The crochet bug bites again!

The crochet bug bites!

In July this year I decided I was going to pick up the crochet hook again for the first time in around 25 years and crochet a blanket.  Why had it been 25+ years?  Well babies, kids, work, life and stuff!  I had been inspired by all the gorgeous crochet I was seeing on Instagram.  I’d make it big enough to be useful to use on the sofa bed when guests are staying.  It needed to be simple and not too complicated since it was my first time in a long time!  To help me decide, I posted a few options found on Pinterest on the WOTM Facebook page and sought opinions.  Many people liked the one that had the daisy squares and so did I so I decided to go with that one.  This is the picture that inspired my blanket.

The search for all the right gear and working out how big to make it

I visited Spotlight and began the search to find wool in the right colours.  It wasn’t easy actually, but I ended up doing pretty good!  Not an exact match but didn’t need to be.  However, though I’d planned to do this project using 8 ply wool, I could only get the right colours in a 12 ply wool.  I used 4 Seasons ‘Marvel’ 12 Ply (100% acrylic).  On 29 July, I crocheted my first square in at least 25 years (see it HERE on Instagram).  I worked out that to cover the surface area of the guest room sofa bed I would need to do 88 squares (11 squares in length and 8 squares across).  As I went along I started to feel like I wanted to mix things up a bit and let my creative side out.  I decided a blanket of all daisy squares was a bit boring, so introduced 4 alternative squares and did 11 of each of those in addition to 44 daisy squares. 

Joining the squares up

To join my squares I used the Flat Slip Stitch method. 

Deciding on a border colour and style

Once I’d joined all my squares up I had to decide on a STYLE and COLOUR for my border/edging.  I decided against using the beige ‘joining up’ colour again for the border.  Instead, I chose the darkest colour in my project which was the dark turquoise.  I also decided against the traditional shell edging (I’m such a rebel!) and browsed around on the web till I found one that appealed.  I decided on a Cross Back Stitch border  – but of course I didn’t do it exactly like the video tutorial said.  I did a row of what we call in Australia ‘Half Treble Crochet‘ (instead of her instructed ‘double crochet’), then I did the row of Cross Back stitch (with my corners treated differently to what is said in the video) and then I did another row of ‘Half Treble Crochet’.

…and Voila!

Here is the final product, shown with a little help from my mate Wally the Wombat!

I’m a little sad this project is finished.  It’s not perfect.  I made a few mistakes along the way but I learnt from them.  The crochet bug is back!  Now to decide on my next crochet project!

Ciao for now,

Linked up with Kylie Purtell for #IBOT