Trendy Chevron Baby Blanket

Recently, a friend of mine asked me to make her a baby blanket to give to a friend as a baby shower present. Since I dearly love my friend, I agreed to make the blanket.

The friend had decided to do her bedroom in trendy chevron patterns with teal, coral and gray colors. I immediately went to one of my favorite yarn websites (www.woolwarehouse.co.uk) and bought a few skeins of Aspen, Shrimp and Silver. In my opinion (and thankfully, the mother-to-be's opinion as well!), the colors went together marvelously!!!

I was super nervous to commit to a chevron blanket... When I first started to crochet, I attempted chevron twice and it just wasn't right! So I searched and searched Pinterest, hoping to find the perfect pattern. I finally came across this pattern, and I have to say, it was worth the wait! http://bellusthreads.com/2013/06/23/chevron-baby-blanket-free-crochet-pattern/

I love how this pattern does a row of doubles, then singles and back and forth. In the end, I think it turned out really well!!

If you choose to do this pattern, note that the little holes on the double rows will match up and the even smaller holes on the single rows will match up. Don't expect all of the rows to match up perfectly!

Until next time, 

Callie 

The Big Reveal: Colorful Granny Square Blanket

Two and a half weeks after starting it, my blanket is finished! I took this blanket all over town with me, even to a coffee shop with some girlfriends. I'm sure I've attracted a number of funny looks when I've been crocheting in the passenger seat as my husband has driven us around town, too! I just couldn't put it down and have been so excited to see the finished product.

I've told my husband that this blanket is my new happy place. It brings me so much joy to look at all seventeen of the beautiful colors. Like I mentioned previously, the colors came as a pack from the Attic24 section of www.woolwarehouse.co.uk so I didn't have to worry about whether or not they would go well together. I was a little on the fence about some of the colors, especially some of the greens. However, when everything finally came together, I think the color choices were perfect. I also loved how each new color round made the whole blanket look different... it was such an incredible transformation.

 

Overall, this blanket was pretty simple to put together. It's a giant granny square, so it's a continuous pattern of double crochet clusters all the way around, with chains added in the corners. I'll list the order of the colors in just a minute. I worked the colors from 1-17, then started with 16 and worked my way back. When I finished color 6, I started down my border. With color 5, I started rows of single crochet. I continued this with colors 4, 3 and 2. When I finished color 2, I started the final row and did a scalloped border (slip stitch to start, skip a stitch, 5 double crochets into the next stitch, skip a stitch and slip stitch into the next stitch; repeat all the way around).

The Border.... so beautiful and dainty

The colors:

1. Plum

2. Clematis

3. Wisteria

4. Magenta

5. Lavender

6. Aster

7. Cloud Blue

8. Turquoise

9. Sherbet

10. Spring Green

11. Aspen

12. Meadow

13. Saffron

14. Shrimp

15. Fondant

16. Pomegranate

17. Lipstick

So, are you ready for The Big Reveal? I'm so excited to show you the finished product!!!

In all of its glory! 

Love to see all the colors spread out from this angle...

So there you have it! I've placed it over the back of my couch (probably to my husband's dismay) so I can see it all the time and of course, allow my friends to bask in the happiness that exudes from this blanket whenever they come for a visit!

Until next time,

Callie

Introduction and Granny Stripes Blanket

I decided to write this blog to keep track of all the crochet projects I'm working on. I've absolutely enjoyed sharing them on my Facebook and getting feedback from my friends... but ultimately, I feel like my friends are going to get so tired of seeing my crochet projects! The number of posts I've made recently that have included yarn is higher than I care to admit!!

This past fall (of 2014), I decided I wanted to learn crochet or knitting. Someone who used to be part of my family tried to teach me when I was a child, but I wasn't fond of her, so I just wasn't receptive to her lessons and I picked up nothing from her. I absolutely regret this now, for a number of reasons! I did a bit of research to compare crochet and knitting... I wanted to know which one was going to be more manageable for me to learn and really stick with it for awhile. I tend to be a perfectionist with a lot of things and knew that this would be no different. Since you can more easily fix mistakes with crochet than knitting, I decided I would try to learn crochet. The weekend after Thanksgiving, I stopped at my favorite Hobby Lobby and picked up a "starter kit": an "I Taught Myself How to Crochet" book, a skein of yarn and a set of eight crochet hooks. That afternoon/evening, I got started making the "spa cloth" that the book taught me to make. It wasn't very pretty, but I was definitely proud of it! And, more importantly, I was absolutely hooked (no pun intended!) on crochet and couldn't wait to get started on more projects. In the next couple of posts, I'll share pictures and patterns of some of the projects I've worked on since I started. Some of them are just gorgeous!

Day 1

So, what am I working on right now? I'm working on a beautiful blanket I'm calling a Large Granny Stripes Blanket. I've been reading a number of crochet blogs over the past couple of months but my favorite by far is attic24.typepad.com. A woman named Lucy writes this blog and I feel like if we lived on the same continent, we'd be good friends! She has worked on some fabulously beautiful projects, and I took inspiration from this blanket: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2010/07/the-granny-stripe-tadah.html. I also found this one on Pinterest: http://daisycottagedesigns.net/free-crochet-pattern/free-crochet-patterns-granny-square-baby-blanket/

Day 2

Lucy from Attic24 has worked with Wool Warehouse in the UK to provide packs of Stylecraft yarn with pre-selected colors. I bought a pack of 17 skeins of yarn in a variety of colors and I fell in love with the colors. And so my blanket got underway...

Day 3

I've taken my blanket with me everywhere I've gone lately... in the car, to church, to my parent's house, etc. If I'm sitting, I'm crocheting. Maybe it's an obsession, I'm not sure! But whatever it is, I'm absolutely loving it!! 

Day 4

This is where I'm at on this blanket as of last night, Day 5...... Right now, it's approximately 32" square with 16 colors mixed in... I have one more color to go, and then I'll start the colors over and either stop when I'm sick of looking at it or I run out of yarn! I simply love it! 

Day 5

Until next time,

Callie