A close up with the 'Love Blanket'
Mum's are the best, right? I love my mum, but she lives in another country and i miss her terribly, but yet I am still awful about sending cards and presents over. I am a shambles when it comes to organising stuff like that. A couple of years ago I decided to make her the mother of all blankets, and it would have to be purple as it's her favorite colour. I had made 2 other blankets previously. One made out of squares and another a giant solid granny square. I definitely prefer the look of the squares but honestly, I think they sat for over half a year waiting to be joined together. Don't tell me you don't do it too. I know you do. I had a wee look on Pinterest, and 10 hours later (shhh it happens to me too, I just get lost in there) after searching for purple crochet blankets, I came across the perfect blanket. It was squares that weren't separate, not even join as you go, so absolutely no borders or joining to do. Check it out. It is an amazing pattern and Faerysteps has a fantastic photo tutorial to go with it. You should totally check out her site, she makes the most amazing shoes. Shoes that make me literally drool and go 'squee.' That she designed the perfect non granny squares, squares blanket is an added bonus.
Anyway about my blanket, I knew I wanted to do various shades of purple, but I also wanted a complimentary colour to tie it all together and I went for grey. I needed a range that had several shades of purple and I finally decided on Drops Paris*, check out that amazing colour range, and when I was making this blanket I was still quite a novice, and the yarn was totally affordable. Win Win. If you want to re-create my version of the love blanket I used light purple (05) medium purple (31) dark purple (08) and light grey (23) I originally went with 10 balls of each and then got an extra 4 of the dark purple for the border. I did have a bit over but not much. As a fairly inexperienced crocheter, I found the yarn very splitty, and have since heard this from other people as well. I now have new hooks that help greatly and I've now had more practice. If you have yarn and you keep poking your hook through it, try crocheting looser, or going up a hook size. It can really help. When I made this blanket Faerysteps still hadn't made a border for hers, so I came up with my own. (She has since finished it but I'm not sure if she has written the border pattern. You can see a picture of it here.) Using the dark purple I did a round of SC all around the blanket, then a round of the light purple, the light grey and finally the medium purple. I switched back to the dark purple for a round of DC, then I did a row of the eyelet stitch from Faerysteps' pattern, a last round of DC. Finally I switched to the light purple and did crab stitch around the whole blanket. The crab stitch really finished off the blanket, it gave it a sturdy edge and the bright colour gave it a nice pop. I am totally in love with this blanket, and I don't know about you but I think it was the perfect gift for my mum. I'm now working on a matching cushion, using the same colours but using the fabulous Sophie's Garden by Look at what I made. Have you seen it? Have you made it? It's only one of the most famous crochet patterns of all time. Mine has unfortunately turned into a bit of a UFO (UnFinished Object) But I do so hope to pick it up again when I have a bit more time, and when I need to get back into my mum's good books ;)
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