Red, White and Blue Granny Square Blanket - Ta dah!

I am extremely pleased to announce that the red, white and blue granny square crochet blanket is finished! That's right - finshed; completed; done!  It's been a long old slog and at times I wondered if it would ever get done, but now it's lying on my eldest's bed after being a WIP for almost four years.

Aug 2012

The blanket started life in August 2012 amid the fervour of the Queen's Jubilee and the London Olympics (hence the patriotic colour scheme).

After playing around with the layout I decided on a design inspired by a patchwork quilt.

The granny square centres crocheted up pretty quickly but as I added the outer rounds the project stalled again and again. You see, I'm impatient. My eye is constantly darting from one thing to the next; so many pretty patterns, so many different yarns, so many colours and so little time to fit it all in. I didn't want to spend ALL of my time on this one project because then it would be months before I could try anything new. MONTHS! So it got shelved, abandoned, forgotton - repeatedly. Every now and again I'd remember my poor, unfinished crochet blanket and work on it diligently for a week or two before losing interest all over again.

Nov 2014

Nov 2014

Jan 2015

April 2015

Dec 2015

Jan 2016

But then there were fewer and fewer gaps, and the end was tantalisingly within sight. Then one day the last of the blue squares was completed and there was a blanket! Almost. I could have finished there but it didn't look quite right; it needed a proper edge so I pushed through the inertia and gave it a simple two rounds of treble crochet. Nothing fancy, just get it done.  And then finally, the weaving in.  After the nightmare of ends that I was faced with after the crochet baby blanket, this was almost a pleasure. Little by little, block by block, the ends disappeared from the back of the blanket until on the evening of 20th May 2016 I was able to say "Ta-dah!!!".

It's finished!

Where it belongs - at last!

Needless to say there was a HUGE sigh of satisfaction and much happy dancing. My eldest scooped it up with delight and wrapped himself up in it like a caterpillar in a cocoon. That was probably the best moment. It is now draped over his top bunk and he loves to lie on it and under it.

WIP Wednesday

The RWB blanket is tantalisingly close to completion!

Since taking the picture there are only 2 squares left to fill in. Then it's a case of edging (or not, haven't decided yet) and darning in ends. So close!

WIP Wednesday

It was almost a year ago that I wrote a post for WIP Wednesday where I introduced my long-neglected red, white and blue blanket (RWBB). Well, I fell off that wagon in a pretty big way! But I'm pleased to say I've gotten back on and RWBB is back in progress.  I haven't got a picture, but I've made a bit of progress filling in the gaps.  I'm aiming for one section a day, but then I've said that before...

I've been slowly working on my Christmas crafts.  I found this cross stitch kit that's been buried since 2011 according to the date of the Cross Stitcher magazine!  I always forget just how much time it takes to do even a simple cross stitch motif, but the results are always pleasing.

WIP Wednesday

Well, I've certainly fallen out of this blogging lark! Once you get out of the habit it's really hard to get back in.  That's not to say I haven't been making anything, but I'm really enjoying cardmaking at the moment, which means only occasional forays into needlework.

Anyway on to the WIPs in question:

Red, white and blue crochet blanket

Very little progress to report here. I've completed all of the white-edged squares and have started filling in the gaps with blue.  Still quite a few to go though.

Progress has been slow for a very good reason...

...I started a new blanket! I know, I know, but this one is special as it's to be a gift for my husband's cousin who just had a baby about a month ago. I've made really good progress considering how long the RWB blanket has been under construction.

The blanket will be a very generous 1 and a bit metres by 90cm, so hopefully baby won't outgrow it too soon. That's 10 x 9 rows of granny squares.  I've crocheted all 90 and am now joining the squares together:

I also found lots of other UFOs, which should give me plenty of fodder for future WIP Wednesday posts!

WIP Wednesday

Happy New Year!  I hope a lovely time was had by all.  Since making Christmas cards there's been very little in the way of crafty activities going on around here.  I have made a little progress on my projects though.

RWB Blanket

I've attached more white-edged squares to the blanket. There are only 2 squares left to attach and then all the holes will need filling in with blue yarn: 15 whole squares, 12 half square triangles and 3 quarter square triangles.

Advent Calendar

The Advent Calendar is no longer a WIP, but I'm ashamed to admit that it didn't get finished until very recently! *looks sheepish* Maybe I'll write a separate post about it. 

WIP Wednesday

I've made some progress on the RWB crochet blanket.  Not much, but it's progress! Four blocks have been edged in white, and two of those have been joined to the main blanket.  Apologies for the train track in the photo. I was under strict instructions not to dismantle it!

