Baby Blanket Ta Dahhh (plus border edging pattern)

A couple of weeks ago I set a new record for myself. I started and completed a baby blanket in 3 days. THREE DAYS. That sounds fast, however, the reality was that I didn't leave the my seat in that entire time, have left a permanent butt grove in the sofa and am now suffering from chronic tennis elbow (more about that in later posts haha!) 

Crochet is normally a relaxing happy pastime but not this blanket! I was in a panic to finish and can safely say, I will never churn out another blanket so fast ever again. I am maintaining that this particular blanket has nothing to do with my TERRIBLE time management and is in fact down to her being born prematurely. That is my official line. I will gloss over the fact that I knew she was going to be premature and that I also knew weeks in advance that she could have been born any day….

When I posted the photos on Instagram, I had a lot of people asking about the pattern and my border so I will tackle both those things in this post!

Firstly the pattern. It is from MyPicot.com, this square doesn’t seem to have a name but it is very pretty! The direct link to the pattern is here – I initially found the written instructions a little tricksy (no idea why, clearly I was having a brain fart day) so instead followed the chart that is available in the downloadable PDF.

I continued my square until it was roughly the right size I wanted and then stopped.

The scalloped edging was a little too flouncy for my liking so I squared it off.

The border is 2 rounds, the first round was to square off the scallop, the second round was a round of crab stitch.

I have drawn a rough chart for you to see the stitches I used for the squaring off. If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments below and I will do my best to help!

A word of warning if you follow my instructions for the edging: YOU WILL NEED TO BLOCK THE BLANKET. There is no escaping the blocking I’m afraid. I hate blocking with a passion so I can only apologise for this! Haha!

You may find that going down a hook size will help avoid the need to block but as I was rushing (and therefore not thinking) I used the same size hook for the entire blanket so haven’t tested it myself.

Blanket Stats:

Yarn: Rooster Almerino Aran

Hook size: 5.5mm

Time: 3 crochet intensive days where I only took pee and sleep breaks LOL

Continue reading Baby Blanket Ta Dahhh (plus border edging pattern)

Walter Blanket Ta Dahhh!

Last month I finished my Walter Blanket!

I am so pleased that I actually finished, not only that but that I finished in a reasonable timeframe – that’s two firsts for me right there haha!

I started this blanket just after Christmas as a treat to myself. It is not often I crochet something and get to keep it, normally most of what I make is gifted to other people – I only have a couple of finished blankets that I use in my own house. 

So Walter is special. Special because he is mine and special because I made him using my favourite slightly-more-expensive-than-I-can-reeeeally-justify Rooster Almerino yarn.

The pattern for Walter is from issue 60 of InsideCrochet magazine, the pattern can be found here.  

Although it is worth noting that I found the stitch in one of my many crochet books where it is called Interlocking Shell Stitch.

I found I needed a few balls more to finish than the magazine recommended; the pattern did mention that the yardage would be tight. When I began the blanket, I thought I would add a border, however as you can see, by the time I finished the edges were so beautifully straight I left it as is.

Blanket stats: 

Yarn: Rooster Almerino DK

Hook size: 4mm

Time: HOURS AND HOURS I daren't add it up! Haha! Each colour stripe took approximately an hour so if you wanted to count them.... >_<

So, erm, TA DAHHH!! :D

Many thanks to Tonia from The Periwinkle for letting me steal the photo she took of Walter from her own blog!

Continue reading Walter Blanket Ta Dahhh!