STRIPEY "AS-WE-GO" BLANKET

When I recently picked up a crochet hook again for the first time after many years, I was rearing to go. On one of my trawls through my favourite blogs I came across this M-A-R-V-E-L-L-O-U-S pattern by Hanah Davis on Not-Your-Average Crochet. (Julie at Little Woollie also has her pattern). Lots of different colours? Check! Lots of different stitches? Check! No chance I'll get bored with this one. I was hopping with excitement to begin. 

Imagine, I thought to myself, what my stripey blanket would look like? I have never before attempted a project so large, nor more complicated than a simple granny pattern. Could I do it? Could I make the most glorious stripey pink and red and mint and turquoise blue blanket the world has ever seen? Of COURSE I could!

This was my first time ever crocheting from a base chain in a line (I always worked in rounds), and it took me several false starts to finally figure out the gauge and tension I needed to not swear blue murder as I did my first HDC's into my foundation chain (sorry Mom). So it took me a few goes to really get the hang of things. Here is one of my first sad attempts :P

But eventually, I cracked it.

I've always been very inspired by the colour combinations of Vanessa Cabban of Do You Mind if I Knit? and I really loved reading her blog. So I decided I wanted a really warm, vibrant looking blanket. I love putting pinks and mints,  reds, turquoise blues and citrusy colours together. I really have a red and turquoise and pink and mint obsession at the moment.  But I still have moments where I second-guess myself.

My stripey blanket is a thing of beauty and consternation. I find myself constantly wondering if I have made the right colour choices - do they look alright? Oh my God they're ugly. They're ugly, aren't they?!?! I'm a crocheting failure! Oh, wait. In this light, it looks a little better. Alright. Actually, it looks alright now. Quite nice, even. But there's that one colour I just wish I wouldn't have put in. Is it ruined? Oh my God, it's ruined! And so on...

When I began this row of purple, my gut told me I needed a darker, 'strong' colour to break up the reds and pinks a little bit. And while I was doing it, I felt good about it. 

But then, as I went on to other rows (I added in some extra HDC and DC rows to give it a more 'uniform' look - so my blanket is more like a slight adaptation of the original), I was really not sure about it. I got to the point where I thought about ripping out more than 10 rows of work (including those murderous Catherine Wheels) to get rid of it, and I thought - if I do that, I'll never pick it up again. So, the purple stayed.

But now, I'm glad of it - I like to think you can't really judge a blanket until it's done, and you can't plot out every single stripe (well, I mean you can but when you're as impatient as I am, you really don't want to be spending days doing that before you get into it. I usually just like experimenting as I go). And when I looked at it again, I started to quite like it again. I added some more colours in and it began to look a bit more 'balanced.'

This is what it looks like so far.

As it grows,  B marvels at it. He thinks it's bloody marvellous. He often asks me how it's doing - so of course I'm happy to oblige with all of my crochet-talk and craftings - as if I need any more encouragement  to ramble on, ha ha!

Hope you're having a great (and stripey) day!