Granny-Stripe Blanket Finish-Line!

The Granny-Stripe blanket that I have been making for the last six months is finally finished! I didn't quite manage it for H's birthday but I have now completed the final rows and I am really pleased I persevered with it. I don't know why this particular project proved to be such hard going - I like making blankets even though by their nature they are bound to be more time-consuming than smaller things; the rhythmic, repetitive nature of them is soothing and easy and the stripiness is fun but this one has somehow been hard to keep motivated about. I think I preferred doing the stitch of both the vintage stripe and ripple blankets I made last year and also the not insignificant fact that both of those had more colours in the overall scheme.

Anyway, be that as it may, the finished article is now ensconced in its final destination and I think it looks quite good. H is very pleased with it and that, after all, is all that matters.

I used Lucy of Attic 24's Granny Stripe Pattern which you can find here. The pattern is very clear and easy to follow. Lucy used a whole rainbow of colours in hers and if I were to make another this is what I would do rather than keep to a more restricted palette like this one. But although perhaps less fun to do, keeping to this palette has had the effect I wanted - bold, bright and definitely-not-too-feminine.

I used a 4 mm hook and Rico Creative Cotton yarn which I really like working with. It's not always easy to obtain all the colours in the range but it's worth a bit of hunting around for. It's not expensive (always good news for blankets because they use so much!), the colours are clear and bright and blankets made with it have a lovely, heavy softness about them. What I particularly love about all crochet blankets is that they are wonderfully snuggly and warm but never stifling - they breathe with you and the ambient temperature somehow in a way that I've not found with other blankets. Perhaps it's all the holes that allow for fluctuation in temperature. Not sure - physics was never my subject!

The cushion with its knitted squares cover was made by my mother for H, for his birthday, using lots of oddments of yarn left over from knitting things for him when he was little. All the grandchildren are getting one apparently, using oddments of yarn left over from knitting things for them so each one will get a cushion in colours they like. Unlike her elder daughter, (me!), my mother is pretty nifty with the old knit-sticks! I am wondering whether my next foray into knitting might not take a leaf out of her book. In principle, (although of course one never knows in practice!), an assemblage of knitted squares in some shape or form might not be beyond me.

The chicken is not part of the normal layout of the bed. He is the doorstop but he migrated here when he saw me taking the photos! I made him out of off-cuts of H's curtains a few years ago and he is stuffed with popping-corn maize to give him a decent weight - a bit like our birdie visitors yesterday after their breakfast visit! This cockerel is less intimidating however than yesterday's and, also unlike yesterday's, is amenable to being moved on at whim! Clearly he likes reading too!

 I think this reaching of the Granny-Stripe Finish-Line calls for a little celebration ...

... of tea and an Easter cup cake (or two!)