Mystery Cushion 2024: post 4, September
Debbie AbrahamsHELLO AND WELCOME TO THE PENULTIMATE INSTALMENT OF THE 2024 MYSTERY CUSHION CLUB! Apologies for the late posting of this blog, but I’ve just come back from a week away in France celebrating my sister’s 60th birthday, which was really lovely (three sisters away together!) However, on the plane back home I must have picked up a virus as I am now quite poorly with a horrid throat infection. So this blog will be short and sweet, but I will make sure that there is enough help and advice in it to help you through this month’s knitting.
Consequently there is no intro vid from me, and there are no new tech vids either this month. So let’s get stuck in straight away with all this month’s news…
There are several tech vids in previous Mystery Cushion blogs that you can still access if you need some assistance with the techniques. This list tells you which blogs you will find them in:
- Mattress stitch (vertical) (August blog)
- Mattress stitch (horizontal) (August blog)
- Mattress stitch (sewing a cast-off edge to a selvedge edge) (August blog)
- How to carry yarns up the side of the work (June blog)
- How to bead, the hooking-in method (June blog)
- How to pick up stitches along a cast-off edge (to knit the next square) (June blog)
- Mattress stitch (horizontal) (June blog)
- How to cast on using several colours (June blog)
- How to cable (June blog)
- Block 3, Embossed: how to cross the yarns over when changing colour (June blog)
- How to knit intarsia (June blog)
SUE VERY KINDLY POSTED THE PRINTED PATTERNS THIS MONTH TO THE MEMBERS WHO OPTED FOR THEM. But unfortunately I don’t know the exact date they were sent, however I do know that they were posted in good time. So if you have not received your copy, please let Sue know as soon as possible and she will pop another one in the post to you: sue@debbieabrahams.com
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SIGNED UP TO OUR 2025 MYSTERY BLANKET CLUB! We are absolutely thrilled to have sold almost three-quarters of the memberships already. Everyone that has signed up so far has been able to take advantage of our very special Early Bird Offer. And if you have not signed up yet but want to take part in next year’s exciting new blanket KAL, there is still time to be an Early Bird and claim all the fabulous benefits we have on offer (see below). All you’ve got to do is sign up before the 30th September!
Early Bird Special Offer:
- 5% off the cost of the membership (knitting kit option only)*
- 50% discount on the registration fee to the ROWAN CONNECT February 2025 Weekend event
- A free download pattern for a cushion to complement the Mystery Blanket
- 10% discount voucher for a single transaction in our online shop**
- Entry into our Prize Draw with ten gifts up for grabs!
1st Prize: 2025 Mystery Blanket Club membership (for the package you’ve purchased, we will refund what you have paid in full)
2nd Prize: A beautiful Rowan Knitters Felted Bag packed full with Rowan Yarn!
3rd Prize: Set of 10 printed patterns for the 2025 Mystery Blanket Club
4th Prize: FREE Registration to the ROWAN CONNECT November 2024 Weekend, plus one workshop of your choice from the November weekend event
5th & 6th Prizes: Knitting kit from a selection in our online shop (up to the value of £50)
7th & 8th Prizes: 4 packs of beads (colour/s of your own choice, size 8 or size 6)
9th & 10th Prizes: set of three Winter Wonderland ready-made socks
*the 5% discount does not apply to the purchase of the download pattern only (no knitting kit) option.
**excludes Mystery products.
Winners of the Prize Draw will be notified by email on the 1st October.
So what’s in store for 2025?
Debbie is thrilled to be collaborating with Rowan Yarns for this project and has selected some of the most popular yarns in their premium collection for this blanket including Felted Tweed, Soft Yak and Summerlite DK. The colour palette is soft and soothing with a focus on shades of powder blue, silver grey, soft sand and white. It’s a gentle mix of colours, knitted up into forty-nine squares of fascinating stitch structures, cables, stripes, fairisle and intarsia, and there are plenty of beads in it too, giving the blanket an extra sparkle!
The full knitting kit with everything in it that you need to knit the whole blanket is delivered directly to your doorstep, making it a convenient and easy way to participate in the project. And with patterns for five to six squares emailed to you each month over a ten-month period, the Mystery Blanket provides you with enough knitting for a whole year!
