the blanket that started it all

Over a year ago I had found some interesting looking yarn and I was at a loss of what to do with it. There are only so many scarfs you need in Brisbane and my son had wondered whether I could make him a big cuddly blanket. Well, it certainly is big, in fact it's so big, I had to lay it on our queen-size bed to get it all in, but he LOVES it.

I started with the panel in the middle in double crochet ( UK treble I believe). Even after all this time, I still love all the different hues of colour that are in the centre. I do have 4 balls of that yarn left in blue that I am trying to think what I could do with it that would do it justice. Hmm, maybe a scarf :-)

After the panel was finished, I added the black stripes on each side and then on top and bottom. In order to break up the solid black I wanted to try a treble V-stitch or rather a W-stitch, but I found that the holes between each stitch were too large. I ended up adding an extra straight treble in between each stitch and I think it turned out very nicely.

After searching high and low for a soft green yarn that would go with the shades of the centre panel, I finished everything off by adding a mostly green border around it all. It took a while, mostly because I took big breaks in between, but I did complete it by Christmas, so all was well. My son is thrilled with it and says 'it's like a big hug from me whenever he needs it in the middle of the night'.