Everyday my crochet bucket list grows bigger. I see so many wonderful and inspiring pictures while browsing the internet. There are just so many patterns to choose from, and they're everywhere I look on Facebook, Pintrest, Instagram, and Blogs. I actually keep a list of things I need to make, of patterns I want to try and this one rocketed straight to the top of the list.
I came across it on a Facebook page called Pink Lime Crafts. Sharon is a very talented crochet artist and she had made this blanket in a stunning rainbow colour scheme, You can see it on her blog here. I was blown away by how gorgeous this blanket looks and knew I had to try it. I'm still learning pattern reading and this one should have put me off from the start -
As much as I loved Sharon's colour scheme for this blanket I wanted to be original and decided a girly mix of peach, pink and lilac would look beautiful. I dug into my colour pegs and came up with Soft Peach, Apricot, Candyfloss, Pale Rose and Wisteria. The 'dusky' pastels really appealed to me and I couldn't wait to get started.
It worked up quite quickly in the beginning, each colour has four rounds of pattern which are repeated until the desired size is achieved.
The tutorial is really quite easy to follow provided you have a good grasp of the basic stitches. The difficulty as always is knowing where to put those stitches and a couple of the rounds are a little bit more tricky because of this. The 'back post treble crochet two together' became a dreaded but necessary stitch!
As it got bigger, each round inevitably took longer and longer to complete. The most labour intensive being the picot's or 'ruffles' that stand up from the rest of the blanket. When I got to that round I would have to make sure I was settled with a cuppa and something good on the tv. It was not a round to try and do while the children were demanding attention or in-between checking the dinner!
Finally after 12 'rounds' I decided it was a nice size for a baby blanket. I have to admit I did put this down a few times to work on other things, it was quite a labour of love, but I really wanted to see it finished and this kept me going.
To finish it off I added one of my labels, put it through the wash and tumble dried it on low. The picot ruffles refused to lay flat for me to photograph so I gave it a bit of steam treatment with the iron. This is called 'blocking' and the number one rule is to never let the iron touch the yarn. Instead you must hover above and let the steam do the work. This gave it a lovely final touch and allowed the pattern of stitches to shine.
This is the first blanket I have made that doesn't actually have an owner. I decided a few months back that it was time to open a shop on Etsy. So this is my first item of stock. At the time of writing this it is for sale and available to purchase, but hopefully this wont be for long.
As well as making blankets to sell in my shop I am also taking orders, so if theres something you would like, please send me a message.
Thanks for reading, see you again soon.
Berni x
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