Tuesday 17 July 2012

My First Blanket

I started crocheting about a year ago. 

I learnt from four or five differnet books because each one different ways of teaching and explaining things. These included I Love Crochet by Rachel Henderson and Sarah Hazell, The Ultimate Knitting Bible by Sharon Brant, and some tips out of magazines and the internet. (It was so long ago I can't remember all of them).

But how I wish I had had The Ultimate Crochet Bible back then... It tells you everything you need to know! It's by Jane Crowfoot and I really think it's worth the investment!

Anyway, the first thing I started to make was granny squares. 





Having already been a knitter for a year previous to picking up a hook, I had a load of yarn stacked up and waiting to be used (some of which I still have!) so choosing colours was easy and fun. I wasn't limited to a few. This is good in some ways because I could really experiment with different combinations, but I do think there are some which don't really fit in with my final blanket.

Granny squares really are so easy to make! A really good tutorial by Anne Hayman over at The Hand Made Gift Guide will get you started really quickly.

So I quite quickly got the hang of the pattern and was churning out all these granny squares. I soon decided to make a blanket out of them! However, I had taken some organisation and outlined them all with grey... and a quick calculation of weights told me that I didn't have nearly enough to make the blanket big enough... and as I had bought it in a charity shop couldn't get hold of any more anywhere! Grr... But I'm glad this happened, because it's all about learning in the early stages of a new craft and it actually made my blanket better...

I really liked the contrast between the different sizes and was becoming quite proud of what I could do! A year before this I had only ever picked up a knitting needle...two times...? And never really understood what crochet really was! So this was very exciting!

BUT... there had to be a but...

It needed a border. Now I did look all over the internet about how to correctly put a border on a blanket... and i just thought it would be a fantastic idea (after reading about a lot of people nightmares with them) to make one up for myself!! Maybe I was being a bit arrogant... but anyway...




There it is with a border. And although it looks a lot better with one than without... can you see that its really wrinkly now and doesnt sit flat...? Not a good look.

I dreamed of having piles of hand crocheted blankets that were all folded neatly and wonderfully and could just sit in the corner with all their glory. This is what this looks like when folded....






It frustrates me so much that it is so against being flat!! The people that know me best will tell you that I am far from a perfectionist. But crochet seems to bring that out in me... SO THIS HAS BORDER HAS GOT TO CHANGE.

I think I'm going to go off now and unravel some crochet. It has taken me about a year to pluck up the courage to fix this border... and I know that unravelling it is going to be SO satisfying.

Watch this space to see if I can fix it... ahhhh!!

4 comments:

  1. Your blanket is great!!! It looks like you might have added too many stitches into your board rows causing the "unflatness" make sure you add at least three extra stitches in each of the four corners to help them lay flat. You could also try blocking the blanket once finished :) Px (Wightwitch on instagram)

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    1. Thank you! Yes I have added waaaay too many stitches. I don't think the amount of rows on the border helps either 😄I have changed it now so I will be updating soon with e pictures! :) x

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  2. Hi Abi!

    That's a beautiful blanket with beautiful colours used. Borders can be a nightmare. I had the same problem when doing my first granny square blanket. It just comes with experience and learning what not to do with each project you complete. I think I have about 8 blankets made now and I still am learning what not to do or to do to make life easier with each new one. It looks like you did exactly what I did with my first one. When you did your first border row and came to where each granny square was joined, you put a cluster set in each of the corner holes. To eliminate this problem, instead of doing three trebles, a chain and three trebles across them, do two trebles in the first corner space, two trebles in the next corner space (dont add a chain space either) then just carry on (so it looks just like a slightly bigger cluster). That way you save 3 stitches per square join on that first border round and that will allow it to remain flat when you put any more border rounds on. I'm not sure if I have explained that at all well (that's why I don't do tutorials on my blog!!!!), but it's the kind of thing they never put in books and you just have to learn it the hard way!

    I'm sure you will be addicted to crochet though, I learnt just wanting to make one blanket and it has taken over my life!!!!!!!

    Take care and have a great rest of a week!

    Vanessa xxx

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    1. Hi Vanessa and thanks for your helpful comments! In the end, because I am making a granny stripe blanket I did it in a very similar way to that...

      Oh I am addicted to crochet! Since I picked up a hook about a year ago I haven't touched my knitting needles. I find it much more satisfying. I do miss knitting though sometimes!

      Abi

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