Magic Stripe Blanket

I posted on Facebook last Sunday that I had finally finished the project I was working on. After 5 weeks of work it was finally done! Yay! Immediately, I had requests for pictures. I know! It's a week later and I finally got photo's done this morning!!

I must admit that I spent a whole week just looking at it, and stroking it. Everytime I did, I got that lovely happy feeling of seeing a project finished. Have you ever had that feeling? That slightly smug, puffed up, happy moment of joy? I love that feeling and I love seeing my hard work appreciated. So I was very happy to see that two girls rather enjoyed snuggling up under it this week too... even though we've had gorgeous weather that meant blankets weren't necessary. They still loved getting all cosy under their new blanket. It melts my heart, it really does. Especially when the weeself gave me a big hug and told me that I was 'the best Mummy EVER'. It makes 5 weeks worth of work well worth the effort.

So, I guess you want to see it too?

Ok, that's just a teaser... here's the whole thing on my sofa.

Doesn't it just look soooo inviting? It just makes you want to curl up on the sofa with a book or a good film!

The only problem is that I apparently need to make another one because these two little monsters aren't keen on sharing it!

I took the finished blanket to the Stitch'n'Bitch group on Tuesday and Karen took this picture which shows it  in all it's glory (excuse the awful picture of me looking fat and frumpy!)

To make this blanket I used approximately 800g of Double Knit yarn from my scraps basket and from an unfinished Granny Hexagon blanket that I didn't fancy finishing. Remember this one?

Yes, that crumpled, tatty attempt at a hexagon blanket at the bottom of the pile! Well, I undid the whole the thing and then rolled it into a ball. I added to it from the various left over balls of yarn that were in the bottom of my basket and, once the ball was big enough, I started hooking. A chain of 202 stitches first and then straight into Treble stitches (that's Double stitch for all you US peeps!). Each time the yarn changed colour I made sure that the knot was pushed through to the 'wrong' side and that the loose threads were stitched into the work as I went along. I don't think my sanity would have survived having to go back and stitch them in individually after the blanket was finished! To finish, I put a Half-Treble edging around all four sides and a scallop shell trim on either end.

I had planned on taking a couple of weeks break from crochet to concentrate on a Crosstitch project I started nearly 8 years ago. It has been boxed and shoved in to several garages in at least 5 different houses over the years and I finally hauled it out last week. I did manage to get *some* done before I made the fatal error of going in search of a yarn shop I'd heard about in Glasgow. Hmmm, they had some bargains on and I ended up walking out with a bagful of lovely colours. I managed to resist crocheting anything for, oooh, about an hour and a half... after which I gave in to the call of hookyness!! I love these colours, but I think one of them might be 'not quite right' so I might be taking it back to exchange it for something else. Can anyone guess which colour I'm returning??

A hearty 'Well Done' and a virtual pat on the back for anyone who can guess correctly!

Speak soon!!