blanket

I don’t know about you, but I think blankets are the best, especially your own personal blanket.

Laura Marano

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This blanket has been a long time in the making. I started it last summer for my friend’s son but put it aside so many times. I’m in a “let’s get these WIPs done” mode so I’ve been tackling all the promised gifts and other projects I’ve left in hibernation. I’m still having trouble with the border, I redid it twice already but I’m still not satisfied. So I’m going to take it out today and redo it using a larger hook. That should make it less tight. But I’m claiming this project as done, Mummy’s pleased and I hope the young one (he’s not a baby anymore) is just as happy! He’s a tall one so I made it extra long to accommodate him as he grows. ❤

It’s amazing how finishing one project makes you want to cast on all the thingz!!!! 🙂 After finishing the blanket last week, I started cleaning up my yarn space. I found a stash of Stylecraft DK yarn that I’d forgotten I had and my interest was also renewed in a project I’d saved for a later date. I posted the found stash on Instagram and all the responders said “blanket”. LOLOL! So I hauled everything out yesterday and this stash of pretty will make two more blankets.

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The balls of Knitpicks Brava Bulky in Red will make Lisa Gutierrez’s Willow blanket. I have ten skeins of this yarn so I’m going to make some adjustments to the pattern to make it bigger. This one shouldn’t take me that long to make; I can do it in a weekend.

source: Lisa Gutierrez (Ravelry)

The Stylecraft DK will make Hannah Owen’s “As You Go Along Stripey Blanket” influenced by Little Woolies original creation. This blanket will be an ongoing project. My goal is to finish it by winter 2016-17 (all things being well).

source: Hannah Owen (Ravelry)

The rest of the month will be spent finishing two hats I promised friends then it’ll be blanket time. I know it’s crazy doing blankets in the height of summer but hey … crafters you know how it is … once the project calls, we have to answer! 😀

Hope you all are having the best Sunday and here’s to a wonderful week ahead!

Off topic: Are you going to do another mood blanket for 2015?

This is the first time I’m responding to a comment with a post, but I think Amina deserves to know what’s up in blanket land for me this year. 😀

It had crossed my mind to do another mood blanket after the first one turned out so well but requests and promises made caused a change in that plan. To date, I have four blankets on tap for 2015! Yes I said four! Nuts … I know, but here’s why:

image courtesy: Lion Brand Studios

After staying wrapped up in my mood blanket for 4 days while we went through the “blizzard” in January, my little cousin requested his own throw/blanket. We went through Ravelry patterns together and he picked this cabled blanket. According to him, he wants it big enough because he’s taking it to college — college for him is 4 years from now. Be still my beating heart. ❤

The yarn is already in my possession, he picked some crazy lime green colour but it’s his blanket, all I am is the maker so I had to accept the colour choice I was given. He was so very resolute in his colour choice. 😀 The bulky weight should make this project go fairly fast so I’m confident I can get it done (all things being well before the end of the year). He says he expects it for Christmas since my mood blanket took the entire year. What a sweet-heart. ❤

The second blanket is more of a decorative throw but I love the look of it and actually started to make it in December. I didn’t have the yarn used in the video — Bernat Blanket Yarn — which is a velour type, super bulky weight yarn:

so I used two strands of KnitPicks Brava bulky held together. The look was okay but still not what I was going for so I ended up scrapping that project. Then a friend went to Michael’s after Christmas sale where the Bernat yarn was 40% off. She knew I was not buying yarn this year so she picked it up and called it my “Christmas” gift. Still not sure if she meant Christmas 2014 or 2015. 😀 Either way, this blanket is back on the 2015 to do list.

image courtesy: Purl Soho

The third blanket on tap is a Double Seed Stitch blanket (baby version) for my friend’s son. I was supposed to do this before he was born. He’s going to be 2 in July. In my defense, I did start the Honeycomb pattern for him but it wasn’t working up the way I liked so I’m going to adopt this Purl Soho pattern, making it in stripes as opposed to one solid colour.

And finally, a blanket for me — a free Martin Storey KAL (knit a long) afghan from Rowan Yarns. This version of it sold me completely so I’m also doing mine in one solid colour rather than multiple colours as the original pattern suggests.

image courtesy: http://www.dayanaknits.com

The project is done is squares, then joined and finished off with the cable binding. The squares shouldn’t take too long but I read that the binding takes a bit of time. I bought the yarn for this in December — Patons Decor in Eggplant. Since I’m in no hurry with this one, I’m going to finish the others first then get cracking on this.

It might seem a lot — four blankets in a year but I’m finding that I like projects like these and I don’t mind the length of time they take. So there you have it Amina … no mood blanket but plenty of others to go around in 2015! 😀

What about you all — any blanket plans for 2015?