Crocheted cosiness

I am not able to churn projects at the pace I am posting them, but  I have some backlog from the last year. This week I have actually finished two commissions, which I will show you later. I have been hopping out of my bed and skipping to my workroom as soon as my housework has been done.

Here is a project I finished a long time ago, but forgot to show you. I got into crocheting by reading the fantastically colourful blog attic24. Lucy is a real gem; very creative and generous. Her blog has a sidebar full of crochet tutorials, many of them really beginner friendly in that she photographs the different stages of making and points out where to put your hook etc.

This is the granny stripe blanket from her sidebar. I did the edging from my own head, as I had gained some unwarranted self-belief in my crocheting skills. It is essentially just triple stitches, just like the blanket. The only adjustment was that on the long side I only used two of them in each space between the clusters. I had to unravel it a few times to get it right. Looking at the pictures you see that the edge is wavy because it still has too many stitches. I should have thrown in few places with only one stitch.

I like the white framing it brings lightness to the blanket. I was not too sure about my skills and whether I could actually take this project to its end, so chose reasonably priced (read not 100% wool) yarn. Lucy had mentioned the Stylecraft yarn on her blog and I decided to try it. It is nice enough, not as sumptuous as a full merino wool yarn, but hey, certainly nice and snugly. (And the price is not quite as painful).

It took me four months to make it. Mostly sitting and "watching" telly or at the swimming pool when Elf son was still having lessons. But it was addicting pastime too. Just this one row...you know. I loved the ease of making it; there is no sewing it together afterwards, all the ends were tidied as I went along and it was very easy to crochet.

I finished off the blanket with small pompoms. Now if you have children around a word of warning; they absolutely love the blankets and will put their fingers through it. There is no harm in that. But the pompoms, the pompoms. Dear me, it is very difficult not to pull and tuck in them. They were made with the clover pompom maker and secured very well onto the blanket in my mind. Nevertheless, I have done some maintenance today in this part of the blanket replacing many pompoms. Now that the blanket is not a new one, we have actually not had these incidents of pompom murders for a good while.

The blanket resides on our bed, the quilt is one of the things I still have to show to you.

Here are the stats to help you if you should wish to make one too:

166cm X 136cm
Weighs 1277gr
441 stitches on the foundation chain.

Stylecraft Life Dk yarn in seven colours: White, Zing, Clover, Cardinal, Fern, Fuchsia and Cobalt.
4 months in making at a leisurely pace
Great to snuggle under!