Sweet Flower Granny Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Hello my lovelies, thanks as always for taking time to call in and see me, so happy to have you here. As you can see, we're ta-dah-ing today and I am so happy, it feels to me like this moment has been such a long time coming it really does. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's spanned across the turn of the year, you know? It makes it seem so long ago when I think about it starting way back Last Year. July to be precise, so six months ago. Half a year to make a modest size blanket, talk about slow progress.

The thing with this sweet little blanket is that it did in fact turn out to be very fiddlesome and time consuming. The centres of each square are made up of small picot flowers with little loopy leaves worked into the back of them. Darning in the ends was a 'mare. So many ends! Fiddle faff fiddle!

This was where I was up to at the end of August. When I first started out with this blanket I  intended doing all the squares the same size. But in the early stages when I was kind of making up the middles first before adding the extra rounds, I got a glimpse of small-next-to-big and immediately liked the look of it. So this is how it ended up, it was all very organic/unplanned really.

Slowly, slowly, the blanket began to grow. Through September......

 
....and on into October. I fiddle-faffed with the sweet little flowers. I cussed the ends. I fretted over my random colour choices which often seemed very iffy. Yet despite these irritations, I began to love this little blanket more and more as it grew.

November saw me put a real spurt into it and I think this is when I really fell in love with it. I found myself doing less cussing and fiddle-faffing and more ooohing and ahhhhing. I began to enjoy the quirky colour combos that were happening. And I had this feeling that the bigger it grew, the better it would be.

The sweet flowers pretty much hibernated throughout December as I pushed them aside to make way for snowflakes and stars and the such like. But once Christmas was over, I couldn't wait to get stuck in again. Truthfully, I was already mentally stacking up my future projects and I wanted this little blanket done and dusted to make way for new things.

Coming to the end of a blanket in the depths of winter has distinct advantages. I really loved sitting by the fireside with this pretty heap draped over me, hooking myself into a state of warm, cosy bliss. When the above photo was taken a few weeks ago, I remember I only had ten more squares left to make.  I was visualising The Edge in my immediate future, and oh my, I was soooooo looking forward to being on The Edge of this blanket! No more itty bitty flowers! no more fiddly-faffy ends to darn!! just row upon row of stripy, hooky happiness!!

The above photo was taken in very early January, when all the squares were finally complete. Little Lady and I counted them :: 82 small squares, 12 big squares, 94 altogether.

I was pleased with the way the squares had worked out, although I found it quite "busy" to look at. But I also knew that I would be adding quite a deep border around the squares, and that the border would probably help to balance it out. Well that was my hope anyhow.

The Edge is worked in granny rows, working two rows of each colour to match with the Granny Stripe. For the first time I tried out a method for a "crinkle free Granny Square border" and it worked amazingly well, I can definitely recommend it. Gosh i really did enjoy working round The Edge of this blanket, it was like the granny stripe all over again. So soothing and easy and rhythmic compared to those pesky sweet flower squares!

The Edge-of-the-edge ( AKA the pink pointy bits) is the same as the Granny Stripe. It's an easy little picot/scallop thingy, as follows..

First work a row of UK double crochet. Then with the right side facing, and in the BACK LOOPS only **work 3 slip stitches, then in the next stitch work the following :: (dc, ch 2, dc)**

Repeat between **
Remember when I say dc, this is UK terms (hook into stitch, yarn over, hook back through stitch (2 loops on hook), yarn over, draw through 2 loops). Tis very easy and very effective I think.

So this is how the border ended up :: seven double rows of granny clusters. One row of UK trebles, one row of UK double crochet, one row of UK trebles, then finally a row of UK double crochet followed by the Pink Pointy Bits.

Gosh I've had  a job photographing this blanket, I took oodles of pics over a number of days trying very hard to capture the true colours. Not easy given the appauling weather and low light levels in my patch of late, but I think I got pretty close in the end.

Ahhh this is my favourite photo of all I think. The blanket looks so, so, so......well, so beautifully blankety in this picture! So drapey and sure of it's blankety goodness!

Oh how I love making blankets (can you tell?!) I love every single part of the process.

I love the planning, the yarn-buying, the beginning, the middle, the end-of-the-middle, the edge, the edge-of-the-edge and finally the completion.

The Completion could possibly be my favourite part, although oooo I do like the beginning of the middle, yes. And the edge-of-the-edge of course.

But when the last stitch comes off the hook and the last thread is darned in and Completion is declared, well that moment is hard to beat.

It is bright this blanket, yes it is. 22 different colours in total, all chosen at random as I went along.

It's quite a full-on kind of a blanket.

Remember that I made it to go in our caravan, so I wanted it to be fun and frivolous and happy and holidayish.

Which I do think it is.

Anyhoooooooooooooo, I am rambling. So I shall stop myself right there and proceed forthwith with the Ta-dah.........................................................................................................................

Ta-ta-ta-Ta-ta-ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In all it's glory, there it is.

