Blanket Season

As craft bloggers go - and one who crochets at that - I don't think I'm a very prolific maker of blankets. Since I learnt to crochet three years ago I have made two very small baby blankets which were both given away as gifts, a lightweight cotton throw, and one huge, heavy wool granny squares blanket. That doesn't seem much to me, given all the hours of crochet I must have done over the last three years and so it's with some surprise that I find myself with three blankets on the go at the moment. 

I think I have a bit of a love hate relationship with blankets. They just take so long to make, and I get bored and ignore them in favour of quicker projects like stool covers and wall hangings and scarves, and then of course that makes the blankets take even longer.

I have been working on Bella's zigzag rainbow blanket since Easter, with a long hiatus over the summer when it was too warm to have it on my lap. It is now absolutely enormous. I wanted it to be about the size of a single duvet cover, which it will be, so it can properly cover a single bed. (I can't be doing with too small blankets - more on that later.)

I don't especially love this blanket, but Bella does and that is more important because she chose the colours and pattern and it's for her room. But I'm near the end now, with only four more colours to go, and I have a renewed enthusiasm for the project.

I suspect that when it's finished, blocked, edged and laid out on her bed, I'll really like it.

Also in progress is my Cedar River blanket. Well, I say in progress, it's more like it's on pause at the moment. I haven't touched it in about a month, but I'll get back to it soon, I know I will, because I just adore it.

Everything about those colours and that pattern delights me. I already know that wherever it goes in our house it will look good. But for now it sits tucked up in it's basket, waiting patiently.

And then there is my granny squares blanket, which I kind of think of as my nemesis. Oh, I spent hours on this, and quite a lot of money, but there's no getting away from it: it's just not big enough for our bed.

It looks like a handkerchief, just perched there like that. It makes me so annoyed! I invested all that time and money in the creation of a beautiful thing, and I look at it and all I can think is: It's too small. 

It's been draped over the back of a chair in the living room for months where it looks nice but I feel that it's wasted there, it's not serving it's intended purpose. I made it for a bed, and for a bed it will be. I just need to increase the border by six or eight rows, then I think it might just be big enough. 

I've bought eight more balls of the off-white and two of the black. I had such trouble finding the exact yarn (Rowan Pure Wool DK) as I think it's perhaps being discontinued and replaced with the Pure Wool Superwash DK, but I managed to get some from eBay. Good old eBay.

And with all this blanket activity, my yarny corner of the living room is starting to get out of hand. Even John - who rarely moans about things like this, lovely man that he is - suggested that it might be taking over the floor slightly, not to mention blocking any heat from that radiator.

What started off as a stylish basket of yarn next to an armchair has morphed into a big pile of half finished woolly projects. But it's ok. In fact, it actually makes me happy. It doesn't matter when the blankets get finished because, as with so many crafty pursuits, it's as much about the process and the journey as the finished item. 

I'm joining in with my friend Jennifer's Winter Project Link Party, an opportunity for bloggers to share our crafting, our makes and our WIPs during the colder months. Do go and look at her beautiful blog if you don't already know it.