Granny Square Blanket

I'm very pleased to announce that after several months I've finally finished my granny square blanket! I'd never crocheted before starting but I'd been wanting to do something like this for some time and took the opportunity to get a good start on it when I had some unexpected surgery at the end of July. I wrote about my progress at the start of October but since then I seemed to have been stalling a bit with the final stage.

The border, whilst being one of the easiest elements, was also one of the most tedious in that I could crochet for ages and hardly see any change. However I kept at it, not really knowing how much border to add until I finally got to the point where I felt that more would actually be less.

I would love to be able to tell you more detail about the amount of yarn and where I got the pattern but I can't find the YouTube video that got me going, plus I used so many balls of yarn that I stopped counting (mainly so I wouldn't know how much it cost in the end). The yarn I was using has now been discontinued but I have some left so I'm working on a couple of cushion covers based on that pattern to go with the blanket.

I never imagined when I started that it would end up this huge or that I would make quite such a good job of it (even if I do say so myself!). I'm really proud of how it has turned out and it's lovely and warm, just ready in time for these cold winter nights.



 

Learn A New Skill

Time can sometimes run away with us... I mean, it's almost October already and for most of us the last year will have passed by in the blink of an eye.

Since I met Paul he's helped me realise what it means to find the time to do things you love. For him it can be anything from writing music to building motorbikes. I learned that I should pursue some of my own interests and learn some new skills too. I started off with running, and more recently have turned my hand to crochet. I had never crocheted anything before but YouTube is a great teacher!

I've had some delays while the (awesome) ladies at Ramshambles have been locating some final balls of yarn for me (the sort I'm using has been discontinued). This is the *almost* finished result... I still have one more row to attach then the border to complete around the outside.

I have to admit, I'm quite proud of how it's turned out! I can't wait to finish it and snuggle under it while creating some more masterpieces ;) 

When I look back at my year and consider what I have achieved, at least I know I learned at least one new skill

Crochet... really?

Don't ask why but for some reason I've been inspired to make something. Not just anything... I'm inspired to crochet us a blanket for the winter. I remember knitting years ago with my Gran but I don't think I ever crocheted anything and if I did, I don't remember any techniques at all! However with the miracles of websites, blogs and youtube I reckon I can teach myself

I haven't got any of the tools yet but have been busy looking at patters. I'm not sure that I'm able to get the right materials by buying online so I think I'm going to wait until next week when I'm back in York as I know there's an awesome shop that is just full of great stuff.

I first saw this design online and really liked the look of it...

 But then I also saw one like this...

My favourite is this one which is classed as a Sunburst design (I think it's the same or similar to the first pic above). There are lots of step by step tutorials for it and it's classed as easy with several people saying they did it as their first blanket but I'm not sure if it might still be a bit tricky for my first time!

For now I'm busy looking at websites and patterns. I think I could practice the techniques on a couple of really easy designs then when I'm getting the hang of it give these a go.