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It's been another good month with two fantastic 5 star reads! Audiobooks have dominated again as I've been listening a lot whilst working and on my morning walks. Books Read This Month      (Title, Author, Format, Rating) The Conjurer's Wife: A Short Story by Sarah Penner. Audiobook. 3.75 stars Summer Knight (The Dresden Files 4) by Jim Butcher. Audiobook. 3.25 stars The Magpies by Mark Edwards. Audiobook. 1.5 stars The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent. Kindle. 3 stars The Watchers by A.M Shine. Audiobook. 4 stars Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Audiobook. 4 stars Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Audiobook. 5 stars The Survivors by Caroline Mitchell. Audiobook. 3.75 stars The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw. Physical. 4.25 stars Still Beating by Jennifer Hartmann. Kindle. 4.25 stars Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L Wang. Audiobook. 5 stars Ward D by Frieda McFadden. Audiobook. 3.5 stars All the Sinner Bleed by S.A Cosby. Physical/Audiobook. 4.5 stars This makes a total of 34/75 books read this year so far! You can follow my progress on Fable App ! I had two DNFs this month The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake - this was just word vomit, so many words to say so little. I could not get to grips with it. Untamed by Glennon Doyle - I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book but it definitely didn't deliver. The writing style was easy reading but it was just a lot of 'my life was shit and now it's not'. Great for the author but no real takeaway for me that I could see. Best Book of the Month: Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah The audiobook for this is phenomenal so if you can listen to this I highly recommend it. Check trigger warnings as there is a lot of violence, murder and racism. The best way I can describe this book is like Death Race the film with Jason Statham crossed with Gladiators TV show but make it real violence and ending only when one person is dead. It's brutal, the prisoners who are largely black, are essentially enslaved and their only way out is to win their freedom or to be low-freed (killed). It's an action packed story with great characters but also extremely hard hitting and thought provoking. It addresses issues with the American prison system, social injustice and inequality, racism and more. It's set in a world that is unfortunately all too believable. A truly worthwhile read, it will stay with me for a very long time. Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L Wang I can have two favourites right? This is another one that I think greatly benefits from being listened to. This is another book that addresses issues of social injustice, inequality, racism and misogyny but in a fantasy setting. Sciona is the first female high mage and uncovers the secrets to the magic of her city whilst fighting against some of the most egotistical, arrogant and misogynist men I've ever encountered. The magic system within this world is amazing and truly unique. It does take a little bit of getting used to and I do think that this is made a bit easier when listening to the audiobook. I laughed and cried to this book. Worst Book of the Month: The Magpies by Mark Edwards The audible narration wasn't great but I could have forgiven that if the plot was interesting but it just dragged on and on. The premise was good, reviews say an unputdownable psychological thriller but I was far from thrilled. I even skipped parts and it made no difference because still nothing had happened. The ending was okay but a bit of a let down and definitely did not make up for the rest of the book. I believe that this is a trilogy - I will not be reading the others. Also - huge gripe with this book was that it described the weather as being in the high 80s even though the characters are all British and it's set in London! Blanket Progress In January I was making the square for each book pretty much as soon as I'd finished it and adding it on to the blanket. Sadly, that did not happen again in February! I actually made all of my squares this weekend (2nd weekend in March) and I'm still yet to join them to my blanket but I will! It's going to look so cute with this month's squares added, I'm really excited to see them altogether. If you would like a tutorial for how I am joining my granny squares for my book blanket you can find that here . Do you love reading too? I'm assuming that if you're reading about my book blanket plans then you do! If you want to join with me in making a book blanket then be sure to tag me in your content @brambles.and.hart and use #BookBlanket2025 and #Booksandcrochet. I'm hoping to find a whole community of people who love both books and crochet like me! I will be sharing updates of my book blanket on my Instagram/TikTok and my monthly wrap ups here on the blog so do follow along. I'll be back with another update on my book blanket at the end of March so be sure to keep an eye out for that. I'm hoping for another 5 star read or two next month - fingers crossed! Happy reading and crocheting! Shelley ♡

