Blanket 2012

I make exactly one blanket per year. No more. Regardless of how much I might like another throw then and there or how it would be a great present for xyz. It just takes up too much time and space and I lose interest halfway through and I don't like having lots of unfinished WIPs around the place. Last year it was a blanket for my son. It took months and months, but he loved it.

This year is my Dad's 60th, so I thought it would be nice to make him one for the cold winters in Germany. When I told him about my son's blanket his reply was along the lines of 'well, are you sure you want to do that for the rest of your life' (yes Dad, that is what I like to do when I am not doing my main job i.e looking after your grandchildren and no, I don't feel like I am wasting my life), but I am hoping that he might be more positive towards his own.

It's crochet in a shell stitch, lots and lots of little shells. In the colours that remind me of his home. The ivory for the snow, the brown for the house, the blue for the lake, the green for the forest, it all reminds me of home.

For some reason, when I looked at the finished shell stitch portion, I thought it was too small (to fit a single bed) and it needed a border. It now measures 145cm (57in) x 210cm (83in) (and weight more then 3.5 kg) and is perhaps a little larger then anticipated :-)

I have sent it off today and hopefully it'll arrive before Sept. 9th. I am somewhat glad it is finished.

Off to fabric-a-brac tomorrow though and I am super excited :-)

other projects (with stripes and without)

I have to finish the stripey blanket for my Dad's 60th in September. The body is done in this lovely shell stitch, but the sides still need finishing. It is a really thick and soft acrylic yarn, perfect for the cold German winters.

Out of the leftovers I want to knit a green and dark blue stripey Jumper for my son. There is also the crochet Japanese flower scarf for my daughter and a crochet cardigan.

So, I hope to finish the blanket in April and then start of the Japanese flowers. I usually have a one project at the time policy (I am a terrible procrastinator and whilst I love starting things I just won't finish otherwise), but the blanket is really too heavy to take with me to the various activities of my children so perhaps I will get started on the Japanese flowers this month as well.

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'.