I feel like I also need to mention this Advent calendar. I started it during Advent last year (that's so me) and am in danger of not finishing it in time for this year. It looks a bit odd because it's pinned in a funny way.

WIP Wednesday

Every Tuesday I remind myself to put up a WIP post on Wednesday, and then every Thursday I slap my forehead in frustration because I forgot.  But not this week! I have waaaaaay too many projects on the go that have been lingering for far too long. I'm hoping that by making WIP Wednesday a regular feature on the blog that I'll actually make some progress.

My first WIP is my red, white and blue crochet blanket.  I started this in 2012 amid the patriotic fervour of the royal wedding, the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics in London, hence the colour choice.  More than two years later it's still in progress.  It spent most of that time at the bottom of a big bag of other half finished projects.  But I would love to have this done before winter is out to put on my eldest's bed.  I need to put a white border around the remaining squares and join them to the main blanket.  Then fill in the holes with blue.

I think I'll leave it there for now. Blogger's playing up, I can't find the photos I'm looking for and it's time to get the kids!  To see what other WIPs are out there head over to Pin Tangle for a nose.

Granny A Day - Week 40

My red, white and blue blanket is starting to take form. Thankfully I decided to have a go at joining a couple of squares, because I found out that I'll need to join the squares in as I go during the white round as well as the outer blue rounds to avoid some REALLY fiddly sewing up afterwards.  Just a sneaky peek so that I can do a big reveal later ;)

I also managed to add a couple of rows to the baby blanket enlargement project.  I need to pick up the pace a bit as the weather's turned cold recently.

Granny A Day - Week 39

After deciding on a design for my blanket, the project took a bit of a detour when I decided that mostly white probably wasn't a practical colour for a blanket that would get used a lot (especially in this house), rather than being mostly decorative.  So I settled on mostly blue, but then changed my mind about the design. After much crocheting and unravelling of a test square, I've finally settled on the new design. I'm turning the centres through 45 degrees, so the finished blanket should have multi-coloured diamonds interspersed with solid blue diamonds, giving it a quilty/patchwork look.  The good thing is that I can still use all the centres that I'd already made, and as the squares are going to be a little bit bigger I might get away with making fewer.

Granny A Day - Weeks 35 and 36

The last 3 weeks of the school holidays were manic! But while we were away on holiday I got my Granny-A-Day mojo back. I've known that I wanted to make a red, white and blue blanket ever since I finished a scarf for baby boy in that colour scheme, but never got around to doing anything about it apart from buying the yarn. I always work best when I have a clear plan laid out, so I sat down and worked out a block arrangement, and the crochet flowed easily.

The blocks will have a 3-row granny square at the centre in solid red, white or blue, surrounded by 3 rows in red or blue, surrounded by 3 rows in white, and I plan to make it 8x8 blocks which should give a nice man-sized blanket. So far I've made 48 out of the 64 centres that I need. I'm really looking forward to seeing it finished.

Granny A Day - Week 18

Well I think it's fair to say that I've failed miserably at the Granny A Day challenge!  I'm still producing the occasional square but by no means keeping up with one a day.  The baby blanket enlargement project goes on, I've made a few patriotic squares inspired by my red, white and blue baby scarf (one of which is now a lovely pincushion) and a headband, which started off as a present but that I've ended up keeping for myself. But I think that the challenge has done what I hoped and stimulated my creative juices. I'm definitely making more than I ever have and still have lots of ideas that I hope will keep me busy for a while.

Sent from my HTC

Granny A Day - Week 8

I'm still generating squares to go towards the baby blanket enlargement project so I won't bother posting any pics of them this time.  I did however do something with the red, white and blue squares that I posted about before.  I edged the squares in strips of 3 with a round each of red, white and blue in double crochet, then sewed the four strips together to get a very nifty-looking (even if I do say so myself) baby scarf.  I know - a finished project!!  So, ta-dah...

If I need to lengthen and/or widen the scarf then I can just make up additional 3-square strips and sew them on seamlessly.

Granny A Day - Week 5

Well, I have to admit that I've fallen a little behind with my Granny A Day squares. But I managed to make 6 more red, white and blue squares, which will be joined to the others to make a little scarf for baby boy.

Speaking of baby boy, he's grown too big for the Moses basket and we've had to get the cot out :(  The blanket that I made for him is way too small for it though so I'm going to undo the edging and add additional squares to make the blanket more cot-sized. I'm going to need 183! Better get cracking then...

Granny A Day - Week 4

Last week I put the black and white square extension on hold as I had a sudden urge to make red, white and blue squares. I am alternating those three colours in squares with 3 rounds each. I was only going to make handful for a scarf for baby boy, but now that I see them together I think they'd make a fabulous blanket so I'm going to have to make a whole lot more!