Saturday, August 28, 2010

Australian Tartan

There seems to be some interest in my Australian Tartan rug so I'll tell you a bit about it.

The Australian Tartan is registered in Scotland as an official tartan. A Melbourne firm makes the cloth.

The yarn that came with the kit and what each colour represents is .....

Tan (5 x 100g balls Patons Supersaver 8ply acrylic) .. Tan is for the inland soil and Ayres Rock
Yellow (9 x 50g balls Patons Brocade 8ply 60% wool 40% acrylic) .. Yellow is for the ochre used by the Aborigines (this is more of a mustard or gold colour to me)
Cream (3 x 100g balls Patons Supersaver 8ply acrylic) .. Cream is the sand of the beaches
Black (1 x 100g ball Patons Supersaver 8ply acrylic) .. Black is minerals and coal in the ground
Blue (1 x 100g Patons Supersaver 8ply acrylic) .. Blue is sky and ocean around Australia



I think my tension has changed since starting this rug many years ago but I've done a bit of a 'test run' with a few lengths of chains and when they're threaded through the holes to form the vertical stripes, they hold it all together in the right shape. I've just finished the first sequence of the horizontal stripes so I'm about a quarter of the way there. I think those 130 long chains are going to drive me crazy but at least they're at the end of the project so I'll be 'seeing the light at the end of the tunnel' so to speak !!

This is my project for Australiacrochet's UFO CAL (Unfinished Object Crochet-a-Long) so with the encouragement of my fellow participants, I hope it won't be too long before its finished. Having said that, I'm just about to start on a Knit4Charities KAL - I think we'll be making squares for a baby blanket, but not sure. I'll keep you up to date on how that's coming along each day. Today's post was for the first 14 rows.

3 comments:

  1. Can't wait to see the progress on this blanket. How are the chains secured at the edges?

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  2. They are sewn in but it does say they can be tied in with a fringe. I'm planning on sewing mine as well as having a fringe on each end.

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  3. Looking very colourful Dorothy, I love it :))

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