The urge to crochet!

Must be a new record for me.  I only finished my granny-square blanket on Sunday and I already have another project 'on the hook'!  So strong was the urge to crochet that I cast on (is that the right term, or is that just in knitting?!) another baby blanket.  Not that I need to make one - I was just desperate for something (anything) simple to crochet.  Perhaps I can put it down to the nesting instinct!

Check out that bump!  Something to rest my crochet on!

I said before that I have only recently taught myself to crochet.  This is mostly true, although I did make an attempt to learn in the past, only to give up in frustration.  Previously I had tried to make a blanket out of treble crochet stitch, but I found I had difficulty making a starting chain of the right gauge.  As a result my blanket would start out one size, only to get wider and wider and w-i-d-e-r!  After frogging and retrying it several times I eventually gave it up as a bad job.  

This time, after completing a successful project, I'm glad to say I started with more confidence.  I also went for a pattern with a little bit more structure, although still very simple.  I am trying my hand at a ripple or zig zag pattern I found on Ravelry*.  It was still a pain to started off, but very quickly became more solid and dependable after a couple of rows.  Now it is a dream to crochet!  Up the hill, increase over the top, down the hill, decrease through the valley - ahhhh!  So relaxing.  Almost couldn't put it down to go to bed last night!  This will now give me something crafty to do till the baby's born.  I have mostly given up my dreams for last minute sewing as I still haven't hit the haberdashery dept for all those necessary bits and bobs.  At least the crochet can slip easily into my hospital bag and come along for the ride!

*Ravelry is a free site for knitters and crocheters.  There are tons of patterns (many of them free) to browse and use, and you can build your own profile and record of your creations.  It's ace!  You can also see what projects friends are busy creating.  My Ravelry sign on is SuzySu if you want to look me up.  

Gran-tastic pram blanket!

It's finished!  Took me the best part of 9 months to make it, but it's finished just in time for baby's arrival, and I'm really pleased with it!

I'm particularly pleased with the border which I sort of made up as I went along.  It adds an extra 6.5cm all the way around, extending my rather small granny square blanket (52.5cm x 39.5cm) into a much more respectable 65.5cm x 52.5cm.  It also didn't look finished until I had crocheted the frill.  I experimented with three different sizes of scallop (to treble crochet height, double treble height, and triple treble height) and decided the middle size balanced well with the rest of the design.

My final task was to block the blanket.  Blocking, for those that don't know (which was me until I looked it up!) is a good way of ensuring your finished knitted or crocheted item looks the way it should, cutting down on curly edges and evening out the gauge.  Essentially it involves pinning the item out onto a flat surface in the shape that you want it, either whilst wet and leaving it to dry, or (as I did) dry if you want to steam it with a steam iron or steamer.

And here's the finished product!  Nice to have something handmade and new ready for baby no. 3 to snuggle up in.

In progress....

I am LOVING crocheting the border on my granny square pram blanket.  Just very simply double and triple crocheting around the outside as the mood takes me until it feels big enough.  So enjoyable and relaxing to do at this late stage of pregnancy - more so even than making the squares themselves.  I don't want to get to the end and can now understand Joanne from Stitch and Witter's feeling about her beautiful (and enormous) baby blanket that she was crocheting for a year and a half!  It's definitely inspired me to carry on with the crochet - just need to plan a new project!

Granny Squares

At some point during the early part of this pregnancy whilst in a bookshop I decided it would be a good idea to teach myself how to crochet.  It might've just been the hormones, although I seem to remember that Waterstones had a particularly attractive display of crafting books out right next to the coffee shop (that always does it!).  So I duly treated myself to a book - cute & easy crochet  - (I didn't feel adventurous enough for The Happy Hooker), bought a selection of ice-cream coloured yarns and set to work on the easiest project, which of course had to involve granny squares!

I like crochet - it's really portable, and with a simple and repetitive pattern like this I found it a fantastic craft to take along to the kids' ballet and gymnastic classes, where I wanted to have something productive to do to pass the time, but over which I could still chat to people and not feel anti-social.  I think I averaged two or three squares per class, so I now have 48 lovely (but messy) squares (I'm now regretting that I didn't take the author's advice to weave in the ends after finishing each square - doh!).  Not the 432 that the original pattern called for (!) but enough for a small pram blanket.  I don't think I have the stamina to make it any bigger, although I guess I could add to it over time.

Now just got to work out how to bring it all together.  With 5 weeks to go I best get on with it!