Sunday 3 April 2016

Here's one I made earlier

I keep meaning to take some photos of my first little crochet blanket to show you. I made it back in 2012, inspired by Solveig's Flowers in the Snow blanket. At the time I didn't have a big enough supply of assorted colours to recreate hers, and started making plain blue circles bordered with white. Having made a few and laying them next to each other, I decided they looked rather effective and I would stick to just blue and white. I also changed the way they were joined together, so my version actually ended up looking quite different from Solveig's.

Originally I was planning on making a bed sized blanket which would need around 400 squares but had to "downsize" my ideas. The gorgeous blue variegated wool I was using turned out to be "end of line". I had bought a couple of balls towards the end of my tea cosies making days and when I went back to buy some more, there wasn't any... I'd already made quite a few squares by then though, so opted to just make it smaller. I kept going until I simply ran out of blue wool and this produced just enough to make a blanket 9 squares by 11. I had just one square left over!! It's 31" X 41", including the border, and currently sits at the end of the bed as an extra layer to keep my feet warm at night. 
I added it to Ravelry yesterday and called it my Olympic Foot Blanket. Why Olympic?? Because I clearly remember watching the London Olympics while working on it. The men's gymnastics to be precise!
Want to see it?? (Please excuse the washing on the line...)

Tina's Allsorts, Olympic Foot Blanket, Crochet

Tina's Allsorts, Olympic Foot Blanket, Crochet

Tina's Allsorts, Olympic Foot Blanket, Crochet


Tina's Allsorts, Olympic Foot Blanket, Crochet

I visited a friend the other day and she's knitting a beautiful white lacy baby blanket for someone she knows. My niece is also expecting her first baby in a few weeks and I keep thinking I ought to make her something.
Hand knitted baby clothes are no longer "on trend" but my niece loves vintage and retro and had mentioned she's a member of a Vintage Baby facebook page and had seen a picture of a flared cardigan that only had 2 buttons and no-one knew what it was but it looked nice. I told her it was a matinee jacket and you were only allowed to wear it in the afternoon!! (She works in the theatre so is very familiar with the concept of an afternoon matinee!)
So I asked my lovely friend Diana make me a matinee jacket for her (and she made 2 bonnets as well) . She loves knitting and isn't afraid to use 4 ply - or in this case 3 ply. Aren't they gorgeous?!


Anyway, these two creative ladies have spurred me on to start a baby blanket myself.

I had seen a photo of Nicki Trench's Springtime Throw on-line somewhere long ago, which incidentally, is where I got the idea on my joining method for the Olympic Foot Blanket. (Where would I be without the internet and Pinterest?...) Nicki's blanket is made with small squares which would be perfect for a baby blanket - I'll still need at least a hundred squares though! (Kirsty on Ravelry has also made a beautiful baby version with a lovely border too.)
I have some wool in a rainbow of colours left over from another (as yet uncompleted) project and dug them out yesterday and worked up a few sample squares.



I don't think it will be finished before the baby arrives - I remember just how much work there was in joining the squares in my blue/white blanket. It took far longer than I expected.
They only take about 10 - 15 minutes each to make though and it's a small enough project I can take it to work to work on at lunch time maybe.

I need to get back to my dress a girl teenage size pattern hack too. I haven't done any for a month now. That will have to wait until next weekend though...
Hope you're enjoying the weekend sunshine and see you again soon with a blankety update!

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