If you follow me on social media you will likely have seen the crochet ripple blanket that I made for one of my husband's colleagues recently. It definitely got a lot of love and I can completely understand why - ripple blankets are just so satisfying to both make and look at! I have had many comments and DMs asking about my version of the blanket, how I set out my colours and the ripple pattern that I followed so I'm going to share it with you here. The Yarn: I used Paintbox Simply Aran in Vintage Heather and Pine Green along with Yarnsmiths Create Aran in Antique Gold and Parchment. My blanket was approximately 80x95cm. To make a similar size blanket you will need: 1x 100g ball each of Antique gold and Vintage Heather 2x 100g ball of Pine Green 3x 100g ball of Parchment I used a 5.5mm crochet hook. The Pattern: The basis of the ripple blanket is the Neat Ripple Blanket pattern from Attic 24 . This is the first ever ripple pattern that I used when I was learning to crochet and in my opinion it really is the best. It's well written and easy to follow for beginners plus she provides some step-by-step photos which are super helpful if you haven't made a ripple blanket before. The neat ripple pattern is a simple one row repeat and once you are a few rows in it becomes really easy to remember the stitch pattern to create the peaks and valleys of each ripple and it makes for a soothing mindful project - great for making whilst listening to an audiobook or watching your latest series. Whilst I love the original pattern and have used it many times before, including for my youngest son's baby blanket (look how tiny he was!), I did make some slight alterations for this particular blanket. The original Neat Ripple Blanket from Attic 24 uses DK weight yarn and a 4mm hook but for this one I used aran/worsted/4 weight yarn and a 5.5mm hook. You can absolutely play around with yarn weights and hook sizes and still have a beautiful finished project. I also chose to work my stitches (almost) entirely in the BLO (back loop only). This is what creates the beautiful rippled texture that compliments the ripple stitch pattern so well. I say almost entirely in the BLO as I do recommend working the first and last stitch of each row through both loops as normal just to help with the structure of the blanket. I find that this prevents the stitches from stretching out and becoming gappy when working the border. Colour Blocking: For this blanket, I had a colour block section of the 3 contrast colours at either end with a larger section of the neutral shade in the middle. For the starting section, each contrast colour consists of 4 rows, working the pattern as usual just in the BLO, before switching to the next colour. Once I had worked my 3 contrast colours (Pine Green, Antique Gold and then Vintage Heather) I the began the large section of Parchment. The middle section consisted of a total of 36 rows, which is 3x the amount of rows for the contrast section. I felt that this would give nice proportions and it did seem to work well but you could absolutely make this section longer. The final section is worked in reverse of the inital contrast colour section so that it is the same whichever way around you have the blanket. This time I started with Vintage Heather, then on to Antique Gold and finally Pine Green. For ease, follow this pattern: Rows 1-4: Pine Green Rows 5-8: Antique Gold Rows 9-12: Vintage Heather Rows 13-48: Parchment Rows 49-52: Vintage Heather Rows 53-56: Antique Gold Rows 57-60: Pine Green The Border: I followed Attic 24's initial instructions for the border to help square off the edges, although I have been known to leave them as the ripple and I think that looks pretty too, using Parchment before switching to Pine Green as this was my chosen border colour and adding in a row of HDC in the 3rd loop to add some texture to the border also. You could absolutely leave this out and work either in the BLO or as a normal HDC round. Using Parchment: Round 1: Square off ends using Attic 24 pattern Round 2: HDC around, (HDC, ch2, HDC) in each corner Using Pine Green Round 3: HDC around, (HDC, ch2, HDC) in each corner Round 4: HDC in the 3rd loop around, (HDC, ch2, HDC) in each corner Round 5: SC around, 3SC in each corner Finishing Touches: As this blanket was to be given as a New Baby Gift I wanted