Hi everyone! We’re back in Blogville after a self imposed exile. We were able to catch up with everything that has been going on, but want to apologize for not being able to comment for the past week. So now let me explain the absence.
Those crafty types out there know how it is sometimes when you pick a project to do for a gift and realize that it might me a little more than you anticipated. Well that is sort of what happened to me. A few weeks ago I received an invitation to a baby shower and started looking for crochet patterns to make. I found a really nice blanket and liked the way it looked and the colors in the pattern were just what I wanted to do. The yarn was purchased and I started working on it.
There are three different panels in the pattern and I started with the easiest one shown above. It is a simple fan stitch and was fairly easy, if not a little boring, to complete. I needed to make two of these, but decided to work on the bobble panel next since I knew that one would be a bit more difficult.
One of the things I really liked about this pattern is that there is a lot of texture to it, but being a fairly naive crocheter I didn’t recognize the amount of work a panel like this would require. You see there are two different yarns used and each row is a different one. There was no easy way to accomplish starting and ending each row without cutting the yarn. Sometimes you can carry your yarn up the side as you work, but I couldn’t figure out a way to easily do that so i ended up with a panel that looks like this when you are done.
The problem is that when it gets to this stage you still have to sew all that fringy stuff into it. I tried to crochet in the ends as I went along, but it was too loose and didn’t look very good. Since this was going to be a baby blanket I wanted it to be more secure. I’m hoping that this could be one of those blankets that will be carried around for years so it has to last. It took countless hours to sew in all those ends and it was making me a bit crazy. Oh yeah there were also two of these panels!
The center panel is made up of 9 Italian squares shown below.
It took me a few tries to understand the pattern and get the first one of these blocks completed, but after that they went fairly quickly. These also have a lot of nice texture to them that I like. Before I could start to assemble the blanket I needed to crochet the borders on the fan and bobble panels. That was fairly easy and went as quickly as it could.
In the middle of the last week of working on this I received an order for my Etsy shop that took about a day and a half to complete (more about that later this week). By this point I was working into the wee hours of the morning as fast as my fingers could work. The shower was this past Saturday (starting at 11 am) and by Friday night I was starting to worry that I wouldn’t get it done in time. I got up Saturday morning, ate a quick breakfast and started hooking as fast as I could. I only needed to complete the border, but it was a long way around.
At about 10:45 am I finally finished the blanket! I still had to take some pictures, wrap the present, shower and drive the 25 minutes to the shower. Oh well I figured it would be better to be a little late and give a finished project than to be on time and bring my hook to finish it while the rest of the gifts were opened. A few people at the shower were beginning to worry about where I was, but the mom to be said, “she is probably just finishing up whatever it is she is making.” She knows me a little 😉 I figured that all I would miss were a few appetizers and some silly shower games and I was right.
Of course I don’t have a picture of the mom showing everyone the blanket because in my rush I forgot my camera, but it did get the loudest ooohs and aaahs of anything she received and it was the only hand made gift. I am very happy with the way it came out and the colors are perfect for the pale purple nursery.
For the hookers out there that are curious the pattern is from the June 2007 Crochet World magazine and the yarns I used were Bernat Softee Baby for the purple, Sensations Cuddle Muffin for the multi-color yarn, and the yellow is Lion Brand Baby Soft. I guess the moral of this story is next time work harder and faster in the beginning and don’t pick a pattern with alternating rows of different yarn. It truly was a labor of love.
P.S. Just want to give a shout out to Lynne for starting me on my hooking path. It was just over a year ago that she posted her tutorials that taught me the basics of crochet. Thanks again Lynne!
P.P.S. I’m linking up this post with
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