Colourful Mixed Crochet Blanket Reveal

Be prepared to feast your eyes on a whole lot of colour and snuggly goodness, that is, my eclectic mixed crochet blanket!

She's taken me 6 months to complete but I never once felt uninspired, or lacked motivation to complete her, which often happens towards the end of my blanket making process. Instead, a lack of time, priorities and circumstances got in the way, frustrating me. But as it was a labour of love, I joyfully picked up my hook when I could and slowly worked away at her.

 

I originally pinned this blanket a year ago, and lamented on Twitter at how I wish I could create such a beautiful thing, and afford so much wool. Usually my blankets are made from acrylic, the cheaper option, and are fairly simple.

After Katie was born I needed to fill a creative gap in my life (such is what happens after birth, the greatest creation of all), and decided this was the project for it. I've wanted to expand my crochet knowledge but didn't know what kind of projects to do it on, this was perfect!

I wanted it to be for our couch, I'm building a nice little collection of homemade blankets for us to snuggle under in the cold months, and winter is always coming so there is always a need for more blankets!

I already had a blanket I preferred, one that Miriam had made that I felt was a perfect size for us tall-ies, so I used that as my base to get the chain length that I wanted. 

180 chains long, I took a guess at the multiples I would need. I'm not to good at math, and couldn't work out how many clusters I would need, so I took a guess and figured I would work it out in the following rows. (does anyone have any cheats way of doing this that they could explain to me? I should have continued math in high school... regrets!)

I used little woolies "pattern" as a guide, but soon realised she just repeated the same 2 or 3 stitches each time, and I wanted to learn moooore! I tried to order the book she was working from but couldn't buy it online from anywhere, and none of our libraries here stocked it. So I ditched her and just went with whatever mood struck. I figured out what hdc looked like in single rows, then double rows, then back and forward etc etc. (hdc is now my new favourite standard stitch) 

I also added in a tapestry dot pattern, also of little woolies. I used the term "pattern" loosely, because they're quite vague, and her patterns often miss chunks of information and detail from them. 

And then, joyfully, worked on my border, which alone took 4 balls of wool to work up. I decided on a pom pom edging, using Once Upon A Pink Moon's pom pom tutorial, which is quite fabulous I have to say! 2 pom poms in and I was a master! That and a row of turquoise, hot pink and baby pink nestled underneath in alternating rows. 

Altogether she is a big lump of colourful wool, woven and hooked into something quite dreamy-out of this world-breaking all the crochet granny rules, and I absolutely LOVE her. 

In fact, as I sit here typing, she is keeping me warm during a 100yr storm that is blowing over our way. She's already part of our family and when Camilla sees her she promptly says "Mummy crochet 'dis"

Also, incase you're interested, I steam blocked her using Attic 24's explained method (at the very bottom of her post). Out of all the blocking methods I've tried, this works the best for me. It makes my crochet so soft and flexible, and allows it to hold its shape. If you're not addicted to blocking yet, try it out!

So are you ready for the grand reveal?! My eclectic mixed crochet blanket in all of her glory?

6 months

23 balls of wool

11 different colours

4 mm hook

148cm * 146cm

 (she looks a bit wobbly in this photo, she's not that bad I should have stretched her out more, it's just she has a few womanly curves!)

Thank you so much for following along on this crochet journey with me! 

To see my other blankets:
Granny Stripe Blanket
Ripple Blanket
Granny Circle Blanket