My sweet flower granny blanket.

It was a fun journey, but truthfully I was more than happy to reach The Completion stage with this one. For a smallish blanket, it was a lot of work.

But oh-oh-oh, just look how pretty it is!! And look how well it sits next to the Stripe!

Awwwww these two blankets were made for each other and they really do look beautiful together, don't they? I can't wait for the Spring to come so that Connievan can be swung out of her winter sleep and prettified with these two hooky lovelies.

So :: you know the score by now....it's time to talk Riveting Facts!

Yarn :: 22 colours of Stylecraft Special DK, worked on a 4mm hook.

Measures :: 110 x 150 cm (actually I've lost my tape measure, but it's roughly the same dimensions as the G-stripe)

Squares :: 94 (12 big and 82 small)

Balls :: approx 10 x 100g

Weight :: 960g

Cost :: bargainous

Photo :: my usual sofa/blanket self portrait

Blanket :: scrumdiddlyumptious

Me :: happy, yaaaayyyy ☺

You :: wonderful, thank you ♥

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Comments

[Renee]

Lucy,

SOOOOOO BEAUTIFULLLL!!!!

Congratulations on another AMAZING CREATION.

Is your hair darker ??? You're looking lovely!

[Jane]

It probably is my favourite one, Lucy.
Well done
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

[Vicky]

Beeeee-yooo-tiful! I've been checking daily to get a glimpse of the finished blanket,and it's as wonderful as I thought it would be!

I regularly use Stylecraft, as Rowan and Sirdar are the stuff of dreams, and it was nice to see another blogger making something so wonderful from such bargainous yarn x

[Joke Klein]

Wow, what a beauty!!!

[Louise]

I think your blanket is absolutely beautiful. I really, really want it!! :)

Well done!

Louise

[Dee]

Such a happy blanket!

[Jo]

Lucy

This is just georgous, worth every fiddly moment.

Congratulations, can't wait to see what is coming next!

Jo

[Josette]

love it! And once more I say again, you have great skin!

[Inger Nybrott]

Congratulations with your new, really lovely blanket!! :-)

[Grace]

Beautiful as always. I don't think I could sew in all the ends but you have done an amazing job. I'm so jealous. Thank you for sharing with us.

Grace xx

[hayley]

Well done, that really was worth all the effort! It looks very happy,and I'm sure you'll smile at it every time you look at it!!
xxx

[Kerry]

Fantabulous...I love every single colour. I'm really not sure what I love most about your blankets; looking at them or reading about them! Riveted from start to finish...thank you so much. I'm inspired to at least put together all the squares I've made that are sitting in a box at the moment!

[Heather]

Oh my goodness, it's simply lovely. A positive riot of colour and crochet gorgeousness. You should feel so absolutely rightly full to the brim of self-satisfaction! :-)

Heather x

[Nana GoGo]

I`ll get in now with my comment before your trillion fans get here.....that blanket is a ridiculously beautiful work of art!Thank you for sharing.

[Mam'zelle flo]

Such a beautiful blanket and all the flowers seem to beg for spring to come.
Can't wait now to get a glimpse on your next project :)
xxx
Florence

[Sarah]

Lovely Lucy..you really are the crochet queen...I haven't finished one blanket x

[Ruth]

Thanks for the comment on my quilt the other day. Your blanket is really lovely. I especially love the deeper colour choices with the darker red and the purple - gives a lot of lovely contrast. Very Nice Indeed.

[Jacky S]

It's simply stunning!!

[Heather]

The Bloody Blanket is Bloody Perfect ... well done you :-)

[Sarah west mids uk]

Dear Lucy the blanket is out of this world. The stylecraft yarns such lovely colours. A real family heirloom!!!!!!
Great piece of work. I am going to display this on the interactive whiteboard.
It will make it more blanket sized. A work of art!!
I really love the little flowers in the centre of the squares.
Love Sarahxxx
PS:am just going to look at all your pics again!

[Bambi]

I LOVE it - it's delicious! I'm envious of your Connievan.

[Sonia Valente]

I love, love, love your blog.
I found it about a month and a half ago (searching for a snowflake pattern I think) and have been following it ever since and also reading the old posts.
Love the bright colors, your photographs, the way you talk about the pleasure you get out of "simple" things, your baking, your flowers, your crochet, etc (guess I'm kind of relieved that I'm not the only one who has different mugs (hand painted in bright colors) for different occasions, who loves fresh flowers so much, buns, aprons,... :)
This blanket is beautiful, as all your other works!
Love from Portugal.
Sonia

[June]

Well done you! I remember my dads sister patiently trying to teach me at the age of 8 or 9 to crochet - she failed miserably and I could now quite easily kick myself for not paying more attention!
If you ever fall out of love with that blanket I know a good home for it!
June.

[Renee, spear401]

Lovely. A lot of hard work, and it turned out just great!

Renee

[noknittedknickers]

Wow! this is absolutely gorgeous! Well done.

Claire