My best friend asked me to design a blanket for her little cottage in the harbour village of Findochty, on the shore of the Moray Firth in the north of Scotland. I’d planned to create a repeating pattern of harbour- or coastal-themed motifs, but my brain had other ideas—before I knew it, I was drawing an entire harbour landscape from scratch.

​“An Cala” means “the harbour” or “the haven” in Scottish Gaelic.

It isn’t based on Findochty or any real place; it’s entirely made up, so it could be anywhere. As you can probably tell, I had a great deal of fun with this one, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. It might even be one of my favourite designs to date.

Mosaic crochet designs are my way of painting with yarn, and it’s been an absolute joy to design and crochet this one. I hope you love it too.

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This pattern has all the charts and written instructions you need to complete the blanket.

THREE PDFs are available:

• US terms
• UK terms
• Full chart PDF compatible with Knit Companion for right and left-handers

It is your responsibility to use the correct PDF for your needs.

The main PDFs have 20 easy-to-read charts (with Xs for DCs) and corresponding written instructions.

Use any yarn and corresponding hook for this pattern; remember, high-contrast colours are better for mosaic crochet.

This design looks great in two colours, or you could go for a full mosaic tapestry with many colours. The choice is yours.

Please note that this pattern does not give instructions or yarn stats for mosaic tapestry crochet.

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If using DK-weight yarn, you will need approximately:

• Colour A - 1090 metres / 1192 yards
• Colour B – 1540 metres / 1684 yards
• Double border – 465 metres / 508 yards

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For these examples, we used Yarnsmiths Create DK and Yarnsmiths Pebble Haze DK Prints.

Each colourway is detailed within the pattern PDF.

Main Body of the Blanket:

• Colour A – Yarnsmiths Create DK – 4 skeins - 375g / 1090 metres
• Colour B – Yarnsmiths Pebble Haze DK Prints – 4 skeins - 531g / 1540 metres

3-row double border:

• Colour A – Yarnsmiths Create DK – 2 skeins - 160g / 465 metres

Tools:

• 4mm hook (for the main blanket)
• 3mm hook (for the double border)
• Scissors
• Stitch markers

Shopping

• You will need to purchase 6 skeins of Colour A: https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/yarnsmiths-create-dk-all-colours

• You will need to purchase 4 skeins of Colour B: https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/yarn/yarnsmiths-pebble-haze-dk-prints-all-colours

Yarn Packs

Yarn packs for each colourway are available to buy from The Wool Warehouse.

https://www.woolwarehouse.co.uk/packs/abigail-mcintyre-ge...

Size:

• 182 stitches wide by 240 rows tall

• The Afghan size with a double border will be approx. 104cm wide x 152cm tall (41” x 60”)

Gauge:

• 18 stitches and 18 rows for a 10x10cm tension square using a 4mm hook.

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I want to give special thanks to my amazing testers: Janneke Zaat, Sherri Clark, Lizzie Lynes, Bob Walker and Michelle Borthwick.

A huge thank-you to Juli Gittinger and Janneke Zaat for spending an afternoon with me, fine-tuning the final design. Their ideas and improvements are a big part of what it became.

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I hope you enjoy creating your own ‘An Cala’ Afghan.

Please do share your creations online and tag #getyerhookon and #ancala

Happy Crocheting
Abi
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