There will be a choice of two options for the trickier squares (fairisle and intarsia), enabling both novice and experienced knitters to participate in this unique knitting experience.
Monthly tech vids in a dedicated blog give you all the help and support you need as you work your way through the forty-nine squares, enabling knitters of all abilities to take part. It’s a great way to learn new knitting skills!
The finished size of the blanket is approximately 135cm x 135cm.
What does my membership include?
Each member receives ten sets of monthly emailed patterns and two parcels containing over thirty balls of premium quality yarn and embellishments to knit and assemble a blanket. The kit will be posted in two halves with the first one delivered in February, followed by the second one in May.
You can add to your membership ten sets of printed patterns for an additional cost.
Download pattern option
We are offering the option of ten sets of patterns as monthly downloads (no knitting kit) enabling you to use yarns and beads from your own stash to knit the blanket. The list of yarns and beads for the first part of the kit will be released a week before the project begins.
Choose to spread the cost of your payment
If you would prefer to pay in instalments, we have a payment system in place called Splitit which enables you to choose to make your payment between 2-4 months. Simply select this option at checkout when you make your first payment and then your remaining payments will be taken automatically from your account. If you opt to pay in instalments, you can still take advantage of all the benefits of our Early Bird special offer.
What happens after I’ve purchased my Mystery Blanket membership?
When you have completed your payment, you will be sent an automated email to confirm that your transaction has been processed successfully (please note that it says that your order is being processed to send to you, however, the first parcel will not be posted until mid-end January).
Before making your payment, please read the Terms and Conditions for the Mystery Blanket Club. You will find a link to these at the foot of the Home page. Please note that if you make your payment you are agreeing to these Terms and Conditions.
When your payment has been made you will sent a confirmation email confirming your package and your membership number. If you do not receive this within twenty-eight days, please contact us and we will re-send it to you: sue@debbieabrahams.com
Need to know a bit more?
You can read more about the Club and how it runs by visiting the FAQs page on our website.
THERE IS ONE BLOCK TO KNIT THIS THIS MONTH:
LOWER BACK PANEL: Stipple – three-colour textured striped pattern:
On each pattern page there is a list of Pattern notes and tips that are worth reading before you start to knit each block. These bits of advice will help you and give pre-warnings as to what to look out for in the pattern instructions. Also take note of the description under the title of each block as this tells you what the stitch structure is.
LOWER BACK PANEL, STIPPLE: three colours are rotated in this all-over textured stitch pattern, which has a variable stitch count.
Videos to watch for assistance with this square:
- How to carry yarns up the side of the work (June blog)
First of all you will need to pick up 110 stitches along the cast-on edge of the completed Front Panel. This means you will need to turn the panel upside down so that you have the RS facing towards you. I have given specific instructions for picking up the stitches on page 6 of the mail-out, so make sure that you read this as it tells you how many stitches to pick up along the edge of Block 1 and Block 2.
I mention in the Pattern notes and tips on page 6 that it might be easier to use a circular needle to knit this panel. That is not because you are knitting in the round, it is purely because there are a large number of stitches to pick up so it may be easier to manage them on a longer needle.
When picking up stitches along a cast-on edge, I put my needle through the middle of a whole stitch just above (or below as you are looking at the work upside down) the cast-on edge. What you need to remember is because the work is upside down, a whole stitch is not an open ‘V’ shape, but an inverted ‘V’ (ie, it is upside down). So just look at it very carefully before you begin and get familiar with what each stitch looks like, and then you’ll be fine. Just watch out for the edge stitch at the beginning and the end of the panel – you will be putting your needle through the middle of these stitches, so that means that you’ll have one side of the stitch (one ‘leg’) over the needle. Often the edge stitches get missed, so make sure that you pick up one at each end of the work. You are also asked to pick up one stitch on the seam (twice), so make sure that you do this as well so that you have the 110 stitches you need for the Lower Back Panel.
