BRITISH COUNTRY GARDEN CAL PART 8
AUGUST - 'BLACKBERRY PICKING' BY HOOKANORY!
Hello and welcome to the British Country Garden CAL!
I’m Deb from Hookanory, let me tell you a little bit about my design…
My blanket section design is number 8, August, ‘Blackberry Picking’, inspired by walks along the railway line as a child with my mum on her old fashioned black bicycle, with my folding seat on the back (which scared me to death riding on it!) and a wicker basket on the front. The railway tracks have since been removed and it’s now part of the Tarka Trail cycle and walking track, but the memory is still strong, and the blackberry picking continues, with my own kids… though they’re a bit old now to enjoy the thrill of collecting a basket-full, but will at a push ‘help mum’ if she promises a crumble in return!
If you haven’t discovered The British Country Garden CAL yet, let me give you the lowdown.
It’s a FREE year long mosaic crochet CAL hosted by Nichola from Elimee Designs and is a collaboration between 10 designers. We each designed a section (or in my case two!) that combines together over the year to create this fabulously pretty floral blanket!
The designs are released on the 1st day of the month so to access this CAL for free, you have to visit each designers blog on or after the day their design is released, where you’ll find the chart you can work from to make that section of the blanket! It’s a bit like a crochet scavenger hunt, and all the charts will be free on the designers blogs for as long as their blog exists, so it doesn’t matter if you come to this late, or you’re finding this months or years after the CAL has ended!
However if you can’t wait, or prefer written instructions and more support making your mosaic blanket, then buying the Full E-Book might be the best option! You can find both the E-Book and the link to the CAL hub where you’ll get all the free chart links HERE
- Starting January 1, 2026, a new section of the blanket will be released on the 1st of every month.
- The FREE graph for each section will be available on the designer’s blog (which you can access from the main CAL hub) – this CAL features contributions from 10 talented designers!
- Want it all at once? The FULL eBook, including written and graphical instructions for the entire pattern, will be available starting December 17, 2025.
- The CAL will be hosted in the Elimee Designs Facebook Group, where you can connect with fellow crocheters, share your progress, and get tips from the designers.
- Sign up for the Hookanory Crochet Club Newsletter to receive email reminders when each new section is released – never miss a step on your crochet journey!
YOUR FREE CHART!
'Blackberry Picking' By Hookanory (August/Part8)
A Bit About Overlay Mosaic Crochet.
This chart is worked in the overlay mosaic crochet technique whereby the colours alternate each row, with BLOsc forming the background and FLOdc forming the ‘overlay’ stitches that cover over certain BLOsc sts to create a colourwork pattern. The result looks complex but it is made up of only a 3 simple stitches, sc, BLOsc and FLOdc, so it is easy to learn and fun to make!
Reading The Chart:
- Start pattern from R1 on chart. Always Fasten off at the end of each row on LHS, Join New yarn to start each Row on RHS
- Each square on the chart represents a stitch.
- Squares with an ‘X’ are worked as FLOdc in the colour of that square into the FLO of the stitch 2 rows below, unless pattern specifies otherwise. The st behind each FLOdc is skipped.
- Squares without an ‘X’ are worked as BLOsc in the colour denoted by the 1st st of the row, NOT the colour of the square. E.G. A black (Colour ‘B’) square on a ‘white’ (Colour ‘A’) row will be worked as a BLOsc in white.
- Red lines on the chart indicate the design repeat.
- St to the left of the red line indicates the ‘evening-out’ stitch, only to be included at the end of the row, after the required number of repeats. It is used in order to complete a motif or add a ‘space’ between motif and the border stitch depending on the design, and should be worked in whatever stitch/colour the chart denotes.
- All rows are worked from the bottom up, from right to left (or left to right if left handed) on the right side (RS) only.
- Each row is joined in the first st with sc in both loops, and fastened off in the last st with sc in both loops, which forms side ‘fringes’ with the tail ends. These can be used as a decorative element or woven in depending on the project, in this case we will leave them as we will be making an ‘Envelope Border’ which hides all the ends!
- Colours alternate each row as denoted by the symbol in the first st of the row, in this case colours ‘A’, ‘B’ or ‘D’.
Border Stitches:
- Squares with a ‘+’ (last st in a row) are worked as sc in both loops.
- Squares with a letter symbol e.g. ‘A’ or ‘B’ (first st of the row) are worked as sc in both loops .
If you’re new to Mosaic Crochet then my ‘Mosaic Crochet Starter Guide’ is just what you need to build your confidence and explain all the basics of this exciting and fun technique! You can grab a copy for FREE when you sign up to my newsletter HERE, or you can find it in my pattern store HERE
More Mosaic Patterns From Hookanory
More FREE Mosaic Blanket CAL Sections
More FREE Blanket CALs
