Ta-dah! My Rainbow Crochet Blanket...

Ooops, I meant to post this days ago. I took the photos but didn't quite get around to writing the actual post!

Better late than never...

MY FIRST CROCHET BLANKET IS COMPLETE - WOOP :-)

All 7 colours used....this is the edging...

The idea of this blanket started way back in 2009...

I stumbled across Lucy's Attic 24 blog and Heather's Little Tin Bird blog and quickly decided that crochet blankets were cute and I wanted to have a go! 

I found a lovely friend who could teach me the basics in person (the awesome Laura who has lived in 4 different countries since teaching me!). 

If you are keen to learn crochet I would suggest finding a 'real' person that can teach you the basics - it's much easier to have someone show you the stitches and then watch what you do wrong and help you fix it!

Once I'd bought a hook and some cheap yarn Laura and I spent a few evenings 'bitching and stitching' which was great fun :-)

I practised for a while and enjoyed it but soon other things took over...like a fiance having to fly back to the UK after a family bereavement 3 weeks before our wedding...then having 14 people staying in my house...and then my wedding...and then morning sickness :-)

I think it was early 2010 that I found myself in the wool shop looking for a selection of rainbow colours. I'd had the idea of a rainbow blanket in my head for a few weeks. I'd even 'designed' how it would look on the computer. I didn't buy expensive wool. I bought acrylic yarn at $5 a ball. One ball of each colour costing $35 all together.
I had a couple of practise go's with this granny square pattern and then got stuck in...

When I sat down and did them the 7 colour squares came together pretty quickly (well I thought so considering I was a beginner!) - I managed to do each one in about an hour once I got a rhythm going.

I kept going at it over a few weeks and ended up with 11 squares. I decided 12 squares plus edging would be the perfect baby sized blanket.

And then I don't know what happened but it stopped. The crochet bag with my squares was cast aside (after an unsuccessful attempt at blocking my squares) and a baby came along and took up a fair amount of my time.

Fast forward to February - I had been thinking about getting the blanket finished and had even added it to my 29@29 list. My mum booked her ticket to spend 3 weeks with us in March and I told her I wanted to get my blanket finished while she was here (as well as a million other things) so I finally sat down (with the tutorial because I had forgotten how to crochet!) and made up the 12th square.

And then when my Mum was here she showed me how to sew the squares together.

It finally started looking blankety :-)

I decided it wasn't done yet though and decided to edge it in each of the 7 colours. That took quite a few evenings and then finally the purple edge went on and I declared my rainbow crochet blanket complete!

I LOVE it. It most certainly isn't the best crochet in the world by a long shot but I MADE IT! I even made a big mistake with one of the squares and started off with the wrong colour but hey - this makes it an original design! And so that is the story of my first proper attempt at crochet and here is the finished blanket in all it's rainbow-goodness glory...

And this isn't the end of the crochet road for me. I want to try something else. Perhaps a bigger blanket for the back of the couch to snuggle with on chilly days and evenings. Perhaps a bag. We will see. For now I am basking in that amazing glow of a FINISHED PROJECT :-)