After an initial decrease down to 101 stitches, the stitch pattern repeat is worked across a rotation of three colours which is ongoing until the end of the panel. This means that once all three colours are joined in, they are not cut off until the end. All you need to do is carry the unused colour up the side of the work at the end of every row. If you need some guidance for how to do this, there is a tech vid in the June blog that you can take a look at.
The stitch pattern repeat is worked over 4 rows, and it has a variable stitch count. I have written at the end of every row how many stitches you should have on the needle, so this is worth checking at the end of every row to make sure you’ve knitted each row correctly.
Those of you who are knitting this year’s Mystery Blanket will recognise this stitch pattern as it is similar to Capricorn (Option Two) and Starry Starry Night. However, if you need some guidance then check out this tech vid from the March Mystery Blanket blog, which shows how to knit Square 1 Capricorn (Option Two): https://debbieabrahams.com/blogs/news/mystery-blanket-club-2024-post-2-march
When I demonstrate the WS row in this tech vid, I begin with P2, hook in a bead and then P1 before passing the third stitch over. But in this panel you will P4 stitches instead, and then pass the third stitch over. If you watch the whole tech vid first it should all make sense - all that is different is that you are not hooking in any beads.
When the panel is completed and cast off, it should measure approximately 45cm x 21cm (as noted in the Pattern notes and tips on page 6).
When you have completed the Lower Back Panel, you are then ready for the final instalment next month!
THIS IS A REMINDER ABOUT OUR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, which can be hugely beneficial if you want to keep up to date with all my latest news or join a Debbie Abrahams group:
Ravelry: Debbie Abrahams Handknits
Facebook: Debbie Abrahams Mystery Knitters
Facebook: Debbie Abrahams Handknits (our own FB page)
Instagram: debbieabrahams_knitting
Pinterest: debbieabrahams@debbieabrahamsk
The Facebook and Ravelry groups are great communities to be part of, especially if you are out there knitting on your own and need a bit of advice or encouragement. They are brilliant for technical support too and there are many very experienced knitters in both groups who are only too happy to help with queries about the projects. They are both free to join and a lot of fun to be part of, so why not join today!?!
THERE ARE TWO MORE MYSTERY CLUB MEETINGS SCHEDULED AT YARN LOFT IN NOTTINGHAM THIS YEAR, so if you live nearby and have a couple of hours to spare, do come and join us at our next meeting, which is on Wednesday 2nd October. It’s a great way to meet other members and have a knit and a chat while you knit up your squares. I will be there to help out if any advice is needed, and lovely store owner, Doreen, will keep us all going with a hot drink and a cake. So come and join us if you can!
Yarn Loft is at 118 Hucknall Road, Carrington, Nottingham, tel number 07825 702433, website: www.yarnloft.co.uk. To cover the costs of hosting the meeting there is a small sub to pay (£3.00), which can be paid to Doreen on the day.
The remaining date for your diaries after the October meeting at Yarn Loft is:
Wednesday 6th November.
WITH JUST ONE MORE BLOCK TO GO AFTER THIS MONTH, HAVE YOU MANAGED TO GUESS THE TITLE OF THE MYSTERY CUSHION? We’ve had no more correct guesses this since the last blog (this one is pretty tricky, isn't it!?!), so if you are still trying to guess what it is you have one more chance…
Here is the final letter I am going to give you before the title is revealed next month:
This month the letter I am giving you is ‘G’:
_ _ _ O _ P A G _
If you think you know what it is, please email your answer to Sue at sue@debbieabrahams.com to see if you are right. And if you are, then with your permission, we will include you in the list of correct guessers in the final blog in October. Fingers crossed everyone!
So here we are, almost at the end of another Mystery Cushion KAL, with just one more instalment to go before the ‘mystery’ is revealed! You should find that this month's panel is nice and easy to knit after you’ve worked a few repeats and settled into the pattern, so I hope it brings you much knitting enjoyment until the final panel is sent to you in October. If you haven’t guessed the title yet (and very few have!), then there is still time to have a go. So please send in your thoughts and ideas and I’ll let you know next month whether you are right. And if you are not, then all be revealed in the final blog on 15th October! Happy knitting everyone, Debbie xx