to package it up nicely for the recipient and one of the easiest ways I know to do this is to use a cupcake box. You can get them really cheaply from places like B&M, Home Bargains and Poundland and they are the perfect fit for baby blankets. I have previously gifted large blankets in large cake boxes too, they work a treat - no pun intended! I did make up a matching newborn Pixie Bonnet to go alongside this blanket and I think it made such a delightful little set. What do you think? I hope that this little overview of how I made my Colourblock Ripple Blanket has been helpful. I honestly think that you could do a ripple blanket in any colour combination, or even a solid colour, and it would look stunning. I'm yet to see a version that I don't love. It's a great project for beginner and advanced crocheters alike and this version goes to show that something as simple as working in the BLO can take one pattern and make it look a little different! It's all about experimentation and finding the joy in the art of crochet. Be sure to follow me on Social Media to stay up to date with all of my latest crochet projects, free patterns and tutorials! Instagram @brambles.and.hart TikTok @brambles.and.hart YouTube Brambles and Hart Happy crocheting! Shelley ♡

As part of a Hobbii Challenge I was sent some of their blanket yarn to try out. Now I have used blanket yarns before (e.g. Bernat blanket yarn, Yarnsmiths Snug as. a Bug) and these are categorised as a super chunky/super bulky/6 weight yarn. I was expecting similar with this yarn but wow I was mistaken! It's huge! The Details: Name: Hobbii Blanket Yarn Yarn Weight: Jumbo/7 weight Composition: 100% Polyester Ball Weight: 300g Yardage: 43yds/ 39m Recommended Hook: 25mm   My initial thoughts: This yarn lives up to its' category of JUMBO it is the chunkiest yarn I have ever used. As it's a 300g ball it was big and squishy and I was really impressed with its softness but I can't deny that I was slightly intimidated by the thickness of the yarn. My trusty 5mm hook was clearly not going to be the one for the job with this yarn and so I ordered a sparkly new 25mm crochet hook from Amazon as this is the hook size recommended on the ball band. I gave the yarn a bit of a stress test - I rubbed the strand between my fingers to check for shedding and there wasn't any which is great and I also pulled on the tail end of the yarn to see how easily it snaps - blanket yarns are notorious for breaking easily. This yarn did break when I pulled it but I did have to give it a good pull.   Let’s Crochet! My initial thought was to make a blanket with the 'blanket' yarn. I had 6 balls - 2 each of silver, anthracite and misty green. I attempted to crochet with the beast of a 25mm crochet hook and I found it quite difficult. The hook felt quite cumbersome in my hand and it was hard to stop the stitches from being too tight. Also, it seemed quite the yarn eater and I wasn't sure that 6 balls would actually make a decent size crochet blanket and more than 6 balls at 300g each would be ridiculously heavy. Upon attempting to undo, or frog, the start of my blanket I found that the yarn didn't frog smoothly. It would get stuck and need a good pull which on one occasion did result in the yarn breaking. Now to try something different... I didn't want to buy another crochet hook, a bigger hook wasn't likely to feel any better crocheting with so instead I decided to try finger crochet! I made some small cushions for my boys to take when we go camping. Finger crocheting with this yarn was so much easier than standard crocheting and it was actually a lot of fun. It's a bit of a finger workout and can be a tad fiddly to get started but once I was in my rhythm I loved how quickly it worked up. For the cushions I crocheted two 4 round circles and then stitched them together. Thanks to the thickness of the yarn they didn't require any stuffing, they're plump enough on their own. This bodes well for when it comes to washing them and yes, this yarn is machine washable! My boys love their new cushions and assure me that they're very comfy for both laying their head on and sitting on. Also great frisbees apparently but that was not their intended purpose - thank goodness they're so soft! Overall, Hobbii Blanket yarn is.a nice, novelty yarn. It's definitely not something that would be a staple in my stash but it is a great yarn for experimenting with and making super squishy home decor or even plushies if amigurumi is your thing!   Rating: 5.5/10 + Soft and squishy texture + Doesn't shed easily + Nice array of colours +Fun to use for finger crochet/knitting - Recommended 25mm crochet hook still felt too small - Difficult to frog or pull the yarn without snapping. -Not the most practical yarn due to its size