Have I got news for you! I am going to be helping with a brand new CAL called ‘Around the Bases’, or ATB for short, by an all-new crochet designer ChiChi Allen Sakata. ChiChi loves college baseball and she has been working on this CAL while watching many strong young men run around the bases. If that’s not inspiring, I don’t know what is! 😀

So what are we going to be doing in this CAL? We are going to be making a VERY BIG granny square blanket. You can start with any base square you like and then we start the CAL by making your square bigger and bigger as we run around it 😛

Where can you find info?

All the info about the CAL can be found on ChiChi’s blog Keito Palette where the pattern will be available each week. The Facebook group CAL – Crochet A Long will be there for extra support and Q&A. In addition to all that help I will be making video tutorials for this CAL. So if all else fails, watch my videos 😀

What yarn and how much do I need?

You can use any yarn you like. I am going to be using a fabulous new yarn by Scheepjes called Linen Soft. This yarn is a blend of linen, cotton and acrylic, soft to handle but with the natural look of linen. It’s the same yarn we are using the the Flight of Fancy CAL organized by Scheepjes for which I am also making videos. Here some of the awesome colors I am going to be using.

But off course you can use any yarn you like. Stylecraft Special DK (acrylic) is always a good option in my opinion because it has so many colors to choose from. If you prefer a cotton yarn, Scheepjes Cotton 8 (regular cotton) or Scheepjes Larra (mercerized cotton) are also good options. But hey, these are like just a drop in the ocean of all the yarns you can choose from.

You will have to estimate how much yarn you need. It really depends on what yarn, hook size and how many colors you plan to use. ChiChi used 20 balls of Cotton 8 (50 g each) and a 3.25mm (US D/3) hook which comes out to be about 3400m. The actual yardage you will use depends on the type of yarn you use as well as how tight you crochet. Take this as a ballpark number. Haha, love the pun here!

What square to use?

You have like a zillion options you could use as a base square. Next week ChiChi will give you a few options on her blog with detailed info on preparing your base square. You have to prepare your square so that you have the correct number of stitches to start part 1 of the CAL. You need a multiple of 6 minus 2 stitches. So for the very mathy ones among us (sorry, I have a master’s degree in maths) your stitch count = 6*x-2 where x is any positive integer. ChiChi gives detailed instruction on how to prepare your square.

Here is the square I will be using, week 8 of the Scheepjes CAL 2014.

The square I used is one of the squares from the Scheepjes CAL 2014 where we made 10 lovely squares designed by the sadly late Wink from A Creative Being. I used the square of week 8. A note however, the stitch count of these squares is not correct for the ATB CAL because the Scheepjes CAL grannys all have 39 stitches in the final round. I fixed this by adding one stitch in the corner on the last round. So I replaced the corner [2dc, ch2, 2dc] with [3dc, ch2, 2dc] on the last round. You can find all the instruction videos for all the Scheepjes CAL grannys in the playlist or the dedicated video page of my blog.

You could of also use Sophie’s Garden, a really fabulous design by Dedri Uys from Look at what I made. If you use Sophie’s Garden, stop at round 35 which is just one round short of the 36 rounds that make up Sophie’s Garden. If you stop at round 35 your stitch count is perfect. I have video tutorials available for Sophie’s Garden part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4 as part of the Sophie’s Universe CAL.

When do we start?

We start August 9th. This gives you time to get your yarn and your base square prepared. Your square should be all done with a correct stitch count by the 9th.

All info short and simple:

Start date: August 9th, 3.30 pm Amsterdam time (GMT+1), 8.30 am US central time (GMT-5).
Duration: This CAL lasts for 16 weeks. A pattern is released every week on Sunday 3.30 pm Amsterdam time (GMT+1), 8.30 am US central time (GMT-5).
End date: November 22nd, 2015.
English Patterns released on: Keito Palette
Dutch translation of patterns available on my blog on this page
Videos: Each week a video will be available with step-by-step instructions. Follow my blog or YouTube channel with trailer for Around the Bases CAL.
All Q&A: Facebook group CAL – Crochet A Long for extra support
Ravelry group: Around the Bases CAL for showing your work if you want. You can of course also do that in the Facebook group CAL – Crochet A Long
Yarn: any you like. I use Linen Soft by Scheepjes.
Hook size: appropriate for your yarn. I use a 3.5 mm (US E/4) Clover Amour hook, my favorite hook.

This is going to be a really fun CAL with each and every blanket being completely unique. If that is not bound to be a home run, then I don’t know what is 🙂 Hope to see you at the start of the CAL!