A completed crocheted creation

I didn’t include this blanket in my summary of sewing finishes for last year as it didn’t seem right putting a yarn-based project amongst all the sewing projects, so here it is with a post all of its own.
 

 
I bought the yarn back in 2012 and it was originally to be a knitted skirt. However, I don’t seem to get on with knitting and even though the skirt pattern only had a four row repeat, I still managed to lose track of where I was and get the increases in the wrong place. I decided to unravel what little progress had been made and switch from knitting to crochet instead.

The pattern is the Ripple Blanket from Attic 24 and once the first couple of rows is down, it is just a matter of repeating a single row, so it was easy to put down and pick up again without losing my place in the pattern. Once I realised that this was going to be a more successful project, I got some more of the same yarn, but the original colour was no longer available as the yarn had been discontinued by then. Fortunately the new and old colourways went well together and with the stripy nature of the yarn the colour changes are not too obvious. As the blanket grew, it became clear that my foundation chain had been too tight and leaving it as it was would annoy me. As is often the case these days, the internet came to the rescue and I was able to redo the chain at a better tension, though it did need a leap of faith to take scissors to the stitches!

I had decided to use all the original yarn for the main body of the blanket and then find a contrasting yarn for the border. I was lucky to find a suitable yarn in a toning colour that had multi-coloured flecks in similar colours to the original yarn which was ideal. I used the instructions in the original pattern to fill in the wavy edges and then used the last two rows of the Attic 24 Cosy Blanket edging to create a textured rather than smooth edge.

 
I had no idea what size this would be as I just kept going until I had run out of yarn, but it has finished about double bed sized.

 
Crochet makes a change from EPP as something to do while watching television in the evening, though it does seem an “inexact science” when compare to sewing. There seem to be too many variables when it comes to finished size, amount of yarn required and which yarns can be used instead of the one specified in the pattern. This could all just be my inexperience showing and certainly hasn’t put me off starting a new crochet project.


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