CROCHET BLANKET

I almost didn’t write to you about my crochet blanket as there are already a squillion “stories” posted about  crochet blankets and crochet in general, so why would mine catch your attention above the others… It possibly won’t!!!   I had taken photos  whilst in the making, so half way to a blog anyway, I must say I have really enjoyed making it too…

I wanted a BIG crochet blanket to throw over the sofa, and maybe  throw over my lap during the cold winter evenings sitting in front of the fire … My first decision .. what colour?  ummm a little bit Christmassy, with a touch of Nordic me thinks…

Off I trot to the shops to look at wool, this is what I came up with:-

It’s really super yarn,  PURE WOOL WORSTED from ROWAN, I loved the colours and the fact these colours are available  in such big bumper balls of 100grams in each!

My inspiration came from LITTLE WOOLIE

littlewoollie.blogspot.com/‎‎littlewoollie.blogspot.com/‎

who is the most imaginative and talented “Princess of wool and colour” out there in the big wide world of crochet… THANKS TO YOU!

My crochet skills are limited so decided to re-cap on the basic crochet in stripes techniques from a rather old and retro crochet book… and a number 3.5 crochet hook.

Now all I need to add is time… and quite a lot of it!

… and this is what I came up with using only three stitches and just those lovely ROWAN yarns…

I reached a “guessed” size – throughout all my crocheting I have never measured, the original foundation chain  was “yep, thats about it”. So, I have been crocheting for ages, lots of rows until I decided it was big enough.  It is now a square,  I checked by folding corner to corner diagonally.

While I had the blanket spread out on the lounge floor I could clearly see that my edges were a bit wobbly!  As I had left quite long tails it was easy to crochet a little extra here and there, equally easy to pull back a few stitches.  I spent an evening fiddling and re-shaping until I was happy that it was more or less “squared-up”… I am pleased I took time to do this as I would have been disappointed when adding the final edge surrounds.

The surrounding colours were really governed by the wool that I had left as I  didn’t want to have to buy more wool… Gee, it’s a long way around a blanket!

The first boarder I used up the lime green, wasn’t sure how to tackle the corner, after a couple of attempts I plumped for four stitches in one to form a slight fan shape.

Next came the grey, again tackled the corners with a similar idea, but thought two stitches in two stitches looked best.  Had a half ball of cream too, so  sneaked a row of that in as well!

Then finally the green grass shade.  I had bought more of this colour originally as there was very little left in the shop,  the lady who served me said that this particular colour would not be re-stocked.  I wanted a simple yet definite edge to the blanket, and this is what I came up with…  Four chains, then three double crochet into one, thought the slightly wavy edge looked quite good!

So, thats my crochet blanket story.

Stripes for a distance

Stripes on the diagonal

All corners!!! (and edges)

The colour on the photo’s… yep they do differ, some are really quite bright in the value, others softer… the actual true  colour of the blanket is of the softer tones.

What do you think?  It would be good to hear from you!

Best wishes, Jay xxx

My little extra snippet for you from Snoo “… baby African elephants throw themselves headfirst into mud when they are grumpy!…”