Big Stitchy Finger Project: the Blanket

It's not called a "Granny Square"
for no reason!

"Crochet is for old people." I said a few years ago."I'll do it when I'm a grandmother."

I was wrong. For it didn't take being a grandmother to get me hooking, it took a week at my Mum's village in Devon around Christmas time 2012.

Where she lives is lovely and picturesque with rolling hills, the sound of cattle lowing, and historic cottages that just ooze charm. But charm and prettiness can only go so far when the peak of weekly entertainment is the free Thursday Tesco bus.

Seven long, dark, cold days stretched ahead of me. Just me, my Mum, and her passion for crime dramas. In a state of desperation I scoured the craft magazines at WH Smiths looking for inspiration. I saw the first edition of a crochet magazine that came with wool, hooks and DVD instructions. "That'll do." I said. 

And so a new addiction began.

Over that week I learnt the basics. Nearly giving up several times as handling that hook and keeping the tension right is not the easiest thing to grasp. Literally.

But eventually I got there, and to celebrate I bought the book '200 Crochet Blocks' as an added little Christmas present, with the idea that I'd make a sample blanket and teach myself new techniques.

And although I don't like to brag, that approach has really worked for me. It has indeed meant that I'm working on different stitches all the time. And different blocks mean that I don't get bored, which is something I'm inclined to do quite quickly once I've mastered(ish) something.

I chose pastel colours because I think they're pretty and a bit different to what blankets are usually worked in. (Perhaps there was a little part of me thinking it would make a nice blanket for any future small person but let's not go there!)

Eighteen months or so later I am only ten blocks away from block completion, and I'm really starting to believe that I might finish it. I know there is still the blocking, joining and perhaps a border to do (which will be interesting seeing as I don't think any two blocks are actually the same size), but I've decided to bump it up my priority list because even though I used to think that crochet was just for grandmothers, I don't want this blanket still in my "work in progress" pile when I'm a granny myself.