumn Briar Rose Lapghan, roughly measures 38 inches by 38 inches.
I used 9 skeins of yarn.
Costing £17.91.
Even though her colouring is totally different from my norm and way beyond my comfort zone, I think she turned out pretty striking. Maybe I should step outside my comfort zone more often, do you agree?

Autumn isn’t far away and Christmas is creeping up faster than we all would like. It’s nearly time for your window wardrobe, roaring fires and snuggly blankets. If you can imagine one of my handmade lapghans, over your lap as you snuggle by the fire with a glass mulled wine in hand, or for the perfect Christmas gift for someone special, give me a shout.

🍂🍂🍂