SUNSET STRIP

I pulled this image from my memories, it was originally made as a weaving and making it was like watching a colour dot matrix printer, slowly bringing it to life.

It is a view from Tate Hill Sands in Whitby. The beach is well known as the place where Dracula’s ship was wrecked, which did in fact happen when the author, Bram Stoker, was holidaying there. The beach overlooks the harbour, enclosed by two piers.

Whitby is also one of only two places, I believe, in the UK, where both the sunrise and the sunset are both visible on the same stretch of coastline. Just stunning.

The main body of this simple, yet eye-catching wall hanging has been worked in rows, back and forth, cutting the yarn and turning the work for each row.

Nine colours are used, two strands of yarn are held together for each stitch and the colours are changed on most rows. I used two strands of Superfine 2/30’s acrylic yarn throughout to achieve a 3-4 ply finish but any yarn can be used if you want to make it bigger and heavier for a blanket, for example.

I have recommended Lopi Lace Weight as a preferred choice for a blanket or throw but something like Scheepjes Sweet Treat cotton would be lovely for the wall hanging. I used colours that pop, you can choose any shade of each colour you like, and encourage you to have fun with it!

The colour scheme consists of 186 rows so if you make a 10 cm swatch, you will be able to work out how much yarn you will need using your preferred stitch. For example:-

Using superfine yarn (2 held together) and a 3mm hook, I worked in rows of single crochet. I used approx 1 meter of each colour, per row, which gave me a 13 cm width. The finished length of the 186 rows using single crochet stitches is 70 cm. As a 10cm swatch, this is 26 sts x 27 rows.

Using the same yarn and hook, but working in ‘front post and back post drop double crochet’ stitches (see youtube) 10 cm square gives me 26 sts x 19 rows but uses almost twice as much yarn. It does however, create the most amazing squishyness from such a fine yarn!

A simple envelope border can be added to seal the edges and encapsulate all of the ends if you choose not to leave a fringe or sew them in. You will find some good tutorials for double borders also on you tube.

It sounds really flippant, me saying ‘go find out on youtube’ but in all honesty, everything you need is already there, done by people way better than I could haha! and there is absolutely no point in me rewriting it, so instead, I have left stitch preferences as your choice, and I am providing a beautiful colour palette recipe for you to follow.

I seriously can’t wait to see your creations and would love you to add your finished product to the ‘finished projects’ pages on Ravelry, or you can tag me on insta @lisajrichardson